Method of connection for professional audio equipment

1. Connecting sequence of bass system equipment: mixer (1-2 grouping) → equalizer → frequency divider → pressure limiter → bass power amplifier → bass speaker.

2. Connection sequence of auxiliary sound system equipment: mixer (3-4 marshalling) → equalizer → delay device (optional) → pressure limiter → auxiliary speaker power amplifier → auxiliary speaker.

3. Connection sequence of main sound system equipment: mixer (L-R main channel) → equalizer → exciter (optional) → feedback suppressor (optional) → pressure limiter → main speaker amplifier → main speaker.

4. Connection sequence of monitoring system equipment: AUX output → equalizer → pressure limiter → monitor speaker power amplifier → monitor speaker.

The first connection mode above can control the volume of bass separately, so that the volume of the tuning table 1-2 can be turned up when we are rocking slowly or dialing high, and it can be turned down when the singer is singing, which is very flexible. The second connection method can also well control the sound of auxiliary speakers; Third main speaker We of course used to output the volume from the mixer's L-R total output; In the fourth system, the volume is output from AUX, which can be flexibly adjusted according to the requirements of the singer or band. However, in smaller sound systems, the monitoring signal can be directly obtained from the main channel signal. Above 1 and 2 kinds of connection method also note: since the 1-2, 3-4 marshalling we have from the back should be relatively independent output signal to the output bass system and auxiliary system, the 1-2, 3-4 marshalling don't passed the mixer the total volume of output, is 1 to 2, 3-4 marshalling to the mixer of the total volume toggle switch will not do it again. Of course, we still need to flexibly arrange the order of device connection according to the need and the number of devices. The above order is for reference only.

5. Key points during device connection:

The above briefly introduced the types of various connection lines, production and equipment connection sequence, in the specific connection of the equipment, in the face of a variety of, a large number of equipment sockets, many sound engineers do not know how to start, in fact very simple, we just need to remember the following points:

(1) Balance: Now most of the ports on the back panel of audio equipment are Balance ports, we just choose to use the Balance line of XLR Canon connector to connect the equipment or the Balance line of TRS 6.35cm stereo connector to connect the equipment.

(2), Unbalance non-equilibrium: although most of the audio equipment of socket on the rear panel is Balance port, but there are some equipment or a non-equilibrium port, such as some of the electronic frequency divider output pins have marked: the Balance OUT Balance (output) and Unbalance OUT (non equilibrium) output, so we also can use TS 6.35 cm of mono joint non equilibrium line to connect devices, as long as the circuit is not too long, not too much interference, this connection can still.

(3), IN the input and OUT output: some beginners a look behind the equipment is dizzy, there are so many outlets, actually have a trick: whatever sound equipment, basically can be divided into "IN the input" and "OUT" output of two parts, so we just look for the "IN and OUT", the other is not familiar with the pins don't connect, anyhow connected devices like flowing water, upstream of the water to come over to flow into the "IN" input; And the water that flows downstream has to flow OUT again through the "OUT output". Isn't that straightforward?

Commissioning of engineering equipment

1. The importance of equipment debugging

After project in front of a series of planning, design, type selection and construction, can say the basic overview of a project has been formed, various systems have also been, even most of the equipment can be used at this time, but the professional sound engineering and other engineering different places is also a, this is the system debugging of the equipment. Only after scientific and reasonable debugging of the system, they can adapt to different environments, give full play to the corresponding functions, coordinate with each other, to ensure a long-term normal and stable work. It can be likened to a system that has not been strictly debugged. All its equipment is like an army that has not been strictly trained. Its orders are different, and its actions are always in a state of disorder, and its performance level is very low. The importance of strict debugging is not only directly reflected in giving full play to the various performances of the system, but also reflected in the fact that strict standard debugging can make the equipment work in the best working state accurately. In addition, with the attention to maintenance in the later use, the service life of the equipment can be extended a lot. Actual experience and investigation show that the equipment damaged within the normal range is mostly caused by improper equipment commissioning and maintenance, and in a large number of projects, the actual most capable, conditions and commissioning experience is the engineering design, construction units, it can be seen how important the commissioning of equipment in the project.

2. Steps of equipment debugging

Professional sound engineering of the system including the equipment type and quantity is more, the use of a variety of equipment and the operation mode of the system is different, so the system debugging of the equipment is also different, but as a result of the engineering type also differ in thousands ways, if you want to all types of engineering equipment debugging method are introduced one by one, is the space is too long, so we only in a more general type of engineering equipment debugging steps to explain the late.

The first is the preparation before debugging.

The debugging of sound engineering is a work that requires not only technology and experience, but also a serious and responsible spirit. When the design, type selection, layout and construction meet the requirements, the debugging of equipment and system is the only means to meet the design requirements. Therefore, full preparations should be made before the debugging. These preparations include the preparation of necessary instruments and tools, such as phasers, noise generators, spectroradiometers, sound pressure meters, and multimeters for sound debugging; Prepare all engineering design and construction drawings; Carefully read the installation and operation instructions of all equipment, and prepare the operation instructions of important or special equipment for standby use; What's more, it is necessary to make sure that there are no irrelevant personnel on the site before debugging, so as to avoid the interference of debugging.

Secondly, check the installation and connection of the equipment according to the design and layout requirements. Different from the construction steps of a project, the thinking of checking the installation and connection of the system and equipment in the debugging stage is based on the outline of the whole system. The purpose is also to find problems, and it is easy to find problems. Therefore, it is necessary to check before debugging. At the same time, during the inspection process, the construction personnel should be asked if there are any problems left during the construction process, to make sure that there are no problems with the power supply line and voltage.

The second is to set up all the devices accordingly. As the components of each system and equipment are different, the working environment of each system is different, and the signal processing and transmission modes of each system are also different, the significance of setting is to make the equipment work in a reasonable state, so that there is a good foundation for the coordination and control between devices. The setting of the sound system includes: the voltage range of all equipment should be set as the supply voltage and as high as possible; The signal transmission level of the system should be set as consistently as possible to ensure that the transmission reference point of the signal is the same; The working state of the power amplifier is stereo, combined with mono channel or bridge mono channel, the protection state is not set, the choice of input transformer, etc.; What is the frequency division mode of the speaker, and where is the high frequency attenuation position; The signal input attenuation of the mixing station and the signal marshalling; The Settings for the house lights include: setting the operating voltage and signal voltage for all the houses; The setting of lamps and lanterns to be controlled in the specific control equipment; In digital signal transmission, the encoding form of the signal is set, and the address encoding of the receiving device is set; Iii Set up for all house lights or actions on the dimmable and Settings for the functional keys on the computerized domiciles video system including: setting of operating voltages for all devices; Setting of signal color standard, black-and-white balance on the recording equipment, setting of shooting illumination; Iii To all this the equipment setup for the various systems in the project has been a very important job to have a thorough house check and read the instructions where necessary.

The following is a separate operation check for each device in the system. The significance of this step is that we can check the transmission of signals step by step from the operation inspection of the individual equipment, and check the individual working condition of the equipment, so as to prepare for the normal operation of the system and achieve a better quality of sound, light and image. Especially the sound system of equipment is more, compare the close relations between the up and down, separate cyanide for operation can be focused on the signal level, gain, balance, phase and smooth compared detailed and accurate and targeted setting, guarantee the front-end equipment to provide the best effect of the signal at a lower level, eventually making the signal system is in good condition; At the same time, the equipment independently run check the separate cyanide for the operation of the special can clearly know whether all the equipment work normally, is stable, and more convenient to handle, in the case of failure will not endanger the safety of the system, other equipment, so be very careful during this step, patience, had better not to bring the work to the back of the step. It should be noted that it is best not to open the power amplifier and other equipment of the system when the equipment of the sound system runs separately, so as not to damage the power amplifier and speaker due to a fault.

Then you can use all the relevant equipment of the system, the overall debugging of the system. Since this work is the key to system debugging, we have divided the audio, lighting and video to explain.

Sound system debugging.

First, connect the power amplifier and speaker to the system, turn on the power of the device one by one, after they work steadily, connect the phase meter, and check whether the phase of all speakers is correct one by one at a low volume.

Second, connect the noise generator and equalizer to the system, prepare the spectrum analyzer, and set the spectrum analyzer at the corresponding place according to the requirements of national sound reinforcement quality test for relevant halls. Then, the pink noise signal is amplified at a moderate volume, and each frequency point of the equalizer is carefully and slightly adjusted within the audio range of 20-20khz. On the premise of keeping the volume consistent, the room frequency response curve displayed by the spectrum analyzer is basically flat at each test point, and the positions of each frequency point of the equalizer are recorded. At the same low volume and rated volume, the equalizer was debugged and recorded. Finally, the equalizer frequency points recorded were compromised accordingly, and the higher gear of the spectrum analyzer was used for testing. After proper correction, the frequency point position of the equalizer could be determined. Note that when debugging the equalizer, the frequency equalizer of the mixer must be at 0 and the other peripheral processing equipment must be in the bypass state. In addition, considering the listening habits of ordinary people, the signal above 10K of equalizer can be appropriately attenuated.

Third, the electronic divider is connected to the system for debugging. For the divider that only serves as the divider of the bass speaker, after the equalizer debugging, the bass system can work alone. The divider's frequency point can be located at 150-300Hz, the gain of the bass signal can be adjusted appropriately, and the sound volume can be felt to be suitable. Then, the divider can be listened together with the full-frequency system to balance the bass and full-frequency volume. As for the divider of the full frequency system, it is necessary to set the frequency division point recommended by the speaker manufacturer as far as possible, and then repeatedly adjust the gain of each frequency band signal until the hearing sense is balanced, and then further fine-tune the gain by referring to the sound pressure level test later.

Fourth, the determination of sound pressure level. Same pink noise meter access amplification system, as well as debugging equalizer chose to marry a few place sound pressure meter test points, adjust the sound system of all the Settings are finished, the open system equipment, gradually improve noise signal volume, in guarantee under the premise of the best dynamic signal, adjust the gain of each equipment, expand the sound pressure of the system to meet the design requirements in all test points, at the same time need to refer to the sound pressure level in the case of high, medium and low frequency band, again to equalizer and frequency divider do some adjust slightly, of course the high, medium and low frequency sound pressure level can't be exactly the same, Generally in order to consider the characteristics of listening sense need to do some reduction in the high frequency sound pressure level, and DISCO system bass system open after the need for a higher low frequency sound pressure level. In the test of sound pressure level, it is necessary to compare the sound pressure level of each test point. If the result deviation of each point is large, which means that the uniformity of the sound field is not good, it should be seriously analyzed and improved. This problem will be described later.

Fifth, debugging of microphone and effector. The debugging of the microphone generally to classification, human voice, Musical Instruments with wired microphone usually need day, the user to complete, debugging need to understand each person, each musical instrument the most reasonable microphone model and use distance, sound quality is good, no audible line noise can be; The wireless microphone needs to pay attention to: the position of the antenna should be reasonable, the dead point and feedback point when the microphone is used should be enough, and the position should be recorded in detail, the signal gain of the receiver should be suitable, the fine-tuning knob of noise suppression should be repeatedly adjusted, etc.; For the effect of debugging project requirements are not strict, as long as the signal input and output gain reasonable debugging, ensure that there is a certain margin, and the reverberation time and delay time limit in a certain range, so as not to affect the continuity of definition of the language and the signal can be, the use of other specific adjustment allows the operator to make their own.

Sixth, debugging of pressure limiter should generally be carried out after debugging of other equipment is basically completed. In most projects, the function of the pressure limiter is to protect the amplifier and speaker and to keep the sound stable, so the compression start level should be set first in the signal. Generally, the starting level should not be set too low, otherwise the sound quality of the system will be affected. However, if it is set too high, the compression start level will lose its protection. The setting of compression startup time should not be too long, so as not to delay the protection action. However, if it is too short, the sound quality will be damaged and strange sounds will be produced. However, the compression recovery time should not be too short, otherwise strange sounds will also be produced. The compression ratio is set at about 4:1 in ordinary projects. In setting pressure limit on the noise of the door, can be like this: if the system is no noise, noise can be the door closed, if there is a certain amount of noise, noise can be the threshold of the gate level set in the lower position, so as not to cause signal intermittent belch phenomenon, if the system noise is bigger, it should be analyzed on project construction, should not be used alone to solve noise door. In a word, there is no specific standard for the debugging of the pressure limiter, and all kinds of Settings basically need to be determined according to the signal situation and sound quality, and repeated comparison to find an optimal point.

Other equipment debugging of the sound system is no longer one by one to do the introduction, we should carefully read the design instructions and product descriptions in the specific engineering debugging, carefully and gradually adjust, in the premise of not destroying the sound field, selectively use a variety of audio processing equipment, to meet the requirements of the design.

Debugging of lighting system

First, turn on the power of all the equipment in the system and check whether the equipment has entered a stable state. In particular, pay attention to observe whether all the computer lights and dimming tables have been self-checked and whether the lamps retrieved from the dimming table are consistent with the project layout and setting.

Second, make each optical path of the dimming platform output signals respectively, and check whether the lamps and lanterns controlled by them are coordinated. For the output of traditional stage lamps, we only need to see whether their dimming and point control are corresponding. For all kinds of computer lights, you should check all their actions, colors, patterns and the sequence of actions between the lights are consistent with the Settings.

Third, the most important debugging for the lighting system is the setting of all kinds of lamps and the control console as well as the operation check of the control console. As for the setting content, we have introduced it in the previous section. For the running of the console we need to check that the various domiciles are running smoothly, the operating procedures for editing and saving are running smoothly, and the procedures for the domiciles and speeds have been consistent with the editing

Video and auxiliary system debugging

First, turn on the power of the video system equipment and play various programs with each video signal source. After switching, check the corresponding position and playing quality of each video signal. Especially if the projector display effect is not good, it is necessary to re - adjust the image effect, size, position, etc.

Second, focus on checking the control of the camera editing equipment, check whether the location of the camera holder is appropriate, check the shooting effect of the scene images, check whether the editor's processing of each video signal is good, etc., and adjust the equipment according to the inspection results.

Thirdly, it should be adjusted separately according to the specific use of other equipment.

When all systems are basic debugging finished, should all systems at the same time of the whole project overall debugging, and separate each system debugging, the system integrated debugging is the purpose of, in the process of collaborative operation of each system, check whether they are interrelated action coordination, check if they work together mutual influence and interference, especially the lighting system to the noise on the sound system and lighting system inaccurate problem, usually found on the step, so in solving engineering problems behind the targeted. Of course, the overall debugging of each system has no obvious debugging content, mainly in the collaborative work to find the problem.

After completing the debugging of the system, it is time to run the simulation of the system. The reason for the simulation operation is that the engineering design and construction technology of professional audio engineering are very complex, and inevitably there will be some shortcomings; The number and complexity of equipment in each system of the project are high, and the working state of each equipment is different to some extent. Especially when engineering debugging equipment compared to the actual working hours when using the working time is much shorter than the actual use of bad working environment, so the overall system and the deficiency of the hidden trouble in debugging is not easy to find and, if not use previous timely solve, will make the fault rapidly expand, bring adverse effect, try to find the simulation run is, nip in the bud, especially related to the content of the engineering safety, must cause the attention of engineering and technical personnel.

The first. In the simulated operation, the current of each phase of the power supply line should be measured when each system operates separately and in coordination. Tests can use pliers split phase flow table, the number of points of time, running equipment for measurement, measurement of value must be compared with the design of the theoretical value, there is a difference once found that the overall value and theoretical value, or the current deviation is larger, or when the line current is abnormal, must to rectification, to ensure the safety of electricity.

In the second. Check the safety of the equipment in each system during full load and long working hours. One important difference between professional audio and lighting equipment and non-professional equipment is that professional equipment can work stably under full load for a long time, which has also become an important product technical indicator of professional equipment. In particular, many excellent equipment, in the environment conditions are very bad, maintain good performance for a long time, and some equipment long hours of work is worrying, so it is necessary to check their work stability. It should be noted that the equipment should not be forced to work in a bad and abnormal state for inspection, so as not to damage the equipment.

In the third. The simulation operation also needs to check the heating condition of the equipment under the condition of long time and full load operation. Unlike the above, the purpose of checking the heating condition is for safety and fire prevention. Different heating conditions do not necessarily indicate poor equipment performance. If poor heat emission is found during inspection, which may lead to fire, necessary ventilation measures must be taken. If device protection occurs, record it so that you can pay attention to it in actual use.

In completed, after the debugging and simulation running of system must be centrally will all results and data to make the necessary analysis and summary, and use a variety of distinct form accurately record, as the important reference data for future use and maintenance, especially in the operation of the system need to be found in the problems when using records, for the normal use of the equipment is very important.

3. Matters needing attention in debugging

Already to explain the importance of engineering commissioning, also for each system debugging steps of the method of the system is introduced, from which it is easy to find, the adjustment of the audio lighting engineering need to treat with serious and responsible attitude, only guarantee for design, construction, system construction and equipment performance are fully aware, to get a good debugging results, in view of the common problems that often occur in debugging, here we introduce a few should pay attention to the technology of debugging, for your reference.

(1) before debugging must understand the performance of the system construction and equipment seriously, because only a comprehensive grasp of the systems and equipment, we are according to the actual situation to develop a feasible debugging scheme, can happen when the ability for debugging information of estimates, otherwise, the understanding of the system, the equipment is not familiar with debugging blindly, result certainly not ideal. Especially for some new and special equipment rarely used in general engineering, we must learn its principle, performance and operation method carefully before installation and debugging.

(2) Before the commissioning of the system, equipment must be set for a comprehensive check. Because the installation and single machine inspection process and system debugging focus is different after all, the setting of the device is often arbitrary, before the debugging may be some important setting button and the actual requirements are completely different, so a comprehensive inspection is necessary, it is best to make a good record of the setting of each device.

(3) The corresponding debugging method should be adopted according to the characteristics of the system. Because the system index requirements of sound and light engineering may be different, the equipment involved is not the same, if blindly in accordance with the general method of engineering debugging, the results will certainly not ideal. For example, in a sound system without feedback suppressors, if the design results are not referenced during debugging and the feedback points are only found by means of long-term high-gain sound reinforcement, the sound box may be damaged.