You have a wealth of great information here, and I do not disagree with any of it. A good 70v
system is essential.
I am a freelance A1/A2, and I will share with you a neat "trick" I employ on one particular
amateur variety show.
Since the
house has a good sound
system with plenty of
monitor channels and mic inputs- I am able to run one
monitor backstage. I also set up a mic on a stand next to that
monitor, plus a mic on a
boom at
FOH (the
stage manager sits next to me in the booth, and calls the show and starts tracks). We can
call cues on that backstage
monitor from our
FOH mic for actors who are standing by. I set up a small
speaker on my
desk and have that backstage mic routed directly to my
speaker. If someone needs to talk to me or the sm - step up and talk. I turn it down low so you have to get on the mic for me to hear it - but I do not hear the room noise on my
speaker. This is an always on
system, and I control the volumes of both speakers. It works great for that show. I learned the trick from one of my gurus.
@stagemanager1 Further to the "wealth of info' "
1; Realize I'm writing of HISTORY. I'm referencing how the Stratfordshakespearean Festival's 70 volt
Monitor /
Page system was when I took over as IA Sound Head in their Main
Stage thrust stage venue in 1977. I'm CERTAIN their
monitor /
page systems have changed several times over. I last worked in Stratford in 1998 when I set-up and operated their analog multi-track studio in the basement of their Avon
theatre prosc'
venue.
Back to the Festival Theatres'
Monitor /
Page system in 1977.
Far USR back
stage was the SM's office, home to 1 PSM, 4 or 5 SM's, 6 or 8 ASM's and 1 PA. (These were their official Equity titles.)
Each production in the rotating rep' typically had one SM in the SM booth high up in the ceiling on the rear
center-line. In 1977, the patrons wrapped 220 degrees around the
thrust stage.
Each production had a "
desk" ASM who lived at the USR SM
desk immediately outside the SM office. This ASM called all pre-show announcements, along with warnings for every scene change, end of acts, end of intervals, etcetera. The
desk ASM also called warnings for every actor who'd been off
stage for several scenes to ensure they'd be standing by where and when they needed to be for their next entrance. They'd also mention what character a 'spear-chucker' was about to portray on their next entrance.
A second ASM known as the
Props ASM also worked back
stage ensuring all
props were lined up in order wherever actors next needed them.
The SM up in the ceiling booth dealt with calling all cues and operating all
cue lights. Many locations had two differently colored
cue lights: Red for actors; Green for musicians. Every
cue light housed a redundant pair of
incandescent lamps. Equity members acted. AF of M members blew horns, bugles, and
beat drums.
2; Back to the "
desk" ASM. On the wall immediately in front of and above their head was the heart of the
Monitor /
Page system.
The rack housed two butch 70 volt amplifiers and one tiny 5 or 10
watt amp.
Across the bottom 4 RU, conveniently within reach, were two rows of 5 position lever switches. There was a lever
switch for every major group of paging speakers and a few switches dedicated to only one
speaker.
Each
switch could be set to any of 5 positions:
Monitor with
Page over-ride.
Monitor only with zero interruptions. Pages only. Off. Emergency calling with talk-back.
One of the butch amplifiers
fed uninterrupted performance
monitor audio to the
Monitor Only bus.
The second butch
amplifier fed monitor with
page over-ride to the the
Monitor with
Page bus.
Whenever a
page was initiated, a
relay connected the
Page Only bus to this second
amplifier for the duration of the
page.
The tiny 5 or 10
watt amplifier allowed the "
Desk" ASM to
call directly to a
monitor speaker or group of speakers.
This
amplifier also permitted the "
Desk" ASM to activate another
momentary switch and listen to the selected
speaker or group of speakers.
The intercom function was most commonly employed to ensure actors were standing by in the two
vomitory entrances
house right and
house left. The
Monitor /
Page speakers in the
vomitory's were down a ramp and around a 180 degree turn, thus virtually impossible to be heard by patrons.
Gotta go, it's lunch time here and my alarm is calling me.
@stagemanager1
EDIT: To mention limiters.
Stratford was Stratford and somewhat "different" than most of our producing theatres. When I began in March 1977, the
Monitor /
Page limiter was an Eventide Omnipressor. I was told the Omnipressor had been purchased in a hurry when their original
limiter had to be returned to its manufacturer for service. Months later a package arrived containing the original
monitor /
page compressor /
limiter. Imagine my surprise upon finding a mint UREI 1176LN Blackface! I thought it a
bit excessive but out came the Omnipressor and in went the 1176. The "emergency replacement" Omnipressor found a happy home in a rack up in my sound booth where it easily fulfilled my processing needs producing SFX and music recordings.
Stratford was Stratford and operated at a somewhat unique budget
level. While many theatres' were getting along with Sony and Tascam 1/4" recorders, Stratford was running 1/4" and 1/2" Scully 2 tracks and 4 tracks; not 1/4 tracks but 1/4" half
track stereo decks and 1/2" four
track quad decks. Eventually, the Avon upgraded to full bore Studers and, after my time, the Festival Main
stage upgraded to MCI's.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
