Idaho Shakespeare Festival 2013

[RBIngraham]

Having been there last year, Matt, I don't feel you should lose any sleep over possible 'unevenness' in levels as a result of two actors in close proximity. Given the problems of the size of the building and its acoustics, the fact that the performance was in the round (with about 25% of the audience sitting facing away from the stage), the level of background noise (mainly due to the reverberant space), the limited get-in time for a full PA system with multiple sets of distributed speakers and the lack of any proper sound check or rehearsal I think it was a miracle that the actors' lines were intelligible at all - I was glad I wasn't being called upon to provide the sound reinforcement or mix on the night (well done in other words)!

Hilary

Sounds kind of like a nightmare gig.

[soundchicken]

...In a few high school productions I've worked on where we had students doing all the mixing and tech work I have split up the responsibilities to multiple people. One director I've worked with always had an extra person sit right next to or behind the student mixing. They would do nothing but sit and follow in the script and give quiet verbal reminders of which mic would need to be turned on or off next. ...

I don't deal with audio during my day gig but with lighting, and I reinforce this method to high school instructors all the time. There are almost always more "tech's" for a HS show than what is needed and in some cases two heads are better than one to keep things straight.

[Mattseymour]

Thanks Richard and Eric, some useful insight there.

It isn't the biggest of nightmares but it is challenging. As Hillary mentioned (and thanks for your kind words) the event is difficult in every way, but we've got pretty good at it. A bit more detail for those interested, this is the big Christmas service of a church held in the next door cathedral, which happens to be the largest gothic cathedral in Northern Europe. We have to fit around the usual pattern of services which limits when anything can be set up. We generally setup speakers (about 20) in advance but have from midday until about 3.30 to do all stage setup, rig radios, focus lights and sound check music, rig video cameras. Then after evensong we have about an hour to do final checks and sound check actors. It's tight, but ok providing nothing goes wrong.

For the drama elements I get scripts and also go to the final rehearsal at the theatre company. Every year I try to mark up my scripts better, anticipate problems as I watch the rehearsals... Always learning, trying to do a better job. The greatest frustration is we seem to have one mic problem every year. I hire in, test everything, but still one of them will fail in performance. The worst we had was one actors mic which worked before the piece, gave us nothing all the way through, then was fine afterwards.... Grrrrr

All of this reminds me that it's time I went through all the cabling we use to make sure it's all good!

[IraSeigel]

...The worst we had was one actors mic which worked before the piece, gave us nothing all the way through, then was fine afterwards.... Grrrrr

All of this reminds me that it's time I went through all the cabling we use to make sure it's all good!

This problem sounds familiar to me, and one solution might be to make sure that beltpack antennas aren't folded or bent into the actor's clothing. Antennas have to be extended to their full length. And get your receiver antennas as close as possible to the action. Also, bit a little OT: What's the RF situation like in your area? Crowded, or do you have an open area in the spectrum in which to operate?

[RBIngraham]

Thanks Richard and Eric, some useful insight there.

It isn't the biggest of nightmares but it is challenging. As Hillary mentioned (and thanks for your kind words) the event is difficult in every way, but we've got pretty good at it. A bit more detail for those interested, this is the big Christmas service of a church held in the next door cathedral, which happens to be the largest gothic cathedral in Northern Europe. We have to fit around the usual pattern of services which limits when anything can be set up. We generally setup speakers (about 20) in advance but have from midday until about 3.30 to do all stage setup, rig radios, focus lights and sound check music, rig video cameras. Then after evensong we have about an hour to do final checks and sound check actors. It's tight, but ok providing nothing goes wrong.

For the drama elements I get scripts and also go to the final rehearsal at the theatre company. Every year I try to mark up my scripts better, anticipate problems as I watch the rehearsals... Always learning, trying to do a better job. The greatest frustration is we seem to have one mic problem every year. I hire in, test everything, but still one of them will fail in performance. The worst we had was one actors mic which worked before the piece, gave us nothing all the way through, then was fine afterwards.... Grrrrr

All of this reminds me that it's time I went through all the cabling we use to make sure it's all good!

OK, that is not quite as bad as I initially interpreted it to be.

I suspect time might not allow this, but my humble suggestion, run sound in the rehearsal hall with full wireless (just for the practice) for a few days before you load into the church space and have the really long day to deal with. And maybe you already do this, but I would at the very least have all the actors mics fitted to them before that day arrives. I would have all the ear rigs and other connections to the actor's body (both mic and transmitter) things figured out in the rehearsal hall. If time and money allow, make them wear them in the rehearsal hall a few times with costumes. That way they all get used to them, issues can be solved and things tweaked while not in performance mode.

This is obviously just my guess, but I would bet your failures are likely happening because things are being pulled on (like the mic wire) and unplugged or cables unseated, etc... Setting any RF interference issues aside, the most likely failure points are the cable at where it attaches to the connector that plugs into the pack, the connection at the pack (both the connector on the mic cable and the socket on the transmitter) or sweat outs or anything else that causes the mic itself to stop working properly such as falling off the ear or getting pulled back under a wig, etc...

What I'm saying here is that wireless mics are always going to be finicky beasts, but I usually only have a few failures for the entire run of a production. That's usually dozens of performances and we'll have a failure or two in that entire time. Obviously some shows are worse than others. Heavy dance shows are the worst, they trash mics like crazy.

I would think about putting what I call a service loop in the mic cable at the connector. This is where you take a bit of the mic wire, put a little loop into it and then e tape that loop to the connector. I do this on any show or performer where I think it is likely the mic wire is going to get tugged on. This has saved tons of work fixing broken mic wires at the attachment point to the mic connector. It's especially important if you're moving transmitters around from one person to another. Then that connector and the one on the pack are taking a lot of abuse because that mic swap is usually being done in a hurry.

My gut is just telling me that if you're having issues almost every year, then it's probably an issue with the way the mics are being mounted to the actors, which then causes them to fail. Or perhaps RF issues depending on if you are in a congested RF area.

Is the service the same every year? If so I would take the time to spend a lot of time in rehearsal one year, then automate a lot of the show. Saves lots of time from then on. You would only have to tweak settings for new cast members each year and do tiny tweaks for the others.

Basically, eliminate as many variables as possible in the rehearsal hall. That is my suggestions. And forgive me if I am stating what seems to be the obvious to you since I don't really know you or your background very well.

[Mattseymour]

All excellent ideas. Thanks.

Last year we used line6 digital wireless for the first time and the coverage and sound quality was excellent. The issue we had was one bad mic cable, which is possibly a problem the loop could fix.