Recent content by BenFranske

An alternative idea might be to get a local band to come in and you could record them yourself for use during pre-show, intermission, etc. In exchange you could give them a copy of the recording which they could sell, use as a demo, etc. or you could buy them all dinner or maybe you could put a...

I would also suggest the AT wireless products but would encourage you to move up into the "Artist Elite" products which begin with the 4000 series. I've personally had great luck with these. I wouldn't worry about matching the Sennheiser as it's such an entry level model and for musical use...

If your theater loans or rents instruments to other theaters it becomes important to have individual numbering of fixtures so you know which instruments are where. Paint pens on yolks work or if you have a bit more money you can get real permanent adhesive metalized inventory tags from a...

The SM57 may not be the best choice, or even a good choice in this situation. What people are failing to consider is that in the always talked about presidential use the mic is being used for recording/broadcast and NOT for local sound reinforcement. While it might be acceptable to...

A lot of the new company switches I see have no caps but have the connections behind a door (with a feed through on the bottom) which cannot be opened while the switch is on. Another interesting tidbit to remember is that the ground and neutral cams should be reverse gender from the hots so they...

At a rental shop where I worked they had the Mega-Clamps on everything and we never had any problems with them. Some of the nicer shops I rent from now are using wrap around cheeseboro clamps which are really nice to work with.

I'll raise my hand again and say I've had a wiki based manual ready to go for a year but am looking of other contributors as my schedule has precluded me from doing much more than outlining it. See http://productiontech.org or contact me for more information.

The problem with the Gweep manual, which comes up once in a while, is that it is getting a bit outdated. I've been trying to encourage a project to collaboratively write an updated version and am willing to provide both web space and editing to anyone interested in contributing. Contact me for...

The best hanging reinforcement mics I've used are Earthworks Audio P30/HC and though they're a lot more expensive than other options they work a lot better.

Agreed, digital consoles have their drawbacks but the elimination of processing racks is fantastic. I don't think you'll see an all touchscreen board for at least some time. People want, and almost need, tacticle feedback in dimly lit theaters. If you want to look at a reasonably priced but nice...

If you're serious about using your computer to record you should probably get a real AD interface for it like an Echo Audio Audio Fire or similar device. If you're looking for a small solution similar to an old portable DAT except with better features I recommend the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96.

Me too, I'm not really pro-ACN but I do think we need to look beyond DMX and be more creative than just running DMX over Ethernet which doesn't solve a lot of the problems with DMX. It's true about 10Base2 and 10Base5 running at 10Mb/s but I was just making a point really. As an example...

That's not an entirely true statement about Ethernet. In fact, long before Ethernet used CAT5 cabling and home runs it was a daisy chain "bus" topology. It would not be difficult to use Ethernet in that way and put a (very inexpensive, much less than and more flexible than an Ethernet to DMX...

Except perhaps for large moving light fixtures which can sometimes use 20 or more DMX channels. That starts to eat away at the available DMX channels on your universe rather quickly. ACN is likely to be a boon to people who have to work in situations with many of these fixtures.

It's interesting that the yellow jackets are failing when they (at least the heavy duty ones) are designed to be driven over. In any event if it's a big enough problem you might look to doing a CobraNet snake with free space optics between the stage and FOH. Whirlwind makes some less expensive...