Jay Ashworth
Well-Known Member
So, I might be in just over my head here...
As a favor to a friend, I've spent an hour this morning looking at old, bad gear (largely old Behringer Euro and Nady wireless; that kind of stuff) in a condo complex's clubhouse auditorium. The master condo association has decided it's time to upgrade and clean stuff up a bit, and one of their board members is also a board member of my community theatre, so I was asked to consult. My expertise, such is it is, is mostly in the booth, so there are some things I'm not certain about enough to charge someone for them, largely on the amplification front. Since this is a paying gig, there's probably some space in the budget for subcontract advice.
Their usage is -- as you'd expect -- varied; it includes bingo and other 10-round table settings, with announce and possibly some BGM; yoga/aerobics/exercise classes with headworn wireless and music; TV with sound from the TV set, possibly to inlcude VHS or DVD/BD playback (there are players in the booth); board meetings around a big rectangular table with auditorium seating for other residents -- they're presently doing this with their Octavo wireless mics without desktop stands. Since the mics aren't handheld, there's lots of handling noise involved.
And finally, they'd like to dabble a little bit harder in light theatre, within the constraints of the space and equipment.
===
The room is 100x60x12 with painted gypsum walls, acoustic tile ceiling, and vinyl tile flooring. They presently have JBL what-appear-to-be 18" two-ways, one in each corner, driven by a pair of (very loud) Europower EP1500s. They've got a small semi-proscenium stage at one small end, lifted about 3 ft with a ceiling that's level with the room; no grid space at all. Stairs up from the floor downstage right, ADA lift downstage left, and a pair of dressing rooms with access at each end on stage left.
Lighting is 2x2 flurorescent, a bunch of 6" CF dimmable ceiling downlights, and 3 10mm color LED cans of 2 different sizes on what I will humorously call the front electric, run by a Chauvet Obey 3.
There's a powered screen in front of the stage, but presently no permanent projector mounting for their BenQ.
On the opposite small wall, they have a 75-80" LCD TV with some video games.
They have a Nady Octavo UHF 8 channel wireless mic set with external diversity antennas, and a pair of EV R300s. Those have lavs, on tini-Fs, and are supposed to have headworns as well, but they weren't in evidence.
Board is a Behringer 16x4x2 with some effects.
They are smart enough not to be married to any of the present gear, and have about a 12k parts and labor budget to make a stab at replacing it properly.
They'd like to end up, he tells me, with 6-8 channels of wireless; that's enough simultaneous channels for any given use, assuming some channels could be swapped between handheld and beltpack, which of course they can. *My* inclination is to handhelds with SM58 capsules, like the L2. Also, to system receivers with antenna combiners. But that may blow the budget.
The booth is about 5/8 down one long wall, closer to the stage, off stage left.
They have echo and EQ problems with intelligibility in the room, partially due to the speaker complement, partially due to the surfaces, and partially because they have no EQ in the mains. My initial instinct was to go mono, possibly with Soundspheres. Then I looked up the prices on Soundspheres, new. Holy crap, Bat Man. (I've installed some, but I got them used off eBay for an order of magnitude less money.)
They're clearly not getting the coverage they need, and probably need more speakers, but delay will become an issue, and since the room's reversible...
I could, I suppose, do that with the matrices on an x32, and set up scenes for each direction...
Finally, as is so often the case in this part of the market, they can't *guarantee* that any given event/usage will have a trained operator; the more that can be automated the better; I note the new X-AIR has Dugan automix either included or promised; dunno if the other x32's are lined up for that.
Any thoughts on any parts of this, people-who-are-much-smarter-than-me?
[ Photos to follow ]
As a favor to a friend, I've spent an hour this morning looking at old, bad gear (largely old Behringer Euro and Nady wireless; that kind of stuff) in a condo complex's clubhouse auditorium. The master condo association has decided it's time to upgrade and clean stuff up a bit, and one of their board members is also a board member of my community theatre, so I was asked to consult. My expertise, such is it is, is mostly in the booth, so there are some things I'm not certain about enough to charge someone for them, largely on the amplification front. Since this is a paying gig, there's probably some space in the budget for subcontract advice.
Their usage is -- as you'd expect -- varied; it includes bingo and other 10-round table settings, with announce and possibly some BGM; yoga/aerobics/exercise classes with headworn wireless and music; TV with sound from the TV set, possibly to inlcude VHS or DVD/BD playback (there are players in the booth); board meetings around a big rectangular table with auditorium seating for other residents -- they're presently doing this with their Octavo wireless mics without desktop stands. Since the mics aren't handheld, there's lots of handling noise involved.
And finally, they'd like to dabble a little bit harder in light theatre, within the constraints of the space and equipment.
===
The room is 100x60x12 with painted gypsum walls, acoustic tile ceiling, and vinyl tile flooring. They presently have JBL what-appear-to-be 18" two-ways, one in each corner, driven by a pair of (very loud) Europower EP1500s. They've got a small semi-proscenium stage at one small end, lifted about 3 ft with a ceiling that's level with the room; no grid space at all. Stairs up from the floor downstage right, ADA lift downstage left, and a pair of dressing rooms with access at each end on stage left.
Lighting is 2x2 flurorescent, a bunch of 6" CF dimmable ceiling downlights, and 3 10mm color LED cans of 2 different sizes on what I will humorously call the front electric, run by a Chauvet Obey 3.
There's a powered screen in front of the stage, but presently no permanent projector mounting for their BenQ.
On the opposite small wall, they have a 75-80" LCD TV with some video games.
They have a Nady Octavo UHF 8 channel wireless mic set with external diversity antennas, and a pair of EV R300s. Those have lavs, on tini-Fs, and are supposed to have headworns as well, but they weren't in evidence.
Board is a Behringer 16x4x2 with some effects.
They are smart enough not to be married to any of the present gear, and have about a 12k parts and labor budget to make a stab at replacing it properly.
They'd like to end up, he tells me, with 6-8 channels of wireless; that's enough simultaneous channels for any given use, assuming some channels could be swapped between handheld and beltpack, which of course they can. *My* inclination is to handhelds with SM58 capsules, like the L2. Also, to system receivers with antenna combiners. But that may blow the budget.
The booth is about 5/8 down one long wall, closer to the stage, off stage left.
They have echo and EQ problems with intelligibility in the room, partially due to the speaker complement, partially due to the surfaces, and partially because they have no EQ in the mains. My initial instinct was to go mono, possibly with Soundspheres. Then I looked up the prices on Soundspheres, new. Holy crap, Bat Man. (I've installed some, but I got them used off eBay for an order of magnitude less money.)
They're clearly not getting the coverage they need, and probably need more speakers, but delay will become an issue, and since the room's reversible...
I could, I suppose, do that with the matrices on an x32, and set up scenes for each direction...
Finally, as is so often the case in this part of the market, they can't *guarantee* that any given event/usage will have a trained operator; the more that can be automated the better; I note the new X-AIR has Dugan automix either included or promised; dunno if the other x32's are lined up for that.
Any thoughts on any parts of this, people-who-are-much-smarter-than-me?
[ Photos to follow ]
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