AUMC AV Blog

Hey all! I have three things for you today.

1) We have been having problems with the computer in the booth recording the service (the signal is peaking too much, leaving the recording useless), so I have installed a Behringer MDX-2600 COMPOSER PRO-XL COMPRESSOR. I read through the manual, and have a basic idea of what each knob does, but I don't know how to use the knobs to make a better (less peak-y) sound. If you have any idea, feel free to let me know!

2) I have uploaded more pictures into the gallery! I usually upload pictures every other week, so always check out the latest! If I have some free time sometime soon, I want to make an interactive map using the layout of the church so you can tell where the pictures were taken. If I have the time...

3) OK, this is on the personal side of things, but I still have to share it. The other night I had one of those dreams that you don't want to wake from because good things are happening. I dreamed that Liz (our children's director) met me at lunch and gave me what I have always wanted: an iPhone. And it wasn't even an iPhone, it was TWO iPhones! She wanted me to use them for the ministry. One was 2 gig and one was 8 gig, and I told her "I can tell that you bought the two gig a while ago because they don't offer the two gig any more, and you bought the eight gig recently because they just started offering that one a few months ago" (I know that this is not true, but that is what I said). So anyway, if anyone wants to buy an iPhone for the AUMC AV "team" (or just me), donations are greatly appreciated.

Matthew

Two things:
1) I am going out of town for a week on a mission trip to Washington DC. Because of this, there will be no updates until after Easter.

2) Here is something to think about this week while I am gone:
Luke 14:12-14
Then Jesus said to the Pharisee who had invited him, "When you give a lunch or a dinner, don't invite only your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. At another time they will pay you back by inviting you to eat with them. Instead, when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, and the blind. Then you will have great blessings, because these people cannot pay you back. They have nothing. But God will reward you at the time when all godly people rise from death."

Matthew

*whew* I don't want to ever see the PowerPoint window again! Or at least until tomorrow.

Because I will be out of town all next week on a mission trip, I had to create four PPT files this week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. And because the Thursday and Friday services are full of liturgy/scripture reading, it took extra long to make those. I usually spend no more than 45 minutes on any given PPT file, but tonight, I have been working in PowerPoint for well over five hours...

And I am happy to say, that except for one item, I got everything done! That one item was a scripture reading: John 18:1-19:42, which is extremely long. It would have been 70 slides long, doubling the length of the PPT right now, and it would have taken me close to an hour just to get that one scripture put into PowerPoint.

Yes, right about now, I would greatly appreciate a non-linear presentation software, so that all I would have to do is say "I want John 18:1-19:42" and it displays it. Oh well, maybe next time.

And yes, I am still waiting to give you news about our new AV system. It was my understanding that people wanted to sign the contract last week, but still nothing has happened. Trust me, you will know when it happens.

Matthew

The AV system at the current AUMC is hodge-podge at best.

From the best I can tell, here is a brief history of the system (if I am wrong on a point, or you can add to the story, please let me know!):
My brother (Stephen) first got involved with AUMC because they needed a youth pastor, and he wanted to be one. While he was there, he and his friend Brandon became involved with the AV system. At that time, the sound board and computer were in the back of the sanctuary, and at some point, the computer was moved upstairs into the sound booth (while the sound board remained downstairs).

This is where I became involved. When I started attending UNT here in Denton, my brother dragged me along (somewhat willingly) to AUMC where I helped him run the sound/video. At the time, it was a two person job, one for sound (in the sanctuary) one for video (in the booth). Stephen finally graduated from UNT and went off to seminary, leaving me alone at AUMC. I tried having youth work the services with me, but they were un-reliable and under-trained (both my fault). At some point, the decision was made to move the sound board upstairs so that one person can run the entire service.

Somewhere along in here, Carter joined me in the quest for worship excellence. The two of us together could not find it, so we recruited David and Mike to help. Together, the four of us make a merry band of AV guys that fight the evil forces of dead batteries and blown cables... OK, I don't know where this is going, so I will move on.



The following is a walkthrough of our sound system, which for some reason, I feel like walking through it backwards. We start (or end?) at our speakers. We only have two working speakers in the sanctuary, even with the stage, one in each wall. You can see them on the left and right here:


(pay attention to the above photo, I will refer back to it several times) There are actually four more speakers in the sanctuary (in similar places in the wall, only towards the back of the sanctuary), but they are not hooked up, and are probably from when the building was first built.

Tracking back from the speakers we get to our amp, and before the amp comes our Mackie sound board.


It is a nice board, but because we never turn it off, it has developed a hum (at least SOMETHING along this line has created a hum). One AUX out goes to the computer, one goes to the hearing impaired system (rarely used), and one goes to the over flow room (the fellowship hall) (you can actually see this speaker directly below the sound board in the above picture through the window). Personally, I like the numbering system that is on there... but that is probably because I created it. Our wireless packs are on the left, channels 1-6 (designated W1-W6). Then two blank spots (one of them is now W7) and then the stage inputs, channels 9-20 (S1-S12). If you know where to look, you can see written on them "Podium", "Guitar", and "C-L" and "C-R" for the choir mics.

Moving on: we currently have 7 working wireless packs, six are Senheiser EW 100 series, and one Shure for the pastor.


Sadly, the Senheisers are in the 700MHz range, so I don't know if they will be good for long. W1-W4 are lapel mics, W5 is a hand held (which is lost), and W6 and W7 are what we call "Janet Jackson mics." These are the mics that fit around the back of your head and have a big black boom that comes out in front. These are used mostly by puppeteers when we have a puppet show.

Beyond taking pictures of the mic boxes on stage or the choir mics, that is the end of the audio portion of this tour. We will stop briefly to look at the lights, then move on.



Our lighting board is in a cabinet as we hardly ever use it. In total, there are twelve spotlights that point on stage, 4 on choir, 4 on mid stage, 4 on front stage (you can see them in the second picture behind the rafters). For the most part, we just turn these on and leave them on. Of course there is other lighting in the room, but that is all controlled by lighting switches in the back of the sanctuary. Like I said, that was only a brief stop, on to...

Video. As seen in the second picture, there is a large screen TV on stage and one hanging TV on each side of the sanctuary (you can't see the right one in the photo). There is also a large screen TV in the fellowship hall similar to the one in the sanctuary. These are controlled by a simple $50 RadioShack box:


Pressing each button will switch the S-Video signal between the camera (via the VCR), the DVD player, and the computer (the left hand button is broken). As you can see in the second photo, we have a little Sonly Handycam that does our live video. This is hooked via composite cable to the VCR which is hooked into the switcher. Our computer:


... runs through a TVator, which is a little box (sitting on top of the computer) that changes the VGA signal to S-Video. And yes, our computer is sitting on top of our old tape cassette recorder because the monitor cable to the right hand monitor is very short and I am way too cheap to buy an extension cable. The computer is running Windows Vista (was bought the week Vista was released because the old computer's power supply went out), and while I have heard about a lot of problems with Vista, we have never had any problems with it. It is running PowerPoint 2003, our presentation software of choice.

Well, that is about it! If you want to see more photos, click on the "photo" tab above and scroll down to "Feb_24...". Tomorrow I will be at church and will update some of the above information to be accurate (for example the product number of our Mackie board). If you have any questions/comments, please leave a comment below! We do our best with what we have, but if you have a suggestion to make something better, please let us know!

EDIT: Here are those product numbers I promised (hopefully this means something to someone, because they are just numbers to me):
Wireless Mic: Shure PGX4
Mixer: Mackie SR24.4-VLZ Pro
EQ: Rane ME 30B
Amp: Crown CE1000
Speakers: Yamaha

Matthew

OK, so I am tired of calling them the "old church" and the "new church". Can anyone help me think of better names for them? The names can be practical or non-sensical, but we need to name them something...

Like, name the old one "The Hill" (because it is on a hill), but what would you name the other one? It isn't in a valley, and "The Flat Place" doesn't sound good.

What do you think?

Matthew

I went out in the snow today and took a bunch of pictures and have added them to the web gallery. Click on the "photo" tab above, and scroll down to "May_06...".

Because they are putting up the outside of the building, I concentrated on taking pictures of what the textures are of the new building. Also notice that they have started putting up drywall. Trivia: The large dumpster with "TK" on it is in Kory's office.

OK, it is way too late for me to be up! I hope to bring good news about our new A/V system soon!

Matthew

I just thought that I would give people an update on the AV for the new building.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we met with a consultant that had several proposes for our new system. He has given us three proposals for the sound system, a proposal for lighting, and two proposals for video/projection. We talked with him for nearly two hours ironing out the details, asking questions, concerns, etc. After he left, we (staff from the church) continued to talk for another hour about the proposals and what we want to go into the new sanctuary.

So right now, we have a lot of decisions to make, decisions that will make a difference later on. Most of these decisions relate to balancing budget to necessity. Do we go with two projectors, or one? Do we need 6 SM58s and 4 wireless handhelds, or can we get away with less? Choir mics that hang from the ceiling, or put them on stands? Is a patch bay worth the money?

These are a few of the more trivial decisions. With most of the problems, if we make the wrong decision, it will cost more to fix later then it would be to install now. But we can't just install everything now; our budget is extremely tight, and every dollar that we can squeeze out of one item can go to pay for something else.

We are also on a time crunch. The quicker we make these decisions, the quicker we can sign a contract with said consultant, the quicker he can place the orders, the quicker the items come in and we can install them. (if we act soon, then the equipment should arrive just before the building is ready for it to be installed... right now we are in that "sweet spot" and if we wait any longer, then the building will stand empty while we wait on deliveries)

Please pray that we make the right decisions. There is no "right/wrong" decision in the idea that they won't work together, or that it won't look good (that is what we are paying the consultant to do). The "right/wrong"ness is related to the future: what will be good for us, what is exactly what we will need, so that we won't have to go back later and add something, and what is too much, so that we don't waste money. While we can have meetings and talk about what we want to do as a church, a lot of the decision-making-information comes from God. Only He knows what will be perfect for us six months, a year, six years down the line. I pray that God would lead us to make the right decisions now, so that we won't have problems later.

I also pray that we would be reminded that with all of the numbers, figures, products and ideas being thrown around, everything is being done for the glory of God. I pray that we remember that while it is easy to get into the mind set that "we are getting new toys to play with," we should be in the mind set of "these are tools that will be used to glorify God's kingdom."

Word of the week (thanks to our consultant): value engineer verb a derogatory term meaning to cut expenses so that the end product is no longer usable. "If we value engineer our AV system now, we will have to pay to fix it later."

Matthew

PS: Yes, I know that in the Welcome post I said that I would sign my name as "AVBlogger." Well, I have dropped that idea and will just sign my posts "Matthew". Apparently, when I wrote the welcome post, I was being optimistic.