Booth Pictures :)

[cceprod]

I haven't shown off my new space since I took on my new job! I have a pretty solid one man operation and I'm quite proud of my setup. Pardon the slight mess. This particular picture was taken during a concert we had so the roles of a lot of our devices were slightly different from normal.

From left to right:

• 16 QLX-D microphones
• My personal MacBook Pro 15" 2017, used to browse the internet and text but most importantly used in client mode to remote control our ETC Ion console
• Work's MacBook Pro 15" 2012, used for Pro Tools recording through Dante Virtual Soundcard, wireless workbench and serves as a quick access QLab backup device
• Yamaha QL5
• My iPad, used to control light console and sound console remotely
• Our Mac Mini, used as our primary QLab driver for theatrical productions and projection control and music playback pretty much always. Running DVS for QLab and music playback.
• Artist's laptop running PowerPoint for projections for this concert.

 

[GWWWicked]

Thanks for the great booth picts, it makes me thankful for what we have! I thought I'd chime in with ours at Emmanuel Baptist Church. It's in the balcony (hard for sound), but the balcony only open when the floor overflows which I think has only been about 3 times in 9 years.

Left to Right:
PC2: Confidence Monitor running ProPresenter
WC MAC: Pro Presenter for IMAG screens
Video Land: The two monitors are live & preview, with a quad reference monitor set driven by a Kramer VP-727. 2 Sony BRC-700 PTZ cameras.
EP MAC: Pro Presenter for environmental projection
Yamaha M7CL with a Tannoy Reveal reference monitor (since the console is in a dead spot)
8 channels of Shure ULX-D (and we won't mention what's underneath those receivers)
MegaLite Enlighten lighting control
Laptop for DB monitoring, etc.

We usually run a 3 man crew so the desk is plenty spacious. The Christmas show normally runs a 6 man crew and that can get a little cozy. The walkway where the ladder is sitting was supposed to contain chairs but the sightlines didn't work with all the stuff on the desk, so it's a great way to get from one end of the desk to the other without disturbing the operators.

 

[Ben Stiegler]

Old friends indeed! My jr HS had the mechanical interlock board offstage R on a steel platform 16’ up a straight ladder, no cage. I loved it up there ... my swan song was running lites for my own graduation, scurrying down the ladder in my suit to receive my diploma. Good times!

HS had a huge sauna room full of vacuum tube dimmer modules ... also a 50s or 60s design.

 

[sdauditorium]

I haven't shown off my new space since I took on my new job! I have a pretty solid one man operation and I'm quite proud of my setup. Pardon the slight mess. This particular picture was taken during a concert we had so the roles of a lot of our devices were slightly different from normal.

View attachment 15867

From left to right:

• 16 QLX-D microphones
• My personal MacBook Pro 15" 2017, used to browse the internet and text but most importantly used in client mode to remote control our ETC Ion console
• Work's MacBook Pro 15" 2012, used for Pro Tools recording through Dante Virtual Soundcard, wireless workbench and serves as a quick access QLab backup device
• Yamaha QL5
• My iPad, used to control light console and sound console remotely
• Our Mac Mini, used as our primary QLab driver for theatrical productions and projection control and music playback pretty much always. Running DVS for QLab and music playback.
• Artist's laptop running PowerPoint for projections for this concert.

Another one-man setup; love it. Can I ask what facility you're at and any tech specs you're willing to share? TIA.

 

[TNasty]

So it may not be a "booth", but it is our "studio" control desk.

In case you're wondering what the setup is for, we use it for motion capture with the Xbox Kinect, and possibly for product imaging. Chris (the guy you see sitting there) is an absolute Blender wizard, which is currently our software of choice. The lights are so that we can keep a steady framerate running on the Kinect, along with our other cameras- we like to livestream when we're working. The lights are all controlled through QLC+ with a "$5 DMX Interface" made from some guide on a DIY site.
Currently we do this setup Friday and Saturday nights, and then focus more on digesting content throughout the rest of the week. So far we've done the setup twice (we have to take it down at the end of the day so Mom can park in the garage again), and the last time it took us about two hours to have everything set up and ready to go, and about 30-60 minutes to dismantle everything.
This week we'll have a new monitor (Dell u2410f- really nice for production), and I think I'm going to try to virtualize the second workstation off of my desktop and see if that'll help with setup/packing time.
You can check out our Twitter (our main choice for streaming) here if you're interested.


Never mind the odd things like the gas cans on the chair hanging from the ceiling... that's my dad's work (I'm pretty sure those cans are empty, if you're wondering)

 

[derekleffew]

...So far we've done the setup twice (we have to take it down at the end of the day so Mom can park in the garage again), ...

Ladies and gentlemen: the next Steve Jobs, or Fred Foster (I'm not sure which).

 

[TNasty]

Ladies and gentlemen: the next Steve Jobs, or Fred Foster (I'm not sure which).

Personally I relate more to Wozniak, Chris is more Jobs... But I do suppose we're both Steve, either way.

 

[Amiers]

Use IRL on Twitch.tv. Nobody watches live streams on twitter. Better tools and more points of interaction. If you are looking for that kind of thing.

 

[TNasty]

I'll take a look into it. I'll just have to convince Chris to use Twitch instead of Periscope (I honestly don't doubt the fact that Twitch is better, and I'm pretty certain we'd still be able to share it to our social media pages).

 

[Amiers]

I'll take a look into it. I'll just have to convince Chris to use Twitch instead of Periscope (I honestly don't doubt the fact that Twitch is better, and I'm pretty certain we'd still be able to share it to our social media pages).

If he is he’s a real nerd tell him he can WUPHF.

 

[TNasty]

If he is he’s a real nerd tell him he can WUPHF.

HAH- I'm afraid it'd be lost on him, but at least somebody got the reference.

 

[Nathan Cronic]

Been the Student Tech Director at this HS for many years and have now moved on to be a MA Programmer and Op. Prior to my arrival the space had all conventional fixtures, an ETC Expression 3 with a bunked Floppy Reader, a Peavey AMR 800 Studio Mixer (that was the size of a football field), and 14 Peavey Amplifiers from the 90's. The venue was built in the 70's and was renovated in 2007. 1,200 Seats on the floor and 575 in the mezzanine.

Now to the good stuff, the control booth!
Around October of last year the Floppy Reader on our Expression 3 quit reading show files the morning of a Multi-Show One Act Competition, and all 6 competitors had to be reallocated 30 minutes of programming time and playback from memory. We immediately purchased the student friendly ETC Ion and a 2x20 Wing.
About a month ago the meter bridge on our Peavey mixer bit the dust, and triggered the much larger upgrade to the control booth. We replaced our 2 wire audio system with networked Dante. Replaced 14 2U Peavey amplifiers with 3 2U Ashley NX Amplifiers. Moved our Peavey 800 Studio Mixer into dimmer world (extremely important to continue to teach analog mixing and older signal chain strategies to students) and received a Allen and Heath GLD-112 Chrome Digital Mixer.
Lots of more minor changes and upgrades were made such as painting, rewiring, etc, and eventually condensed 3 42U racks into just 1. The Wooden desk was replaced as it was built around the older mixer and we redid the layout for ergonomics in mind as we spend hours at a time working here. Lots more upgrades and change to come in the future, and will have more to post soon as I soon will be upgrading 2 other high schools in the district.

 

[Taniith]

Still a bit of a work in progress, but I just largely finished retrofitting the booth in our space to kick off our 142nd season this week:

The original structure of the booth was built 25-35 years ago, with two console areas, and a raised center section that housed tape decks and an FM receiver and such. Between the new Element that ETC gave us last year, and the X32 we just purchased, the existing layout just wasn't going to work anymore. Our dream was to build a new booth in the same space (but higher, with storage underneath), but we had to shelve that because of concerns that we'd need to add sprinklers underneath. So instead we went with the retrofit plan as an interim stop-gap.

Removed lots of horizontal surfaces that just gathered junk, made it one flat countertop, built drawers for storage in the center, etc etc. More detailed photos here: https://imgur.com/a/D3nnfgx

 

[tjrobb]

Still a bit of a work in progress, but I just largely finished retrofitting the booth in our space to kick off our 142nd season this week:

The original structure of the booth was built 25-35 years ago, with two console areas, and a raised center section that housed tape decks and an FM receiver and such. Between the new Element that ETC gave us last year, and the X32 we just purchased, the existing layout just wasn't going to work anymore. Our dream was to build a new booth in the same space (but higher, with storage underneath), but we had to shelve that because of concerns that we'd need to add sprinklers underneath. So instead we went with the retrofit plan as an interim stop-gap.

Removed lots of horizontal surfaces that just gathered junk, made it one flat countertop, built drawers for storage in the center, etc etc. More detailed photos here: https://imgur.com/a/D3nnfgx

Talk to your local AHJ (probably a fire marshal), they should be able to advise you on your storage situation. Also, that rail looks really short. 42" is your friend; or at least something that wont just tip over your chair instead of stopping it.

 

[Taniith]

Talk to your local AHJ (probably a fire marshal), they should be able to advise you on your storage situation. Also, that rail looks really short. 42" is your friend; or at least something that wont just tip over your chair instead of stopping it.

We've never actually had an issue of chairs falling off, so it was more just a peace-of-mind thing. I'm reluctant to make it longer because it could create a tripping hazard at the top of the stairs (though making it thicker might be a good idea).

The fire department has been on us the last few years about every little thing, requiring the replacement/expansion of existing sprinklers, new alarm systems, and replacement of our seating. Between that and other large capital projects we're trying to find money for (elevator for accessibility and replacement of our ancient rigging), no one really wanted to bring anything *new* up with them right now. Hopefully in a few years when everything else settles down we can revisit the topic of a from-scratch booth with them.

 

[danhr]

A mid-show booth shot from Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Central New York Playhouse. Board Op is staff member, publicity coordinator, and USITT member services assistant Lizzie Allers.

 

[Jon Majors]

I haven't shown off my new space since I took on my new job! I have a pretty solid one man operation and I'm quite proud of my setup. Pardon the slight mess. This particular picture was taken during a concert we had so the roles of a lot of our devices were slightly different from normal.

View attachment 15867

From left to right:

• 16 QLX-D microphones
• My personal MacBook Pro 15" 2017, used to browse the internet and text but most importantly used in client mode to remote control our ETC Ion console
• Work's MacBook Pro 15" 2012, used for Pro Tools recording through Dante Virtual Soundcard, wireless workbench and serves as a quick access QLab backup device
• Yamaha QL5
• My iPad, used to control light console and sound console remotely
• Our Mac Mini, used as our primary QLab driver for theatrical productions and projection control and music playback pretty much always. Running DVS for QLab and music playback.
• Artist's laptop running PowerPoint for projections for this concert.

You can remote the ion on a Macbook?

 

[Jay Ashworth]

You can remote the ion on a Macbook?

Theoretically. The Nomad software runs on a Mac, and is supposed to be able to slave (or master) to the Ion, but I never got it to work.

I'll probably take another swing at it this semester.

 

[Lextech]

You can remote the ion on a Macbook?

Yes, however AFAIK, you need the dongle that should have come with the console. You also have to be running the exact same software, including fixture libraries. I link into my TI all the time to edit, I would never try and program willingly on the laptop.

 

[Tristan_da light opp]

ok heres and old one

This is the follow spot i used, there was a ladder in the elevator for some odd reason :/