manuallyfocused
Active Member
Hi all,
This is going to be one of those "How should I spend my hypothetical money?" type of threads, so be ye forewarned!
I'm a newly minted tech director/designer/teacher at a private HS (also teaching folk dance and stagecraft) and I'm working to transform our aging multi-purpose auditorium into a functional theater space. I've been told that at some point in the future they plan to gut the auditorium and turn it into a "real" theater, but that will be dependent on a donor who wants to put their name on it. So it could happen next week, or 10 years from now.
I wrote out a really long post on the lighting forum here: http://www.controlbooth.com/threads/building-a-lighting-inventory-baby-steps.37679/. It has some more info about our school and the specifics of the space, and a ton of info on what I'm thinking about doing as far as lighting goes.
For sound, I have far less information. While I'm really a set design/build guy, I've played around with lights at least a little bit, but the most I've ever done with sound is laugh at sound guy ponytail jokes and stare in slackjawed amazement at motorized faders dancing their way across massive consoles (while being operated by an awesome sound guy with a ponytail). That's only a little bit facetious, I still think motorized faders are possibly the coolest thing ever.
We rent essentially our entire sound system for our primary musical production every year, and have a pretty minimal (and not terribly functional) system in place as our house setup. It consists of a 24(?) channel analog Mackie mixer, an ancient speaker cluster suspended above the proscenium, two cove speakers that our sound designer says exist only to create feedback, and two small fill speakers in the back half of the house. We have no com system, and no build in networks. Like our in-house lighting setup, all of these things get completely bypassed when we do our larger shows, to the tune of probably $9k in rental charges per year. Even for our smaller shows and events we often end up setting up small PA systems. I'd like to see us do a bit better.
I'm working up both a grant proposal for a full system overhaul (within a roughly $30k budget initially, then $20-25k/yr for the next two years. We're going to ask several donor organizations for $20-50k apiece, and with any luck a few of them will come through)) and a more modest proposal to spend chunks of our regular budget on buying equipment instead of renting it. So figure $75k overall for the higher end, but spread out over time, with the assumption that we'll continue to rent in at least some of the equipment to patch any holes in the setup. If the grants don't come through, then I'll be stuck trying to implement some kind of incremental upgrade plan on a rough budget of $3-4k/yr (but let's be optimistic for now!).
Our basic production needs are as follows. Our auditorium is a multi-purpose space (no fixed seating) that can seat up to 400 for assembly, usually around 240-300 for our larger productions and concerts.
One musical production per year- cast of 24-35, orchestra of 6-12 pieces, sound fx, etc. Our sound guy (no ponytail) usually hangs 4 K10s roughly mid-house plus some other powered speaker for front fill (not sure what model), mixes on an A&H digital console, brings in wireless Clear-com, and had 24 wireless body pack mics for our last show.
One smaller production per year- sometimes musical, sometimes not. Cast of up to 20, orchestra of no more than 6 pieces. I don't think we rent in a package for this, and make due with the in-house speakers augmented by a PA system.
2-3 orchestra/music concerts per year- up to 20-piece orchestras plus choir and vocalists, may grow as the student body shifts and more students become interested in music and arts (400 students total in the school).
We have a different sound guy who does these, and brings in a digital mixer and a couple of PA speakers on stands and a bunch of DJ lighting.
1 dance concert/yr- sometimes with live music, sometimes not
1 all arts evening per year- various acts from all the arts divisions, everything from orchestra to sketch comedy. Same sound guy as the music concerts with a similar setup.
All-school prayer services once a week- usually involving a smaller band (4-5 pieces), projections, and sometimes multiple vocalists and/or choir (these may move to the gym for next year as the school is getting too large for the auditorium). We usually set up a PA system for these.
All school Town Hall meetings once a week- usually at least one wireless mic, and possibly A/V as well as occasional performances from orchestra, choir, and dance
Other various events throughout the year- science fair, media presentations, lectures, dances, and rentals.
We have a lot of different uses for the space, so a flexible system is a must.
Here's what thoughts and suggestions I've gotten so far, and I would definitely appreciate any help or suggestions you all may have!
Mixer- Soundcraft SI Expression 3 with a mini stagebox or two and MADI cards and cable to connect them. Is 66 inputs enough?
Speakers- 4 K10s for over the audience, 1 K12 for front fill?
Wired clear com- belt packs for SM, LBO, SBO, LD, director, conductor, ASMs SR and SL plus base stations and/or wall stations as needed
Enough IEM for our musical orchestras, plus a few extra as needed
Mics- a few more wireless and wired mics to complement our existing setup (and probably some specialized ones for our various instruments). Is it worth purchasing the infrastructure for the wireless body pack mics (rack-mounted base stations, processor, etc.?) but rent the mics, or would it be better to rent the system? Or should we just bite the bullet and plan to buy the whole thing?
We have cam-lok if we need any kind of power distro, but I don't remember sound being hooked up to anything other than wall power in the past.
Anything I'm missing? We have some ethernet in the building, mostly wireless because the building was built long before the internet was a thing, so if I want to incorporate some sort of network (Cobranet?) we would need to have someone run the Cat5e cable on or through the walls.
Thanks for reading through all that, looking forward to any thoughts you all may have!
This is going to be one of those "How should I spend my hypothetical money?" type of threads, so be ye forewarned!
I'm a newly minted tech director/designer/teacher at a private HS (also teaching folk dance and stagecraft) and I'm working to transform our aging multi-purpose auditorium into a functional theater space. I've been told that at some point in the future they plan to gut the auditorium and turn it into a "real" theater, but that will be dependent on a donor who wants to put their name on it. So it could happen next week, or 10 years from now.
I wrote out a really long post on the lighting forum here: http://www.controlbooth.com/threads/building-a-lighting-inventory-baby-steps.37679/. It has some more info about our school and the specifics of the space, and a ton of info on what I'm thinking about doing as far as lighting goes.
For sound, I have far less information. While I'm really a set design/build guy, I've played around with lights at least a little bit, but the most I've ever done with sound is laugh at sound guy ponytail jokes and stare in slackjawed amazement at motorized faders dancing their way across massive consoles (while being operated by an awesome sound guy with a ponytail). That's only a little bit facetious, I still think motorized faders are possibly the coolest thing ever.
We rent essentially our entire sound system for our primary musical production every year, and have a pretty minimal (and not terribly functional) system in place as our house setup. It consists of a 24(?) channel analog Mackie mixer, an ancient speaker cluster suspended above the proscenium, two cove speakers that our sound designer says exist only to create feedback, and two small fill speakers in the back half of the house. We have no com system, and no build in networks. Like our in-house lighting setup, all of these things get completely bypassed when we do our larger shows, to the tune of probably $9k in rental charges per year. Even for our smaller shows and events we often end up setting up small PA systems. I'd like to see us do a bit better.
I'm working up both a grant proposal for a full system overhaul (within a roughly $30k budget initially, then $20-25k/yr for the next two years. We're going to ask several donor organizations for $20-50k apiece, and with any luck a few of them will come through)) and a more modest proposal to spend chunks of our regular budget on buying equipment instead of renting it. So figure $75k overall for the higher end, but spread out over time, with the assumption that we'll continue to rent in at least some of the equipment to patch any holes in the setup. If the grants don't come through, then I'll be stuck trying to implement some kind of incremental upgrade plan on a rough budget of $3-4k/yr (but let's be optimistic for now!).
Our basic production needs are as follows. Our auditorium is a multi-purpose space (no fixed seating) that can seat up to 400 for assembly, usually around 240-300 for our larger productions and concerts.
One musical production per year- cast of 24-35, orchestra of 6-12 pieces, sound fx, etc. Our sound guy (no ponytail) usually hangs 4 K10s roughly mid-house plus some other powered speaker for front fill (not sure what model), mixes on an A&H digital console, brings in wireless Clear-com, and had 24 wireless body pack mics for our last show.
One smaller production per year- sometimes musical, sometimes not. Cast of up to 20, orchestra of no more than 6 pieces. I don't think we rent in a package for this, and make due with the in-house speakers augmented by a PA system.
2-3 orchestra/music concerts per year- up to 20-piece orchestras plus choir and vocalists, may grow as the student body shifts and more students become interested in music and arts (400 students total in the school).
We have a different sound guy who does these, and brings in a digital mixer and a couple of PA speakers on stands and a bunch of DJ lighting.
1 dance concert/yr- sometimes with live music, sometimes not
1 all arts evening per year- various acts from all the arts divisions, everything from orchestra to sketch comedy. Same sound guy as the music concerts with a similar setup.
All-school prayer services once a week- usually involving a smaller band (4-5 pieces), projections, and sometimes multiple vocalists and/or choir (these may move to the gym for next year as the school is getting too large for the auditorium). We usually set up a PA system for these.
All school Town Hall meetings once a week- usually at least one wireless mic, and possibly A/V as well as occasional performances from orchestra, choir, and dance
Other various events throughout the year- science fair, media presentations, lectures, dances, and rentals.
We have a lot of different uses for the space, so a flexible system is a must.
Here's what thoughts and suggestions I've gotten so far, and I would definitely appreciate any help or suggestions you all may have!
Mixer- Soundcraft SI Expression 3 with a mini stagebox or two and MADI cards and cable to connect them. Is 66 inputs enough?
Speakers- 4 K10s for over the audience, 1 K12 for front fill?
Wired clear com- belt packs for SM, LBO, SBO, LD, director, conductor, ASMs SR and SL plus base stations and/or wall stations as needed
Enough IEM for our musical orchestras, plus a few extra as needed
Mics- a few more wireless and wired mics to complement our existing setup (and probably some specialized ones for our various instruments). Is it worth purchasing the infrastructure for the wireless body pack mics (rack-mounted base stations, processor, etc.?) but rent the mics, or would it be better to rent the system? Or should we just bite the bullet and plan to buy the whole thing?
We have cam-lok if we need any kind of power distro, but I don't remember sound being hooked up to anything other than wall power in the past.
Anything I'm missing? We have some ethernet in the building, mostly wireless because the building was built long before the internet was a thing, so if I want to incorporate some sort of network (Cobranet?) we would need to have someone run the Cat5e cable on or through the walls.
Thanks for reading through all that, looking forward to any thoughts you all may have!