Home: April 2009 Archives

Last week Mike Niemi, Tim Wentz, and I went to see a demo of the Allen & Heath iLive T series audio console. This is the new sound board we are considering. This will be a mini-review, since it was a "mini" demo. Sometime in May we will have the console in here for a full week. After that I will write up a comprehensive review.

Last fall Mike and I went to the Yamaha M7 class. At the time the M7 was the only console in this price range. We really enjoyed it and liked the M7. So I put it into my budget for 2009. Then the iLive was released a few months ago. On paper, there are several advantages over the M7:

1. More inputs than M7
2. More outputs than M7
3. Any fader can be anything. The flexibility of this is nice.
4. Can have up to 16 VCAs. As you know, the limit of 8 is constricting in even a normal Sunday service. Throw in Easter, Good Friday, Christmas productions, this feature becomes very nice. Probably won't use all 16, but definitely 10-12.
5. Using the same processor as the larger iLive, which has received very good reviews.
6. The separate stage box and the advantages/flexibility that it offers.
7. More simultaneous EQs.
8. Same manufacturer as current consoles. Not a huge item, but still helps the case of the iLive.
9. Cheaper.

The items that I was hesitant about the iLive:
1. New. Even though it's based off the big brother, it's still new. The M7 is tested and proven.
2. Only 1 card vs the M7s 3. Right now and for the near future, those will only be for Avioms.
3. Mike and I felt the M7 was volunteer friendly and intuitive. We were curious how the iLive would compare.

After the demo last week, we were very impressed with the iLive. As easy and intuitive as the M7 is, we thought the iLive was more so. I think the biggest part of that is the difference in the channel strips and the use of the touchscreen. It seemed easier and more intuitive on the iLive.

As for as the only 1 card issue, that will be for the Avioms. I know that doesn't give us room for another one (i.e. for recording). But the stage box of the iLive has lots of XLR outs that could then feed a recording interface.

The issue of the newness of the iLive is still there, but not as strong. It looks like A&H has done a good job of bringing across the stability of the big brother, while hitting this price point.

There were a few other really nice things that we liked about the iLive over the M7. For instance, there is both the regular headphone connector and the mini. You can freeze channels, so even though you might be going to a different layer, that fader would stay the same.

As I stated earlier, we should be having a demo here sometime in May. As soon as I know which week, I will let everyone know. The plan is to have worship team members here every night to help us get the settings right and learn the console.

Yes, it's been a long time since I have updated this blog. Apologies. It's been really busy around here. But that's not an excuse, so let me get to the long list of what I've been doing.

First are the big events of Journey to The Cross and Easter. Easter morning was a pretty standard morning in terms of tech. The only addition was the opening of the live streaming for everyone. That part went fine, but there were a couple hiccups in the live streaming. I'm hoping to clear those up this week. The other tech change was I moved the Room Mics for the Aviom feed from the tech booth to the stage. I've been doing some research on these, and a lot of people have had success doing this. Mike Niemi said the new location is a lot better. I'll be tweaking their location a bit on stage, but they will stay up there.

Journey to the Cross was about the same as last year with a few tweaks. The biggest was the changing of the 7 last words of Christ from 2 buttons to 4. This required adding a USB interface, buying 2 more amps, and going back into the software (Soundman Designer) and adding a matrix playback and then re-doing the ques for 4 buttons. This was fun because it's a new type of software for me and I learned a lot.

I have switched batteries for the wireless mics. The new supplier is a local company whose owner is a Christian. The price is almost the same, and being a local company the service is very quick. There have been no performance differences.

I have kept up on my project of continually trying to keep my office organized and clean. Let's just say that's an ongoing project. Part of the re-do has been that I finally got a new computer here. My computer was 7 years old and did not have everything that I needed. The new one is great and will keep my happy for a while.

The digital sound board is coming along. Mike Niemi, Tim Wentz, and I will be receiving a hands-on demo this Thursday. The latest is that we will have the demo here for a week sometime in May. The timeline for the actual purchase is unknown at this time. It will be sometime this year, but it is mostly out of my control (availability of funds here and the shipping of the console). Needless to say the purchase will significantly upgrade the audio in all areas (audience sound, monitors, choir, lobby feed, recordings, etc).

Personally, it's been a rough couple months. The passing of Linda was hard. Yes, it was expected, but it was still really quick. She was my office neighbor when I first started working here. And coming from the world of Harvest, the idea of a warm, welcoming pastor's wife was a new concept to me. I'll always remember her joy and being so happy to see Jen and Abby when we used to all come early on Sunday mornings.

Then Jen's grandma passed away. She had gone in to the hospital 2 months prior for a hernia and got a bacterial infection from the hospital. It was downhill from there. She was 77 and as far as we know, unsaved. This is Jen's dad's mom and that whole side is Jewish. This has been really hard on Jen. As a child, she spent almost every summer down there. Please pray for her. We will be going back there in May for Jen's cousin's high school graduation. We also will probably go to Disney for a couple days since it looks like we'll get free tickets and hotel. :)

In upcoming events, a week from this Saturday is the Girlville conference for Women's Ministries. Yes, I will be there. One of the "perks" of being a tech director at a church is that I get to work all kinds of events. Right now it looks like their tech needs are very minimal, but I should find out more info shortly.

Then in a month we have the CR Native Ministry gathering. That one will require tech help. I will be getting more info for that shortly as well.

Well, I think that's a long enough post for now. I'll do better at more regular updates.