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QUICK GUIDECommission an Installed Sound Environment
Appendix A
TIPS ON FINDING FAULTS
There are several actions you can take before reaching for your test instruments:
— Stay calm – blaming people or equipment will not solve the problem.
— Check Stereo – if the problem is on one side of the stereo image, then the fault is probably post-
mixer.
— Be methodical – follow each signal path, rather than checking components randomly.
— Switch it out – consider changing breakout channel, mixer channel with ones that are known to
be working.
NO SOUND
Check the obvious
— are all components switched on?
— is the channel muted on the mixer?
— are all cables in the signal path plugged in correctly?
— does a battery need replacing?
— is the input gain on the mixer too low?
HUM
Very often mains hum is caused by incorrect cabling of equipment
— if your earth reference voltage is different from one end of the signal path than the other – plug all
components (mixer, processors and PA) into a single electricity mains socket.
— if you run an audio cable through a load of coiled mains cable – tidy up your cables.
— if you use lighting dimmers on the same supply as your sound system supply.
Earth hum can be very difficult to find, especially with very large installed systems. You can deter-
mine were the hum is coming from by unplugging all equipment from the inputs to your mixing desk
and then plugging in each piece of equipment one by one.
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