Audix OM 2

Audix as a quality microphone manufacturer has been around for a while. The company was founded in 1984, and since then have been building quality microphones. All mics are made in the USA. There are a variety of artists using Audix mics, thes include such stellar artists as Alanis Morissette, Willie Nelson, Blue Man Group, Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins.  There are a lot of people out there who have not heard of Audix or have never used one. Shure has a large potion of the microphone market and most people expect to see a Shure product on stage. But when they are presented with an Audix mic they will be pleasantly surprised. I was use to using Shure mics when I was hand an Audix mic to try. And I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the mic and the quality of the sound that came out of the unit. I know that Shure mics are an industry standard but you really should try them out. The one I am reviewing is the Audix OM 2. This mic feels nice and solid in your hand and feels well balanced. It has that nice solid feeling of reliability. In use the signal seems to be hotter than the Shure SM 58. To my ears it also sounds cleaner. In an comparison test with a Shure SM 58 you can hear the difference. the SM 58 is slightly more boomy than the OM 2. Mixing with the OM 2 it is easier to place the vocal sound in the mix, this did make my job easier. When yoou compare the two microphones you should take in to acount that the SM 58 is old technology and the Audix represents the new. I prefer using Audix mics but it is a case, a lot of the times, of personal preference. So you should at leasrt give them a go.

I rate this mic an 8/10

Audix OM 2

Prolite PR10 -F

This fresnel from Queensland manufacturer is yet another popular lantern in schools and community theatres. This lantern is a good workhorse that is well made. The fitting weighs just over 4 kgs and comes complete with attached safety chain. When you unpack the unit you also get the colour frame as well. Optional extra is the barndoors. The lantern is very well made and should last for many years.  In use this is an easy fitting to work with.  The light output for this kind of light is very good, the lens is very white so the output is very clean looking. The beam angle varies from 7 degrees to 63 degrees, which is a very useful range. In fact when compared to one of the industry standards, the Selecon Compact Fresnel 1200, the beam angle is better. The Prolite does offer the Selecon a good run for the money. It also performs well against the Selecon Compact Fresnel 1200 replacement the Selecon RAMA.  In use I found this unit to very easy and did exactly what I wanted it to do. Focusing was easy and barndoor operation was OK. When it comes to servicing and cleaning this unit, it was very easy. Everything is laid out in an easy to get to fashion. Lamp changing is very easy with the side mounted drop down door. This unit can take the standard T-29 1200w lamp or with a slight modification of the lamp base spacers, which is explained in the instructions, you can use the T-19 100w lamp.  This fitting represents good value for money.

Prolite PR10-F Fresnel

The R.R.P for this lantern is $391.51 inc gst. This represents very good value for a very good lantern.

I would give this unit an 8/10

High School Theatre

Having worked with many school at the various venues that I work at. I wonder if the students are being taught the correct technical information at their schools. In the last few years I have year 12 students thinking they know what is what in the technical side of theatre. And their lack of knowledge is scary. And if they are stage managing it is amazing what they have been told some amazing strange information regarding the requirements of the stage manager. One show I did a few years ago the student who was acting as the stage manager was at the plotting session for the lights with the Director and I. Now this is as it should be. So the Director and I plotted away with me also making notes as I recorded the cues, the notes I made were written into a copy of the script that I had. As the plotting session progressed I noticed that the student stage manager was not marking the cues into their prompt copy. Now I thought this odd as the student had been learning about Stage Managing during their drama sessions, and surely one of the lessons that they learn is setting up their prompt script and the sort of info that is needed in it – like lighting cues. But as I am only a technician not a teacher I thought to myself were will this lead to when we do the first tech rehearsal. The time arrived for the first technical rehearsal, and it became a farce as the Teacher/Director realised that the lighting cues were not happening the way he wanted them, the Stage Manager became slightly upset. I then explained that it was the SM’s responsibility for them to call the cues as required. This student had not obviously picked up that information in their studies. So it was a good thing that I had notes on all of the lighting cues in my script. This is something I now do all the time. But it makes you wonder what is being taught to our students at school. Are drama teachers etc. being taught the necessary skills to pass on technical information to their students. I personally know of a couple of teachers who have an exceptional knowledge of the technical side of theatre. More and more I am trying to assist these students learn rapidly what they need to know so that they may get a better mark. But is it really my task to teach them and is it undermining what their teaching staff has already taught them. Or do I have an obligation to make sure these students know enough so that they could eventually enter the industry. I know it slows down what I am trying to achieve for the client as I spend time showing the shows what to do and how to do it.  some teachers appreciate what I have done and make allowances when they book a venue, so that I have more time. But an ideal solution would be to get technicians into the schools to teach some basic technical theatre skills. Then when they come into a theatre they have an understanding of what is going on and have a basic skills to make it happen and to be able to communicate with professional technicians.

Maintenance Tip #3

Cables are are the central nervous system of a theatre. without them nothing would function. So it is worthwhile to always spend a bit of time looking after them. Lets start with power cables. Now these can become extremely dangerous if you do not look after them. They also start to look pretty messy after having gaffa tape used on them to hold them in place. So at regular intervals you should check the cables. What you need to do is check the plug and socket ends for any damage. you need to make sure the cable is not pulling out of the clamp ends. You should not be able to see the inner cables. Make sure that the pins on the male plug are straight. Make sure there is no trace of arcing on the female socket or male plug. Make sure that the plug and sockets have no cracks or bits missing. Next the check the whole length of the cable for any damage., this is also a good time to clean and gunk of the cables with a good cleaner. If the cable is damaged you can either discard it or get it repaired.

Behringer CT-100 Cable Tester

Mic cables also need to be looked after. Again check both ends for any damage. Get yourself a good cable tester, it will pay for itself in no time. These are a great way to check out if the cable is wired correctly etc. An example of a cable tester is the Behringer Cable tester CT-100 as shown here. As you can see it can test a variety of cable types.  One thing to look for is on the female cannon type socket there is a rubber o-ring. Now this rubber ring will eventually break. And once broken sometimes affects the connection to mics etc. Also on female xlr connectors make sure the locking mechanism is intact. If not the make xlr’s or mics will become disconnected rather easily.

XLR male and female

You also need to check the whole length of the cable to make sure there is no damage. If there is any sign of damage you can repair the cable. Also this is a good time to give the cable a clean. It is also a good idea to identify your cables with a label or engrave the xlr bodies. A velcro cable tie is also a handy addition, this allows you to store the cable neatly when it is rolled up. Nothing worse than a tangled mess of mic cables when you are in a rush.

Cable maintenance is one of those things that needs to be done at regular intervals. It then will not take long. And you can then be confident that all you cables will be in top condition and should all work for all of those important gigs.

Customer Service 101

Now this might sound bland and boring, but as technicians we need to always be aware that we are being paid by a customer for our services. This is especially true of of venue technicians. Venue technicians need to be able to create the vision of the client. Now that client maybe very knowledgeable or the may have very little information about what they want. We as venue technicians need to guide the client in the direction that they need to go. We cannot lead in the direction we think they need to go, as in the end the client will be unsatisfied with the result. We have to extract what the customer expects and make it happen in the way they want. We can give them ideas, but they have to have the final say. When working with people and groups we need to establish who is in charge and take our lead from them. But in some groups you will find that there seems to be a committee that do not always seems to agree, have trouble communicating with each other and will often give you conflicting information. So a venue techs day can be interesting and frustrating, and we feel like we want to lose our cool and bank a few heads together and tell them what they should have. Now that might feel good but the ramifications for that course of action is going to be rather nasty. You need to be able to read the people and you need a way to break the tension when its starts to go pear-shaped. Humour can help, but some people do not react well to humour in tense situations. You need to keep calm and remember that you are there to help them achieve their goal, you are not there to look like the tech with attitude who has great skills but nobody wants to work with.  You need to assume that there maybe problems and the way to work towards a great outcome is clear communication channels, this can start weeks before their event. What you need to do is sit down and talk through the event. Make notes and listen to them. Try not to interupt as they state their ideas. It is at these meeting that you will get a feel for the event. And you will be prewarned  about any potential problems etc. Once you have a feeling of the event and list of stuff that they are going to require, you should find that things will start of very smoothly. There will be none of this feeling ” who are these people and why are they acting the way they are”. Usually these people are nervous and maybe and little intimediated by you and they venue. make them feel at home. Treat them with respect and they will start to feel comfortable. Once they start feeling comfortable they will start to listen to you as you try to help and improve their event.  you have to realise they are experts in their feild like you are an expert in your fields. When they arrive greet them with a smile. If they are happy your day will go smoother and you both will achieve what you wanted.

Maintenance Tip #2 – Microphones

When you think about it the humble microphone does receive a lot of abuse especially in the hands of a vocalist.  So often the headshell is dented, and the body is chipped and overall it looks like it has had a hard life. To improve some of the appearance would be to try and re-shape the headshell, this especially true with the Shure SM-58, or other mics with a similar headshell. With this type of microphone you can use a screwdriver handle to push out the shape. You need to be careful as there is usually some foam rubber inside the headshell. The body of the mic could be carefully repainted with a matte metal spray paint. If you are going to paint the mic you need to protect all surfaces and bits and pieces of the mic that you don’t want to get paint on. Or you could sand it down for that brushed metal look. But there is one thing we all need to think about in relation to mics, and that is the fact that they get spat on, coughed into etc. Now this does not sound pleasant and there is the slight possibility of and infection being transfer ed by mics from one performer to another. I suggest at regular intervals the headshell gets a wash and maybe once a week it gets a spray of disinfectant to kill the bugs. Something like Glen-20 would work nicely, just make sure that you don’t spray the important working of the mic.

Prolite PR7 Profiles

Prolite have been making lights in Australia for many years. They are based in sunny Queensland. A lot of schools and small community theatres have at least a few of this brand in their lighting stock. The PR7l amp; comes in 4 different types. There are beam angle variations, the 15 to 25 deg zoom range and the 25 to 40 deg zoom range. And also 2 lamp options, the axial lamp and the normal base down lamp. They all weigh at around 5 kilos. They are well made units. And the focus, zoom and lamp adjuster knobs are plastic and they do not get to hot. The body of the lamp does get rather hot. The fitting has a permanent safety wire attached which is the way to go, you are never without a safety cable. Lamp changing is relatively quick. The colour frame is held captive with a sliding lock mechanism, this is handy when you hand the fitting at strange angles. You can move the stirrup up and down the body with the use of a few tools, some time and patience. This is very handy if you need to hang the lantern with the nose straight down. For this you move the stirrup back towards the gobo slot. But you need to remember to slide it back to its original position. The stirrup clamps do have difficulty holding the fitting in a lock position if you use the stirrup in the extreme positions. This is possibly something the manufacturer should look at, as I have had problems locking the fitting off. It usually droops at the most in-opurtune time. When you get one of these fittings brand new you need to install the shutters yourself. The shutters are the weak point with this fitting. They are not as effective as the shutters in the more expensive lanterns. They have a tendency to come out as you are adjusting them. They also not that great at beam shaping, you do not have as much control as with other brands. The light output of these fittings is very reasonable and it seems very even across the beam. The beam can be tweaked with the lamp slide adjuster. There is a little bit of colour fringing on the the edges of the beam when it is sharply focused. Overall this is a very good lantern for its price.  It certainly is well priced for the school market. It will give many year of good service and you can get spare parts from the company. Prices start at $475 inc GST.

You can find more info at Prolite

I give this unit a rating of 7/10

Prolite PR7

Projection – Voice

Why is it these days everybody wants to use microphones. Even in plays people are asking to use microphones. I am seeing this more and more with school productions. The teachers are wanting to mic up the performers so that they can be heard. I find a couple of problems with this, first of all it can sound really strange when some child’s voice comes booming from the pa and some other child that is not miked sounds meek and insignificant, this is because the school cannot afford to mic each performer. The worse thing that sometimes happens is a Teacher/Director will say to a technician is “can we have a few mics on stands to pick up the kids voices”, now this is not an easy task, and sometimes requires special mics that most venues will not have in stock. And if you use your stock of SM 58’s for the task, as the Teacher/Director knows you have some and they have seen them used everywhere, so you set them up and everybody complains that nobody but the strongest voices can be heard. Or the schools hires a few radio headset microphones, but not enough for all of the main characters, so the headsets get swapped around. Now this can be an okay practise ass long as someone is in charge on the radio systems in the wings, and that is all they do. That way the technician knows that the same cast members will always recieve the same mics. Not like what has happened to me, which the mics were dealt out in any order and I had to sort out on the mixing desk which mics where being used and by who. And also operate the lights as well, since most venues I work at only put one tech on due to the client baulking at the cost of having 2 techs – but that is a story for another day. Of course we try and educate the client in the use of mics and the fact their show might improve if they used more mics. But in drama it boils down to voice projection and the lack of it. Musicals I can sort of understand, you need to get the voice louder rthan the band in most cases, but even in the early days of musicals the performer could sing over the orchestra. So what happened to teaching voice projection as part of the drama course. This will not only help them on stage but will be a useful skill later in life if they have to speak in public or use their voice a lot. Projecting and using your voice are very important skills in theatre. It is no good emoting and acting if no-one can hear what you are saying. So if teachers are going to stage productions they need to work on the projection side as well as the acting side.

LED Lighting

As I sit here pondering the future of theatre and what new technologies will we see. I suddenly realise that we are seing at least one right now. LED lighting is appearing in the catalogues and in lighting company lists. But is this what it is cracked up to be. Will LED’s replace the humble lamp in many of today’s fittings. I think it will be a while before that happens. Admittedly they have come a long way in the last few years, but they also have a long way to go. To understand this let us first look at what makes up a LED light. A LED is a semiconductor not a lamp with a colour cap. So they are easy to make. The light that comes from them is a pure, single colour. LEDs are powered by direct current and the amount of current determines the brightness. So the more current the more light. You can use the additive colour mixing systems to obtain a large range of colours, you do this using red, blue and green LEDS. You can get white LEDS, these are are actually blue LEDS with a special coating of phosphorescent material that shifts some of the light into the green and red parts of the spectrum. This them combines with the blue from the LED to create white light. LEDS will last a lot longer than the traditional lamp.
now this makes the LED sound like a great replacement to the incandescent bulb. But let us look at a few problems with that idea. The incandescent lamp has a single filament source. Now if a single LED was extremely bright you would get away with only using one in a fitting. But due to the low output of a single LED in comparison with the lowest wattage theatrical fitting you need more than one LED. So you need to use multiple LEDS in a fitting. Now when you are using multiple light sources you will get multiple shadows. This may not be a problem in a PAR type fitting, but is not suitable for profiles. Profiles need a point source for them to work correctly. So it will be a while before we see a profile fitted with LEDS. Another problem that might arise is heat, if a group of LEDS are enclosed in a profile fitting, there would need to be fans to cool the LEDS down. LEDS do generate heat and they need to be cooled.
now this not mean that they will never develop a LED profile, I am sure they are working on the technology at this moment. But LEDS are still not bright enough to be used for stage lighting in the way that we use current equipment. But there are uses that they can be put to. Scenic lighting springs to mind, truss highlighting is another. And even as I write this article there are improvements happening in the field of LED lighting. They have many advantages, such as low power consumption, they are lightweight and portable. Also a lot of LED lighting units are DMX controllable, this means you just need a power supply and a DMX signal and away you go. So be willing to give them a go, you might find that they will do the job. This is an exciting time in lighting.

So the future looks bright for LED Lights.