J Pearce

They'll know better than us! Bryson - I had a fussy one, sent it to Le Maitre for a full service and it's been happy since. I mean, I'd rather have another unique, but if you've got one you don't necessarily need to abandon hope.

They’re no Unique (nor were they intended to be), but for small venues they produce a nice even fine haze. More suited to a light dramatic haze than a heavy rock and roll smog. They serve a purpose.

Come back to me when I can get at any of my stores and I can happily oblige. In the meantime I’d suggest contacting Le Maitre directly, their support dept are very helpful.

How smoothly will the projector switch between inputs? Some are fairly graceful, and a wired remote/control panel may be a simpler option than a switcher.

My first shows on a memory board were on Sirius 24 and 48s, and on one occasion a 48 slaved to a 24 - with scrollers (that was exciting!). Simpler times, heavier cabling.

As another not hinge answer, I’ve always found lift out lids to be more flexible for traps. It allows you to cut replacement lids with a cutout that suits, and still keep a full set of uncut lids. It also allows for cable exits on either side, whereas hinges allow exits only on 1 side or in the middle of the trough. Hinges invariably fill up with fluff/paint and become a pain too.

Sounds like an excellent use of our events industry stock and expertise. We can't easily do the medical kit, but we could easily build a few large field hospitals with clearspan marquees, temporary power, lighting, and HVAC. In general our otherwise inactive industry has a lot to offer, logistics, trucking, temporary buildings/power etc., and the general expertise and determination to get stuff done on a very tight schedule. Computing power for research is another area that has come up today.

Not so sure on this one Clive. A few friends of mine are scientists in relevant fields, with nothing to gain from lockdowns, all of whom have advised that large social gatherings are unwise. The issue is that for most of us it will be a fairly mild cough/fever, but for those with any underlying conditions (asthma, diabetes) it could easily become a rather serious pneumonia. The risk is for that significant minority. If even 1% of the population get to that point (which I’m told is realistic), we’re looking at wildly overloaded ICUs and doctors making decisions about who to save and who to let go. No doubt the media frenzy and panic buying and general scare is superfluous, the caution and ‘social distancing’ is, as far as I can determine from the information provided to me, entirely proportional to the risk.

As Tom says, and because they’re the scenarios where multiple people use the same mic within a short space of time. Comedy nights/band nights are another example.

We've been doing some risk assessment here and talking to our nursing/health end of the university. One thing particular to watch for is that the highest rate of contamination at the moment seems to be via liquid droplets of saliva/phlegm. So perhaps sensible to keep to a cans headset per person, avoiding sharing, wiping down daily; and think carefully about how you handle microphones, especially in lecturn or pass-around type situations.

Certainly not had that issue with AD1s with expensive headsets/capsules (DPA/Countryman).

It’ll be fixed. I’ve ordered a psu that I think I can fit in the case. Worst case I can use that in a project box to bodge me through the show the unit is on this week. I’ll have a look at fixing the original psu, but there’s a few angry surface mount components and I’m not really kitted out for surface mount repairs on such a compact board.

So best part of 4 years on, I've just had one die. Looks to be a dead PSU, and replacing it is annoyingly nearly as expensive as the unit itself and I'm struggling to find one that will fit. Still, for the initial investment and the use I've got I am not upset.

I'd be surprised if PSP can meet the budget. Great company, but more at the polished and shrink wrapped before delivery end of the market. Always worth asking though I guess. Might also be worth talking to CPL, in Kenilworth.

£400 is dirt cheap for a 12k projector. Some companies will charge you upwards of that per day. PRG/XL might have something older they can send out cheap. Marklew in Brum have an 8k unit that is affordable. I've just bought a 12k unit (a RZ120) as the hire costs meant we were never able to afford what we needed on our yearly budgets, so I was able to make a capital bid to buy one.

I’m still maintaining a stash of composite video kit for MD cams on operas and musicals. Should probably buy a few more monitors really.

Another consideration is that a 4.8 scaff bar will need multiple pickups, at least 3, probably 4, maybe 5. - I'm not an engineer, don't use this as a guide. You may be better switching to a ladder truss to reduce the amount of pickups needed.

I’ve been very happy with the Mikrotik hap ac2 units we’ve bought. Very stable, can handle lots of traffic (2 lots of HD screen sharing plus osc and EOS multi console) and good wifi coverage. Router and ap all in one, highly configurable, compact, reasonably priced.

Another option used by some is to have one camera fixed IR and one camer fixed non IR. It works well, but you do need 2 screens for the SM position.

Aha, I bow to the superior knowledge :)

The older BP11 should be quite easy to modify. The call function works by putting 12vdc across the audio bus and ground, so wire some sort of bright LED thing onto those pins - might need some circuitry to stop it affecting the audio quality, depending on how the supply for the LED works.

30m is a rather long run for UHF antenna, without going to big fat cable and fancier antennae. A short 3-5m cable taking the antennae above head height is a good compromise, and a fairly standard setup, just get them above the big water filled meat bags (sorry, cast members) that eat all the RF.

Just about every production company will have a pile of scaff in various lengths. Scaff towers, just go for the nearest/cheapest - not many prod companies will hold them as it's not worth trying to compete with the general access hire companies. You may want to pay a little extra to get one not covered in paint/plaster/render etc.

IPS in MK stock the chauvet digital festoon.

If you manufacture it, then timber sheet with wood batten to strengthen, a hole saw, then fill the holes with festoon. Use addressable festoon for added pixel/colour funtimes.