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.