Alan H. Chang

Hi Vin, In a live sound environment, there are bound to be more wireless in use as compared to a film set. Not only is there a need for wireless to provide the FOH mix, there's also the CB/Broadcast truck, Recording team, as well as the MONitor world all sharing the same wireless coming from the same receiving antennas. On a film set, the required amount of wireless channels is far less, and you're much closer to the action. When a situation arise that you need to be a good half a click or mile away from the cameras, these CP Beams would help receive your talent signals tremendously. Regarding your question about indoors/outdoors receiving end, the CP Beams would cut through several walls including huge metal gate doors out into the lot.

There's always the PWS8089, which are rated and tested at approx. of 12-14dbi of passive gain. Though, we can fit 2 of the CP Beams in the same case that fits only 1 of the 8089's, which means less cases to haul. We have 2 of the CP Beams and, without a full disclosure, are testing them among a league of antennas including the 8089s and several variants of passive/active antenna configurations.

LOL! Try 3 crates stacked sideways next time, you get 3 shelves and a wider table. Win win

Scarlett recommend here. Lots of guys in the theatre world uses it, and if you need something in a pinch for music playback word, there you have it.

No prob, it was just posted a matter of a week, buried underneath lots of other topics. Looking forward to it.

Seth, Just remind them that it's a cheaper insurance than being tripped. There are times when ops would need to run at a moment's notice and could possibly snag both your mixer's outputs and the camera's inputs, thus, making it very much unusable from that point on forward. In the past, I've had kids accidentally run into the cables and getting hurt, not a chance to avoid this kind of outcome. The producer automatically noticed the injury and was upset at herself for not budgeting accordingly for a hop as I have told them during pre-prod. Though, starting next week is going to be the first film gig of the year, the quote I gave included a hop for sanity sake. Safety's a priority.

Getting ready for the weekend extravaganza of Sweeney Todd, w/ Redwood Symphony's 80pc orchestra, full cast + chorus. Head Audio and Video. Thanks to Chris Regan from RFVenue, and the entire co. from ETS Lan (the same co. of Instasnake) Anyone around the area who wants to attend, see the Diversity Fin or CP Beam in action, buzz away. @ Cañada College Main Theatre CP Beams in action, one on each end of aisle. Picture taken before house opened.

"Live simply, so others can simply live."

One time we needed to use a router that had both 2.4G and 5.8G for a musical that needed remote capabilities for the A/V department. The 2.4G was specifically used to trigger our sound laptops and other access points throughout the venue for cues and live feedback interaction with the cast and audience. Basically, there were motion sensors at every 3-feet interval for cast cues, and another motion sensor system dedicated to the audience and patrons. The 5.8G WLAN was used for the intelligent lighting system for pinpoint follow spots of on/off-stage actor cues as well as house spots for certain parts of the venue. The thought of recording 32 w/ 9+ cams covering 100+ players, Wow! Now, I do see a bit of black chairs in the bg of the first picture, but wasn't exactly sure if they needed to be wired or wireless. Impressive thinking with the TCB (don't own them, yet) and cam/phone system.

While we're on the subject of decca's, substitute your Center mic with an actual M/S or ORTF rig. If time permits.

What's your M in the schoeps rig? If it's something of an omni or wide card, ie MK21/22, you'll pickup a lot of lows.

The first time I tried using COS11s was about 4 years ago. The self-noise was atrocious, but the noisefloor of the venue was louder. Sounded decent without needing any high-boost in post.

"People don't hate you for your weaknesses, they hate you for your strengths." -Woody Allen

Preview night of the musical, Godspell. Originally started with cables strewn all over the venue for mics in orchestra pit, monitors for pit, and foldback monitors for cast. The wireless channel count kept ticking night after night. What we ended up with was an enormous amount of time committed solely to mic'ing our cast and keeping track of all the fqy working in tandem. At the pit, 4061 feeding into SD302, feeding into Blk470 IFBT4, feeding into R1a patched into our AudioRack unit. R1a monitor foldback getting from the Blk470 IFBT4 on back tables. 3x wireless handhelds for our pit singers, two of which are our co-directors, in one of the last numbers, On the Willows. At FOH, 3x Lectro Venues getting most of the casts, 4061s, B3s, and COS11s. UT400s for the pit singers. 6x Senn G3 for casts. Console is A&H GLD with RFVenue's Diversity Fin. System's are mainly NEXOs. Here's our IFBT4s. On L, Blk470 feeding the orchestra pit monitors. On R, Blk21 feeding IFB cues to our lead. Here's our IFB mic, we call it the "Ball of Fire." During ACT I, our lead's wife takes place feeding lines to him, don't want to know what goes on here. During ACT II, we have one of our guest lead, who's also part of the show, prompting lines to his IEM by a gesturing cue from our lead. This is where magic happens. ... and of course, to our young padiwons! Anybody in the SF Bay Area who's interested, give me a buzz, it's on me. We have people coming from LAX and JFK to watch this. It's the first ever that we put on a big show here at the church. Fri, May 10th, Opening @ 7:30p SOLD OUT Sat May 11th, @ 2p, @ 7:30p.

More like being sarcastic with all those 80 fiddlers. A few mic'ed on the 1st and 2nd decks for attack/transient would have been enough.

I bet! Mic'ing every fiddlers, and I believe there were 80+? including section mics would be a 1-2 knockout. Re the 4061 on the 9' Yamaha grand, no EQ were needed just placement and we were good to go. Money mics I tell ya. M5000 you own what?! Very capable indeed. I usually see them on the rider's and designer's spec sheets on musicals.

For some reason, I always thought Scott Fraser had a close relation to the SFSF especially at the F+S venue. I mean, most of the posts here or even glimpse of remembering were Scott Fraser and F+S. Really good stuff. When the whole thing clicked, I thought "Hmm, wonder if Philip is recording them at F+S tomorrow?" Very exciting moment during that time.

Yes on all accounts. Our reverb unit was a TC Electronics M2000. Lost that on the last number before intermission. Suggested that we hook one mic up and put that in the back of the venue, route that back into the console as a reverb fix. Gary didn't want to do it. For our fiddle sections, with 2 mics we had to spot mic 4 players to get the attack/transients across while two other mics were used for sections. Suggested that we mic two of their strongest fiddlers with the DPAs and section mic with the rest. Oh well. Fun gig though.

Several days ago when I received all the info package regarding their weekend tour, I think I didn't care all that much who I was working with. When I showed up, the name Alasdair and all those string players reminded me of some or several posts made on JW especially Freight and Savage, then it hit me! Asked my friend Gary if he was doing Freight and Savage and he said he can't touch that venue, of course it's Scott Fraser who does FOH there and normally you, phil, who does the multi recordings there. Re the last audio changeups, yes. We needed to add 6+ sources to our input list, particularly the harp since it was staged in three different positions. With Alasdair's wireless mic, when you need to mix his channel it's turned off. haha.

Had the pleasure to work with the entire SF Scottish Fiddlers company today @ Holy Name U. with an extensive mic list. By far the best sound they've ever experienced according to Alasdair, their beloved conductor. Normally it's our own Mr. Perkins who is the resident SFSF guy, and luckily I got a chance to work with these very fine musicians! Since I owe my friend Gary a gig, this was probably it. Told him I was going to replace most mics on the input list with DPAs, Schoeps, and Sennheisers. We thought about it for awhile, but resorted to our original family of AKGs since they would also cover the SFSF on Sunday's concert without me being there. So consistency was important. Considering that the grand piano was one of the highlights of the night, I told him that I'd mic it with those DPAs. Once we did line check and sound check with the whole company, the entire venue blossomed and the look on Alasdair's face was priceless. Once we rigged everything in place, we discovered that there were several wireless units that needed to be used throughout the entire 2+ hour concert. Well, we were never notified nor were the house crews involved in assisting with the show. Tried scanning fqy on the musician-provided wireless units, but hits were almost on every channel. Time was tight, so I told my guy that I'll take care of it immediately. Went back to my table and popped open IAS to figure this whole mess out. Check, and more check with the WiFi and house comms, and finally worked. Move on. Suddenly I get a call from the A1, him knowing that I record lots of performances and halls, asked me if I had any kind of recorder with me, "Ehh, my laptop could record but it's going through the dinky mic jack. No recorder nor any interface." What happened was their manager asked us on a last-minute whim to see if we could record them, and little did we know a recorder was needed. Oh well. Lastly, our reverb unit kind of short circuited in the middle of the performance and man did we lose that lushness. More oh wells. Tomorrow, or today, if anyone is in the area (SF Bay), head up to Freight and Savage in Berkeley for their concert there! My comfy view. My not-so-comfy view. Can you spot what kind of mics we used? BIG sound, tiny package. a.

We've used the RFVenue's Diversity Fin in all types of environment and situation when time and space were the only option available. In vehicular car chases, we mount 2 of these Diversity Fins ontop of our camera vehicle with one facing 90, both going into a combiner/switcher. 400m pickup easily. Corporate conferences/conventions here at Cal Berkeley, Stanford Univ., and private events have been performing wonderfully well. The best part of this is that one could take the Fin out, mount in onto a PSC Flexi clamp, clamp it onto the back of the wireless rack, and run combiners or Lectro Venues directly to it for a discrete 24-channel 4RU wireless knockout. Musical theatres and schools are favoring this setup due to it's compactness and functionality. On film sets, it's easily managed when we're near talent. Though, when we need a much stronger signal, we go for the high-gain ALPs or Helicals.

I 2nd this entirely!

Hey Jesse, volunteering is always good, more brownie and karma points. Also a church guy, or employee for legal reasons, and I volunteer almost effortlessly whenever possible not just on my time but with shiny toys. Though, lots of times they offer some kind of small payment for the 'trouble', it's extremely rewarding to help non-profits with an all-hands-on-deck crew and attitude. You never know who you'll meet and work with down or up the line. Another good option for you is to open or form a non-profit subsidiary directly underneath your company, Pedantic Sound. Best of both worlds!

Shooter and sound available w/ Varicam.