OT: Cell Phones

boomhower wrote on 11/2/2005, 11:24 AM
Was doing some voice work today and left my cellphone on by accident as I was kinda being rushed a bit. The studio setup had me in the same room as the equipment....About 10 seconds into the bit, the whole system goes ape....tremendous high pitch noise and rumbling in my headphones and the meters went berzerk! Thought the whole system had just went toes up and realized it was my cellphone (wife was calling) causing the problems. I always have it on vibrate so I didn't initially realize it was ringing in the commotion...lol

I've never seen a phone cause that much interference. Really sent everyone jumping!
Can you hear me now?

Comments

Coursedesign wrote on 11/2/2005, 11:33 AM
This is a known problem in pro recording everywhere, including location recording for film.

Schoeps offers a special on-demand mic modification that makes it less sensitive, but there are other components that don't have very good shielding, and cable vary a lot.

Even one Creative Labs 5.1 PC speaker system goes ape from interference too, according to a recent review.

boomhower wrote on 11/2/2005, 2:27 PM
Yeah...just never observed it this bad. Was something to see (and hear)....

kb
lgh529 wrote on 11/2/2005, 8:44 PM
Since I'm more of an audio professional and a video hobbiest, I particiapate in pro audio forums as well as this one. Recently there was a lengthy thread about cell phone interferrence. The conclusion was that the level of interferrence tended to be provider specific. We found that Nextell was the worst offender and Cingular was next.

I knew all you would want to know that.
PumiceT wrote on 11/3/2005, 2:18 PM
lgh, that IS actually useful... I wonder if their TOWERS also play a role. If, for example, you live near a Nextel tower, you'd be hating life in your studio.

Or, you could put a sign in your studio saying "Nextel phones must be turned OFF." Some people may feel targeted, but if it's a proven thing, and Verizon (for example) doesn't cause a problem, you could at least let SOME of your clients be in touch with their loved ones and associates. No one would want to be the reason their client missed an important call for no logical reason.
Jameson_Prod wrote on 11/4/2005, 4:15 AM
I'll go one further.......

Cell phones will also screw with the LCD display from a laptop. Cell phone rings...tons of noise and jitter on LCD.

I agree...I use Nextel at work and Verizon for personal use. Nextel is much worse than Verizon!!