Wireless Microphone Dropouts

We've been experiencing a couple issues Sunday mornings with the wireless being flaky. The Worship Leader microphone is dropping out after the sermon sometimes and SLX 7,8 and 9 have shown frequencies when only one of the mics is on. I went in and tested them all. The Worship Leader mic I let scan itself and came up with a different frequency in the same group. That's been reset. I had no issues with SLX 7,8 and 9.

After talking with Shure and Applied Audio I have come to a decision. From now on, if you have a Blackberry it cannot be used in the booth. We are feeling that this might be the issue since we are only seeing it when the room is occupied. This does mean that even someone in the church around the booth or the microphone could effect the signal. Blackberries have been know to cause carrier issues and most of the microphones today have a block setup, but this is in the past year. Our microphones are older than that. In the future, as we replace microphones, we will eliminate that issue. For now we have to live with it.

New Front Projectors in the Sanctuary

We now have new Epson G5350 projectors installed. They both have standard zoom lenses and have been turned down to conserve the lamp life. (3000 hours) They cannot be adjusted from the remote as easily as the last projectors, which was the problem. They were too easy to change. Focus, zoom, lens shift both horizontal and vertical are manual at the projector. Hopefully never to change until we need them to. The images actually match on the screen!!

New Wireless Personal Monitors (IE's)

We have two new Personal Monitors, called by some people Inner Ears or 'IE's'. This goes along with Jason's that he uses and will be available for the vocalists to use instead of a wedge speaker. We have them all in a travel case so they will always be together and available. Cables are all labeled in the back so you don't have to search too hard for them. Check them out sometime as we start using them and get used to them.

Our Choir Mics - Audix 1280 and 1290

One thing that has come up with our choir microphone selection is that we have two different mics to choose from. The 1280 and 1290. Just by looking at them you can see the difference. The 1280 is more directional (uni) and the 1290 is a wider pattern (omni), but remember they are both Cardioid!! The 1290 is no longer made and the 1280 has come out with a Super Cardioid called the 1280-s. I think you will find more problems with the 1290 in keeping it away from feeding back. Probably better for recording and Choir usage, but be careful. I talked to Audix who did not hold the 1290 in high regard.

New Projection Computer

To all of you who have been putting off learning Media Shout 4.5 now is the time!! We have a new computer in place.

We will go over it more in depth on October 16th's training, so get familiar with it please. We are going to change some of the procedures so that everything for each week is resident on the hard drive. This way we should eliminate as many issues as possible.

Thanks for your patience in this.

Cry room audio discovered.

To all of you who helped me trace problems with the audio in the cry rooms Thank You!! Randy Carson came up with the final answer!! There are two fuses above the ceiling in the rooms. 250W 1.5A. Randy told me that a couple years ago they had the same problem and blew out the transformers on the speakers. That is now repaired.

The Amp that powers this is way over power for those speakers. They only handle 30 watts at the most. So, the amp should never be higher than 1/4 power, which doesn't show signal on the amp but gives you full spectrum in the rooms.

I have also relocated the amp to the storage shelf on the side where the label printer is. Cleaned up the 5 terminations and 4 splices to one leading into the Amp cleaning up any problems that might occur. Also, spare fuses are in the yellow tool box top cover.

At the Sound desk the distribution marked 'Cry Rooms' is correct and should also never go above 12:00.

Thanks to all those that gave me time and talent to trace and discover the problem. Randy gets the prize this time!!

Lighting is now updated.

We have now changed out all the bulbs in all the regular fixtures, refocused and aimed what we could. We also put in 12 new lights in the cove on the bar. There are only 11 working up there as one of the outlets is redundant to two other lights. Sometime we will need to add a "2fr" ('y' plug for the single fixture so both will come on at the same time) to the single fixture. We now know that this 40' lift works very well!! When we have training we will identify what each fixture is. Thanks to Paul Schmitt, Lee Teitsworth and Dave Fleth for help on the hang and Sam Bortel and Charles Darden for helping move pews. Thanks for the team effort.

Wireless Microphone update 8/24/10

We have had some microphones dropping out during service for no apparent reason. The frequencies have been set according to the stations around, according to the guidelines set for us. I asked Applied Audio to look into it. They did a sweep and found there are new stations broadcasting at frequencies not listed. Last week I changed all the frequencies again to match the new parameters. I think we were successful with no microphone issues. Let me know if you experience anything.

Also, SLX12 had been having some issues not seeing ANY microphone. Weeks ago I tried changing out the connectors to the antenna combiner with no luck. Today I took the unit apart and found bad antenna connections internally. A little solder and it's working as it should, so we are back to 12 microphones again.

Anytime you experience something out of the ordinary with anything (sound, lighting, projection or cameras) let me know so I can check it out.

New ETC Element Lighting Board

As of today at about noon we have a new lighting board! The ETC 'Element.' We only have about 30 channels in the church that we can use right now. We will be able to add LED's, moving lights, scrollers, scanners, up to 250 fixtures with this board. This is the smallest board they make with this type of control.

You can go to to view a tutorial on this product to get you up to speed. I think you will find it simple to catch on to.

Media Shout 4.5 has come out and loaded on our computers.

Yes, there is a 4.5. Why? Mostly for the MAC users. This is the first time Media Shout has been available to them. There are some clock time outs in this one as well as some simple updates. When we change the presentation computer out for the new one we will have to use 4.5 so get some time looking at the videos. Ann had her first experience today with 4.5 and caught on quickly! So, in about 2 weeks we should have a new operating computer.

Welcome Jason Harris

Yesterday (8/8/2010) was Jason's first Sunday as Worship Director here at Browncroft. We have been looking forward to this day for some time. Prayerfully and hopefully looking to God for direction in his ministry and we were not disappointed!

Jason gave us, with the help of a skilled Worship Team, a solid look into the Holy Spirit as was the direction for this service. We were challenged and lifted to the Throne of Grace. Thank you Jason and Team for a clear message and leading us to Worship.

This morning during devotions I was challenged yet again to 'up my skill set.' I Chronicles 15:22 says, "Kenaniah was in charge of singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it."

He wasn't just a person who was willing, even though he couldn't carry a tune. He was SKILLFUL. People enjoyed his voice and could enjoy the message because he was skillful.

I forget sometimes that we, as techies, are given the same direction. We are doing what we do because we are skillful. God has given us a specific interest and skill set. Also from 2 Chronicles we see that when God established priests who were dedicated to worship, they took their gifts and calling seriously. 2 Chronicles 34:12b talks about "the Levites - all who were skilled in playing musical instruments..." They were skilled, they knew what they were doing.

Also, as techies, we need training in what we do. Keep up on the latest and greatest to the Glory of God. He wants us to be informed and able to give the best that we have to offer to complete His work here on earth.

What is all this saying? Keep informed on the latest things we are involved in. Learn our ministry, our craft, to perform it to God's Glory. That way when Jason and our Team bring us before the Throne of God our people can hear clearly and decisively what God has for them. They can see clearly the message and can respond to it. That is why we do this!!!

So, Jason, welcome to Browncroft. May we all work together, perfecting our craft to the Glory of God and so people will come to hear and see His message clearly!!

Talkback for Avioms and house.

Per recommendations and needing to control a musician now and then, I have installed a mic into channel 1 on board 2 and have done an insert to Channel 10 on the Avioms. If you don't highlight the channel the Avioms get you talking, if you highlight the channel it goes to the speakers. The mic is switchable so you can turn it off completely. We will need to discuss protocol in using it so you don't talk during a song but in between and have it preselected as to who will hear you, the Worship Leader or the musician you want to talk to.

We can back up the Presentation Computer whenever we need to!

The Presentation Computer has always been a 'If it goes down we don't have a backup' computer. Coming out S-Video to the Video Editor I understand because that and video are all it will take. Randy and I tried to find an available computer to make work but it wouldn't take the video card. I don't like being backed up against a wall with no way out.
The only solution was a Down Scaler. AV Tools makes one that will take us from VGA/DVI-D to S-Video, Component and Video. Not happy about going backwards in the chain of things, but that's what we have.
I have setup my personal work computer with Media Shout 4 and have tested it. I can get to the server to save everything, pull in backgrounds, songs, whatever. Now, if on a Sunday morning something happens we have a way to correct it!

Media Shout 4 Training On Line!!

OK!!
Craig spent a few hours converting this to a usable format and 10 minute segments and I spent last night and part of today uploading and making it work with the help of the guys at Smugmug.

Below is a link to my Smugmug account and 23 videos for Media Shout 4. We had to divide them up a little but I think they are still usable. I did label each so if you want a specific topic you can go to it or a general area that might house a specific topic you are looking for. This is a very well done video and I'm sending the link to ALL of you so we can have some cross training going on. I would recommend putting this on the center screen computer and viewing it while you are doing it on the side screen computer.

http://prairiegrass.smugmug.com/Other/Training-Videos/Browncroft-Media-Shout-4/12981604_uXGG6#939166824_MqD8c

If you have any comments or questions let me know.

1Cor 12:14-19 The right people for the job

I was having devotions today and the Scripture was 1Corinthians 12:14-19 dealing with the part of the body of believers. The direction was different though. Here is one of the phrases from it.

"When we use the skills God gives us, His purposes are accomplished, and He gets the glory. In God’s service, it’s not about being the best, the most talented, or the most gifted. It’s about being the right people—the ones God “set . . . in the body” (v.18)—joining together to serve the same team."

All of you are the right person for what you volunteer for. You are in the right place at the appropriate time for God purpose. We are 'called according to His purpose' to do what He wants us to do to bring someone to Christ. We are one team for the Glory of God.

ULX mic issue

Brent called me with an issue that I had never encountered. The window on the microphone for 'group' read 'E1 or 'F1', rather than just the number. After researching this the 'E1','F1' and factory repair settings used by Shure for diagnostics. How you get there is to hold the 'MODE' button for more than 10 seconds. The part we didn't know what how to get out of it. Press the 'SET' button for 10 seconds, it will revert back. Thanks Brent for trying this out!! :-)

sound debrief, June 6 & 20, 2010

It has often been my practice to send a debrief note to Chuck, Maurice, Ann, sometimes Rob, and now Roger. So now I'll start doing it here in this more open forum. I'd encourage everybody to do it as a means for sharing information, discussing issues with equipment or technique.

New information (recording feeds):

• For recording, there is a cable terminating in two 1/4" plugs, line out from the board. It's hotter than the S/PDIF connector, for which we didn't have a volume control. You have to remember to check the M-AUDIO settings to make sure your input is set the connector you're using.

Things I noticed for the first time (Audix mics are not identical):

• Among the six Audix book mics, we seem to have two different models: Four have grille holes all around the capsule, two don't. I'm guessing that perhaps the two with fewer holes have a tighter polar pattern. Hoping that was true, I used the two lower-grille mics on the outside (to catch less speaker feedback), and the wider-looking mic in the center. It would be nice to know for sure whether we have a selection of polar pickup patterns. (Roger?) Or if we buy more, the hypercardioid and shotgun styles look the most attractive. In the future, I will favor the ones I think are less omnidirectional when I mic instruments too.

Things I once knew but forgot (stage noise):

• When micing the choir, we need to move all instruments as far away from the choir as we can, otherwise the high gain we set for picking up the choir picks up a lot of instrument as well. I learned this before, from a big event with the stage filled with musicians -- in that case, the trumpets needed to be moved very far fro where they started. On June 6 I realized that I should have moved the drummer forward, away from the choir loft, for the same reason.

Suggestions I made:

• I suggested to Roger that (as a simple low-tech solution for recording worship) we use a 1/4" splitter to take the Aviom send from the overhead drum mic and route it over to the little mixer used for recording. I believe the channel can be muted or faded from the house but the Avoim send will still be live.

Other:

• I had comments on June 20 from the congregation regarding volume (especially drum volume) that I have shared in detail with Roger and Ann. Do what you can!

Easy way to keep up with news

I am posting a few articles today, so I'm sending this note with both email and on the web site, using this opportunity to draw your attention again to the web site.

For those of you unfamiliar with getting your news from a blog site like our new site http://techupatbrowncroft.blogspot.com:

Instead of periodically visiting multiple blogs, you can set up an "RSS reader" that subscribes to whatever feeds you are interested in, and then you occasionally visit your reader, which shows you a summary of articles from all your feeds, keeps track of which ones are new and unread, etc.

Two popular RSS readers are:

• Bloglines http://bloglines.com
• Google Reader http://reader.google.com

and there are many others.

If you decide to try an RSS reader, I recommend subscribing to two feeds:

• http://techupatbrowncroft.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
• http://techupatbrowncroft.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default

(The former to read new articles, the latter to see [with little effort] any followups that appear in the "comments" attached to each article.)

For your reading enjoyment: Yamaha sound books

I have been recommending these books based on reputation but hadn't read them myself. So I bought copies and I'm leaving them in the sound booth for your reading enjoyment. Feel free to borrow one or both, but if you do, please send me an email note or post a comment on this article.

The Sound Reinforcement Handbook	Guide to Sound Systems for Worship

They are pretty good technical/theoretical overviews of just about every piece of equipment or cabling we use around here. Much of the advice is about how to set up the equipment, not so much about how to run things after it's set up. But there's lots of valuable information in there, especially if you're not familiar with every component we have or why things are used the way they are.

I'm hoping to find more reading material on how to run live sound. Please post if you know of good books or articles.

Media Shout Version 4

As of today we have Media Shout Version 4 on our presentation computer. 3.5 is still available, but please jump in and start using 4 soon. We have also purchased the Media Shout University, which is a complete 2 hour training set of DVDs that will carry you through every aspect of the program, from the simple to the complex. I'm trying to figure out a way for all of us to get access to it. I would like to stream it but don't have the license to do that. I have the discs and will pass it around if that's the best, or get together with all that want to learn for an evening of Media Shout Training. You tell me.

This has a lot of changes and an ease of operation that blows the old one away, in my estimation. Here is a link to a simple description of the system. http://www.mediashout.com/products/mediashout?select=Video

Video Capture Computer

Hi folks,

I found the video capture computer at a blue screen of death (BSOD) on Sunday morning. As a workaround, we captured the service straight to a DVD, which I will use to create the sermon and audio files for the website.

We are ordering a new video capture computer, and will get the old computer fixed, so that we will have two working video editing workstations upstairs. Once fixed, the old computer will replace the even older HP computer now being used to print DVD discs.

In the interim, we may need to capture directly to DVD again, or I may bring in my computer from home, until we get a replacement solution.

Additionally, we will be installing Adobe CS4 on the new video capture computer!

Wireless Microphone Update

Laurie Stewart brought this to my attention, something I've known since the end of last year, but wanted to make sure all of you have a chance to understand it. This article is from Christianity Today June 2010 Web edition. Things we have to be aware of. For your information, in the sanctuary we are in compliance at between 500-600MHz. I do not know what they have in the youth and children's areas.

American churches have less than two weeks to change their wireless microphone equipment or face more than $100,000 in fines.

In January, the Federal Communications Commission mandated that anyone using wireless microphones on the 700 MHz band must stop by June 12 in order to make room for use by police, fire and emergency services.

An unlicensed person or business—which includes churches—using microphones on frequencies between 698 and 806 MHz must stop or face action by the FCC. Violators could face up to $112,500 in fines or imprisonment for continued violation, according to the FCC. Violations will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Since December 2008, Shure Inc., a Niles, Ill.-based audio-visual company, has worked with churches to replace their audio equipment.

"It's like being told that you got to replace your dishwasher even though it's working just fine," said Chris Lyons, manager of educational and technical communication at Shure.

"It affects any church that has any number of microphones that work in the 700 MHz band. For the last several years, that has been one of the very popular parts of the band. So there is a big installed base of wireless life there."

The Village Church of Gurnee in Gurnee, Ill. uses its 24 wireless devices for drama productions, music, preaching and children's ministry. Because of the cost, the church only replaced half of its devices.

"If we were to replace every single channel and piece of equipment we have … it's gonna cost us about $50,000 total," said Jason Carter, the Village Church's pastor of worship ministries. "We're really having to rethink how we're going to do some of those events … It really is changing the dynamic of how we do ministry here on Sunday mornings."

At Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, the country's largest church, technical director Reid Hall spent $26,000 to replace 35 of its wireless systems.

"It was a long, strategic plan" Hall said. "There are many churches in similar situations that just can't run out and plop down three or four thousand for new wireless systems. … For them it's a huge burden."

The burden has been felt at North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hill, Minn., where chief audio engineer Keith Bufis has replaced 30 wireless microphone systems at a cost of about $25,000.

"We've had to tighten our belts," Bufis said. "We really did not have a budget to cover it all."

Lakewood Church, Village Church, North Heights and 76 other houses of worship have petitioned Congress to pass the Wireless Microphone Users Interference Protection Act. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., would allow places like churches, educational facilities, recording studios and museums to register their spots on the television airwaves, or "white spaces," that their wireless microphones operate on.

"The white space is sort of this open area right now," Carter said. "It's kind of like, you go to the beach … you just find an empty spot and sit down. But, if you get up and go to the concession stand … and come back, somebody else is in your spot. There is no legal recourse for you to get your piece of sand back."

In his letter to Congress, Lakewood Church pastor Joel Osteen said churches "must have the right `tools' and the tools must operate properly and without interference."

Mark Brunner, senior director of global brand management at Shure, said the problem was, in many ways, unanticipated in a rapidly changing technological landscape.

"Licenses were not on the radar of the FCC until they recognized, that in order to share this spectrum with new broadband devices, we're going to need to know where these mic's are," Brunner said. "And if they don't know where they are, they can't run air traffic control."

Lighting 101

Applied audio has offered to have lighting training for free to anyone interested on the tech team. The date we have right now is Tuesday July 20, 2010 at 7:00pm at Applied Audio. A description of all fixtures, both fixed and moving, LED and conventional, gels, schrollers, and controllers will be discussed. This is more to get us understanding what can be done so we can consider advancing the system together to the glory of God. Please let me know if this date works for most. If not, give me dates and we will change it.