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.