Most of the tech guys I know are a lot alike. We’re workaholics (or recovering workaholics), and we feel we need to be there each weekend–even if just for moral support of our team. It’s our job, and we just need to do it. The problem is, when we go months, or years without taking a weekend off and just experiencing church with our families and friends, some bad things happen. Here are a few things I observed by taking a simple, single weekend off.

I Experienced Worship the Way the Congregation Does
This is a big issue. Often times, we techies can get so accustomed to life in the tech booth, we forget what it’s like to be in the congregation. For me, I heard things differently, saw things anew and experienced some things I hadn’t before. Being out “in the pews” changed my perspective and re-ordered some of my priorities.

It was also nice to have some time of actual worship without worrying about the sound, lighting and video cues (OK, I confess, I did spend some time mentally critiquing the mix–I still have a ways to go). I was able to experience the results of my team’s hard work and planning first hand. They did a great job and worship was wonderful. It’s good to be reminded of that once in a while.

I Was Reminded I’m Not That Important
This is something else I need to be reminded about. Again, a lot of tech guys I know (myself included) tend to be martyrs. We go way above and beyond because we think we’re the only ones who can keep the train on the rails. Personally I find it refreshing to be reminded that it’s possible that church can go on without me there. And it can even be great. I only received 1 text and 1 call the entire weekend; both issues were minor.

My team is top-notch and can easily handle the weekends without me. Even if yours isn’t (or you don’t feel like they are), give it a shot. They may surprise you.

My Soul Was Restored
This was the biggest surprise. I completely underestimated how absolutely refreshing it was to be off for a weekend. Since my normal weekend is close to 16 hours (almost 2 full workdays), I actually took 2 days off. The fact that it came on the heels of WFX week (which was rather draining to an introvert), was a both a bonus and genius. Just being off on Saturday was restorative. By Sunday, I was feeling great and was more excited about my life, God’s plan and the future of Coast Hills than I have been since my first few weeks here. And I’ve only been here 3 months. I’m so glad I didn’t wait a year or two like I have in the past.

I think there is something that happens in us when we just keep working every weekend. Slowly, our enthusiasm for our jobs, ministry and church is drained from us. We need to take a weekend off here and there to have that restored. Our tanks need to be refilled. I honestly didn’t think it would be this big a deal, but it was.

In light of that, I am going to make this a quarterly event. I will sit down with my boss this week and figure out which weekends I’m going to take off over the next 12 months. I’ll shoot for weekends after busy seasons, but try very hard to keep the intervals around 3 months. My goal is simple: To be as excited about serving the Body at Coast Hills 5 years from now as I was the day I stared. I truly believe the only way that can happen is if I regularly take weekends off.

What about you? What is your weekend off routine?

Everybody likes a bargain, especially me. I’m a shopper; I love using the internet and my contacts to find the best price on everything. Normally, when I need something new, I spend a few minutes with Google and I typically save 10-40% off the first price I found. That’s good stewardship. However, I don’t always buy the cheapest item in a given category. For example, we needed some new vocal mics a few months ago. While leafing through a national catalog, I saw a sale for “Three Vocal Mics for $19.” Now, that sounds like a good deal. But if you know anything at all about mics, you know that is not a wise purchase. Had I bought them, I would have just wasted $20 plus shipping. And whatever I did buy would end up costing more.

Now scale that example up to something larger…say a PA. I’ve been in churches that initially spent as little as they could on their PA. And it sounded like it. No one was happy; coverage was uneven, frequency response was erratic and feedback was prevalent. So they changed it out, again going with a low bid on the job. This time…no one was happy. It was a little better, but not much. A few years later, it was changed again. This time…a few people were happy. Namely, the contractor that got paid to install it. The last I heard, they are looking at their fourth system. I don’t have exact figures, but I understand the total installed cost is approaching $1 million. Which is about 3x what it would have cost had they done it right the first time. Was that initial $100K system good stewardship? Not hardly. Sure, they saved a few hundred thousand up front, but it’s cost them dearly in the end. Can God be please with this? Really?

At WFX last week I was having a conversation with two people who were part of a church build. They asked about the right time to bring in an AV consultant. I asked if they already had architects drawings. When they said yes, I said they were already late. As we talked, the absolute imperative nature of getting the right company to take a look at the room from an acoustical perspective (not to mention overall A/V/L systems topology) didn’t seem to be settling in. Then this illustration came to me.

I said this: Getting the room modeled will cost you $10-20K right now. Developing a good long-term strategy will cost you about as much (it was a pretty good sized room). However, if you don’t spend that money right now, before you commit the plans to a builder, you may as well start a fundraising campaign to generate $300-400K. Then gather everyone in the parking lot, unveil that huge pile of cash and set fire to it. Because that’s what will happen. If you don’t spend a little money up front right now to get the room and systems right, you will burn through hundreds of thousands of dollars down the road trying to fix it.

Fellow TDs, we need to become more vocal about this. Executive pastors, finance committees and accountants don’t like to hear that we need to spend money on AV. However, they really don’t like it when we need to keep coming to them over and over to fix the stuff we did wrong the first time (or the stuff the previous guy did wrong). We need to be the ones championing the cause of good stewardship. Not finding ways to spend the least amount of money today, but delivering the lowest cost of ownership with the greatest value to our programming.

Anthony has said it before and I’ll quote him again, “Good Stewardship is not how much money you don’t spend–it’s how much you don’t waste.” Thanks for summing that up so clearly!

Vari-Lite VLX

The new VLX Wash fixture.

This is Vari-Lite’s first foray into the LED moving-head market, and it’s a big one. With an output of 14,000 lumens (full white), it’s quite bright. The field of light is very even, and the fact that the color temperature is continuously variable from  about 3,000 to almost 9,000 is a very nice touch. The colors are rich and intense. It seemed reasonably quiet on the not terribly noisy show floor, and it’s heat output was a fraction of a nearby 2500. It is designed as a wash fixture, and has a zoom range of 23-58 degrees. The only real downside is the cost–almost $8,000. However, when you consider that the LED modules are rated to last 10,000+ hours, it’s not a bad value.

Not sure you can order them this way, but it looked cool!

They had one on the floor with a clear case to show off the internal guts. Each LED module is designed for easy removal and replacement if needed.

Wybron LED Fixture

Wybron LED Spot

This is a nice fixture. Sadly, I can’t tell you much about it specifically because Wybron has 0 information on their web site (and I didn’t grab a tear sheet). What I can tell you is that it’s crazy-bright, produces rich, saturated colors and kicks out a really nice white. If I remember correctly, it’s a RGBW fixture, meaning there is actually a White LED inside–that gets the whites dialed in well. We looked at the output on the black ceiling of the convention center (a good 25′) and it has some punch. I will go up to 9 channels of DMX for very fine control.

They had it set up next to a Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 and an 11″ Selador. There was no comparison. The Wybron LED blew them both away, both in output and in color intensity. It’s a bit pricey on a single fixture basis (around $2,200) however, when you consider the output, it does the work of 2-4 other fixtures in the LED market. So it’s not a bad value at all. Wybron–get this on your web site; you have a great fixture here!

The SamePage Music and Mixing System

The SamePage system. (the white spot on the near monitor is a reflection--sorry about that!)

This is another product that I’m pretty excited about. I went to WFX fully expecting to be ordering an Aviom system for our band. I had heard about SamePage and was a bit curious, but left the booth (after 45 minutes) pretty much blown away. SamePage started off as a sheet music replacement. It has a very powerful software engine to manage, display and annotate sheet music–on a touch screen monitor. Similar in size to a large music stand, all the stations are tied together on a network. When the music leader advances songs, all the other stations follow along. If notes are added, everyone gets them. The music leader can build playlists from home, and when the band arrives, all the necessary music is on their station. Pretty cool–but as a tech guy, I don’t care that much. That is, I didn’t care until they added the mixing module.

Based on the Mamba digital snake system, SamePage has integrated a 16 channel personal mixer into each station. Taking cues from Aviom and RSS, they have build a very powerful personal mixing network. It’s possible to send up to 32 channels down the network (from either ADAT, AES or Analog inputs) and let each station select up to 16 of them. Each musician can then mix, on the touch screen, their personal mix. Each input features a simple 2 band EQ as well as panning and muting. You can even name each channel.

Latency is around 60 microseconds with a digital input, so it’s really not a factor. The cost is slightly higher than an Aviom system, but given the added functionality of the music system, it’s an easy sell for me. I expect to be getting some demo units next week (hopefully!), and will write more once we get hands on. There is a lot to this system, and I can tell you it’s put my Aviom order on hold. It was also great to talk with the guys from SamePage and hear their plans for upcoming products, some of which are on the down-low–but I can tell you it’s going to be cool.

Affineon LED Downlights

The LED-based DL.

This is another one of those products that for me, is a game-changer. These are good-looking, insanely bright LED architectural lighting fixtures. The current DL product is white–you specify the color temperature when you order. It’s fully dimmable, with an extremely smooth dimming curve.

There are four fixtures, with outputs ranging from just over 4,000 lumens to over 15,000. They replace incandescent or Metal Halide fixtures, matching output for about 1/2 the power consumption. Couple that with a 50,000 hour life, much lower heat output and consistent color temperature over the entire dimming curve and you have a great product. We’re looking hard at these for our house lighting fixtures.

They also plan on doing a RGBW version on a moving yoke. When Teddy of Affineon told us about that, I said we had to see one when he had it ready. So stay tuned for a hands on review of that once it’s available early next year.

So there you go. There wasn’t a lot of great new stuff on the show floor this year, but the stuff mentioned here  in these posts is what made an impact on me. More to come as I get product in my hands to play with.

The RED One

RED One Camera

This is just a very cool video camera. It will shoot all the way up to 4K and with that big lens on the front, produces a pretty nice image. The output has a very film feel to it. Amazingly, the camera body is only about $17K, and the lens is around $10K (sorry I don’t recall how long it is, but it’s a nice zoom). Might be a little overkill for IMAG, but for the aspiring film maker out there…

The Reveal Ellipsoidal

Reveal Ellipsoidal Light Fixture--All LED-based

This fixture is a completely LED-based ellipsoidal. The output field is incredibly even and bright. However, what makes it stand out is the fact that you can do full RGB color mixing inside the fixture. Pick a color temperature of the white you want, and it will go there. They’re a bit pricey right now (somewhere around $1800), but I expect them to come down as the technology takes hold.

Echolab ATEM Switcher

Echolab ATEM Switcher

I haven’t been this excited about a product in a long time. After a 45 minute demo (with the president of the company!), I’m pretty well sold on it for our next production switcher. It will input SDI (HD or SD), analog component, Y-C, Composite, and HDMI. The input section alone saves me over $4000 in converters in our system. It features 12 internal keyers and 5 DVEs. It also has an impressive macro section which allows you to assign complex transitions or setups to a single key–great for volunteers. At around $19K, it’s a winner.

And Finally

Spell Check Anyone?

Oopsie. Dave Stagl suggested that perhaps it’s a reference to the dual-diaphragm construction of the KSM9. Never underestimate the value of having just one more person look over your artwork before you send it out for 8-foot tall prints…

More to come!

And that’s one great reason to go to a conference like that. It’s always great to rub shoulders with other TDs. We often have a lonely job, and it’s good to meet other people to encourage, and who can encourage us. But that’s not the only reason. In fact, the biggest reason I’m going (and it’s a different reason today than it was 6 months ago) is to look at gear. We’re in a season at Coast where we need to update or upgrade just about every system we have. So I need to look at a lot of gear and meet with a lot of vendors. Here’s a sampling of the stuff I’ll be looking closely at:

LED Lighting
Most of you know, we’re in the midst of a process to figure out how to convert our entire lighting system, including house lights, to LEDs. Not sure yet what we’ll be going with, but I expect to see some promising fixtures at WFX.

HD-SDI Video Switchers
Our old MX-50 is getting pretty long in the tooth, and is really not meeting our needs. I’m particularly interested in  the Panasonic HS-400 and the For-A HVS-300. But then, Sony has a nice one, and the GV Indigo is not out of the running. Maybe even Broadcast Pix (though I’m still leery of a switcher built on XP…).

Wireless Mics and Aviom Systems
I don’t really need to look at this stuff–I know what I want. But I’ll be shopping a few more vendors for package pricing. And there’s always a possibility that I’ll see something compelling that will make me re-think my Shure UHF-R and Aviom systems.

Finally, the other reason I’m going is to teach a class or two. I had submitted a few proposals last spring, and one was accepted; The Ins and Outs of In-Ear monitors. Then I was asked to moderate a panel on Using Video to Enhance Services. Then I was asked to sit in on a panel on using Character Generators, Edge Blending and Graphics for Medium to Large Churches. Next, I was asked to lead a roundtable on Troubleshooting. Guess they’re really hard up for speakers this year…

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to it. I get to sit at the table with some solid people like Anthony Coppedge, Brad Weston, and Walter Silverman. I’ll also be  blogging as much as I can from the Expo floor as I find cool stuff. I’m pretty sure my iPhone WordPress app is up and running smoothly now, and I won’t be searching for Wi-Fi (assuming I can get 3G coverage inside the convention center. Here’s hoping!

And if you’re attending WFX this year, be sure to ping me on Twitter. I know we’re going to try to meet up with as many CTDRT people as we can.

I had a really good and interesting conversation with my boss last week. We were discussing what it means to run at a sustainable pace. His spiritual director had just asked him what changes he would need to implement in order to be still excited about doing what he’s doing when he is 50. I thought that was an excellent question. Though if you’re as close to 50 as I am, you may need to push the time out a little further for this to be meaningful…

The real question is this: Can I maintain the pace I’m currently at which I’m currently moving for another 15 years? And if not, what needs to change?

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on this. Partially because I’ve been on the ragged edge of burnout more than a few times, and partially because I just changed jobs and it’s a natural time to think about it. I’m also a recovering workaholic, and it doesn’t take much for me to slip back into the “do whatever it takes to get it done” mode. One of the things Todd and I talked about was a season like we’re in right now; 8 weeks from the Christmas program, about to launch into a ton of technology upgrades, re-defining the worship experience at Coast, managing the current levels of giving… That doesn’t all fall on our shoulders alone, but we’re affected by it. And we both have personal things going on at home–nothing tragic or out of the ordinary–just additional stuff that we’re dealing with. So we know we’re in a crazy season right now. The danger is that “crazy” becomes the new “normal.”

I think those of us with a bent toward perfectionism and workaholism can easily ratchet up “normal” until we’re running so fast and so hard we can’t make it a year. Then we burn out and look for another job. Wash, rinse, repeat. This is not good.

As I’ve been thinking of ways to combat this tendency in my own life, here are a few things I’ve been wrestling with.

Take the Long View
It’s really hard for me to not have everything “finished” by the end of next week. It doesn’t matter how absurd that concept is, I feel like I should have it all done and under control by next week, the week after by the latest. And as much as things like the CTDRT are helpful, they often add to that self-imposed pressure. I hear a great idea someone is doing with their volunteers and I want to implement it (and experience great success and fruit with it) right now. Or I’ll have lunch with someone who will describe something they are doing and I think, “I need to add that to my regimen.”  It’s crazy, but it’s how my mind works.

So when I get stuck in that, I try to re-think the plan in terms of years. I’ve always been really good at being able to see what is not as it is, but as it could be. The problem for me is I don’t think it should take as long as it does. And recent events in my life have caused me to want to plan in months, not years. Now, I’m making a concerted effort to think in terms of years. I’ve been saying things like, “OK, that’s a great idea. That’s going to be a year three implementation.” I may start it next year, but thinking further out forces me to relax my pace a little.

Force Myself to Take a Break
This has been harder. I’ve only been here a few months, and I’m taking my first weekend off at the end of October. We techies are notorious for feeling like we have to be there every weekend. We don’t! We tend to hoard our vacation time, then never take it because we can’t take 3 weeks off at once before it expires. One thing I need to do is sit down with my boss and map out my vacation schedule for the year. I want to look over the church calendar and plot out a weekend off every 2-3 months, plus a week off, plus a few extras here and there.

That accomplishes a few things. First, it gives me much needed rest. Second, it creates and environment where I have to train others to do my job. Finally, it reminds me that I’m here for the long-term and need to think about it that way. I will also be planning my times off around busy times in the church calendar. That way I’m not trying to take a week off just before a critically busy time, and hopefully, I’ll be getting a break right after one.

Those are a few ways I’ve been trying to maintain a pace that I can keep up for many years. I really do want to be as excited about working at Coast Hills 10 years from now as I am today. And while I can’t control everything that goes into that, I can control my own contribution.

What say you?

You can listen here on the blog, or download it from the link below. Either way, enjoy!

Download link (right-click and select Save Target As for download):
Vocal Webinar Audio

When we did our last webinar with Dave & Jason, Dave talked about a technique he dubs “the smash mix.” He uses it on drums and vocals to help pull them forward in the mix. I was quite intrigued, but never had the free mix busses (or time) to play around with it; until now.

In my case, I wanted to thicken up the vocals and bring them a little further forward in the mix. We are on all wedges right now (hoping to change that soon), so we have a lot of stage wash. Our vocals tend to get lost because we simply don’t have the dynamic range in our system. But if one simply turns them up, they stand out too much when they sing out, and still get lost when they pull back. Adding compression helps, but you can’t add enough to pull them forward without it sounding unnatural.

Here’s how this works: First, set up the vocals like you normally would. Dial in the EQ, apply some mild compression (I normally go for 2-4 dB of gain reduction using a 2:1 or 2.5:1 ratio, give or take) and assign them as you do normally. At this point, they may not have quite the presence in the mix you desire, so here’s the secret sauce. Take your vocals and in addition to assigning them to your main mix (or group, or DCA/VCA), assign them to a second mix bus. In my case, I used 24 because it was free and close to me (why reach?).

A quick look at our setup for a smash mix. Using Mix 24 and compressing that heavily before sending it to Stereo.

On this new mix, apply some pretty serious compression. I went for a pretty solid 10 dB all the time (low threshold, high ratio)–hence the name “smashed.” You really want to pull a lot of dynamic range out. Finally, assign this mix to your main outs (LR bus, or however you send signal to your speakers). Start bringing this up behind the vocals. You won’t need much before you’ll find them really stepping forward in the mix.

The theory behind it is pretty simple. Vocals can be pretty dynamic, with lots of peaks and valleys in the waveform. Those valleys are what tend to get lost. Because there can be a lot of range between the peaks and valleys, it’s hard to achieve the right balance between too loud and too soft. Adding in the smash channel keeps the valleys from becoming too deep; the massive compression keeps it from adding much to the peaks. Thus, your overall dynamic range is reduced, without sucking the life out of the sound. Vocals can be brought right out front of the mix without adding additional volume.

One word of caution. This technique works on just about anything. I already mentioned Dave does this on his drums. You could put it on keys, guitar, whatever. However, if you use this technique on everything, you’ll find yourself right back where you started. So use it sparingly!

Another word of note. Doing this in the digital domain is really easy, but if may introduce some slight delay artifacts due to the processing time. On vocals, it’s fine as the delay simply thickens them up a bit. On drums it might introduce some smear so you may need to get creative to fix it. In the analog world, there’s no time lost, however it may introduce some phase shift. So be aware and be prepared to tweak it a bit.

No go play with your mix!

If you missed out on the last two, here are a few quick guidelines. I’ll post a link to the TokBox about 5 min before we start both here and on Twitter. Make sure you have headphones or ear buds, and mute your mic when you join (roll over your picture and click the little mic icon). If you have specific things you’d like us to discuss, please leave them here in the comments section. We’ll also be taking questions live using the chat function or classroom style (raise your hand, and wait for me to call on you–too many people talking at once on TokBox gets confusing fast; technology in it’s infancy).

These are a lot of fun to do, and if history proves correct, really informative. Mark your calendars and make sure you join us this Thursday.

For more information on TokBox etiquette, read this article.

Now, if you’ve read this blog at all, you know I love to mix. It’s just about my favorite thing about doing tech in church and I jump at the chance to do it when I can. I had been planning to add myself to the schedule, and spend a few hours during the week getting to know the board. So while normally, I would have been pretty excited; instead I was a tiny bit nervous. At front of house sits a PM5D-RH-EX. Basically, it means we have a 5D (with recallable preamps) and a DSP5 on stage. I’ve mixed on a number of Yamaha digital boards and a ton of analog ones, but never the 5D. Yamaha, in their infinite wisdom, designs a completely new user experience with every digital board, so there was not a lot to draw from–at least in terms of the control surface.

Yamaha PM5D-RH

And that’s when it hit me. All I was doing was learning a new control surface. I know how to mix. I know EQ, compression, gating, where to place things in a sound field, setting gain, the whole works. All I was doing was learning a new control surface. Everything that I need is there, it’s a simple matter of figuring out where it is. Besides that revelation, I had two other things going for me; we have a monitor guy and I know Studio Manager like the back of my hand.

First and foremost, having a monitor guy really saved me (thanks, Phillip!). The fact that I didn’t have to deal with figuring out the surface while getting 9 monitor mixes dialed in was a huge plus. I’ve always mixed monitors from FOH and wondered what the big deal of having a monitor engineer was. Now I know. I no longer take them for granted (or want to get rid of them!).

Second, I realized that I’ve used Studio Manager extensively. And thankfully, Yamaha does keep the interface for their various consoles pretty similar in SM. So, I called up the selected channel view, and whenever I couldn’t quickly find something on the surface, I did it in SM. And honestly, doing a lot of things is easier in SM anyway. Naming channels, patching, routing; even setting gains on the DSP is easier due to the reduced latency of the display (the 5D as a control surface is really sluggish).

As the weekend wore on, I became more comfortable with our user-defined keys, the location of select buttons, and the different modes of the encoders. By the 5 Pm service on Saturday, I was feeling pretty comfortable. I even decided to try out a new process for fattening up the vocals and helping them stand out in the mix–a tip I learned from Dave Stagl (but never had enough free mix busses to try). But that’s another post–the next one, in fact!

The point of this post however, is to remind you that whenever you need to learn a new console, remember that all you’re learning is a control surface. Everything you already know about mixing is still valid. You simply need to learn where the buttons are and what the encoders do in what mode. And if you have access to the control software on a PC, your learning curve shortens even further.