What should the stage dB be? (Managing Stage Volume part 2)

"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?"

The perception of stage volume, and the effect the stage volume has in the mix, cannot be set in a single Sound Pressure Level (SPL, measured in dB). The room acoustics, the musical style, the number of worshipers on stage, and the number of worshipers in the room -- even the weather-- all affect how a SPL will be perceived.

Room acoustics cannot be undervalued. Everything effects each other thing down the line. Of what materials is the room constructed? Is the stage floor wood, carpet? Are there stairs? What shape is the room? Where is the stage placed within the room? What style of music is being played? What type of lights? Yes, even lights affect the perceived loudness. Re-arranging the space and adding acoustical treatments should be considered when addressing loud stage volume.

Next: Personalities and their Preferences

Foldback, Sunday, June 28, 2009

A quick review of Sunday:

• AM worship service. Pastor Juan continued in the sermon series "The Church: A study of First Corinthians" With the message Glorify God with Your Body
• PM worship service. Pastor Juan wrapped up the Origins Series with Genesis 46-50 with the message I Will Bring You Back to the Land.

(For those who might be wondering, no, the current messages are not posted online currently, but are available on iTunes or from our RSS feeds. We are making some changes to the media site and have gotten bogged down and have not had the time or resources to get it finished. We hopefully will have the messages posted soon.)

Wow, almost two months since I last posted one of these Foldbacks - and I thought one month was too long! Thank you media team for your faithful service and working hard to keep everything working smoothly (or at least the appearance of smoothness!)

A couple media related notes:
Audio-

1. I really liked the mix Sunday AM, what I heard during rehearsal and bits of the service was great. It was a nice blend of featuring various instruments yet keeping the overall mix "in control"
2. We were struggling with the new wireless mics obviously and some issues with switching over - for those of you who didn't know, all of our current wireless mics had to be replaced because of the switch to Digital TV and the sale of a chunk of the frequency spectrum to private companies. We had 16 wireless system affected - at a replacement cost of $800 - $2400 each, we could not afford to replace all of them right now, so we replaced Juan's and Roberts to start the transition and will try to replace additional mics in the future as funds become available. So currently we are limited to 4 wireless systems (the two new ones, and two very old ones that were not affected by the DTV transition).
3. Trumpet mic - Wes finds the mic / reflector very distracting and doesn't want to play with it in front of him - thus, we don't have a very clean trumpet signal. Not sure what to do about this, but it does make it hard to mix it in.

Projection

1. Great job all around Sunday with words and video playback
2. On starting the video, make sure the correct video is cued (and paused) so it will start playing back when you go live. Not sure what the pause with the baptism testimony was, but I assume it was cued to black or not paused?
3. Words had some issues, but good job figuring out where to jump to and getting back in the groove.

Lighting

1. Light transition for the beginning of the service were all delayed quite a bit - reason?
2. By baptism time the lights were right on, good job
3. After the baptism leave the lights on the baptisty until you are sure they are done. Todd prayed in the dark... little strange.
4. Not sure what happened to the house lights during the sermon, but looks like someone was playing with the light switch by the back door - turned them on and off several times.
5. The flickering lights on the side of the balcony is due to a bad dimmer control circuit. Looks like we need ~$8500 to fix that, so it probably isn't getting fixed anytime soon.

Video

1. Didn't get a chance to watch much of the video, but overall it looked good. We had a bad cable between the TV switch and the webcast / recording station, so we had some color issues with the signal going out, and we had a soft mixer decide to mute itself when the systems rebooted causing no audio for the first part of the service... but other than that....
2. Camera operators, got to keep plugged in and pay attention. Several times the directors needed you and you were not ready / not paying attention to the services!
3. A reminder - Camera operators and Directors NEED to rehearse during practice - put on your headsets and PRACTICE!

Thanks everyone -

Managing Stage Volume Levels

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 - stay tuned.

IMAG strategies, foibles and fumbles

We have worked hours on producing graphics for a particular moment in a service: an outline, a Scripture, the perfect illustration for a main sermon point. The time comes to put up the graphic, and the computer just won't cooperate, the wrong button is hit, a popup freezes the screen... there is a fumble and a recovery, and the image is up in all its glory--- but the speaker has moved on, and the image is no longer relevant. It distracts.

"I don't know all the background activities that led to that moment," shares a church tech. "But I want to share my personal struggle as a House Director. Once I miss putting up an image at the time it was to be up, I tend to want to make up for it, though late; at times I may even ask my video producer or the sound booth to give me a directive on the spot. I think for me personally at a subconscious level it may be driven by a desire to fix MY mistake, to redeem myself. At times there are also other voices in the room urging me to put it up anyway."

What is projected in the worship center must always be a part of, an enhancement of, a support of the whole of the worship service and what is taking place at that time. The screen can be used to display a lot of different content: IMAG (that is, Image Magnification), song words, sermon notes, graphics, backgrounds, and video elements. It should always have a reason for being displayed, not just used because it is there or because we can. "[Knowing IMAG should be relevent] must restrain us from the desire to make up for what was lost. When it comes to IMAG, perfect timing is everything."

It is likewise important to think about it from the congregation's viewpoint. What's missing will not be lost on anyone (unless the speaker is calling attention to it). If something is displayed that is not connected at all with where the service is however, this will draw attention to the screens. The focus will move away from what is happening in the worship center and draw towards the media team ("why did they put that up?") causing a distraction from the corporate worship or from the Word being preached.

This past Sunday's projector failure was a result of a choir member accidentally unplugging the machine, as the cords are all underfoot. It's a perfect time for a reminder that there is a Projector Fund Drive to replace the blown out old projectors. The set up we have now was meant to be temporary.

Foldback, May 17, 2009

A quick review of Sunday:

• AM worship service with a bit of a change-up. Jay lead the congegational worship with the worship team and we honored those who are graduating this year. Pastor Juan continued in the sermon series "The Church: A study of First Corinthians" With the message Ought You Not Rather to Mourn?
• PM worship service was lead by our Student worship team and Stephen Stanford brought the message "The Intercession of Moses" then we had a reception for our grads.

(For those who might be wondering, no, the current messages are not posted online currently, but are available on iTunes or from our RSS feeds. We are making some changes to the media site and have gotten bogged down and have not had the time or resources to get it finished. We hopefully will have the messages posted soon.)

Wow, over a month since I last posted one of these Foldbacks? First, thank you media team for working hard to make each worship service flow smoothly - I know we have been having a lot of little problems, but y'all handle them well and most people never know anything is wrong - which allows them to worship without being distracted - exactly what we are suppose to be doing!

A couple media related notes:

Video

1. With our current lighting it seems the directors are struggling to keep the light levels set on the cameras. Remember the most important level is that of the peoples skin, try to keep this in the 85-90% range. Next keep the black levels on the black line (otherwise the whole picture tends to feel washed out) - then last, if you have any control over it, watch the peaks. Typically the pulpit is going to wash out, because it is GLOSSY and white and reflects WAY TOO MUCH light. And remember the camera sees the setup different than our eyes - the background is going to look dark, that is fine, it helps reduce the amount of clutter in the shot.
2. Seems like we are getting a lot of shakes in camera 1 again - remember that every little movement on that platform carries through to the camera and is amplified by the amount of zoom when you are focused way in.
3. Camera Operators please listen closely to the director - every week there are a few shots messed up by operators moving while they are on. Directors, please make sure to call every camera switch.

Audio

1. With the different sound this week it was refreshing listening to slightly different mixes. The stage volume seemed a lot lower in general also, which I think helped - everything sounded pretty good.
2. Not sure what happened with Juan's mic at the end of the service, but I think he accidentally turned it off as he was finishing praying? Still seems to work fine.
3. PM - the purple headset mic somehow got broken.... the head of the microphone is completely missing! That is why Stephen's mic didn't work, but the pulpit mic covered fine. Guess we need to get a replacement ordered for that.
4. If you have the reverb and effects turned up for worship, don't forget to pull them back down during the speaking and quite parts of the service - there is a lot of background noise from all the effects boxes (including the pre-amp Brandon was using on his gtr.)

Graphics

1. Great job on words and titles, everything looked good and y'all kept up with the jumps and repeats rather well!

Lighting

1. we have got to get some of those house light bulbs replaced - it is getting dark in parts of the congegation!
2. Light cues went well, good job switching to the other set of cues for the PM service, it looked much better.
3. We need to reprogram the back row of lights - I noticed they are off in most of the cues
4. need to look at the cues and see where that light on screen is coming from also?

Thanks again, let me know what you thoughts and comments are below!