The JC

Hi all, Due to a recent round of 'rona in one of my venue's acting companies, we've had to move to hybrid rehearsals of in the room and on Zoom (Sssso 2020-21!!). For audio, normal webcams ain't cutting it so I'm planning to mic up the room and send it via a USB interface to the laptop. What are your microphone suggestions? The room has high ceilings, a sprung wooden floor and there is no 'default setup' meaning I need to capture sound equally from pretty much every angle in the room. On top of that, appreciate that I don't have a room plan to offer, recommendations for placement would be great too. My inital thought was having some mics rigged above the space so they don't interefere and can't be tampered with.... Suggestions welcome 🙂

Hi folks, I’ve got 4 LITE-D 591.TM01 3phase winch motors in use. They are located substage, with control hub backstage, directly above motors (Circa 3m separation between the two levels) Have a BlackMagic dual monitor screen set up next to the control hub to spot the stage while using winches. Whenever winches are operated, the video relay flickers intermittently. We have multiple feeds of the video dotted around the venue and it’s only the screens by the control hub which flicker. Winches are on their own 3phase supply separate from the circuits the dual monitor screen is plugged into. Wondering if the motor is creating some AC EMI, given it’s only the screen by the control hub which is affected? We carry SDI over RG6 coax. Any suggestions on how we can stop this flickering?? We have limited space and relocating the monitors further away isn’t an option sadly, given their “spotting” function!

Hi all, Can anyone recommend a company who would be able to do a site visit to a venue in London, do a sound survey and recommend ambient microphones to pick up the stage? There are some unique requirements and characteristics of the space which is why an in person visit would be needed. Cheers!

Thanks for this. Any advice on what I can do if it turns out to be the loop causing the issue? Obviously still want to keep performances accessible to people with hearing aids. If it is just a straight forward either/or, with no workarounds, then I think the loop would have to take priority.

Thank you for all the feedback (No pun intended...). I'll give all of your suggestions a go and see if we get some good results.

Hiya team, This problem is well and truly stumping me. My venue has 2x Panasonic AW-HE120 cameras which are used as the show relay for backstage monitors etc. A fault has developed whereby whenever a loud noise happens in the space (e.g. audience applause, pyrotechnics, stamping on the ground, door slams etc) one of the video feeds momentarily cuts out. Power to the camera remains consistent, it's just the image that goes for about 3 seconds. The routing is camera SDI out to facilities panel, into a patch panel and then distributed by a BlackMagic 12x12 SmartHub. Our audio is fed by a separate microphone, going directly into a Symetrix Radius 12x8, out into amplifiers and then into backstage speakers. At no point are the two signals combined; they share the same comms rack but are otherwise separate. The microphone is also over 10m away from the cameras. We have tried altering microphone levels, changing the framerate and resolution of the video feed and power supply to the camera in question but to no avail. As a wild guess, I'm thinking that somewhere/somehow the mic signal is causing some sort of issue within the comms rack itself??? But I don't know how I can trace/prove that. Any suggestions for where I can go next? Questions welcome so we can work through this together...

A theatre venue has recently invested in a BlackMagic 40x40 (Not the 12G version) to distribute its visual relay, backstage. What are your suggestions for the most cost effective monitor screens to use (UK based)? I know they can go down the route of a standard HDMI monitor via a BlackMagic converter, but ideally it would be good to have something with a BNC/SDI port already in to cut down on adapters. Looking for screens around the 21/23" size. From my searching thus far I'm being taken into the TV world with 7" monitors for £1k..... not ideal when you need to buy several monitors!

Straight forward speakers :)

Hi team, I’ve been tasked with revamping our theatre’s backstage audio relay speakers. I’m working with 2x QSC CX108v, which will require all channels to be used, and the longest cable run is around 80m. Destinations are dressing rooms, stairwells etc. Over the tenure of previous technicians a whole range of speakers have been mish-mashed into the system as speakers have died, and has thrown the whole system out of balance. What are your thoughts on which speakers to purchase to revamp this system? The ideal is something between 3-5”. I’ve not got bags of time to do the install either so bracket-mounted speakers are preferred to recessed ones. Muchos gracias!

The stream health is consistently on Excellent. ‘Broadcasting’ it has never really had any problems, it just seems to be at the receiving end. Fine and dandy on mobile devices, but desktops/laptops just can’t cope for some reason regardless of what network they’re connected to (Office or personal or even 4G)

Thanks for the suggestions; with our current setup our lag time (when viewing it on a stable device) is only around 2 seconds. The stream is actually running constantly - As the video’s privacy settings are “invite only”, we thought it was impractical to keep distributing new YouTube links every few hours, although I can totally see why this would affect performance. The stream has been reset 3 times since the glitching started and it hasn’t had any positive impact on performance. We’ll investigate and try some bits out ?

Hi everyone, YouTube/Google Help forums haven't helped so I'm posting this here :) My workplace has set up a private YouTube live stream so colleagues working from home can tune in to see what's happening on site and still feel part of the team [We're a theatre; they're able to watch rehearsals on stage during the day and shows in the evening if they wish]. The stream is going via a wired Internet connection with an average connection speed of 5000 Kbps into our staff network system. We have a 1080p camera which is going into a dedicated Windows PC via a BlackMagic Web Presenter. The PC is literally used for nothing else, it sits in our Comms Rack and isn't touched unless there's an issue with the stream. YouTube is set to Live broadcast in 'Webcam' mode, rather than sending it via 3rd party software like OBS. We figured this would help reduce lag. Here's the rub: For the first few days the stream worked seamlessly on PCs, Laptops and mobile devices [Anything with access to YouTube]. However, in the last two days the PCs and Laptops have been buffering the video every second or two, regardless of the resolution selected; eventually YouTube gives up and chucks up an error code. On the other hand, mobile devices (Phones and tablets) simultaneously have no issue at all watching the stream uninterrupted at 1080p, both in the workplace, at people's homes and on roaming mobile data. This is making me assume that it's not necessarily related to the wired internet connection speed as mobile devices can still receive the stream with no issues. I had also considered that maybe the stream was having an impact on the staff network which is why we had buffering issues on the staff PCs, but several staff members have tested with their own PCs and Laptops at home and got the same buffering results. On top of that, if I sign into the streaming account on any PC or laptop, regardless of the network I'm on, and go into YouTube Studio, I can watch the stream from the preview window uninterrupted. Has anyone come across this issue? Given the new covid world we live in Live Streaming has boomed in popularity over the last year as people can't attend mass events, so hopefully there's someone out there who can help!

Hi everyone, I have a Symetrix Symnet Radius 12x8 which is behaving very oddly since we powered it on after some months. The top row of LEDs on the front of the unit are rapidly cycling on in a sort of fanning motion (Starting at the centre and then pulsing outwards). At first I thought this was just part of the startup sequence, but it continues to do this after 30 minutes of being on. The Composer software is saying that it is unmuted and has found its IP address etc, but I have no sound output and it's not registering inputs [The exact same ones that it was working fine with before we powered it off!]. Does anybody know what could be causing it, and also what the erratic flashing LEDs denote? Thank you!

Hi all, I have 2x QSC CX108V amps that are feeding all of my backstage show relay speakers. My predecessors seem to have installed some unbranded 8” speakers with an 8ohm, 5W, 10W, 15W, 20W and 30W selector dial on the back. There have been several issues with some speakers being outrageously loud and others pitifully quiet regardless of volume controls on the amp, so I’m starting the diagnosis with calculating how many speakers each of the amps can actually have and at what impedance. How do I go about calculating this? My gut is telling me that these amps are being stretched and also that people are turning the selector dials assuming that it’s just volume (Will be mounting the speakers higher up to stop them from doing this ?) Cheers!

Hi everyone, I’m currently putting in some new cable infrastructure for a small local theatre and am wondering which coax cable is best to run the Facility Panels’ video ports. RG59 seems to be very popular but RG6 keeps popping up too. I know they have different uses so the question is - Which do I use?

I've got a new Allen and Heath QU32 Chrome at our theatre, and the theatre now wishes to do film screenings in 5.1 surround sound. The Bluray player installed can output 5.1 surround sound. What's the cleanest and simplest way to plug this up from desk to amps, and then program it? It will not be the in-house technicians operating the sound for the film screenings so the operation needs to be as straight forward as possible. All of the speakers have amps in their correct pairs, i.e. one amp for Main LR, one amp for centre, one for sub, one for rear LR. I'll just confirm that we will still be doing live theatre performances [When the pandemic allows!] as well as film screenings so we need to be able to switch between 5.1 and 2.1. My initial thought was to have two separate show files on the QU32: 'Show' and 'Film' so we could program differently rather than replugging, just not entirely sure on the best way to program it for the 'Film' 5.1 surround sound file. I'm usually the lighting guy! ? Ideas welcome; we're a small theatre so please avoid any responses that require spending a lot of money! :)

Connecting network switches in 2 venues (approx. 100m apart) via fibre optic. I need a tannoy control module in venue 1 (routed via the network switch) to provide PoE to its microphone pager in venue 2, which will get plugged into the other network switch. Will the fibre optic line be able to accommodate this?

Thank you both - I'm converting it to Composite as all of the monitors in the venue are different and composite is the only format they all accept natively. Thanks for all your help.

I've got a BlackMagic SmartHub and one of the outputs is going through a BlackMagic SDI to Analog converter. Potentially silly question, but if I then try to distribute that Analog signal to multiple places using a BlackMagic SDI distributor, will the signal stay as Analog or will the SDI distributor automatically switch it back to SDI? If it does, what's the best analog distributor to use? I only need 8 video outputs, no audio required.

Got a bunch of wireless Green Go Beltpack Xs, and one of them will occasionally and for no obvious reason wipe its config file and then not be able to find one again on the Clone Config menu. To avoid responses of 'User Error', I have had the belt pack on the table next to me, not touched it and just watched it drop out of signal from full signal whenever it pleases; there are 8 packs in use in the space, and 4 antennas. When the signal does come back, it has still remembered the Antenna but the config file has disappeared and under 'Clone Config' there are no available options apart from Factory Default. How can I get the config file I need back onto the pack? It's also undiscoverable when I load up Green Go's computer software so cannot load the file back on via that. At the moment I just have to restart it a couple of times, wait about half an hour and the config file sometimes appears back on the pack but it now seems to have stopped that too. The pack has been back and forth between myself and the supplier many times and each time has come back with a 'nothing wrong with it' report.

Thanks for the replies! I’m relatively new to the venue and have been given 0 handover notes so it’s a bit of a voyage of discovery for me. I have since discovered that the system is as follows: - We have Australian Monitor DigiPage. These eventually end up at the same speakers that the show relay comes through. The wall panels are also Australian Monitor and have 6 zone selectors; the tannoy “ducks” whichever channel your on when it is used. - The Symetrix system is linked to the DigiPage system by CAT5 - It appears to be via the cable which splits out to the Arc port too. The Arc light now flashes very very intermittently (Whereas before there was nothing). I now also have a constant green light on Input A1 (Again, beforehand there was nothing). - The Symetrix xOut 12 is still showing just one channel as working; the wall panel has power but no audio. It seems to be that we made progress in one area and have lost it in another. Thanks for all your help so far.

Context: I’m in a theatre which has a show relay (Supplied via mics above stage) that is sent around the backstage areas. The Comms rack which houses all equipment for this has recently been stripped out because it was close to a spaghetti fire hazard and had redundant equipment which had been unplugged but not removed over the years. The relay is controlled via Dante on a Symetrix 12x8 Radius which sends to 12 wall panels around the building. The wall panels are capable of 6 channels, although we only use one. Issue: Only 1 of the 12 panels has power to it, and although it’s connected the “Arc” light on the front of the Symetrix isn’t on. I assume this is how it sends power to the panels? It is only that panel with power that has a working feed. The venue also has a tonne of cables which are unlabelled and go in and out of untraceable trunking which doesn’t help. Question: Can someone explain the basic principle of how the system SHOULD work (In fairly simple terms!) and the way things should be cabled? That way I can apply it to this venue and it’s unique characteristics.Also any help on why my Arc system isn’t on would be appreciated. It’s wired into the back of an unlabelled CAT5 patch panel. Cheers everyone!