Shez

It's also worth being aware that many schools and other council run organisations can be restricted as to which suppliers they can use. There's a list of approved suppliers (who've had to jump through ridiculous hoops to get there) and if your preferred supplier isn't on that list, tough. I've seen all manner of silliness (and wasted tax payer's money) caused by goods and services having to be supplied by companies who, for one reason or another, aren't suitable but are on the list and so get the gig.

Logic Systems are worth a look. I bought my first (and still main) PA from them nearly 20 years ago! Their old 1296 system was in the price range you're discussing and still is a good solid six box rig. (I think the company may have changed hands recently and I've not heard any of the latest offerings but they have good heritage.)

As well as your speakers, if you don't already have them, don't forget to also consider mixing desk, multicore, stagebox, mics, stands, DIs, cables, mains distro, cover for mix position, cable ramps etc, etc. That could easily wipe out half of your budget. Outdoor festivals / concerts are complex affairs.

1. I would always use static for the mixer. The last thing you want to be worrying about is what its address has changed to when the server has decided to allocate a new one. 2. I would use the router for that function yes. 3. Mixer static; mobile devices DHCP. Makes it much easier to switch to a backup phone / tablet without needing to do any additional configuration. I'd go for the usual 192.168.0.xxx range. 4. Subnet can be 255.255.255.0 as you only have a few devices on a very small single segment of a network. It generally seems a good idea to hide your network SSID so every phone in the venue doesn't keep hammering it in case it has free internet. Be wary of Line6 wireless gear, wireless DMX and other devices in the vicinity. 5GHz is less congested than 2.4 but won't travel as far or through as much. I don't disagree with Alister - it's the Jurassic Park question - just because you can do it, doesn't mean that you should...

I'd be very surprised if there's any law that specifically mentions nooses on stage! As with most of these things, it's down to a proper risk assessment.

Rather depends on the size & shape of the ballroom. What's the length, width and height and where will you be set up?

Scaling also adds latency. Sadly it's unavoidable with modern (HD) TVs as they'll scale up anything less than HD. Many also have all kinds of "clever" processing built in too which is best disabled.

Looks like a standard requirement for a sound tech who needs to listen to both radio comms and a desk feed. I can't help with a product suggestion but it does sound like there's a gap in the market.

BNC, like XLR, is just a connector - it can carry an array of different signals. Back in the good old days of analogue, composite video was king (via BNC) and there was zero latency. Life was simple. Anything digital in the signal chain will add latency, particularly if scaling is involved. Domestic HD TVs are notorious for this and can add quite a few frames if scaling and any other unnecessary processing is involved. Given that virtually every tour that I've ever encountered has managed just fine with standard def cameras, often with black & white pictures (even for the non-IR camera) I'd find it hard to justify "at least full HD". Low latency & low light performance is far more important than the number of pixels. 55" sounds excessive for the circle front monitor - I'd say 37" would be more than enough. At only 15m, even 26" would be OK to see the conductor's arms waving! Last time I did this, I used security cameras outputting AHD - it's an analogue HD format - but they can also output composite if needed. A cheap converter box turns that in to VGA so you can use either TVs or computer monitors. End to end latency is about 3 frames. I'd generally steer clear of HDMI as latency sometimes seems to creep up more with conversions to/from that. After some tweaking of camera settings, the quality is remarkably good - we're planning to eventually feed it around the building as a show relay and I don't think anyone will be disappointed with the picture.

That kind of LED tape normally comes with an IR remote - it's very unlikely that you'll be able to control it with a lighting desk. What connectors does it have?

What's the make / model of this LED strip? You almost certainly shouldn't plug it in to a dimmer!

As an alternative solution, how about a second midi interface? Much like adding an extra DMX universe, it's an easy way of dealing with clashing addresses.

I would have thought that moulded IEMs would be perfect for that?

A few of my friends went to see Muse at the Olympic stadium over the weekend. Judging by some of the photos, an individual stood on the stage was almost invisible from the far side of the stadium! For me, (more of a theatre person), anything bigger than about 3000 people is a bit pointless as the audience experience just gets progressively worse.

A couple of years ago I was looking to get a simple custom gobo made and asked a local company with laser cutting abilities to quote. They could only go as thin as 0.1mm steel which is a little on the thick side for a gobo and quoted £79 which was a little more than I was hoping. They can cut up to 25mm mild steel which is quite impressive! ADS laser cutting if you're interested.

Sounds like a job for an Anytronics panel

What clever devices do you use to mount computer screens, tablets, laptops etc at your mix position? I'm looking really for portable (touring type) ideas rather than those that have to be screwed down. I've seen various office type solutions around which may or may not be useful. What have you found that works?

I have no end of trouble with Intel on board graphics not outputting the resolution they say they are. E.G. you set the driver to output 1280x800 but the receiving projector says it's getting 1024x768. A lot of faffing with other settings - refresh rate & fit mode - eventually gets there but it's a pain.

Some laptops need to be booted up with the cable plugged in and display device turned on otherwise they don't detect them. Always worth doing a reboot to check that.

Something like this?

Not exactly what you asked but having recently done the Chamsys course, I was quite impressed at the timeline feature which lets you easily set up cues at specific times - incorporate the audio file within the cue stack and just press go at the appropriate times to record those timings. Also easily editable after the fact. Of course if Chamsys isn't your favourite LX desk, you're out of luck ;) Thinking slightly further out of the box though, Pangolin's Quickshow, whilst primarily designed for lasers, has a very good visual timeline that you can set up cue markers on alongside the audio waveform which can trigger DMX outputs. Possibly other protocols too. Might be worth exploring.

What's the standard practice (if any) when using RDM? To me, it would seem sensible to have it enabled whilst setting up a rig but turn it off once that setup is done. Is there any benefit from leaving it it on during performance? Downside of course being the possibility of non-compliant fixtures misbehaving.

Are Behringer products excluded from that support? I was under the impression that at least the X32 family were supported from Kidderminster.

Works OK. Was standard practice with the Avo Pearl as that's how its XLR outs are wired.

The L6 isn't frequency hopping per se but instead uses four separate frequencies (in RF1 mode) which each carry duplicate data - as long as at least one of those frequencies' data gets through, the system works.