Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Ultra Stereo JSD100 stage output levels changing

This is topic Ultra Stereo JSD100 stage output levels changing in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=001167

Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 07-24-2012, 10:32 PM:

Many complaints about our sound came my way after our midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. Sound FX & Music too loud, Can't hear dialogue. So, Friday morning I checked the reference levels for each channel. Left stage was 7 db hot, Center was right at 85 db and Right stage was 9 db hot. WTF: B chain was just calibrated by our tech a month ago. I reset the levels, watched parts of the movie and was satisfied with the sound so I saved the new settings to the JSD100's internal memory. Friday night rolls around, Same problem so I changed the levels on the fly during the show, then did a calibration again after the show was over. Then I cycled the power of the unit and was right back at the wonky levels for L & R even though the settings showed the same db reading on the GUI. If i moved the level down even by .1 db on one channel, the audio level on both L & R would drop by 7 - 9 db instantly. After much experimentation I realized that there was no consistency at all to my levels. They just would not stay where I adjusted them after a restart of the processor. Finally I updated all three processor's firmware files on the JSD100 and my settings now appear to be much more stable. This took me many hours of work, plus phone time with my tech. Has anyone else run into these problems?
Sorry for the overly-long post!

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 07-24-2012, 11:39 PM:

Sorry to hear about the issue! I'd be interested in knowing the history of the problem (new install, new firmware, etc.). There WAS a problem with "code package 11" losing the output trims. We have an about-to-be released code package that adds a lot of features and fixes all reported issues.

You can call me at USL to discuss this further and get a link to the new firmware (if you don't already have it).

I'm very sorry you had problems! We try to test and test, but there's always something!

Thanks!

Harold
USL Engineering

Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 07-25-2012, 08:55 AM:

Hi Harold, Thanks for your reply.
We installed the processor new in late September 2011. Firmware was updated when the unit was installed, but had not been updated since then.

I'm currently running:
PIC Firmware: F_100810-A-110429-A_0
DSP 1 FW: 1100617
DSP 2 FW: 2100617

Installing these updates seems to have solved my problem. I did not make a note of what the previous versions were. Are these the most up to date Firmware packages?

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 07-25-2012, 12:43 PM:

Those firmware versions are code package 5. Last year we released code package 11, but received reports of the output trim issue. We rolled production back to code package five. We are about to release a new version (120510) that fixes all known issues plus adds a bunch of new features. But, unless you need the new feature or something is not working correctly, I tend to leave working systems working.

Again, give a call or send an email at any time. We want this stuff to work perfectly!

Thanks!

Harold