J Pearce

There's a difference between 'running at' and peak level. Not peaking above 85dB would be likely be perceived as rather flat and lifeless for anything upbeat (and wouldn't give you much room above the average musical theatre LED lighting rig and projector setup). An LAeq of 85dB across a show with varied dynamic range is a much more reasonable target. An LAeq of 90dB allows a little more room, and for 8 shows a week the LAeq across the week usually remains within 85dB for staff (inc cast/crew etc.) As many have pointed out, acoustic ensembles can easily exceed 85dB LAeq, I've measured acoustic ensembles peaking at over 110dB(A).

What? I've read this 3 times and it's still word soup to me. Re audience vs staff - there is a note of exposure here, staff are exposed to the show 8/9/10/11/12 times a week, the audience much less often. I'm mostly on team 'why is it so loud' but equally wouldn't want every show to be limited to 85dB.

I’ve done musicals that didn’t peak beyond 90dB, and I’ve done some that hit 110dB. I’d usually advocate for keeping the LAeq below 100dB. There is a recurrent issue where SPL is equated with energy, and actually mix dynamics and tone probably contribute more to energy. However, most non-sound folk only know the words “louder” and “quieter”, so that’s all they end up asking for/shouting over the god mic…

Where I rehearse with a brass band is next door to a large chemical works that process phosphorus compounds. They have a siren that can be heard for a mile or 2 around, which is tested annually. The bandroom has a ‘red’ phone. The local canals used to catch fire as the water lapped at the edges.

DaVinci and Premiere Pro have the same. It can work well, but also can struggle - especially if the audio clocks across the multiple devices drift at all.

I guess it’d be nice to have time for a dram before nuclear oblivion.

Check the power rating on the switching transistors (probably MOSFETs). This may a limiting factor as well as the power supply. Then the harder bit is how much current the tracks on the PCB are designed for. Personally, I'd stick with the original rating, but if you like living an exciting life where devices let go of the magic smoke you may make an alternative conclusion.

Is that the plastic ball joint one? I've never got on with them, I find they droop over time (look at how many installed ones have the bottom edge of the speaker touching the wall...), I've had the locking ring crack before it's stopped the speaker drooping, and recently had one where the threaded rod in the ball jammed itself so well in to the speaker that getting it out necessitated dismantling the ball joint and grabbing the ball with mulgrips.

We have some of the brackets that clamp around the speaker that have an M10 thread in. We also sometimes use the threaded insert on the back, usually with a doughty supaclamp. The threaded insert on the back is camera thread - 1/4-20 UNC. We do a doughty supaclamp to mic thread (3/8 BSW), then a mic ball joint with a camera thread adapter on. Gives you lots of flexibility on mounting and pointing.

It may often be preferable for the tarp to release than for the structure to fail.

Basically - an RGB(W) source of any useful power is physically large, as it necessarily has multiple LEDs. To achieve good gobo projection you want a 'point source' - ideally the tiniest source you can imagine, though obviously real life constraints limit that. There are ways around that, such as collimating lenses used in some of the Source4 style LED profiles, but these are rather bulky and heavy for a moving head spot. This is why the cheap(er) moving head LED profiles use a white LED (which is actually a UV led coated in a warm or cold white phosphor), which can be bright and small for good optical performance, then use a colour wheel or colour mixing flags to achieve the colour.

There are various DMX record/playback units that will run a scheduler - even allowing you to offer your clients a change of colour at clockface time or a slow fade through the night etc. Enttec make some good ones. Others do too. "DMX Playback" is a good search term.

If this is an ongoing thing an engineered solution might be called for. If this is for less than 10 performances I’d cable tie a cardboard box to the handrail and sit the inflatable in there. Add some black tat if needed to smarten things up. Or task/bribe someone to pass it up at the appropriate moment.

I'd be checking a different USB-C/Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter before investing in anything further.

The macbook air has no native HDMI, so you'll be using some form of adapter? I'd suggest swapping this out, I've had issues with cheaper USB-C adapters - notably some don't support 1080p60, and some seem really keen on outputting 4K30 despite what the settings might suggest it should output - so it may be that the decimator is not getting a video format that it can handle properly.

It's certainly a large projection surface, and by manufacturer spec it's in the realm of 'large format projectors' rather than classroom style projectors.

If you're doing that level of maintenance then it won't add much time to do an insulation and earth bond test too, and add the results to your maintenance log. What's your resistance to PAT?

Don't be afraid of asking the larger companies in the area. 10 mics outside of C38 is very much the sort of hire that SSE/Solotech can sort out. You might need to spec that you don't need the latest Shure Axients to get a 'reasonable price'.

Have you asked Chauvet's service/support dept? Email available on their webpage - https://www.chauvetprofessional.com/contact-us/ I've not had to contact them since moving over to just doing sound and video, but they didn't bite when I dealt with them in 2021.

Consider also, fire exit capacity and backstage holding capacity. No good being able to fit 200 kids on stage if you can't get them offstage or find space for them to have a juice break.

Achieving a 5m wide image on a 1m throw would need a lens ratio of 0.2, which is unusually wide and would require a very very flat surface and precise lineup to work satisfactorily - or would need multiple projectors edge blended. If you can push that to just shy of 2m throw, you'll start to get more options as there's quite a bit out there with a throw ratio of 0.3-0.4. Realistically, with £2-3k in the pot, you're not going to get much. For a 5m wide image on stage I'd want at least 6000 lumens, preferably 8000. A 0.36 lens might easily cost £2k without the projector attached! If you can push that throw distance again to 2.5m you'll get to things you can afford, which will likely be a low brightness 'classroom' projector, likely using a curved mirror to achieve the throw ratio, rather than an expensive lens. These require a flat surface that stays still - they're not ideal for projecting onto a drape or soft screen. You might managed a 4000 lumen projector, but probably more likely 3500. How often do you need this projector? You may do much better hiring, and it'll mean you can stay up to date with the latest developments.

I did similar with a pair of Patt123s, but dismantled the wifi bulb, hardwired the it in, and turned the LED PCB to face straight towards the lens. They go plenty bright enough to light up a room with a nice soft ambient wash, and with full RGB WW CW colour mixing. Probably 100-150W tungsten equivalent, but brighter in deep saturated colour. I've software limited the white chip brightness, as it was getting a bit too hot and was concerned about longevity.

There's a couple of uses for diversity receivers - the first is as you use them (and I often deploy in the same manner), the other main use case is spaced between a half and a full wavelength apart to eliminate dropouts due to multipath cancellations - when we had the latest Sony digital radio mics in on demo they were very keen for us to use 3/4 wavelength spacing to minimise the effects of multipath. There is also some discussion to be had about using 2 antenna with 1 horizontal and 1 vertical, though if you're particularly worried about polarisation then a helical antenna may be a better solution. Shure have some good articles discussing antenna spacing on their website.

Have you asked Chauvet? They have a very helpful service dept.

I think one aspect is that inflation tends to effect the price of lower value items more significantly than higher value items, as the margin is already tighter and a greater proportion of the price is costs like transport/import/storage/marketing/support etc. Mirrorballs take up quite a bit of space for a low value item so the manufacture price might not have changed much but the cost once landed in the UK is much higher. A similar rise in shipping on a moving light that's already £1k+ might not show up as significant in the pricing. I've not noticed 300% rises on sound kit (my last LX purchases were 2019), though some items might well be as high as 150% of 2019 prices.