I worked on a gig right now where I setup and run the lighting-no problem, I've done that before. Only, it was a professional crew that was carrying the event live to satellite every night for a week...and they like their lighting a little differently. Of course, I didn't find this out until two days before the event begins.
Now, in all fairness, I didn't ask what kind of lighting they wanted, so the blame partially falls on me.
Anyway, imagine you've invested nearly 50 hours thus far into a lighting project (I'm counting consulting on set design, load-in and setup) and you're just putting the finishing touches on focusing the front light truss span when the producer comes in and makes it known that she wants a flat wash...I was a bit frustrated, to say the least. I utilize a zone lighting approach to help control the audience focus and attention.
It took me a couple days to get over my negative feelings, but part of what helped me to do that was how I decided to treat this experience. It's extremely simple to take on the "I'm right, they are wrong and they don't know what they're doing" attitude, but this never benefits anyone.
I decided to learn from this experience and not to assume what kind of lighting they will need-it's always best and usually easiest to ask questions. This is one more kind of lighting setup that I can add to my toolbox and while it was a bit frustrating, if I learn from it and apply that knowledge in the future, then it will have been a useful experience. If I choose to be negative and hold a grudge...well, that really only weighs me down and doesn't benefit anyone.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
So, you've got some equipment-now what?
Alright, you've got some equipment purchased for a video system-congrats! Now what?!???
Ok, first off, you'll need to figure out your signal flow. Let's assume that you've got a couple video cameras, some kind of recorder (hard drive-based, flash- or solid-state-based, or DVD), and a switcher. These are the basics of any video ministry system.
First, your signal flow follows a logical path regardless of the equipment that you have. Your cameras are your sources, your switcher switches between these sources, and your signal terminates at your recorder. It's entirely up to you whether or not you bring the audio from the cameras into your recorder, but I would highly recommend you get a signal sent to your recorder from the audio mixer to have the highest quality.
These systems get a little more complex when you have 4 cameras, a dedicated audio mixer to control your own mix, a number of displays throughout the church that you feed your video and audio mix to, a live signal for the Internet, capturing live into a computer for post-production later, and to DVD as a backup. Remember, the more points of connection you have in any system, the more potential points of failure you will have to deal with eventually.
Modern media systems require a multitude of connections and there's no way of getting around that. But how you choose to route your signals, what cables you use and which equipment you choose to install has a big impact on how reliable and easy to use your system ends up being...and how long it lasts.
Hopefully, if you did your homework ahead of time you won't need to ask "now what?" because you know what the equipment is for and how to use it.
Ok, first off, you'll need to figure out your signal flow. Let's assume that you've got a couple video cameras, some kind of recorder (hard drive-based, flash- or solid-state-based, or DVD), and a switcher. These are the basics of any video ministry system.
First, your signal flow follows a logical path regardless of the equipment that you have. Your cameras are your sources, your switcher switches between these sources, and your signal terminates at your recorder. It's entirely up to you whether or not you bring the audio from the cameras into your recorder, but I would highly recommend you get a signal sent to your recorder from the audio mixer to have the highest quality.
These systems get a little more complex when you have 4 cameras, a dedicated audio mixer to control your own mix, a number of displays throughout the church that you feed your video and audio mix to, a live signal for the Internet, capturing live into a computer for post-production later, and to DVD as a backup. Remember, the more points of connection you have in any system, the more potential points of failure you will have to deal with eventually.
Modern media systems require a multitude of connections and there's no way of getting around that. But how you choose to route your signals, what cables you use and which equipment you choose to install has a big impact on how reliable and easy to use your system ends up being...and how long it lasts.
Hopefully, if you did your homework ahead of time you won't need to ask "now what?" because you know what the equipment is for and how to use it.
Monday, October 12, 2009
What to do when...
Whenever you deal with technology, it's inevitable that something will go wrong, stop working, or fail. This is critical to understand as it's not a matter of if, but when.
The important thing to remember is not to panic; understanding your equipment goes a LONG way in accomplishing that. You see, in a church setting, if you're sitting behind the mixer, you are the authority at that moment; if something goes wrong (feedback, a missed cue, etc.), it's you the people look at, correct?
And sometimes, even if you're NOT the person responsible for something that goes wrong, people still turn around and look at you because the only visible target! It's an unjust world, isn't it?
Anyway, so, let's say that you're at the sound board, running the service, having performed sound checks with everyone and verified that every mic is working and things are going along well. The Associate Pastor gets up with his handheld to do a Child Dedication or whatever, you unmute his channel and/or bring the fader up...and there's no sound. Meanwhile, he's talking into the mic, realizes that there's no sound, and does what every person in the world does when a mic doesn't work...taps it with his hand. Then he looks right at you for some kind of assistance, which of course only draws the entire attention of the audience to YOU. Meanwhile, you're making sure the Mute button isn't depressed, that his channel is assigned to the Master fader, that you have signal on his mic, etc.
This is a perfect time to panic, it would seem...if you don't know your equipment. More often than not, people will either purposely turn off a wireless microphone in order to rest at ease that their every word isn't being broadcast into the Sanctuary, or they will inadvertently mute the microphone. Either way, it's not your fault, right?
Wrong! As the sound person who is responsible for the sound duties that weekend, I believe it's your responsibility to help train the participants in how to hold a mic, why they need to hold it in that manner (pickup patterns), how a wireless microphone works, where the Mute and Power buttons are, and assure them that they need to leave the microphone on and that you will control when it's amplified through the house system, etc. This will go a great distance in alleviating any potential problems. Another part of your responsibilities is to make sure your wireless mics are using fresh batteries-I can't tell you how many times I've seen sound guys try and save money by re-using old batteries or using rechargeables...bad juju, guys! If you don't have the budget to use new batteries every week, then it's time to have a sit down with the leadership and explain things to them.
So, let's assume that the mic was left on by the pastor, the channel us unmuted, and all the settings are correct, but there's still no sound. Well, perhaps the battery went out...perhaps you're getting blasted with some major RF interference...all that's important in the moment is that your wireless isn't working properly. It would probably behoove you to have a wired backup mic somewhere on the platform that can be grabbed for situations like this. Maybe that's overkill, but that's your choice. I prefer to have my bases covered as I really don't trust wireless anymore than I have to. The best choice is still a wired mic, if it's logical and feasible to have one.
What you do NOT want to start doing is trying to troubleshoot the problem during the service unless you have the knowledge, experience, and personnel to do so. Your primary job is to mix sound for the service, but if you have someone that can take that over, or go searching for a problem, than you're ok. And definitely don't start ripping cables out! Save your frustration for when you're alone and can vent without disrupting the worship service. And really try to channel your frustration into finding the problem-I usually try and adopt the attitude of viewing it as a challenge to my knowledge and experience and an opportunity to learn something new. This puts a positive spin on it and when I eventually find the problem, the satisfaction is much more appealing than looking at it negatively (e.g. "I should have known this would go out on me. I'm so stupid."). The spin would be more like this; "Wow, I didn' t know that would happen...I better file that one away so I can be anticipating this next time."
You see how that will affect your mental attitude? And you see why it's important to have people who understand the system besides you? While you don't want other people tearing apart your system looking for problems, I'm sure you also don't want to get phone calls or emails week in and week out requesting that you come and look at another problem in the system, right? At the very least, make sure that if you do have to go and investigate a problem, you make sure someone else from your crew is present so that it can be turned into a learning opportunity. :)
I hope that helps!
The important thing to remember is not to panic; understanding your equipment goes a LONG way in accomplishing that. You see, in a church setting, if you're sitting behind the mixer, you are the authority at that moment; if something goes wrong (feedback, a missed cue, etc.), it's you the people look at, correct?
And sometimes, even if you're NOT the person responsible for something that goes wrong, people still turn around and look at you because the only visible target! It's an unjust world, isn't it?
Anyway, so, let's say that you're at the sound board, running the service, having performed sound checks with everyone and verified that every mic is working and things are going along well. The Associate Pastor gets up with his handheld to do a Child Dedication or whatever, you unmute his channel and/or bring the fader up...and there's no sound. Meanwhile, he's talking into the mic, realizes that there's no sound, and does what every person in the world does when a mic doesn't work...taps it with his hand. Then he looks right at you for some kind of assistance, which of course only draws the entire attention of the audience to YOU. Meanwhile, you're making sure the Mute button isn't depressed, that his channel is assigned to the Master fader, that you have signal on his mic, etc.
This is a perfect time to panic, it would seem...if you don't know your equipment. More often than not, people will either purposely turn off a wireless microphone in order to rest at ease that their every word isn't being broadcast into the Sanctuary, or they will inadvertently mute the microphone. Either way, it's not your fault, right?
Wrong! As the sound person who is responsible for the sound duties that weekend, I believe it's your responsibility to help train the participants in how to hold a mic, why they need to hold it in that manner (pickup patterns), how a wireless microphone works, where the Mute and Power buttons are, and assure them that they need to leave the microphone on and that you will control when it's amplified through the house system, etc. This will go a great distance in alleviating any potential problems. Another part of your responsibilities is to make sure your wireless mics are using fresh batteries-I can't tell you how many times I've seen sound guys try and save money by re-using old batteries or using rechargeables...bad juju, guys! If you don't have the budget to use new batteries every week, then it's time to have a sit down with the leadership and explain things to them.
So, let's assume that the mic was left on by the pastor, the channel us unmuted, and all the settings are correct, but there's still no sound. Well, perhaps the battery went out...perhaps you're getting blasted with some major RF interference...all that's important in the moment is that your wireless isn't working properly. It would probably behoove you to have a wired backup mic somewhere on the platform that can be grabbed for situations like this. Maybe that's overkill, but that's your choice. I prefer to have my bases covered as I really don't trust wireless anymore than I have to. The best choice is still a wired mic, if it's logical and feasible to have one.
What you do NOT want to start doing is trying to troubleshoot the problem during the service unless you have the knowledge, experience, and personnel to do so. Your primary job is to mix sound for the service, but if you have someone that can take that over, or go searching for a problem, than you're ok. And definitely don't start ripping cables out! Save your frustration for when you're alone and can vent without disrupting the worship service. And really try to channel your frustration into finding the problem-I usually try and adopt the attitude of viewing it as a challenge to my knowledge and experience and an opportunity to learn something new. This puts a positive spin on it and when I eventually find the problem, the satisfaction is much more appealing than looking at it negatively (e.g. "I should have known this would go out on me. I'm so stupid."). The spin would be more like this; "Wow, I didn' t know that would happen...I better file that one away so I can be anticipating this next time."
You see how that will affect your mental attitude? And you see why it's important to have people who understand the system besides you? While you don't want other people tearing apart your system looking for problems, I'm sure you also don't want to get phone calls or emails week in and week out requesting that you come and look at another problem in the system, right? At the very least, make sure that if you do have to go and investigate a problem, you make sure someone else from your crew is present so that it can be turned into a learning opportunity. :)
I hope that helps!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Multi-Channel Audio-Last Second
Sorry all, I just realized I hadn't put a post up for this week!
So, one of the ideas that Nick Knecht wrote in to me about was how we captured multi-channel audio for our Momentum evangelistic series in January, 2008. Let me first explain our normal way of doing things.
Twice a year, the North Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists...or NPUC, for short, produces an 8-part evangelistic series for airing on the Hope Channel (an Adventist-owned satellite channel that reaches most of the countries of the world) in an effort to help Adventist churches and institutions in the NW evangelize their local communities. In January of 2008, our crew was in Anchorage. Yes, it was cold. :)
Our mobile system is comprised of a lot of equipment, which I will list:
A Ross Synergy 100 production switcher (16 in, 16 out), a Yamaha 0196V2 digital audio mixer, four Canon XLH1 HDV cameras, two Canon XH G1 cameras (all supported with Sachtler tripods), a collection of Marshall LCD monitors for monitoring, Clear-Com intercom system, an entire lighting system, and various computers and peripherals.
Due to the expense of shipping our entire equipment list to Anchorage, and not wanting to risk driving the equipment up there, we opted to only take the essentials. This included our cameras, tripods, personal laptops, and some LED lighting. No switcher, no LCD monitors (except on the cameras), no audio mixer, no intercom...you get the idea. So we had six cameras with no way to communicate other than hand motions.
Now that I've set the stage, let me get to answering Nick's question. I had purchased a PreSonus Firepod (now called the FireStudio, I believe). It consists of a 1 rack-unit frame with 8 mic/line inputs that outputs through a Firewire connection into your computer, where you can capture all 8 channels (if your hardware is fast enough) into the audio production software of your choice. We originally were going to use Soundtrack Pro, part of the Final Cut Studio suite. However, we could not get it to work. Unfortunately, this had been the plan since before we headed up there, so we had no backup. After doing some research during setup week, I discovered that GarageBand would multi-track, but only with the latest version. I had to go buy the iLife bundle to get the new GarageBand to work and once it was configured, I was multi-tracking in no time.
I should mention the signal flow for those of you wondering what it looked like. Our mic situation wasn't that complicated. We had two mics (one handheld and one headset), but we also had a stereo CD signal that had to get split into discrete channels. We did remember to take our XLR splitters with us (passive) and we split off the channels prior to the FOH (front of house) audio mixer. This way we would get a clean feed; the CD player was run to us from an Insert, I believe (that or a Tape Out). Because we were tight on budget for this particular series (travel to Alaska is NOT cheap!), I was performing the duties for three people during production. I was multi-tracking the sound (recording multiple channels of audio), running the lights (from the same laptop!), and running one of the cameras. Fortunately, the camera did not require much attention as it was decided that it would be a lock-off shot (unless Win ran that one...I don't remember-Win, do you?).
Anyway, once the audio was recorded, it was saved, by GarageBand in a deceptive "single file." In other words, I didn't have a list of my recorded tracks. I was freaking out until I discovered that GarageBand creates this file as a reference, but if you right+click on the file, you have an option to "Reveal Package Contents," and once that is selected, your files appear like magic. :)
I created a folder with those files inside for each presentation and once we were finished, the tapes were collected from the cameras and once we got home, the huge job of editing began. Imagine...six cameras x 8 programs=48 tapes total. This was also the only program we recorded in SD (standard definition). It seemed counter-intuitive to create MORE work for ourselves by recording to HDV and then having to go through the hassle of dealing with HDV on capture. Even in SD, we were dealing with somewhere around 630GB of data needed in order to store all the raw video! Feel free to browse back to the blog post in April to see images from this event in Anchorage!
The point of this story is that there are always more ways than you might think of getting something done and just because you either can't afford to do it the right way or don't know how, it can get done. A further note, though-when you're thinking of "McGuyver-ing" something-make sure safety won't be a factor. When you're hanging things over people's heads (like lighting or other potentially fatal equipment), there is NO WORK-AROUND for the right way. You can either spend the money to have it done properly, or spend potentially millions of dollars in lawsuits for shoddy and inadequate installation work that was done to save a couple thousand dollars. You do the math.
So, one of the ideas that Nick Knecht wrote in to me about was how we captured multi-channel audio for our Momentum evangelistic series in January, 2008. Let me first explain our normal way of doing things.
Twice a year, the North Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists...or NPUC, for short, produces an 8-part evangelistic series for airing on the Hope Channel (an Adventist-owned satellite channel that reaches most of the countries of the world) in an effort to help Adventist churches and institutions in the NW evangelize their local communities. In January of 2008, our crew was in Anchorage. Yes, it was cold. :)
Our mobile system is comprised of a lot of equipment, which I will list:
A Ross Synergy 100 production switcher (16 in, 16 out), a Yamaha 0196V2 digital audio mixer, four Canon XLH1 HDV cameras, two Canon XH G1 cameras (all supported with Sachtler tripods), a collection of Marshall LCD monitors for monitoring, Clear-Com intercom system, an entire lighting system, and various computers and peripherals.
Due to the expense of shipping our entire equipment list to Anchorage, and not wanting to risk driving the equipment up there, we opted to only take the essentials. This included our cameras, tripods, personal laptops, and some LED lighting. No switcher, no LCD monitors (except on the cameras), no audio mixer, no intercom...you get the idea. So we had six cameras with no way to communicate other than hand motions.
Now that I've set the stage, let me get to answering Nick's question. I had purchased a PreSonus Firepod (now called the FireStudio, I believe). It consists of a 1 rack-unit frame with 8 mic/line inputs that outputs through a Firewire connection into your computer, where you can capture all 8 channels (if your hardware is fast enough) into the audio production software of your choice. We originally were going to use Soundtrack Pro, part of the Final Cut Studio suite. However, we could not get it to work. Unfortunately, this had been the plan since before we headed up there, so we had no backup. After doing some research during setup week, I discovered that GarageBand would multi-track, but only with the latest version. I had to go buy the iLife bundle to get the new GarageBand to work and once it was configured, I was multi-tracking in no time.
I should mention the signal flow for those of you wondering what it looked like. Our mic situation wasn't that complicated. We had two mics (one handheld and one headset), but we also had a stereo CD signal that had to get split into discrete channels. We did remember to take our XLR splitters with us (passive) and we split off the channels prior to the FOH (front of house) audio mixer. This way we would get a clean feed; the CD player was run to us from an Insert, I believe (that or a Tape Out). Because we were tight on budget for this particular series (travel to Alaska is NOT cheap!), I was performing the duties for three people during production. I was multi-tracking the sound (recording multiple channels of audio), running the lights (from the same laptop!), and running one of the cameras. Fortunately, the camera did not require much attention as it was decided that it would be a lock-off shot (unless Win ran that one...I don't remember-Win, do you?).
Anyway, once the audio was recorded, it was saved, by GarageBand in a deceptive "single file." In other words, I didn't have a list of my recorded tracks. I was freaking out until I discovered that GarageBand creates this file as a reference, but if you right+click on the file, you have an option to "Reveal Package Contents," and once that is selected, your files appear like magic. :)
I created a folder with those files inside for each presentation and once we were finished, the tapes were collected from the cameras and once we got home, the huge job of editing began. Imagine...six cameras x 8 programs=48 tapes total. This was also the only program we recorded in SD (standard definition). It seemed counter-intuitive to create MORE work for ourselves by recording to HDV and then having to go through the hassle of dealing with HDV on capture. Even in SD, we were dealing with somewhere around 630GB of data needed in order to store all the raw video! Feel free to browse back to the blog post in April to see images from this event in Anchorage!
The point of this story is that there are always more ways than you might think of getting something done and just because you either can't afford to do it the right way or don't know how, it can get done. A further note, though-when you're thinking of "McGuyver-ing" something-make sure safety won't be a factor. When you're hanging things over people's heads (like lighting or other potentially fatal equipment), there is NO WORK-AROUND for the right way. You can either spend the money to have it done properly, or spend potentially millions of dollars in lawsuits for shoddy and inadequate installation work that was done to save a couple thousand dollars. You do the math.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)