All of that is true except for one small detail.
The bars I play in range from brand new buildings to buildings 100 years old.
All of my wiring can be done correctly. But I can not vouch for the integraty of the builds electrical supplys and wiring. Many recepticals can be wired backwards. (meaning the black & white wires)
Then there is also the problem of neon lights, florescent lights , beer cooler compressors, kitchen apliances and anything else electrical. Not many bars have dedicated circuts just for the entertainment.
In the newest bar, hooked up by a professional installer I still had herring bone interference problems on the TVs and an audio ground loop hum. If I hadn't had all of the ground loop isolators for video and audio I would not have been able to play.
Having those items in your bag of tricks can not hurt. I actually impressed the installer with everything I pulled from my bag. And everything I did corrected a problem. He was there on the first night to make sure everything went well. Without my tricks I would not have played or been paid.
Be prepared for the unexpected in every bar.
From 16 years of this the hardest part of any karaoke job is GETTING THE TVS TO WORK CORRECTLY WITHOUT INTERFERENCE AND GROUND LOOP NOISE.
Just curious if anyone has had this problem.
FM interference (the cause of Herringbone Patterns on TV's), electromagnetic interference (flourescent lights) and ground loops are all very different things. Ground loops occur when an electrical system has more than one path to ground. The variance in potential of the two paths causes a current to flow between them which results in the 60 cycle hum that you'll hear coming from your mains. This is common when the ground isn't connected to the earth but rather to the neutral buss (common in older construction).
FM interence is a result of inductive interference introduced through the cabling or the transmitting device. Considering you recommend to others to use cheap RF modulators, I'm wondering if possibly that along with the electrical issues is part of the problem.
What freaks me out most about your post is that you're saying you're plugging into systems where you know the AC polarity is reverse (i.e. Hot and Neutral - what you refer to as black and white - are reversed). I would NEVER plug my 1000's of dollars worth of equipment into a situation like this. If I'm understanding you correctly and this is what you've done, I'm surprised you haven't had major equipment issues as a result. Some simple electrical devices (i.e. light bulbs) don't require a specific polarity. However, once you start talking about semi-conductors, having proper polarity is very important. This is why polarized plugs were invented.
I also can't imagine having my rack plugged into the same circuit as a cooler or anything other major device. It is possible for electrical devices to attempt to pull more power than a circuit is capable of providing without blowing a fuse/breaker. This results in a voltage drop which can have serious damaging effects on your power amp. This is one of the challenges of playing the club scene that should not be taken lightly. I can't stress enough how important proper AC power is.
I'm sorry, but part of my standard contract is that a properly grounded AC power circuit capable of at least 15 amps for my equipment alone must be available and I don't play a gig without proper AC. If forced, I will run without proper grounding, but only in extreme cases and only because I know that in itself won't damage my equipment. Improper polarity, voltage drops and other electrical system anomolies can fry power amps, TV's, Rack Equipment, etc in a heart beat so no way am I taking that chance.
BTW: I never trust the "professional's" assessment of his work. As I've told in other threads, I've run into situations where licensed professionals have reverse wired the hot and neutral on a 220 circuit, connected ground to hot, and even reversed the hot and ground leads. Get yourself an $8 tester like this one: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... =100062242 and use it every time. It will save you fortunes in equipment damage.
FM interence is a result of inductive interference introduced through the cabling or the transmitting device. Considering you recommend to others to use cheap RF modulators, I'm wondering if possibly that along with the electrical issues is part of the problem.
What freaks me out most about your post is that you're saying you're plugging into systems where you know the AC polarity is reverse (i.e. Hot and Neutral - what you refer to as black and white - are reversed). I would NEVER plug my 1000's of dollars worth of equipment into a situation like this. If I'm understanding you correctly and this is what you've done, I'm surprised you haven't had major equipment issues as a result. Some simple electrical devices (i.e. light bulbs) don't require a specific polarity. However, once you start talking about semi-conductors, having proper polarity is very important. This is why polarized plugs were invented.
I also can't imagine having my rack plugged into the same circuit as a cooler or anything other major device. It is possible for electrical devices to attempt to pull more power than a circuit is capable of providing without blowing a fuse/breaker. This results in a voltage drop which can have serious damaging effects on your power amp. This is one of the challenges of playing the club scene that should not be taken lightly. I can't stress enough how important proper AC power is.
I'm sorry, but part of my standard contract is that a properly grounded AC power circuit capable of at least 15 amps for my equipment alone must be available and I don't play a gig without proper AC. If forced, I will run without proper grounding, but only in extreme cases and only because I know that in itself won't damage my equipment. Improper polarity, voltage drops and other electrical system anomolies can fry power amps, TV's, Rack Equipment, etc in a heart beat so no way am I taking that chance.
BTW: I never trust the "professional's" assessment of his work. As I've told in other threads, I've run into situations where licensed professionals have reverse wired the hot and neutral on a 220 circuit, connected ground to hot, and even reversed the hot and ground leads. Get yourself an $8 tester like this one: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... =100062242 and use it every time. It will save you fortunes in equipment damage.
The isolater device I used on my tv output wire instantly corrected the TV interference problem. So somehow there was a conflict between my equipment wiring and the bar wiring causing the interference.
I have an LED message board mounted on my mixer rack. There are certain fixed frequency microphones I have that pick up the electrical inteference from the message board. I have to turn it off whenever I have to use these microphones. Now I will add the microphones are my original 16 year old single frequency models.
Point being that bar lights, flouresents and any other electrical device in a bar "could" cause any number of interference problems (audio or video.) I try not to have any other things plugged into the receptacle I use. But sometimes it's not possible. This is one big reason I'm not very keen on using powered speakers. Now you are forced to use many different receptacles (circuits.)
One receptacle is all I ever need. This eliminates as much as possible problem potential.
I have an LED message board mounted on my mixer rack. There are certain fixed frequency microphones I have that pick up the electrical inteference from the message board. I have to turn it off whenever I have to use these microphones. Now I will add the microphones are my original 16 year old single frequency models.
Point being that bar lights, flouresents and any other electrical device in a bar "could" cause any number of interference problems (audio or video.) I try not to have any other things plugged into the receptacle I use. But sometimes it's not possible. This is one big reason I'm not very keen on using powered speakers. Now you are forced to use many different receptacles (circuits.)
One receptacle is all I ever need. This eliminates as much as possible problem potential.
