sandall

2 hours ago, p.k.roberts said:

It was quite common, in the dim and distant past, for audience mics in TV studios to be figure 8 mics, suspended so the dead areas of pickup faced pa speakers and performers. If you were able to borrow one or two, it might be worth experimenting with those too.

It worked (sort-of) in (very) high-ceilinged studios, but in this case the proximity of the rear lobe to the (presumably non-absorbent) ceiling would almost certainly make the problem even worse.

As Paul says, short shotguns aren't that narrow. Looking at your photo I would suggest 2 or 3 across the rear bar, angled fairly steeply down away from the stage &, if possible, do a band-only rehearsal, adjusting the mic angles for minimum band pickup. You won't cover the whole congregation, but nor will you pick up individuals, unless only a few actually sing, in which case you have a problem anyway! If the congregation sound a bit "thin" try adding a bit of Chorus Fx (Ok, it's a cheat, but then sound balancing always is). 

So 50% premium for adding the Peavey name

Thanks both. I've just been looking at my email exchange with A&H after I put it in. Basically they couldn't (wouldn't?) offer anything between password-protected Admin, which was too restrictive, & (unprotected) User, which leaves everything vulnerable. I was hoping someone might have discovered an unofficial work-round. In the meantime it has been, as suggested, a case of keeping out-of-sight copies of the wanted scene. The church users are totally non-technical, & seem incapable of reading even the largest-font Dymo labels about checking they have the right scene loaded, & about powering-down before hitting the wall-switch (or alternatively not leaving the whole system powered-up all week with no ventilation).

On 4/19/2024 at 9:25 AM, Ynot said:

How often does the school NEED the talkback? 
If it's only a couple of times a year or so, then look at hiring in a proper setup - same with lighting/sound gear. You don't HAVE to buy everything .........

If you are looking for an electronics project, then fine. If you just want a working comms system for the occasional show, then hiring-in a made-for-purpose system is a no-brainer ("UK" is a rather wide "location" to suggest a hire firm local to you).

3 hours ago, musht said:

Particularly Black Light Blue, BLB,  tubes as Adam says not tanning , insect or germ killers, because

https://youtu.be/6DlfLthx89E?si=0-g_nkSeaolSWdXw

black paint standard 4 foot fittings, use tubes like

https://www.lampshoponline.com/f36w-blb-4ft-36w-t8-blacklight-blue-tube.html

 

 

An interesting read. I'd forgotten how cheap blacklight tubes are - possibly cheaper than standard 4' tubes (if you can manage to find them).

A church I'm distantly involved with has a Qu16, using 2 of the Mix busses to feed 2 separate speaker systems for mics & music. The "default" setup is saved as a Scene, which works fine for the regular operators, but from time to time a visiting knob-twiddler will manage to overwrite this default Scene, which is when I get a phone call. Does anyone know a way of locking a Scene, without also locking the channel faders? (A&H introduced Permissions in v.1.4, but they basically work as all or nothing)

10 hours ago, themadhippy said:

No need for second hand the showtec multi exchanger will take in DMX and spit out + 10 or  -  10v .

I was assuming that even a new showtec would break the budget (& that DB25 outputs might put off the non-technical)

31 minutes ago, Bryson said:

I'm assuming you have DMX and dont also need analog...

If not, it should be easy to add a demultiplexer to your dimmers, but (alarm bells ringing) if your Strand desk is feeding old Strand dimmers they probably work on 0v to -10v, rather than 0v to +10v, in which case you probably need to look for something 2nd-hand.

10 hours ago, David Duffy said:

The DC fuse is likely used for mains and 24V operation. If it's anything like the TOA amps, the 24V DC input feeds into the rectified transformer supply via a separate diode. Here's how the TOA A500 series do it.

Interesting, I checked my A300(?) series TOA ((mains + 12V DC) & the fuse is in series with the DC socket, but it sounds that the Inkel is like your TOA circuit, so it's probably 1 or more o/p transistors gone short-circuit.

2 hours ago, themadhippy said:

 looking at the front panel id say its for the 24v DC input

Indeed it's labelled "DC 24V", which doesn't explain why it's blowing when on mains power. No experience of this amp (& can't find anything useful online), but the DC fuse should just sit between the DC input socket & the output of the power-supply, so with no 24V connected there shouldn't be any current flowing (even if something has gone short-circuit). Does the amp work if you just remove the fuse?

Would it be worth looking out for a 2nd-hand Zero88 or similar desk for the "non-experts" to use?

Looking again, they look more like 1W or 2W, like the 100R one on the left. The position of the brown band on the toasted ones suggests a multiplier of 10. Unfortunately the Techpro PSU cct diagram doesn't give a value for the appropriate one.

3 hours ago, pstewart said:

The signal generator from a tone probe set will make the speakers sound. 

If all else fails, dabbing an AA battery works just fine.

Someone here should be able to give you a definitive answer, but in the meantime -

They will be quite low-value, but look like 1/4W, so maybe 10s of Ohms, & presumably acted as fuses when the supply was shorted out. Why don't you bypass them for the time being & see whether the belt-packs spring into life?

42 minutes ago, James said:

reminds me I still have my old portable show relay system for village halls floating about

A friend of mine used to hump around a load of large CRT TVs for the local am-dram musicals, which all used an off-stage MD & band. 

11 hours ago, IRW said:

@sandall, that won't be a problem in this situation- if we needed visual relay to the box it would come straight from the composite distribution amp, rather than via the TV system.

Sorry, crossed-wires🙁 - I was thinking of a using a digital TV system for audio show-relay, which would mean all word cues would have to marked-up about 2 words early!!!

2 hours ago, Dave m said:

There’s bound to be a bit of a delay but show relay doesn’t matter. 

It does to the sound op, if he/she is behind glass, especially if sharing a room with lighting.

Sounds like what highways contractors use for holding things down (which they then leave behind in the nearest hedge!!😥)

1 hour ago, Junior8 said:

 I would also ask - what is the point? They'll be gone in a year or two, the recordings will be of little interest to any following cohorts and I suspect will never be looked at again. 

Well, maybe. Back in the day I used to record all the musicals I worked on, & flog audio cassettes to the cast (though whether they were played more than once, or indeed if at all, I wouldn't know). But this was before every waking-breath has to be recorded & shared with the rest of the world (which of course will include the licence & copyright police). The only video I made was for the playwright, so copyright wasn't an issue. As mentioned above, be very careful who you share anything with that might end up online.

25 minutes ago, Andrew C said:

I've just seen how £prestigious a 747 is now.

Presumably they are still hand-carved out of ingots of precious metal, but the gnomes now demand executive pay rates🤔

Possibly just wants 4 mics across the front (not an uncommon way to record a choir), but trying to do it with 2 stereo recorders. Synching up using something like Audition might work, then panning the LH recorder tracks to hard-left & centre-left, & the others to centre-right & hard-right; all a bit tedious to do & may well sound horrible!  Better to use 4 mics & a 4-channel mixer & record the stereo output, if you have the gear. Otherwise just use one central recorder.

2 hours ago, Simon Lewis said:

I think I preferred them to the 747s... 

I certainly preferred the price!!

Presumably started off life as a Balance control for a(n unbalanced) stereo source

If you were that close to the stage were you maybe overloading the receivers (XSWs are probably not as robust as G2s & G3s)?