Hi, I'm Jeff. This is my personal blog – random thoughts on Media, the church, the arts, popular culture, being a husband and father and about any other thought that comes to mind.
I read this blog post (Church Planters: Stop Wasting God’s Money) by Bob Thune this morning and I can say I completely agree with him. Yet- I also feel there is more to it that applies to more than just church planters. The people who make up the church often buy into marketing hype. They purchase goods and services they don’t really need. This side of the story is just as wasteful and probably more prevalent in the church. Full Story
What is the solution to the problem of too high of a sound level on the stage? “Turn it down” of course. We all know that is easier said than done in reality, and have already looked at some of the reasons why. The next step then is to start working through these issues and “turning down” the volume. Full Story
As part of our ongoing upgrade, we have completed another set of changes in some of the websites related to this blog (mediaartsdad.com), the High Pointe media ministry and where you can expect what information to show up. Full Story
We all occasionally have issues with our computer system freezing up, and it is no different with our fancy video production computers with which we switch the cameras for the video feed at church. However, when one of the video computers at church locks up, it tends to affect a lot of people, distracting them or preventing them from participating in the service, so we go to great lengths to make the video computer systems as reliable as possible.
Full Story
“My bass amp goes to 11 and it sounds best there.”
The truth of the matter is music, what makes a good mix and what sounds good are all subjective and relative to both the context and personal opinion of those listening. Full Story
A video tutorial on mixing live sound for music performances, aimed at beginners in the art. (18 Videos)
This is the first video, click below for a link to the whole video series. This is the basics, but there is a lot of good information in the series. The videos are each fairly short so it goes quickly – I would recommend watching them no matter how long you have been mixing.
Why does the US Digital Television transition affect church wireless microphone (&IEM) usage? This is the crux of the abounding questions I get, punctuated by “The systems work just fine.” The simple answer is, If you have wireless systems that operate in the 700MHz range (698-806MHz) they need to be replaced. Full Story
Started to write this article then found someone had already done it for me:
Top 10 Reasons for Bad Sound (and what you can do about them)
give it a read and let me know if you agree- I will add my comments later.
“Should we have it at 95dB?” “They put it at 95 but that’s too loud.” “85?” “You should have heard them rockin, they pushed it to 105 the whole time.” “Where should we have it?” Full Story
At Infocomm09 last week, I had the privilege of teaching a session titled Managing Stage Volumes for Technology for Worship Magazine. In that session I addressed this issue experienced universally- the stage that is too loud.
Too loud on the stage cannot be measured in dB. What’s too loud for one person is fine for another- and most often musicians ask for “more.” Generally, it’s understood that feedback is what happens if the stage is too loud (although that’s not an accurate understanding). The true problem with a loud stage is ambient bleed which means a muddy house mix, and another problem- something not always considered- is hearing damage. Usually communication and education with the proper application of technology can manage stage volumes nicely.
I will try and address these thoughts over a couple upcoming blog post – (see links below)
What should the stage dB be? (Managing Stage Volume part 2) – Click Here
In pursuit of home network bliss, I have moved on to step 2.
Step 1: Managed network switch – Netgear GS108Tv2 switch will allow setup of multiple VLANs for managing network traffic.
Step 2: Small PC to setup as a firewall / router – Jetway Quad Lan / Fanless Case (don’t forget to add a small SSD harddrive)
Step 3: Install and Setup PFSense as the firewall software / OS
Now here is where the trouble begins: the Google Fiber Network box can’t be put into bridge mode… so it looked like the only answer was to double NAT, not a good solution…. until this came along:
Spent a good part of my weekend improving our online security. One big part of this improvement was to tighten up some of my online accounts. We have all seen the new stories of the massive data breeches, the stolen credit card data, the big hacks & wide scale identity theft. And while we need to be careful, there is not a lot we can do with our data that other people have. But what we can improve is the security of the small things.
So Google fiber is here, you would think that would be enough. But consider our crowdedhouse. Our network not only serves our family (which admittedly is larger than average, ranging between 9 and 11 people depending on the day, your definition of family and my general attitude), but the network also serves our carriage house apartment, 3 guest rooms being used by long and short term guest and whoever is couch-surfing in the basement at the time. Add up all these users and all their devices plus the odd server or six we tend to run, and we have 25-35 devices on the network at any one time. Supporting this network has become quite the job.
Trash everywhere. That is one thing I am noticing about this urban living. Sure, Main street is nice and clean, but that is because people are paid to keep the trash cleaned up. What about the rest of the streets we live on? Who is responsible to cleaning them up?
In general, we have found that the median life cycle of audio equipment is around 10 years. Some pieces will last longer, others will require maintenance or refreshing to continue to perform to specs and some things will need replaced much sooner. Environment, handling and maintenance, and materials and workmanship directly affect longevity of components. Indirectly, the experiences and expectations of people effectively shorten product efficacy.You could call this the “inside, outside, upside down” theory of life cycle of audio systems.A worship facility is not just another performing arts space. As the spoken Word- the sermon- is at once equal to and yet higher than the “singing of hymns, psalms and spiritual songs” it is therefore neither lecture hall nor concert space, but Worship Facility. Designing the Worship Facility means to design a space that supports speech as well as music.
During our last move we left behind a spotlight that had been used for a college touring choir since 1976. It was a used donation when they got it, and it was still being used for special productions in a technologically geriatric setting [stored under risers and used once a year] at a large Baptist church. In finance circles, there has long been a mantra that leasing is not good stewardship. People want to own homes, not lease, to build equity. Buying a car, not leasing, is said to be less expensive in the long run. So why would I promote leasing equipment? You do want to purchase the durable workhorse whose technology remains steady- predictable and reliable. Things susceptible to needing upgrades and becoming outdated should be leased. Here are four points to consider when deciding to buy or lease equipment.
If technology used in the church is of poor quality (in the eyes of those attending), it will tend to reflect poorly on the message, evening cheapening the message. If the technology is too glitzy and fancy (again, in the eyes of those attending), it will make the message feel more like a story, entertainment, even fantasy. We want to get the right system into the right church to give the right message while recognizing that the real question being asked is, “But, how can we make the most of available resources?”
How can I mic our choir so we can hear them? We are hearing the orchastra / band through the choir mics and if we turn up the choir any more we get feedback. We currently have six AKG CK47 mics suspended above the choirloft. Do we need new mics?
… I wanted to talk through a couple of the issues and my thoughts on the solution of your choir mic problem. Your setup and arrangement is very similar to what we had at High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin where I was on staff and we battled with some of the same issues.
