cedd

Not a suggestion for you, but Penn and Teller do an excellent trick with a nail gun. Their patter about safety and making the audience complicit in something dangerous is quite apt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jko5BGhc-Ys One thing I'd be making sure of, if I was having compressed air anywhere near the prop, would be to ensure it had different connectors to any real air nailers that could have hands laid on during the production. Preferably have it "hard wired" (hard piped??!) so it can't be disconnected. This way it's impossible for a real nail gun to actually be connected.

I had a long chat with Sennheiser about this at Plasa. They have circulators on their antenna inputs (that'll be the ferrite directional couplers) which they said means they're essentially intermod-free. Just space the channels correctly and get on with it. I was really quite amazed by the claim, but am not an RF circuit design expert, so can only take them at their word.

I'd toyed with switching to my full name on here - haven't got any reason to hide it. Figured I've been here a bit long now as Cedd though! I registered as it when I was in my late teens. I'm 35 now!

That's my thread! 🙂 Started that one first as a general "what do people think of them?". They seem very common in the US church market so PSW felt like a good place to ask. I've always felt the Blue Room probably was the better place for repair and technical questions though, so I added a quick question on the PSW thread about repairs (which received one response) but came here with the proper repair question. Yesterday I pushed the button and bought 36 broken Aviom A16ii's plus distribution from the US and a mic input module from the UK. I'm getting a very good deal even when considering duty etc. Clearly lots of work to do on them, but my aim is to get the easiest 20 of them up and running, then either repair the remainder slowly or break for parts. I've sourced pots, switches, headphone sockets and RJ45 sockets, so I think I can tackle most common issues on them. Lack of button caps will be my first hurdle as they seem to fall out for fun. I'm hoping I can design an improved 3d printed alternative. Feel like I'm the right person for these Avioms. Reckon I can give them a good extended life and I'd always rather repair something older but higher end than buy something new but cheaper. Hopefully I'll pick up the knowledge I need to keep them repaired and serviced for years to come. Also if I'd been buying a new P16 system it'd have been a compromise in terms of number of mixers - I could only have afforded 10 at most. Most of my pits are 13+ musicians. For the same money I'm hopefully going to have 20 Avioms.

Thanks Bruce, I'd spotted that one. He helpfully glosses over the button removal which is a bit of a shame. I've since found this really useful thread which includes part numbers for the main bits that fail. https://groupdiy.com/threads/aviom-personal-mixer-repair.35242/page-3 Given that, and another video I found, I think I'm going to go for it and only buy faulty ones. I'm confident I can get a good number of them working now.

Hi all Looking at potentially buying a number of "spares or repairs" Aviom A-16ii's, with the aim of using some units as donors to repair others. I won't have chance to look inside one until I make the purchase and they arrive, so they're a bit of an unknown entity at the minute. Lots of them are missing buttons, which I feel reasonably confident I can deal with. Might even try and 3d print replacements rather than gutting other donor units. Encoders & pots also look to have taken a beating on a few. The rest are likely to be electronics issues. My big question is, has anyone seen inside of one of these before, and can you tell me how straightforward to repair they are? I'd be looking at buying 20+ of them, so am hoping I'd become pretty adept at fixing them after a while and getting to know any regular issues. Until then though, some advice on if I stand a chance or not would be helpful. Any hints on common issues would be especially useful! I'm am electronics engineer by trade with access to a decent workshop of test equipment, surface mount and through hole soldering equipment etc. Thanks!

Thanks for the replies everyone. Click is definitely on the cards for the company dancing. At least in the Christmas show. Anything Goes MD might take a little more persuading. Solo tapping is my primary concern here, which I think in this venue is probably going to have to be live. 2 mics/beltpacks would be lovely, but I already double mic my principals for vocals, so double mics on tap would be 4 beltpacks, which I think might get me told where to go. Has anyone successfully passively combined a pair of lavs in to a mono beltpack? I don't particularly need Stereo, just to pick up both feet. A single mic will probably still be better than no mic and relying on PZM's.

Hi all Got a couple of tap based shows coming up. Anything Goes and a big Christmas show with lots of tap routines. I'd normally reach for the PZM's but the staging and positioning of some of the solo tap is problematic in terms of fixed mics. My next option is to radio mic it, which I know is reasonably common, but not something I've done before myself. I've got a few questions to pick the brains of anyone who has; Will one single lav, attached at the ankle, suffice for both feet? My gut feeling is yes. Any mounting tips? I'm thinking the old fashioned tea-stained elastic. Any other gotchas or words of advice? Pack is likely to be a Line6 2.4GHz. Probably in an elasticated pouch as a waist mounting. If I can find a cheap ish lav with a long enough cable to reach!

A vehicle set mounted in the room and powered from a 12v mains adapter, with the coax running out to a fixed aerial would work. Just switch it on when you're in there. However there are legalities to consider. I believe Ofcom class a set that is mounted in some way to be a fixed base, which isn't permitted. You'd need to read up on it. Is it that you get nothing at all, or that the squelch is too high in its' usual setting? If the signal you're after is there but buried in the noise then you may be able to programme a button on your radios up to switch the squelch level. I think you're probably going to struggle to do anything from an RF point of view without some sort of base station or repeater.

I'd normally agree and don't make a habit of buying products I'd consider a knock off, but this is a £150 amplifier competing with other £150 amplifiers. Whether you buy Thomann, Pulse, Sinbosen etc. they're all similarly priced, The sinbosen has the edge on the quoted power. Whether you believe that spec or not is up to you. I think in this instance though it's a legitimate suggestion. I wouldn't be suggesting it to somebody asking for recommendations of alternatives to Crown, Lab or Powersoft because, despite the looks, they're not in the same league and it's something I'd not feel comfortable doing. My own rack has an XR18 that I bought second hand, a set of 4 JTS radio mics I've had for donkeys years, and the Sinbosen amp. The whole rack came in at less than £500 to assemble, and I was never going to be able to afford anything more. My 6 channel Cloud was too big and to be honest too good to put in to it. The Sinbosen fitted the bill and I bought it based on what it was, a cheap 4 channel amp. Never expected it to behave like a Lab or Powersoft just because it looked like one, but they would never have been options for me anyway, even second hand.

I have an almost identical rack, although with an xr18. Managed to get mine in to 4u by racking the mic receivers at the back of the mixer. I went for a Sinbosen amp bought through AliExpress. You can buy direct from their store to guarantee no fakes. Seems a good amp so far. Well built and has plenty of poke.

Mine is the MEI 100 G2, and seems pretty good. Can't comment on the U308 other than to say it maybe looks like a more rugged beltpack (MEI is plastic with an almost rubbery finish). Don't think you'll really go wrong with either to be honest.

I can recommend the LD Systems IEM's. Only a little more expensive than the ones you're mentioning there. Have a couple of them and they've been really good. The channel 70 system tunes down to channel 65 as well which was a big bonus for me.

I wouldn't be using real razor clams at all. I'd be buying a length of plastic pipe - maybe conduit. Run it through a bandsaw down its' length to remove a little of the middle, leaving two slightly less than half circles. Then you need a hinge. This could be as simple as tape, or you could find some little dolls house hinges. You could hold it shut with some little magnets, or just put a drop of hot glue to hold it shut. Paint it up and you've got some nice and robust shells.

You might find the facecbook group "Conference Chicken" an interesting one to join!

Fun fact, immodium pretty much sponsored that particular production. Both cast and crew! Was less looking for recommendations and more creating somewhere to share them. I went back and bought another of those JML fans, which we recently took camping with us. In a scorching tent they were just the ticket.

Thanks to Lamplighter! I struggled to find the schematic (that he gave me) and then went to the lake district for a break with my daughter whereupon I totally forgot to follow this up. I use the same circuit and it works great for me.

You, my friend, are a star! After the purchase of a new macbook and streamdeck I've been trying to build myself a new default workspace that contains all of the useful stuff I might need (lots of the hotkey actions from Mic Pool's Qlab Cookbook plus others specific to my desk) and these are definitely going in there too. Thank you.

A lot of the cheaper headsets have very high output levels and the trantec packs do seem to struggle with them. The CPC mics seem ok but most other cheapo chinese sourced headsets (Samson, Micronic, Proel etc.) are just too hot. Best solution I've found is to build a small attenuator circuit in to the 4 pin mini xlr. It's only a couple of resistors. Will see if I can track it down later on today (the circuit was given to me by another Blue Roomer, so they may be along in the meantime with it!).

Theatre Royal Wakefield has an EM rig that I mixed on a month or so back. Very enjoyable affair. Couldn't fall out with it at all. There are other names out there that are worth listening too though. KV2 and RCF would be my first suggestions. My own rig is RCF TT and it gets plenty of compliments. Equally KV2 get an awful lot of theatre work on the quiet. They'd gladly come and demo some kit I'm sure. Their listening room at Plasa is well worth a visit if you're going. A sales rep recently told me that they were currently cheaper on l'acoustics than they were D&B, so they may well be worth checking out too. I'd always assumed they'd be out of my budget so it was a nice surprise. I don't think you'd be disappointed with any of the brand's named above, assuming they're specified and set up well. Going with a supplier who represents multiple brands and has expertise to come and look at your venue and make recommendations would be my main suggestion. I can personally vouch for SSE Audio Group as being very good at this, but there are if course lots of others.

Hi All Starting this thread as a place for recommendations for fans etc. to keep us all cool. I've just been on a quest to find some suitably subtle cooling for while I was mixing a show in a particularly warm venue. Some of our criteria are a bit different to most consumers so thought it was worthwhile having a thread for. I had a few criteria. It had to be subtly quiet - enough to be able to mix a show over the top of. It had to have decent mounting options as my desk only has the dog box and a few vesa arms out in front of me. It had to be easy to power - either a decent AC lead that I could attach a powercon to, or DC off of my 12V or USB supplies I have fitted within the dog box. Preferably black but not a dealbreaker if not. I found something that fitted the bill from a surprising place. It was on a JML display in Asda. JML Fan Never bought a JML product before as they've always seemed a bit gimicky, but this seems great. It's USB rechargeable, reasonably quiet, adjustable speed, has a decent clamp that clipped nicely to the top of one of my vesa mount displays, and is available in black. It's not going to fill a room, but in front of me pointing directly at me, it was just the ticket. If anybody else has more suggestions then do share.

Can't be sure, but it sounds a lot like this one from AliExpress; https://a.aliexpress.com/_uyhnXa No experience, just the description sounded familiar.

I have very little to offer to this discussion apart from to point out that Green Go Comms packs have a cue light feature. If the project also involves voice Comms then it might be cost effective to combine the two.

Thanks everyone. Apologies for the delayed response. 1 1/2 year old has covid and it's been a very snotty and unpleasant week! I've just ordered 6 channels to play with. Going to open a transmitter up and see what options I've got. The aim is to have 20 channels in total eventually. Most of my school hires are 16 channels but I always like to send some spares. Buying a separate set of cheap headsets on Lemo isn't the end of the world if needs be. Though cross compatibility would be great too. Will let you know how I get on.

Thanks Richard. Useful to know there isn't much space inside. May have to be an adapter cable. Was trying to avoid having to buy 20 LEMO's as they're not the cheapest (even if you buy direct). Been catching up on some of bigclive's videos as well and am going to give some of the rechargable pp3's with on board usb charging a go. Would need to experiment with RF noise from the buck/boost circuitry, but it's definitely worth an experiment. If they work then I'm even toying with drilling the case over where the usb connector falls so they're simple plug and play charging. Will have to see. Had spotted the odity with the Leno pinout. What they've done makes sense I guess, but is going to take some thought. I'd pretty much exclusively 2 wire cheap headsets (CPC etc). Some of my very cheap no brand Chinese ones have little attenuators that I've built in to the mini xlr, so will need to do some thinking on the impact to those. Thanks for your help.