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(I hadn't really noticed the similarity until you mentioned it.)
Originally Posted by Enginerd
Joe Perez, were you the one that had to troubleshoot and fix the microphone debacle at the station during the morning news?
That was... embarrassing.
Short version: no. I have engineers on duty during all newscasts, and my morning guy quickly tracked the problem down to a failed power supply, and replaced it with a spare.
Long version: This shouldn't have happened in the first place.
We use a distributed UHF wireless mic system, with five pairs of receive antennas that provide coverage throughout the whole first floor of the building via a large diversity combiner, which then feeds out the receiver trays, each of which holds six receiver modules. There are five trays in Studio 3 (where the main news set is), and our standard operating procedure is that the primary talent are NEVER fitted with mic transmitters and IFB receivers assigned to frequencies which reside on the same trays, and are connected to the same audio I/O nodes, as their counterparts.
My predecessor, whom I am increasingly convinced was a deliberate *******, designed the system such that the RF output of the combiner network hits the first receive tray, and then that loops out to the second tray, etc.
In our business, it's extremely common for devices which use analog signals to provide a loop-through output, so that the signal can daisy-chain to other devices. Now, TYPICALLY, these loop-through outputs are passive in nature, via a transformer or a resistive divider. So if the device goes down, the loop output still works. This is universally assumed to be the case for reference-timing loops, and is generally a safe assumption elsewhere.
This is apparently not the case with the Lectrosonics Venue mic receiver system.
This is the unit which failed. Studio 3, Tray A:
And when it went down, it killed the RF to Trays B, C, D and E.
The shitty thing is that as part of the work we're doing rebuilding Studios 1 and 2, I've already designed a new RF system (and bought all of the parts to build it) including a pair of UHF distribution amps which will supply each mic tray with its own pair of RF feeds, separate from all the others (this is a diversity system, with two antenna circuits per zone). The failure / removal of any one tray would not affect the others, and even the failure of one of the DAs would still leave every tray with one working RF feed from the opposite path.
But, frankly, I just hadn't placed a high priority on this as compared to getting the new cameras built, the new switcher installed, the new router controller configured, etc. Manpower and time are finite, but in the grand scheme of things, I could have prevented this if I'd have prioritized differently and/or pleaded for additional per-diem labor a lot earlier in the process.
What's worse is that we actually have not one but TWO levels of hard-wired backup in Studio 3. Each talent position at the desk, the lounge, the stand-up set and the green screen has a wired lapel mic hanging from a clip near their knees or behind their chair. And in addition to that, there is ALSO a large panel microphone hung from the grid above the anchor desk, so that even if everything else goes to ****, we can get a single mic which covers the whole desk up and hear... something. But the A2 was nowhere to be found when the RF system failed (on-air talent are contractually forbidden from touching their own mics, which is IBEW union territory), and the A1 simply didn't even remember that the panel mic was there. We've never needed to use it since it was installed.
You can engineer the **** out of the design with backups and redundancy, but if the human element fails, then the production fails.
And we failed.
On the plus side, my new robot army is nearly complete:
We got a new administrative assistant in the engineering office assistant this week.
The last two times I've asked her to email me something like a purchase order or a confirmation / tracking number, what she has done is to print the email containing this information from her own PC, walk down to the other end of the building and scan it into a PDF, and then email me a copy of the scanned paper.
We got a new administrative assistant in the engineering office assistant this week.
The last two times I've asked her to email me something like a purchase order or a confirmation / tracking number, what she has done is to print the email containing this information from her own PC, walk down to the other end of the building and scan it into a PDF, and then email me a copy of the scanned paper.
I swear I'm not making this up.
You expect too much... Was she one of those who wasn't "left behind"? Hopefully she's a looker.
Top ring gap spec is 0.42 mm for my engine.
They all come out at 0.45 mm.
Good to go?
You may have slightly higher blow-by, and maybe higher oil consumption. But, from my experience on diesel engines, 30 microns doesn't change things much.
We got a new administrative assistant in the engineering office assistant this week.
The last two times I've asked her to email me something like a purchase order or a confirmation / tracking number, what she has done is to print the email containing this information from her own PC, walk down to the other end of the building and scan it into a PDF, and then email me a copy of the scanned paper.
You guys complaining about your jobs... i got you all beat.. today i discovered that i work with a dude that is "pretty sure" the earth is flat" and also believes in the "earth is 6000 years old" and that people and dinosaurs lived together.
Oh and he wants to be an accountant but cant even pass highschool basic math so now he has to redo it in college.
You guys complaining about your jobs... i got you all beat.. today i discovered that i work with a dude that is "pretty sure" the earth is flat" and also believes in the "earth is 6000 years old" and that people and dinosaurs lived together.
Oh and he wants to be an accountant but cant even pass highschool basic math so now he has to redo it in college.
doubt it.. matter of fact i am surprised to see him out of the toilet... the dude is in there probably over an hr per day if you add up all the times he goes in... all on the clock of course.
You guys complaining about your jobs... i got you all beat.. today i discovered that i work with a dude that is "pretty sure" the earth is flat" and also believes in the "earth is 6000 years old" and that people and dinosaurs lived together.
That's pretty serious...
My day at work was interesting. Started with a mass-email at 10:30AM from the building engineering dept at Sears (Willis) tower saying that they'd just suffered a massive leak in one of the rooftop cooling towers, and that chiller water from the 50th to 107th floors was being shut off to make emergency repairs.
My primary transmitter is on the 98th floor, puts out about 90kw of heat (25 tons, for you HVAC weenies), and is cooled entirely by the auxiliary chiller system. When that system turns off, the room turns into an oven in about 10 minutes.
Dispatched my transmitter guy down to Sears (20 minute drive with no traffic), and started digging out the emergency procedure manual for making an unattended power-up of the aux transmitter on the Hancock tower. Called the GM to let him know we'd likely be powering down at Sears and switching to Hancock.
Ran down to master control, logged into Hancock with one terminal and pulled up the telemetry for Sears on the other. It's... completely normal.
Got on the phone with the guy who manages the broadcast floors at Sears. He's a half hour away and not paying attention to things like the speed limit on his way to the tower.
Back to telemetry... still normal.
Try calling my contact at the building. Busy. (Seriously, an actual busy signal. Can't remember the last time I heard that sound.) Emailed him, saying "I don't know why, but my room is still working." Got a quick reply: "There may be changes, no information at this time."
My transmitter guy gets to Sears and calls me. The transmitter room on 98 is cool, water pressure and temperature are normal. I send him up to 104, where we have some aux equipment. He calls me back- there's water coming down through openings in the bare concrete ceiling (which are the floor of 105), but it's not raining on our rack.
Telemetry, still normal...
Five hours of basically doing nothing but staring at the transmitter status panel and the environmental monitors. I literally have no idea why, but our water system remained online. Finally got another mass-email from building engineering, saying "all clear." Pretty impressive, actually, that they managed to patch an 18" diameter feedline, on a system whose flowrate is measured in thousands of gallons per minute, on the roof of a 107 story building, in only five hours.
A couple of broadcasters took some water damage, but nobody went off the air. This is a mystery, and I don't like mysteries.
Fake news outlets get fake water damage, apparently.
Edit: as intent may be unclear, as it almost always is on the internet, my use of the term "fake news" here is sarcastic, and used in derogatory fashion in reference to #45's use of the term in referring to legitimate news organizations who dare oppose him.
You guys complaining about your jobs... i got you all beat.. today i discovered that i work with a dude that is "pretty sure" the earth is flat" and also believes in the "earth is 6000 years old" and that people and dinosaurs lived together.
Oh and he wants to be an accountant but cant even pass highschool basic math so now he has to redo it in college.
Sigh.
Lol. We have about a dozen of those. The last one that tried to engage(discuss in depth) me, I basically told, after he wouldnt let it go, "*** off, you're to stupid to even talk to". He then went on a 6 month crusade to get me fired for anything he thought he could dig up, because he was so offended. Fact findings, hostile work environment filings, etc. FWIW, I am the millennial, and he is in his 50s.
Fake news outlets get fake water damage, apparently.
Edit: as intent may be unclear, as it almost always is on the internet, my use of the term "fake news" here is sarcastic, and used in derogatory fashion in reference to #45's use of the term in referring to legitimate news organizations who dare oppose him.
Do we need to explain our attempts at sarcasm on MT now! I always thought well executed sarcasm was the highest form of comedy or fuckyouitiveness (which I'm told is a well used twitter hashtag).
Lol. We have about a dozen of those. The last one that tried to engage(discuss in depth) me, I basically told, after he wouldnt let it go, "*** off, you're to stupid to even talk to". He then went on a 6 month crusade to get me fired for anything he thought he could dig up, because he was so offended. Fact findings, hostile work environment filings, etc. FWIW, I am the millennial, and he is in his 50s.
I will say I've never actually stepped into neither and my non-scientific acquaintances who've been seem to be guarded in their comments (gee I wonder why). You might've seen the founder on TV when he so called debated the Science Guy Bill Nye.
EDIT: Sorry if I've offended any creationists here.
Fake news outlets get fake water damage, apparently.
+ awarded.
[sarc] Nah, like I said earlier. The Fake News bureau only gets a small corner of the newsroom, and we have a separate channel (CLTV) that we put their stuff on. [/sarc]
02-16-2017, 09:55 PM
1
I always thought well executed sarcasm was the highest form of comedy or fuckyouitiveness (which I'm told is a well used twitter hashtag).
