Simon Lewis

I have just been through the same exercise (local church has dozens of PAR38s for house lights but on a 2kW dimmer and they look sooo warm and dim soooo nicely....!) I managed to get the "last box" from a local electrical supplier, but was considering online purchase (but at rather inflated prices). Places like TLC have sold out.

You think you're ordering from London, but it usually gets invoiced and shipped from Music Store, Cologne (who bought them out)

Like many here, I make personal and business related purchases from the likes of Thomann (obviously EU) and DV247 (not always quite so obviously EU). Trying to navigate government and consumer websites for information and guidance for post Jan1st purchases isn't easy or simple... Some sites suggest consumer purchases over £390 will incur customs duties. Government sites suggest various things to register for, employing agents and listing commodity codes for every item (which comically don't fit the items we buy) Has anyone sussed this out yet or is everyone as confused as me?

The amp will most likely be a little happier keeping to a 4 ohm load for each channel - so two SX300s per side would be good. Although a speaker might be rated at a nominal 8 ohms, over part of its frequency range it can dip below that value. A separate amp for the subs would also be preferable, then you can give them a bit more juice :-) If you wanted to run the LM10s and 8s and wedges, these could be run from the powered desk leaving the subs and SX300s to be run off their own power amps. Amps such as Yamaha's PX range are lightweight and have some DSP built in, so you probably wouldn't need an additional crossover. If cost was a factor, there will be some lower priced 'equivalents' from the likes of Behringer and Thomann (t.amp)

Ah yes - the TV HD content won't be accessible. The Humax recorders I have can be made to share recordings etc.

Just check whether it can have an external hard drive added to give you the recording feature... quite a few (including my LG) do?

A bunch of hydrocarbons propelled by butane.... the orange is probably to try and stop people sniffing it!

Thanks for the reassurances, I'll give it a go!

All, I think I've seen someone do this, but is it possible to have a standard Sen­nhe­iser SK100 G4 beltpack feeding a Sen­nhe­iser EK IEM G4 IEM beltpack? I'm looking for something like the Sennheiser Pro Reporting system, but with the ability to drive headphones etc. at the receiving pack...

Acetone, applied sparingly to a cloth or slightly abrasive pad should remove most residues, but can also take the shine of some finishes. Ethanol or isopropanol is more kind. WD40 has a load of different solvents, some of which I'd prefer not to be getting on my hands too often, plus oils which I'd rather not put on my cases...

Sorry to hear your news.... hope you get sorted...

In the story, the culprit was an old pre EMC TV, although the noise generation was a result of a fault rather than its normal working characteristic. When I changed some dOmeStic lighting to LED GU10, I found that an old clock radio could no longer operate without quite loud interference... the reassuringly expensive DAB replacement didn't suffer the same problem. I have seen supposedly EMC compliant goods cause significant interference, simply because individual parts may well have been compliant, but the assembly or system wasn't. There seems to have been an assumption that making a system out of compliant parts will ensure compliance.... it ain't necessarily so.

I'll admit that I find headphone choice queries to be a bit like asking "what pair of shoes should I buy"... That said, Beyer DT770s sound nice, fit comfortably, are available in soft PVC or velour ear cups and also a range of impedances to suit the amp driving them. They are also just over half of the suggested maximum budget...

That's the badger.... thank you...! They weren't particularly good, but were much better for lecture recording than the mic mounted in a ceiling tile, usually next to the lecture room's air handling unit outlet. One other idiosyncrasy was that they were two way... I couldn't work out why I lost audio playback from the lectern system when the USB mic was plugged in, but found that there was a 2.5mm jack on the clip on mic, to which my lecture slide audio was being happily transmitted.... As for the Alarm feature - it was really annoying, as I carried my unit to each lecture room with the thing burbling away....!

I had a system at work that comprised a base station with USB cable and a small clip on mic about the size and shape of a lip salve tube. Communication was (I think) 2.4GHz or DECT. Audio quality wasn't up to much, but it was far better than lecture capture using a small mic in the ceiling. The mic sat in the base station and recharged.... I can't for the life of me remember the make!!

Just to be utterly pedantic, -10dBV to +4dBu is 11.8dB difference More seriously, the reported fussy-ness about connected monitor is a little concerning... could you expand a bit more or do you know of any particular (say) 27" monitors that do work? We are probably buying a Pro plus monitor fairly soon!

UVC (200 to 280 nm) is the most effective range for germicidal purposes - B and A have lesser effect, and the LEDs masquerading as UVC sources (as opposed to the expensive ones that can actually produce that wavelength) are criminal. As mentioned, Big Clive does a good take down of those. There was some research done on far UVC (207–222 nm) suggesting that it wasn't harmful to human skin but still had germicidal properties. I might not want to be the guinea pig in that trial, though. There are some caveats in using UV though... a) ensuring that with all of the difference sources claiming effective operation that it is actually a workable germicidal light source. The beauty of using the low pressure mercury UV lamp is that the mercury spectral line is at 253.7 nm and you know what you are getting!! b) that all the affected surfaces have been irradiated. It is easy to have shadow zones which leave viruses unaffected. Unlike (say) a properly used autoclave, it can be hard to guarantee that all parts of a room have been sterilised from virus using UV. UV certainly has its place but the skin and eye exposure issues and the points above need to be considered...

If it was an event type scenario, using devices like the P1 or P2 and feeding them new batteries wouldn't be too much of a problem. If it was more of an "ad hoc" rehearsal, church or similar setup where there might be multiple uses and users of the monitors, where the unit might be inadvertently left on etc., I would strongly avoid using battery powered gear. We use a Tascam MH8 (with Behringer PM1) as a good sounding, well built headphone amp, but it does suffer from the "multiplicity of buttons" issue that you've mentioned. It does, however, mean that users can plug in and it just works. We keep the headphone amp out of harms way, and haven't had any "adjustments" made...

There's a difference between parallel and bridging modes... In parallel mode, the same signal is applied to both channels of a two channel amp, but the amps remain independent. Typically, only one volume pot remains active. It's useful when you want lots of speakers all running at the same level etc. In bridge mode, there is only one input which is split so that one amp channel is fed the signal in polarity and the other channel out of polarity. There is only one output, connected between the "hot" output terminal of each amp. It's useful when you want to try and maximise amp power, but comes with a bunch of caveats over load, distortion etc., etc.

Just noted your location... As far as I can see, 823 - 832 is an available but licenced bit of spectrum in Ireland. We have the EU to thank for its use! :-) You'd need to check what the licence details are..... There's some information here...

Most manufacturers state 4 is possible between 863.1 and 864.9 (that's leaving a suitable gap so as not to stray outside the band). Thomann indicate that four is possible with the T bone unit, but you may get some problems.... If you need more channels, they also make that model available in the 823 to 832 band, and that offers 10 channels. For UK use you would need a shared radio mic licence (£135 for two years) from Ofcom to operate legally.

Trantec make a "fitness instructor" headset mic that's said to be highly sweat resistant... couple that with a suitable beltpack in a zip up bag (or non lubricated condom) and you should be good to go....

I'd suggest the Anyscene 512 as these can access the whole 512 channels, whereas the Anyscene 1 only does 36 channels. I've installed the Anyscene 512-5 so the users get 4 presets and an "all off" button. When the lighting desk is off or not plugged into the DMX line, the Anyscene takes over. As soon as it's on, the Anyscene sees the DMX signal and relinquishes control. This is great for the church we've put this in - staff get a basic lighting controller for the building, but as soon as the more complex lighting desk is switched on by their production people, the Anyscenes don't operate. Anyscene 512-5: http://www.anytronics.com/images/anyscene_512_5butt_2x.jpg

I wired up an Anyscene for a local church last night. Extremely easy to use - set the scene you want on the desk, flip a DIP switch to put Anyscene into programme mode, then hold the wanted scene button down for a couple of seconds. When all the scenes are in, put the programme DIP switch back and screw unit to the wall. It fits on top of a standard two gang back plate. The church has an Anytronics dimmer, so I didn't need a separate power supply, but it's working well with a 12 channel dimmer and then a DMX splitter feeding several dozen non moving LED fixtures.

...sorry... how do they get *hold* of a receiver?