Planning Ahead

There comes a time in any ministry where you have to upgrade the equipment, or implement a training rotation, or make some kind of change that will require planning.

All I can say is that it is extremely beneficial to start the habit of planning ahead. Preparing for an upgrade to an A/V/L system is no trip to the beach. You have to plan, literally, for every wire, every cable, every input and output-it can be quite daunting.

I've been wanting to post this image for a while, but haven't had the opportunity to yet. Above is an example of a system diagram I created (in Photoshop, for those who are curious) for my church's high definition video system (it doesn't exist yet, but we're getting there).

While I haven't accounted for EVERY wire, it's a good roadmap showing me all the important pieces that will need to be connected. Yeah, it took me a few hours to put this together, but it will be worth it when we get to the install phase of the upgrade. I can reference this over and over again. The alternative would be trying to figure it out on the fly, and I would ultimately waste time in the install, thus keeping our ministry "off-air" for longer because I failed to remember a few wires, or I didn't connect things in a certain way.

So, anyway, feel free to download the image, or I have PDF and JPEG versions of it, as well, if you'd like a higher quality version-just email me.

Mac or PC?

I know what you're thinking already-he's just opened a can of worms. I admit, that yes, I have, but I encourage you, no matter which side of the debate you fall on, to be open-minded.

It has long been known that if you want to work in graphics- and video-related industries, you would probably be working on a Mac. Everything else was run just fine on Windows. And I've heard, and participated, in the endless discussions of which operating system is best and why.

"Mac OS addresses the system hardware more efficiently."
"PC components are more readily available."
"Mac OS is more stable."
"Windows is more widely supported. "

Around and around it goes.

The truth is this: every piece of equipment you choose to use is part of a toolbox. Some tools are better fit for certain jobs than others. If you find that you work best on a PC running Premiere CS4, far be it from me to try and "win" you over to using Final Cut Pro on a Mac! When I setup and run lights, I use both platforms...depending on what laptop is available. Yes, I prefer the Mac OS and hardware, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to use a Windows machine.

I have found that it's beneficial to understand BOTH sides so that I can remain as flexible as possible. Limiting myself to either Mac or PC is about a logical as limiting yourself to learning addition in mathematics, but not progressing any further-it just doesn't make sense.

So I encourage you PC users to go down to your local Best Buy or Mac-friendly retailer and play around. Find someone you know who is in the industry that uses a Mac and Final Cut Pro and sit down and play around with the system.

And Mac users, do the same with PCs. Sit down and play around with Premiere, Sony Vegas, SpeedEdit...and, if you must, Avid. I draw the line with Avid, but that's a personal preference of mine, so feel free to explore it for yourselves.

Let's focus on working together instead of focusing on which system is better, etc. After all, nothing man creates is perfect as it was built by a fallen race. So get over it. Besides...everyone knows that Mac is better anyway. Hahaha! Sorry, I had to say it just once!

Connections

Last week, we talked about workflow-this week, let's talk about connections. As in, how you hook all that equipment together.

You may have been to larger churches, and noticed they had a pretty clean installation, a few cables were visible, but nothing too messy, right?

If you're like me and go back to your church and look at your installation, you probably have a spaghetti mess of cabling, right? Don't be discouraged! This is normal! In fact, those churches you visited also have a mess of cabling...the difference is they hid it all!

The simple truth is that it takes a LOT of cables to transport all the audio and video signals from their sources to all of their destinations. For example, at my church, we installed a video system in 2000 that ran on S-Video cabling. We have an 8x8 S-Video router with stereo audio. So, I can have 8 separate inputs that I can "route" to 8 separate outputs, with stereo audio. Assuming I have all inputs and outputs connected, I would be looking at a minimum of 32 separate cables. How?

Well, I have 8 S-Video cables going into the inputs, I have another 8 S-Video cables connected to the outputs. I have 8 stereo audio RCA cables connected to inputs, and another 8 stereo audio RCA cables connected to the outputs. 8x4=32...and that's for ONE piece of equipment!

When you add everything up, you'll probably come into the neighborhood of 100-200 separate cables, which is fine, but you need to know how to run them so you're not having bundles and bundles of exposed cables. If you have questions about that, I can give you ideas, but we're already off-topic.

Ok, so connections. First, video connections:

Analog:

Composite: This is by far the most common type of video connection I've seen around-usually identified by the color yellow on an RCA cable. Two plug types can be used for composite cables: RCA/Phono (a single male plug, usually round, extending from a round sleeve), or the BNC (a twist-lock connector with a very small single pin extending from a locking sleeve...the female end has a long hollow sleeve with two small posts that the male connector slides over, twists, and locks to). Composite is also known as "video soup," due to the color and brightness information being carried over the same conductor/wire.

S-Video: Also called Y/C, this cable has a four-pin connector and connects one way. A small plastic block extends inside the sleeve with the four small pins and carries luminance (brightness) and chrominance (color) information on two separate conductors/wires.

Component: Also known as YPbPr or RGB, this cable looks deceptively like an RCA cable with audio, though you need to pay attention to the color coding. In truth, an RCA cable and Component cable are interchangeable, but you must remember to match the colors on both ends of the cable and know what kind of signal you're plugging into. Component is the highest quality analog connection I know of. The reason is that it separates Red, Green, and Blue onto separate conductors/wires. Brightness is carried on the Green conductor since the human eye is most sensitive to the color green.

Digital:

SDI: Short for Serial Digital Interface, this comes in two flavors, SD (Standard Definition) and HD (High Definition). A digital signal is simply an analog signal that has been converted into a stream of zeros and ones (hence the term 'digital'). A digital signal is also inherently resistant to interference, etc. The reason why this is goes over my head, but I'm sure you can find a broadcast engineer to explain it. :)

Fiber: This is similar to SDI, only that it runs digital signals over fiber-optic cable, instead of copper. A very high capacity connection, fiber is able to use light division multiplexing technology...essentially, equipment that is able to "slice" light into different wavelengths so more information can be carried on it...in short, an extremely efficient transmission medium. The reason we are seeing such high bandwidth Internet services becoming available is due to the installation of fiber-optic cables throughout the country...sometimes even to our doorstep. So, if you're planning to install for the future, I would highly recommend at least researching fiber equipment...it might be cheaper to install it now than to have either re-run cabling in conduit, or worse, rip up flooring and walls in order to get to your cabling.

Ok, now for audio:

Analog:

XLR: I'm honestly not sure what the acronym stands for (stereo left/right, maybe?), but this connection is the standard, the workhorse of the industry. Microphones and virtually every instrument and/or piece of audio equipment must use this connection at some point to connect to an audio system. It utilizes three wires (hot, neutral, ground-I think) and is a locking connection, so no accidental "unplugs." It's a fairly robust connection, though the wiring can get damaged fairly easily. It's a balanced input, meaning it can carry stereo signal (left and right).

1/4": Ok, I'm a bit lost when it comes to the venerable 1/4" connector. There are many different flavors, and I don't pretend to know them all. I know there is a TRS (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) designation on some 1/4" connectors, but I'm still not sure what purpose they serve (can someone fill me in?). But I DO know you can get them in mono or stereo configurations, and that will determine how you can use those cables and what you can plug them into. This is the connection that instruments use to connect to a sound system, and it's by and large an unbalanced connection, unless it's stereo (or TRS???). Seriously, I've no idea. hahaha

1/8": A little brother to the 1/4" connector, this would be your computer speakers/iPod connector, which has turned into quite a flexible connector of late. Capable of running three separate signals over this little connector (even video!), it's much more than just an audio connection...but you'll need to understand how this connector fits into your system.

Digital:

Cat5: Ok, let's get the easiest out of the way first-you can convert your analog audio signals into digital signals to run over Cat5/6 cables (this is the stuff you use to connect a computer network together) for long distances. The advantages of this over using traditional mic snakes are a many, though I will only outline two of the biggest: form factor-a single cable can carry multiple channels (up to 96, I believe, depending on the audio spec). This saves you a lot of weight since the mic snakes of the past rely on three-conductor copper for every mic channel x how many feet of distance you have (let's estimate a 100 ft. snake with 24 channels...that's close to if not over 100 lbs!). So, a HUGE savings in setup time, weight, space, etc. Ok, factor number 2: Interference: Cat5/6 is naturally resistant to interference (RF-radio frequency and power being the main culprits), which means that if you have a hum in your system or if you're picking up radio stations, replacing some of your copper with some Cat5/6 will at least begin eliminating where the interference is entering your system.

Toslink/Optical: This is similar to fiber, but transmits a red light that carries high-quality audio and is capable of some pretty impressive sound. :)

SPDIF and all others: Ok, this is where I start to lose it on the audio side, I'll admit, but a lot of these connections simply provide you with high-quality transport options so you get the highest quality sound you can.

Ok, next week-what does a system map look like?

Workflow

Great! You've gotten your new video system with your 4 HD cameras, your $20,000 HD switcher, your production audio board, and all the other components and you capture it into your computer...now what????

Assuming you have big plans to distribute your content widely (like the big boys do), you're going to be looking at the following needs...each and every week:
1 - 100Kb streaming video
1 - 300Kb streaming video
1 - 1Mb streaming video
1 - HD Master
1 - SD Master (properly formatted for 16:9 letterbox
1 - Audio MP3
1 - Master DVD (meaning additional time to compress to the .m2v and .ac3 codecs)
1 - Broadcast Master edited to the 58:30 broadcast hour or the 28:30 broadcast half-hour

That's a LOT of encoding! It's important to figure out how you are going to manage to do all of this in one week! Especially if you are an all-volunteer crew. This is where the importance of workflow comes in.

Consolidating your effort into a few simple steps can save you a world of hurt. Batch encoders like Compressor on the Mac (part of Final Cut Studio) allow you to batch encode, or to encode multiple files to multiple output formats/codecs. While the encoding process is still somewhat long and arduous, it's become a lot more efficient and if you have a multi-core Mac system, you can take advantage of every core using Apple's QMaster program located in System Preferences to speed up that encoding process.

Once you have your versions encoded, it's a matter of getting them into their final forms for delivery. For online, that means uploading (another time-inefficient step) so make sure you have plenty of upload bandwidth from your Internet provider. For DVDs, authoring the DVDs and so on and so forth. Storage for HD and SD masters (which SHOULD be full resolution masters) will be another item to consider. I would strongly recommend investing in a fairly spacious RAID storage solution for the immediate future until Blu-Ray discs, burners, and authoring software become more reasonably priced (probably sometime next year).

So, the lesson is to make sure you understand your workflow and be willing to compromise a bit in order to make it work.

Attitude-Part II

I know I've written on this before, but without feedback, it's difficult to come up with original topics.

I was just working on a project that required a crack crew to work together to produce a very high-quality end product. Attitude from everyone was key on this project. If we had one person who wasn't willing to pitch in to help, it would bring the entire thing screeching to a halt.

One of the things I've learned is that your ego is only as big as you allow it to be. If you think you're too good for something, than you've automatically judged yourself to be better than the people who actually do that activity. If it's moving a table, cleaning a room after shooting is wrapped...whatever.

In this day in age, we have to be willing to help where it's needed. Be observant, volunteer yourself, offer your help when you think it might be needed, think ahead. I was able to see that my services were not needed after the lighting was done for the shoot today, and I knew that the location would be wrapped today, so I told the director I would go downstairs and begin to pack up and organize the cases and other equipment in order to speed tear-down and load out. We were let go early, but I would imagine this greatly aided the remaining crew in getting their equipment loaded out for transport.

If someone offers some advice, at least listen to it. If you close yourself off to suggestions, comments, and/or advice, you've effectively put yourself in a box and refused to even find the edges of that box...forget stepping out of it to see from someone else's perspective.

Anyway, be willing to listen, bring up your objections and/or thoughts of why not to do things their way and see what they say. You just might learn something. :)