New DMR System Sounds Horrible...fixes?

[DewAddict]

Hi All,

My work just installed a brand new multi-site MotoTrbo system and we are using the XPR7550e portables with the latest firmware. It was professionally installed by a company but the radios sound absolutely horrendous. It sounds like everyone is talking with a trash can over their heads. I have looked through the radio settings and found they turned on every option possible in the "Utilities" menu such as AGC, Noise Supression, AF Supression, you name it and it's enabled on the radios. They are coming out again to address our concerns and I'm looking for suggestions on what to have them do to fix it as they seem to think it's working fine. I know a bit about the 7550 from HAM use but I wouldn't know what to have them adjust for commercial use. The system is a UHF, 3 site system with roaming and such. We are not a high noise environment, it's a couple corporate office buildings that it covers. The audio is super muffled on the base cosole radios as well. I feel like it's gotta be one of the settings that needs to be adjusted or disabled. I've never heard audio this bad and I listen to P25 and DMR on a regular basis.

Thanks for the help.

 

[zsauve]

I had the same issues when I switched the university I worked for to Capacity Plus. First thing I would do is have a look at the various audio profiles (Preference when in the CPS) and play around with them. I found that treble boost works very well. If you haven't already, I would also enable "RX Audio Leveling" as it tends to make the audio sound much better. Keep in mind you may need to pay for an Entitlement Key for this feature, which is around the $2.50-$3.50 range. Also, what level of noise suppression are you using? I would suggest either "Basic" or "Enhanced Auto". AF suppressor could also be turned off. I would also suggest disabling the AGC and see how your audio turns out. I attached a screenshot of how I have the university radios configured.

What model base radios are you using? If they are the XPR-2500's, I have had nothing but issues with muffled audio on those which I can't seem to solve. Ultimately we ended up starting to replace them with the XPR-5550e's.

 

[DewAddict]

Many thanks for the suggestions. I'll pass these along to the radio guys tomorrow. As far as base radios, I'm not certain of the exact model number but I'll check. They are the ones that look like phones and have a color LCD screen and a dial pad as well but we don't use them for any phone features. They also have a very long delay when the PTT is pressed before you can transmit, even before the talk permit tone kicks in.

We have these consoles....

 

[N1GTL]

That's an MCD 5000 desk set which is probably interfaced with an RGU and a mobile unit somewhere. The delay is because you are most likely going over a network, through switches and routers possibly. Is this what the audio sounds bad on? There can be so many issues to explore if this is the case. Is it a direct connect to the RGU or over a larger network? VLAN? QOS settings on the network for VOIP? These can be tricky to fine tune and you really need a vendor with experience with them as well as sharp IT people if it is using their network.

 

[DewAddict]

Yes it's all over our Network and the audio is the worst over this unit but is still not great portable to portable. We did use a major vendor to do the install, one of the most popular in SE Michigan but I know that doesn't mean they are good. If we can tweak the audio form portable to portable I'll be happy. Getting our IT team to do anything is a major chore although we do have some very smart guys and gals on the team.

 

[N1GTL]

You mention that this is a 3 site system. If two radios affiliate with the same site, how do they sound versus two radios communicating with each other and each affiliated with a different site? The garble you may be getting could be networking between the linked sites. The repeaters should be on their own VLAN, QOS 1.

This could be a lot of different things. The simplest test is take two portable radios, put in the frequency of one repeater (No roaming or channel pool) and test between those two radios. If they sound good, your vendor and/or IT people need to start checking into this being a network issue. If they sound bad you can start with audio settings. Once you resolve the audio settings using a single site, then move onto how they sound across the network. Lots of factors here. Public Internet? Cable or DSL? Private fiber? I could write a book here but start at the most basic level....two radios talking to each other using one repeater.

 

[DewAddict]

I appreciate all the replies. I have a good list of things we will cover with the vendor tomorrow and get this system going in the right direction.

 

[TampaTyron]

I work with these issues every day. Get codeplugs or screenshots of the changes before and after the vendor changes them so you compare the the settings AND bring the data here for further analysis. As far as portable to portable audio, here is my settings recommendation (assuming you are not using speaker mics as mics change settings significantly):

-AGC on
-AF Suppressor off
-Noise suppressor set to Basic
-Intelligent Audio off
-Mic Distortion on
-Audio Ambiance Loud (if high speaker volume is needed) or Default (if normal speaker volume is ok)
-Audio Profile Treble Boost
-RX Audio levelling (if purchased)

-RSSI roaming to -95 or stronger if needed

-Admit criteria of Polite to Own Color Code

-Turn off everything on the Menu so people can't access the settings

Keep in mind that most shops are short on actual radio people and just dump this stuff on the customer and hope they don't complain. Most salesmen want every feature enabled to wow the customer. These issues come together to frustrate the most patient of user. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here in the forum....,.... TT

 

[TampaTyron]

As far as the MCD5000, the vendor needs to adjust the mic gains to get better tx audio, usually backing down the gains AND enabling AGC on the TX audio path. If you are using mobiles with base mics, the mics need their gain pots reduced from 100% to about 30%. TT

 

[DewAddict]

Thanks for the additional info. I have added to my notes. We had a medical run at work today and the radios were absolutely awful. Couldn't hear some guys and others just cut off while they were speaking. Hope to begin to resolve it tomorrow.