sleah

Yup, I'm still dragging out this topic 🤣 Spotted these on Canford's site: https://www.canford.co.uk/Products/2022426/38-9290_CANFORD-CABLE-BNC-BNC-RG213-U-25m-Black Thinking could be worth a try? At least we can be assured Canford will only sell good stuff, and not some eBay garbage pretending to be RG-whatever 🤔

Got a Colorsource. The biggest problem from a 'turn it on and push that slider up' POV is it can't be powered on straight to playback mode. Need to be using the touchscreen first... not sure if our non-tech drama staff (or students!) could cope with that!! 🤣🤣

Not quite theatre, but related 🙂 Our music dept. has asked about having a few (4 or 5 maybe) bluetooth speakers in practice rooms for the peri's to play backing tracks during lessons. My concern is if we buy a few identical speakers - be that portable, wall mount, in-ceiling etc - they will all have the same ID, and that there maybe overlap between rooms. It would be preferable to have the same experience in each room, so would like to avoid buying a bunch of different speakers if possible. Does anyone have experience of this scenario and/or have any suggestions as to kit that may have customisable ID? (though I don't see how?) CPC do a range of bluetooth speakers that are upto around £100 per unit, wouldn't want to spend much more per room.

Got half an eye on an ETC Express 125 for about £150 delivered. No PSU so would need to make one. Wondered if it would be any good for just controlling a few LEDs and a few generics? I like the idea of using to setup a few scenes on the submasters in a school drama studio. I also like the idea of it being a 'proper' desk rather some disco tat which I could probably get for less. Language isn't a million miles from the Element we have so could be a good intro for students to real desks. I won't put the Element near the kids cos' they previously managed to mess it up and have already lost a knob. It needs to be kept for shows and trustworthy only! Obviously would have to build custom fixture profiles and would be a faff to program (due to leds) compared to a modern desk with colour swatches etc. Am I mad?

Rigging for a show at the weekend and two Auras died 😒 I think the surge protectors have blown. They are a small round(ish) blue component close to the power inlet on the pcb that are now split and seem to be putting a dead short on the mains. I haven't had chance to unsolder one yet to see if it is them causing the short, but I'm betting they are. I think it happened when I powered the system. A load of LED and a couple of generics on Chilli bypass dimmers. I used the large breaker on the Chilli to power up and it is real stiff and slow to move. A couple of individual channel breakers went at the same time as well as a couple of halogens blown that were tested before being rigged, so I suspect there was some nasty arcing and surging going on as I moved the breaker. Lesson learned not to use the main breaker on the Chilli's.... Is it likely the failure mode of the surge protector is to short in order to protect the rest of the pcb or is it possible the pcb is fried? Anyone happen to know what spec the component is so I can try replacing it myself? Am I talking complete clap-trap? 🤔

Anyone know if stsg.org.uk is manned? I think I filled out an application to join a week or two ago but haven't heard anything. I've also noticed I can post in the forum, I'm sure I could a while ago??

Resurecting this old topic again 😀 We are in a new build now and I managed to get by while we were in the old place. I now wish to revisit placing the Line 6 antenna closer to the performance area. Don't care about the old UHF stuff mentioned in my OP, just looking at the Line 6 2.4gHz kit. It's a little easier in as much as the space is a large box with a false ceiling, retractable seating with a 'control area' at the top of the seating. No stage, we will be using curtains and blocks to create a performance area. I've worked out to get the paddles over the performance area, back to the control area would be around 30m. I could pull the paddles back a bit so they sit over the first few rows but it think it would still need 20+m of cable. Looking round t'interweb and LMR 400 seems to be the ideal cable for 2.4gHz. It varies in price from 'not cheap' to 'HOW F***IN MUCH!!!'. Am I on the right lines? Am I going to be wasting time? If 30m cables are a realistic option, anyone any suggestions of suppliers or at least what to look for? Any alternative to LMR 400 that's still very low loss? Any advice greatly appreciated, as always.

For that distance, if you output HDMI, you can convert to HDMI over CAT5/6 so you can use inexpensive cable to run the 20/30m. One variant is HDBaseT, which can run over an IP based network. It sort of 'piggy-backs' on an IP network rather than something a PC can read/write natively. Be careful if looking for adaptors, many cheap so-called HDBaseT adaptors are actually only HDMI over Cat5/6 and can only be used with direct copper to copper connections and not over active network components (which are perfectly fine if that's all you need) - the kind of no-name devices you find on auction sites and that jungle based online shop..... often exagerated list of features.

When units work in standalone mode, they usually spit out DMX so only cutting one leg could cause some mighty strange things to happen..... You could just get a DPDT relay with the same coil voltage, take the SP relay off and wire the coil of the DP to the coil connection on the board. You'd have to mount the new DP relay seperately as it will be bigger.

Kinda defeats the object of crash bars if they can be locked. Common for a key lock on an outside handle, but inside rendering the door fully locked??? I'm surprised that anyone manufactures a system with lockable crash bars!

In a basement too! Darwin was certainly around that night. Thankfully he didn't win on this occasion...

Equally the condenser they've bought will work with the CPC pre-amp. I'm thinking he bought it as it is lightweight and can be clipped to 'something' 🙂

You do stand on one leg with your tounge out and head to one side don't you? Then slightly change position for unit two. We've got a pair of identical 50" digital signage displays on a wall next to each other. I've perfected getting my position just right to control both or just one with minimal movement :D

Yes it should be used vertically, unless as other state, the load would otherwise be OK on a single scaff bar. Those Doughty clamps are absolutley the right tool for the job of holding truss in the vertical. If there was any doubt or chance that any part of the clamp could come loose, Doughty would not make or sell them. Assuming of course the manufacturers recommendations are followed..... Doughty are one of the manufacturers (like Unicol) you can be certain to do the job properly.

Houselight dimming curves. I wonder how many people other than 'techs' even notice the houselight dimming curve? I doubt the audience would be aware that they snapped on or off at 5%. I think it's more important in a professional theatre to get these things right as there is greater expectation. However in schools/community centres/am-dram it's less so. I'm sure many of us have been operating lighting for a show, nice fade to black after the final bows, then the pregnant pause and about to bring up houselights and BAM!, some helpful person puts all the flourescents on.... I've had it happen at the interval too - even pre-show :o . Audience don't seem to notice or care, but I have to hold back the expletives and politely explain that I am in control of the houselights.

If those figures are correct then the lasers should not have been scanning the crowd. And yes, there is potential for eye damage. You've done the right thing seeking medical advice. I suggest seeing an optician next for an eye test and explaining your concerns. Modern cameras seen reasonably robust when it comes to lasers - that said a single raw beam could damage the sensor. I'm sure someone will be along shortly with more detail information. Best of luck.

I concour with everything that has been said. I do at least 2 shows a year with the little-uns where headset/lapel mics would not work well, mainly due to age of kids! I haven't really come against the asthetics issue (apart from my own desire not to be too intrusive) and generally do the "mics in front of the stage" arrangement. You can gain a lot more gain by 'ringing out' the system. I just use an EQ and push to slight feedback, find and lower the offending frequency, rinse and repeat. The sound won't be as rich as you or I might like but the teachers are happy the little darlings can be heard(ish!). Also room acoustics make a noticeable difference. In our junior school hall there are lots of curtains and a vinyl floor, the gain-before-feedback is quite reasonable and the sound is good too, other than as I've mentioned. However I was doing a summer school in a different space (an old 60's build school hall) that had no soft surfaces at all and the result was barely worth the effort. Poor(er) gain before feedback and the sound was very hollow and echo-ey. No magic bullet unfortunately. Headsets/lapels are the best solution but even with the budget, not always practical. Good luck!

ETC Colorsource LED with fresnel adaptors come in around £1500ish, just as an approximate guide to cost.

In a nutshell, I think you are correct. 1200w is right on the limit for 5amps and it's likely that the fuse is (quite rightly) 5amp. Presumably the fuse you refer to is on the dimmer pack? Short of upgrading the cabling from the dimmers to the lighting bars, I'm afraid you're out of luck. Do NOT be tempted to replace the fuse with anything above 5amps as very bad things could happen - such as melting cables and plugs!!

I'd be doing as P.K. suggests and try a GLI (as he linked to above, GLIs are also available with phonos or 6.3mm jacks). A combination of HDMI/USB/seperate audio links/Class 2/Class 1 seems to be a 'magnet' for noise, be it ground loops or other random digital noise. Can be a nightmare to find and eliminate. Don't get me started on my way over-the-top home TV/AV/PC/Amp/VCR/Laserdisc/turntable/STB setup :blink:

USB sockets on routers are normally for either 3/4/5G dongles, printers or storage (usb/hd/ssd) so I doubt very much you could sucessfully connect anything else to them :(

A possible compromise: B&Q/Screwfix Dimmable 118mm R7 126w equivalent Dimming curve wouldn't be as nice, plus you'd need twice or three times as many for same light output as 500w halogen, but may work for some situations. I might get one to play with :)

Thanks for posting the link. Interesting about the 4/5 ft flourescent tubes. That'll impact a good number of kitchens, workrooms and offices. I guess there will be a good market for drop-in LED tubes that don't need the fitting modified. Certainly be a good trade for sparkies mod'ing or replacing existing fittings.

I've found these from Thomann to be great for the money: the t.bone EM 800 Stereo Set They are really sturdy, have a bit of weight to them, plus the output is fairly high which helps keep the noise floor down if you are using budget preamps or mixer. The supplied clips are a tight fit so no falling out of the clips :)

I can confirm this is the case. A couple of years ago I was doing some trialling of YouTube streaming with a private stream. I happened to connect a Freeview tuner to it (just as a source to test) tuned to BBC News. After a few hours Youtube saw it's ar3e, shut down the stream and banned me from live streaming for 30 days..... You only need something slightly recognisable as audio for the algorythms to hammer you. I've had Facebook videos get copywrite hits when it's 30 seconds of song audio which is distorted that is playing at a party with crowd noise mixed in. Yup, you can't share your drunken party videos these days... the thought police WILL find you!