Bobbsy Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 I'm really gald no-one told me I can't run VGA for more than 5 meters, as earlier this week I bought this 20m XVGA cable and used it for a ickle award show last night. Surprisingly, and perhaps shockingly, it worked. Glad about that, really. First time I've driven PowerPoint from show control, and I'd have hated it if the video signal got lost in the cable somewhere. Next time you use your 20m cable I'd love it if you could somehow generate a VGA version of multiburst (if such a thing could exist...I'm an old steam telly guy) though and let us know what the frequency response at the end of the run was though. Bobbsy......If the kit has a pass through and is used in the middle of a run it should not and probably is not be terminated,The end piece is, or should be. Exactly what I was saying...a double termination is just as bad as no termination. However, in the rarified world of broadcast gear, "automatically self terminating" equipment is pretty unusual. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renny Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Conference or show comes in. Very limited time, and you discover they want video from the back of the auditorium. Three choices, rush phone call to local suppliers at 5pm hoping they can get you 40m of BNC, botch it and run video down sound tie lines with a signal loss that most people won't notice or cancel the event. I'll go with the 2nd option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundo26 Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 I agree, that has already been accepted, that's not the point!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Considering the number of mentions of "video from the back of the auditorium" from many diverse posters, I might solve it using a sound line the FIRST time (actually no...I have a 50m BNC and an equalising VDA in the cupboard, but that's just me) and maybe even the second time...but I'd have a tie line installed by the third time. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 As Bobbsy says, you learn from things. You do a type of show and dont have the necessary things, so you make the best of a bad job. You learn from it. I'm the sort of person who would have it in place for the second time wherever possible. I work regularly with a 4 tops tribute. the 4 front guys prefer to use side fills to allow them more use of the front of the stage, I didn't know this the first time and ended up putting a pair of Martin F12's on poles at the sides. this wasn't ideal, but the next time I was booked, the job was sorted. proper side fills. and smaller (more compact) monitors for the band behind them. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundo26 Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 Bobbsy & Rob, this is the sort of thing I'm talking about, this sort of thing is professionalism. Keep it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 A very interesting thread indeed. It's been said before, that the largest numbers of "basic" questions will usually come from the non-professional membership; but lack of professional status within the entertainments industry doesn't automatically mean lack of technical knowledge and there are several "amateur" members, who have contributed such knowledge on many occasions, to several threads which were started by "professionals". Which is nice In the context of the thread so far, I think the one comment that sums it up for me, so far, is...I think the dispute is between 'professional' and 'professionalism'. The caveat is knowledge and experience - what can be got away with depends very much on the person understanding the problem, analysing it and developing a plan 'B'...Oh yes - how very true that is. IMO if any one thing that denotes a high level of professionalism in a technician, it's fault finding; with solution providing running a very close second. Yes, I do sometimes use mic cable to run DMX, but only if it's very good mic cable. It's not so much to do with whether the solution you are seeking is the right one, but whether you are looking for it for the right reason - are you looking for a cheap solution, an emergency one, an upgradeable one, or something else? Are you looking for what you want, what you need, what someone else (e.g. client / director) wants, etc...??? There's always more than one solution to a problem and all we can do in a forum, is lay them out on the table and perhaps come to some kind of agreement on which one might be best in a given situation; but in the end the answer (as handed down to me more than once) is... It's YOUR gig. YOU do what YOU think is best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Some Bloke Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 PeteLD.........the issue of signatures is a good one but I think you'll find that it would be advertising which I believe is not allowed. You'd be surprised how nice we can be! ;) From Promoting Your Business on the Blue Room: You can also...Display contact information and "www." links to your website in your signature (to a maximum of 4 lines).Enter more detailed information in your (Google-spidered) profile.Sign up under the Company Rep scheme (if your business is a Ltd. Co.).N.B. - All of the above are Free of Charge. The first and last of these appear with every post. You see, we do like our company members! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Riley Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Hi, Perhaps it might be a good idea to put a cut down job title - e.g chief LX in the info bar on the left of each post, instead of relying on the sig to do so. I think that it might be a bit much to institute a rating system. Instead, because thankfully we're still at the stage where that majority of advice is good, to go for either some sort of red flag system on 'dodgy' posts, or just encourage the members to gently but firmly point out unconventional, and 'not recommended' practise by posting a new message below it in italics, pointing out the errors of the post in the context of conventional industry wisdom. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Job titles mean nothing in the context of what people enter into a box when they sign up for the BR. All you'd get is year 11 schoolkids who do a bit of lighting for their school concert putting themselves down as "Head Of Lighting" or "Chief Technician", or someone who's a mobile disco 'weekend warrior' operating under a trading name calling themselves "Company Director" of Dave's Mobile Discos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leofric Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 A friend of mine always introduces himself to any crew working for him always asks there name and then makes a very short statement ' there is no such thing as a stupid question, if you're not sure ask.' The ballroom's strength is it is an open forum, often if dodgy advice is give there is chorus of posters saying NOOOOOOOO! don't do that.' I can only stand witness for the sectors of the industry I have knowledge off but it is fantastic that an Internet forum can attract the attention of national, if not international experts in their field eg Roger Barret, Chris Higgs (rigging /safety) as well as kids putting together a school play. Some people want to use knowledge as means of proving their superiority, others just want to help other and make the world a better place, it's up to the reader to decide which category a post falls into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 The ballroom's strength is it is an open forum, often if dodgy advice is give there is chorus of posters saying NOOOOOOOO! don't do that.' Darn. Does this mean that, in future, we have to be able to dance before we can post? Bobbsy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkyweb Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 I've often thought there was an argument for a professionals-only forum.. Provide proof of membership of BECTU, ABTT, PSA, ALD.. etc etc.. I'm slightly worried by this statement. For a start there I don't believe that there should be segregation / "elitism". In this industry much like any other there is no one person who knows it all, we are all learning all the time. Anyone who says they know it all is lying. At the risk of sounding big headed I would class myself in the professionals category, but I don't have membership of any of the above societies. Does this mean that my experience or knowledge is any different to my friend who may be a member of them. No I don't think it does. If there was a pro-only forum I would not join. A large part of my job is assisting people in the production of their show or event, I have a fair few weak areas in my knowledge and am always happy to learn. I find that a lot of "amateurs" often have more knowledge than those in the industry full time. I don't always post on these forums, but read and learn a lot. No segregation please!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundo26 Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 I think we've already established that a pro only forum is not what we would wish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Hinds Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I may as well add a few pence to the pile here. I am not an industry professional, in fact the last large show I did was over six months ago now. My new graduate job with a multinational engineering company precludes me from any regular work though I did some small stuff over New year. I believe that the main complain of "How do I?" type questions is not that poor solutions are presented but that the original poster expects the information to be handed in very simple terms on a plate. All too often it's not possible to explain things we deal with during a production in simple terms and when someone gives a technical answer the OP follows up with a question asking the same thing as they first asked in a slightly different way. This stems from a very internet generation type thing. Gone are the days when people would go out and get a book on their chosen subject, instead if it doesn't come up in the first three hits on Google then surely the only way to get that information is to ask a question. It doesn't matter if a similar question was asked a few months before, searching the question in the way someone wants to ask it may not find the answer, simply because there is never just one right way to do something (well with the exception of making sure all kit has a mains ground anyway). I'm guilty, I have done bodged solutions before now. I've taken a compressor out of the rack and used it as a make shift DI box between a laptop on stage and the mixer when I'd run out of DI boxes. I've used Audio cable for DMX too (but hey I'm not a lampie) despite the differences. I've never mixed video and audio cable, I've seen the issues with doing that before now. Perhaps answers that give less than ideal solutions should be prefixed with a "This should work, but the correct way is x y z" type statements? For me I've found the best answer is to post only when I know a potential answer and can back it up with reasonable evidence that it will work and is good practice. I'm not in the web forum business to raise my posting count as far as I can. Regards Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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