Up and coming sound changes

I am starting to 'tweak' what I don't like about our sound. We have a better over all mix but I want more. The piano has ALWAYS bothered me being a simple PZM (Pressure Zone Microphone) attached to the cover. We loose so much. Without spending a lot of money on the 'specialty' mics I've been reading a lot about boundary mics (Shure 393c or Crown PZM's) and different placements in the piano. Soon you well see 2 channels used for piano. (Piano Low & Piano High) I'm getting in one to try (I already have one) and see what happens.

The other thing I have always been bothered with the the lack of punch in the Kick Drum. I'm trying out a Shure Beta 91 for this. It's a different style mic that sits on the blanket inside the drum but has a cardioid feel with it. I'm hoping to have that this week to test for Sunday. Let me know if you hear a difference.

One other thing is the month of December. Jason has asked me to run sound for the month to basically come up with new standards on EQ and separation. I will probably still have you guys there to see what's going on. So your holiday will be a REAL HOLIDAY this year, especially with Christmas on Sunday this year!

We are moving on with making our sound an improvement day by day, not just status quo. The Bible says that 'In all you do, do it to the Glory of God!' We are making improvements to truly give Him the Worship and Praise He deserves!

Hearing Impaired System

We have a new Williams transmitter for our hearing impaired friends. We will not be announcing it till next Sunday so we can try it out and balance it live this week. I have it coming off the small mixer next to the Sound Board. This will be a consistent feed so it doesn't fluctuate from week to week. I have the frequency set and tested with our 4 receivers. 

This is the professional version of the one we had. This, however has a 1000 ft. range. I actually walked the whole building and lost it on the far end of 'C' hallway. Not bad!! So, needless to say, it doesn't matter where they sit.

The Information desk will be handling them, we will need to help them supply batteries and maintain them. We can buy more receivers if needed.

What a Summer!!

Sorry!! This has been a crazy time of install, changes and concerts! I'm just breathing again and wanted to contact you to let you know all the changes that have gone on @ Browncroft.

Digital Projection
Our 1st adventure was running a CAT5e line from the sound booth to the projectors. Between Sam Bortle, Dave Fleth, Paul Tracy, Jason Harris and myself we got it in. We ran 300' to a VGA decoder and looped to the second projector. We also have a new switcher at the projection station. The Extron 1508. This can handle just about every format we could possible throw at it. You will be hearing about possible different feeds with this soon, hopefully.

16:9 Screens
Along with the Projection comes the new screens. With the help of GAP, Henrik Berg and Jason we got these in place in a day. The projectors are aligned accordingly and will be tweaked more and more as we correct little issues with this.

Lens adapters on the projectors
We have lens adapters to give us the image size we need on the projectors. Because of our distance from the projector to the screen we could not purchase an existing lens that would work, so we had to go with the adapter.

Support bar for lighting and visuals
Underneath the screens is a new 14' bar suspended by a support system across. This is for future lighting or signage needs as they occur. I want to make mention of Craig Roberts help with the 'Choices' signs we have up this month. They look awesome.

When we have our training in September be aware we wold like everyone to make an effort to attend. With all these changes there is a need to be familiar with all that's going on so we can make the ministry as seamless as possible during these transitions.

Busy Summer!!

Just to keep everyone aware of what's going on, we are working on 2 major projects.

One is new lighting in the sanctuary. We installed 28 ETC Source 4, 750's in the ceiling. 24 of them have 375 watt bulbs and 4 of them are pointed at the stage with 750 watt bulbs. There is a mixture of 50 degree and 70 degree for the sanctuary seating and the 4 directed at stage are 36 degree. The one nice thing is, these are 1000 hour bulbs, not 200 hour as we originally had. Less changing of bulbs less frequently! (Hopefully!) I will be updating the lighting chart for the lighting board as soon as I can. Channels 6 & 12 are now stage lights rather than house lights.Thanks to Paul Schmitt for his help spotting and Jayce Grefrath and his friend Matt for helping get the pews back in place.

Secondly, we are in the process of making the screens High Def. We have run CAT5 cable and will be terminating in encoder/decoders to facilitate the higher resolution. We put the back screen in first, being the easiest and all is working great. We have ordered 16:9 screens and lenses for the front projectors so you probably won't see the finished product for a few weeks. I'll keep you posted. Thanks to David Fleth and Sam Bortle for helping on this project.

New Processor for the Sanctuary

We spent the day Tuesday putting in a new processor. Why you may ask? We have been noticing the loss of high frequencies (5000Khz+) for some time and have been thinking it was the speakers. We thought it would be cheaper to change the processor first than change the speakers.

The system was not independently setup before (each speaker adjustable on it's own). We have rewired the processor so each speaker (all 6) are independent and can be EQ'd to bring out the best of that speaker. In doing all this we have discovered that the speakers are fine and know that there are a couple issues but we can work around for now. Here's what we know. The Arrays are unbalanced as a pair, but now balanced  through the processor. The Stage right speaker we will be watching. It has some issues. The Subs are falling off at around 40 cycles (not good for subs). This tells us the speakers were run at too high a frequency some time before I started working here.The Side Fill speakers are fine and running appropriately.

What does this all mean? Sound guys...we will have to reset all our EQ's for instruments and vocals. I'll work on some of those during the week so I can get the drums and some guitars in our library. Just be aware there will be more setup and listening going on.

I forgot one thing! When we first balanced everything and turned everything on for the first time...everything equal the Stage Right side was 7 db's higher than the Stage Left side. That is now corrected to within .25 db.

So, everyone please start listening to see what you hear good or bad throughout the sanctuary for the next couple weeks. Help me finish tweaking the system to what this room can do with what we have.

Keeping the wireless packs on.

We have had issues with people taking charge of the on/off function of the wireless packs. This has caused some 'dead audio' until they turn them on. The ULX mics will need to be taped with black tape (preferably electrical take). The SLX on the other hand has a lock out.  Here's the directions from the manual.

Lock or Unlock Transmitter Settings
Press the mute/ and select buttons simultaneously to lock or unlock the transmitter settings.
When locked, the current settings cannot be changed manually. Locking the transmitter
does not disable infrared synchronization.

This also comes with more responsibility on the part of the person running sound. When they are not on stage mute the mic at all times, never leave the channel open. If we are going to require them to be on we will need to have full control and be aware of their status.

Also, in this context. Be aware of what mics are going through the Avioms. When we make changes because of events never forget to take out/put in the appropriate Aviom connection.

Lighting Board Basic Layout

This is the lighting board as it stands right now. The basics (house, choir, cove and trees) will not be changing, but as holidays and events come up the rest will change.

 31-40 are for use with dimmer packs that we setup for Christmas, FCWC, Easter, VBS and other  specific events. 

41-80 are right now being used for LED and other type fixtures from the second universe. This will probably change frequently and I will hopefully put out a new sheet every time it changes. This will reside in a red notebook at the lighting board, so if anyone has questions when I'm not there this should help with pulling the right slider.

What do we do this for?

As most of you know I'm out of work at Browncroft because of a human error, on my part, slipping on ice and breaking my ankle in 2 places. It's been devastating to me because I can't do what I love to do...take care of Browncroft and make sure the services go off without a hitch. Since I've been laid up I've been doing a lot of reading and prayer. As you might figure, I've been reading tech documents and evaluating equipment, but also, and more importantly, God has laid it on my heart to hit the scriptures. More than I usually do.

One of the books I've been into is Nehemiah. When Nehemiah found out that Jerusalem was destroyed he mourned, fasted and prayed for God to intervene. When he prayed, he prayed to someone he knew could intervene for him. He used 3 words to identify God that we know, but sometimes just glance over because they're Hebrew. Yahweh, Elohim and Adonai. My old pastor from Atlanta, Charles Stanley, once said it this way. "First, the Hebrew term Yahweh refers to One who is absolute in faithfulness. Next, the title Elohim indicates infinite power and sovereignty over the universe. Finally, Adonai means “ruler over all.” Nehemiah was bringing his request before the throne with full confidence in God."

When we pray, do we approach God with absolute confidence? Do we view God as the "One who is absolute in Faithfulness," "infinite in power and sovereignty over the universe," and "Ruler over all?" Do we come to him expecting an answer?


Then I came back to how I pray for all of you and the ministry. Yes, I pray for you all, and for the ministry of what we do. Yes, we are the techie people that like the nuts and bolts of the service, but the more we pray EXPECTING God to bring people to Himself through what He has given us to do the more our ministry will actually be for His glory and people WILL come to know Him!


We are ALL going through some fire right now. Some have lost jobs, some have been sick, others have issues we know nothing about. We are here to be a family of prayer and support for each other. We do this to bring others to Christ, but also to support one another in our walk.


I love reading the Route 365 everyday, especially when I get to the end. The salutation of "A Fellow Traveler" hits me every time! We are traveling together and working together for the Glory of God!


Rog

Sound control with the Db meter

When using the Db meter make sure you set it for 'A' weighting. This will give a truer level for us. 'C' weighting allows it to be more from the bass frequencies than 'A'. Also, try and keep the volume around 85 Db for every service.

New Year additions to lighting.

Actually, these were installed around Christmas but haven't had the time to put these in the Blog. Time was at a premium with all the activities and programs. Thanks to ALL of you for making a busy time of year fun!!

First off, we started building a second lighting universe. All this means is we have a new way to send DMX control where ever we want to run cable. We are now capable of sending signal up and around the balcony, down to the flower boxes and up to the speaker towers and on to the platform area. This is all done through this little splitter (see picture). This is upstairs and can feed up to 4 signal paths at the same time.

As I mentioned this run goes to the flower boxes to add 'up' lighting and color whenever needed for accents.  We have 2 panel LED-RGB fixtures in the boxes at this time which has added a whole new look to a place that has been hard to use.

Then, on top of the speakers we have added two Colorado LED - RGBW fixtures. These are Red, Green, Blue and White allowing us to get better yellows than the standard RGB so we can balance color with the regular lighting. We are using them for lighting the worship team and special coloring for some of our Christmas events. These will add a whole new look to services and more flexibility for youth events.

Last, but not least is the ability to program the main lighting in the sanctuary with our new panel at the A/V Booth. The 5 buttons we are used to can be programmed as our needs change. One thing to remember is it's only tied into the dimmer rack, so it only affects the main lighting and 12 Fixtures pointing to the platform from the cove. No other lighting can be touched with it. But, with the sliders we can now program a 'look' from the lighting board and put those into each slider. This way, for special events or services I can give control to someone for full lighting but not have to use the lighting board.

That's it for now. We keep adding things as they come up. Any questions let me know.