TomHoward

Ordering from the US, B&H had a shipping option where you paid the VAT and courier charges at the point of sale, and a shipping option where you handled it yourself. I’d wondered whether Thomann couldn’t do it the same if there were couriers that did this. I’m wondering what happens with returns on their 30 day money back guarantee or faulty refunds - a lot of the reason we buy from them is their 3yr warranty, now some of the payment isn’t directly to them I’m not sure how you’d go about reclaiming that.

I think a boom Mewp might be overcooking it for a 4m roof height? Is that with grid below or is it the grid at 4m? Is your priority to move whist occupied for focusing - is there the MEWP angle?

The Mac App BlueHarvest is what we use to get around this - it cleans .DS and Store files off USB sticks. It isn't free but it's only £13.99 and the trial is free. I *think* if you show hidden files and delete them manually on a Mac then eject it you may get away with it, I'm not sure how fast they're regenerated. Also hitting 'repeat one' on the proper file (not the ._Filename thumbnail) works but requires manual intervention and only works if you only have one file you're looping on the device.

If the accidents are unavoidable then I'd agree they shouldn't have had an HSE fine - however Phoenix companies to clear debts to HMRC and suppliers is one thing but to clear HSE fines enforcement is a bit morally dubious to me. For clarity the 1989 explosion was from the delivery company packaging (8000 fuse heads in a rusty tin box designed for 500 ignited when the lorry went over a speed bump) which is not the fault of LM directly. Also one of the news articles refers to a £2000 fine in 1988 for an employee dying packing fireworks, so that's 4 deaths in just over 30 years. There's also a 2016 HSE improvement notice for LM for failing to prevent ESD discharge prior to the 2018 explosion. I appreciate it's a risky industry though but the idea that you can clear an enforcement fine by liquidation is a little but suspect for my liking. (If my understanding of that is right)

With advance apologies that I would never want to disagree with statesman Clive, but out of respect for those involved I feel it necessary to mention LM had a delivery lorry turning round in their neighbour's yard explode in 1989 killing one, an explosion on site in 1990 killing one and another explosion on site in 2018 killing one, so whilst there is no doubt truth in what you say, it appears on the surface at least that LM did not have an entirely unblemished safety record.

Are most households with a couple of siblings or individuals? When we do class groups normally we set challenges based on the emotion of a scene - tense, isolated, etc etc. Could you use a sibling (or a cuddly toy) and go for more photographic approach to light? Introduce a basics of key, backlight, etc and try to recreate them by moving around the house - in front a window for a strong backlight, using a torch for a spot in a dark corner, etc, and aim to recreate a mood using the same subject but varying the light. Don't know if you have any issues with submitting photographs, maybe photoing toys could get around this. And you'd need smaller lights working on a table with toys.. Apologies that this is also clumsily described by someone who has witnessed a lot of lighting being taught but doesn't do much beyond "where's the band, where's the audience? Right, I'll point me pars that way then"

If you are looking for alternatives, micro blade auto fuses are probably only about 5mm between the contacts, could be folded over & you might have some in the garage?

I'd look at Arduino and leave Pi alone, the devices are too high level for this. Motor control from DMX or Arduino/ESP32 (fake cheap Arduino) would be possible, I'd use Servos if you could somehow as they already have the positioning sorted, so you wouldn't have to sense the top/bottom stops. Stepper motors on ESP32 would also work, which move a 'step' at a time rather than continuously, so then you'd have to save the current position in software and move so many steps up or down to move something in or out. Servos could be done direct from DMX also and avoid needing to program anything up

I have thought about rigging up a camcorder with a capture card at our end for the webcam we have control of, and then recording in camera to double up the stream for the local copy. The remote end, we don't have any control over or any means to visit or send / receive anything physical. The ideas I have for a remote recording are - encourage them to double up with an iPhone, if they're on a Mac they can easily record the webcam locally with Qucktime whilst they're still on the call, or there probably is a PC equivalent but I'm not sure about it. Both of these will result in huge files to post and given the state of most people's phones / laptops they might be full to the brim anything - I'm not sure what 1hr of recording on an iPhone does for the storage. I have actually got the NDI out of Teams working - our IT dept fortunately are helpful and have enabled it as a group policy for us. The problem I've found with it is that the bandwidth is for all users, so reduces quality dramatically if you've got a big meeting, even if there's only one person talking you care about. It would be good if you could turn on NDI out per user, rather than it encoding 1 speakers and 50 delegates watching for you. I'm not really using the NDI properly as I'm outputting and recording on the same screen, it just takes the branding off. My plan for talkback is I'll just join as a 3rd person in the meeting as a 'silent partner' - and once I've got the recording going I'll turn my webcam off and shut up.

Hi all As the transition of moving everything online rolls on.... I've got to record some interviews, with one local person who's on the same site (although not necessarily with me) and one person who's remote. Ideally I'd like to get these two videos files separately, so I can edit them together with the option of making one or the other fullscreen afterwards. We're Teams users, and Teams has NDI integration that I've got working, but the recording of it is a bit of a pain. Using the Newtek monitor, the file cuts every time the resolution jumps and creates a new file. The audio also is grouped for all users and isn't selectable per user afterwards, but this may not be too much of a problem. Zoom does the audio nicer, but doesn't have any individual video recording facilities. I could use two computers and full screen each individual - I have one decent computer with 3 monitors, and if I was able to drag Zoom big enough across two or more windows I might be able to do a screen recording that way? I'm thinking for Teams, a workaround might be to put it into OBS as an NDI source, set that to record and it could sort out my switching resolution? I could run two instances of OBS, one for each participant, if they play happily and don't melt my computer down... I could ask the remote user to also set up an iPhone or similar, if they are able, to record themselves, then remote their video and use that? Sorry this is a bit of a train of thought, but I'd be grateful of any pointers of how anyone's managing to make this work for them..

If you went the sail winch / servo route I believe I have an old Milford Instruments DMX servo board that would do servo position from DMX value that I’d be happy to donate to your project. You’d have to program your acceleration / deceleration in the lighting software. You could still use a shaft but most winch servos are maybe 4-6 turns so you’d just need a thicker shaft with fewer turns... or divert all the lines sideways to one end and winch them all at the side onto the one drum.

Another possible idea for a model is the Sail winch servo types - made for model boats to wind ropes in & out. They’re like a servo but generally 1-6 turns with a drum on.

How does the model winch work from the motor? You could keep the motor RPM and change the winch drum size to change speed.. As a middle ballpark I’d say they should take in the region of 5-6 seconds to fly out (although ours swipe sideways & open on a track). You could then work your speed out from the distance and time.. Oh - that said though they probably close faster than they open, although they may sometimes close in a blackout after the bows, if that covers not needing a change in speed.

Could you make a spare back lid for each case, which was only the sides and back, missing the top and bottom faces? That would offer protection but hopefully still allow wiring to pass up & down.

To be honest, we are doing at the moment, although the other way round - we are running speakers in the room off an Aux bus, with playback and some mics routed to it, and some mics routed only to stream. Thanks for the document links, I will also try those compression settings on my dodgy stream recording and see what difference it makes.

So far, what I've got is that Waves Playlist Rider plugin is about the most effective quick and easy tool. I've downloaded the demo and processed the audio off the stream in Logic with it, I haven't tried it in OBS yet but I do see a lot of info about Waves not working well in OBS and OBS only supporting older VST versions. The processed and unprocessed waveforms: Due to Logic's funny waveform zooming the unprocessed audio does not sound as bad as it looks and it certainly improves the quiet sections or reduces a sudden burst of applause to even out the stream quite a lot. The only problem is it does 'pump' slightly in the songs, if there is a sudden loud section it does reduce, but I think if it were combined with a limiter / top end compression first to take that real top end off the applause and loud song sections, and Playlist Rider were used to bring out the low sections, it really does work quite well. It has a 'short term loudness' and a 'long term loudness' and provides +-18dB of gain automatically according to the long term loudness. I'm finding set to a target of -14dB it's pretty much equally reducing the loud parts and bringing out the low parts.

These certainly aren't classic concerts in the proper sense, this is all school / college level and the audience are parents / family. I suspect the devices are mainly laptops, phones and TVs at best. The concerts are often a mix of live solo instrumentalists, trios, readings, and pre-recorded videos of much the same content. The church services also have musicians and choir but the speech in those is from a lectern with a mic split so it's a stronger level. It's basically the content from PZM / rifle mics that I'm struggling to judge getting audible level on a stream when mixed with this other content. I've realised what I need to do is download a copy of the audio off the stream I wasn't happy with and see what works to process it. I might try a VST loudness meter and see how it reads across the recorded content or there's a Waves playlist rider plugin that could ride level, or I'll try doing it with compression also.

Thanks. I’m thinking about doing something convoluted like using the two line inputs of the mini, and maybe routing some channels to one and some channels to the other, and compressing the life out of the speech / ambient input and leaving the musical ones with a bit more life. Combined with a good metering VST if I can find one. It seems to be me underestimating just how much gain increase I need between the songs / loud sections. My monitoring is DT150s, I think the problem is my listening environment is a bit too optimum and I can hear it clearly when it’s still too low. Sounds daft but an expander on the headphones maybe might give me a cue when I’ve hit an acceptable level.

Ours are certainly not sound designed, they are “classical” / varied concerts, nativities, etc. Usually we’ve had lectern mics for readings or close mic’d performers but this one was ambiently mic’d and it was very difficult. I think the loudness meter would be a big help. A slight complication is at the moment I am monitoring from the desk before it goes into the Atem. The atem does have some possible dynamic processing. I think the problem is as I am listening in the room wearing headphones I boost the mics and think “I can hear those lines, that’s fine”, but the listening environment on a laptop at the viewing end is much less forgiving. I think the level meters mentioned might be the way - I wonder if there is a VST one to save cost. There are meters in OBS but they are momentary so a quick glance doesn’t really give the full picture.

Apologies for the side-track but what hardware encoder on a Mac works with OBS? Is it separate hardware or is one of the graphics cards compatible?

Thanks for the pointers.. So, for example for the one we just did, the audio songs were pre-recorded in a better space and played back into the stream due to the excessive "ambience" of a sports hall, and played back into the space for a little bit of 'live' singing to be added. I really could have done with some mics upstage and closer to some of the voices for the spoken parts - it's certainly true they wouldn't sound great once boosted. When using a straight compressor to provide some levelling, are you clamping it down and using a big make-up gain for those quiet bits? Or relying on one with some auto-gain for the make-up? What kind of time settings do you use for levelling audio rather than limiting it as such - particularly with regards to the make-up boost needed? For some concerts, we'd have a 'proper' X32 running into the ATEM, so I can do some processing at the output. For the smaller jobs (eg Nativity in a sports hall) I'm using a EPM12. I think I need some decent meters maybe on the output of the desk to confirm average level and try ride it similar... in my headphones at the time it sounded okay, but watching it back I've got to ride my laptop volume level up and down quite a lot to hear the quiet sections.

Hi We've been doing some live event streaming recently as you might imagine, plays, concerts, church services, etc. We generally will have a couple of rifle mics / ambients etc and the sound is okay for when the loud stuff is happening, but keeping an eye on the levels whilst also mixing for the room is getting a bit tricky. With radio studios I've seen FM processors before for some multi-band compression and I think they might also do audio/loudness levelling? My biggest problem is between the songs - we did a Nativity yesterday and the audio in the songs was fine, but the quiet lines between the songs are lost. I was using headphones in the room, and though I'd boosted it plenty, but looking at the meters at the time and the stream afterwards there is just a massive different in loudness. The streaming hardware is Blackmagic ATEM so I could use some of the processing in there, or add an FM processor between desk and ATEM. We're going stereo line in to ATEMs and using no camera audio. We are streaming via OBS so I can also purchase / add any available VST plugins at that stage too if there's anything that might help there. Any tips of how people are doing it gratefully received.

We've been doing this plenty. If you put the backing track in the Tools session, and play it out from there as you record, then with any luck your recording will align up with your backing track and you won't have to align it afterwards. Create enough tracks for all the bubbles you need to record before you start, and you can record them all into the same Tools file and you won't have to do any importing etc. We've found if you keep the monitor low enough, use a single monitor in the middle and space the mics wider away from it the spill from the monitor into the recording isn't too bad. Especially if you are putting the backing track back in in the end - if it's a guide track that isn't intended to be used in the final mix/bounce then it might be more of a problem. Headphones are more of a Covid headache anyway sharing them between bubbles. It helps if you are recording in a fairly dead room, or put some curtains or a soft surface behind them, so the sound of the backing track being directed toward the singers is somewhat absorbed rather than being reflected back into the mics.

We use Luminair and the iPad app for X32 / XAir desks, down to Yr5/6 level (that's 9/10 year olds) and have the kids op'ing the iPads. As the iPad / tablet is already a familiar control surface they pick it up really quickly. It doesn't have a route to a larger desk but Luminair is surprisingly capable for 1 universe over ArtNet - you need the software and a node for DMX output. It handles generics and LED pars fine, and movers too but not quite as cleanly. It also has some different concepts like putting a different colour at the bottom of a fader and crossfading between two for a chase, so disco / musical scenes can be built really quickly. We also have a large formal space, but also use small breakout equipment in cafes / foyers / pavilions etc. Most setups involve an X32 rack with the iPad app, and either entirely LED or mostly LED with a few Par56s if there's some kind of front position. We've also installed 3-circuit track lighting with Par30s or similar in a few spaces, fed from DMX capable dimming, which often gives you a quick and easy way to reposition regular lighting that might be in a foyer / cafe and repurpose it to light a small stage if you're short of rigging points, and it doesn't look too offensive the rest of the week when you aren't using it for that.

We use Sharks to process audio for show relays and 100V line PAs for outdoor and they have low cuts, compression, gating, basically one channel of processing and preamp. I don't think there is much to die on them, however I think they only have a low cut and not an adjustable EQ, so wouldn't be able to balance much, and streaming probably takes care of the compression anyway. I would have thought a simple high pass RC network might be worth a try if it's possible to wire in.