Second Stake Conference Webcast.

Aczlan · #1

We had stake conference the other week (second stake conference that we have done a webcast of) and we ran a webcast for the members who live in three of the units in our stake (all of which are 2+ hours from the stake center).

We controlled most everything from the Stake Clerks office (a departure from conferences past when it was controlled from on the stand) and I MUCH prefer to run it this way. if there is a problem, I dont have to disrupt the meeting to get up and go fix it.
All went fairly well. Below are some pictures of how we had things setup:
Overall Room layout:

OverallRoomLayout (Custom).jpg: (89.12 KiB) Downloaded 349 times

Audio mixing and control (Personal mixer (Christmas present from my WONDERFUL wife). Church mics and cables):
Inputs into the mixer (L to R):

Choir Mic L
Choir Mics C
Choir Mics R
Pulpit Mic
Piano Mic 1
Piano Mic 2
Lavalier wireless mic
Handheld wireless mic
Unused
Submix in from Compressor (items in italics were run to a submix and then in through this channel to reduce feedback)

AudioSetup (Custom).jpg: (94.44 KiB) Downloaded 339 times

Camera monitoring and control

Camera: Sony DVI-D30 (on loan)
Controlled by the IR remote
Wireless audio/video/IR extender to send camera video and return IR control signals
7" mini DVD player as video monitor

Camera Control and monitoring (Custom).JPG: (60.71 KiB) Downloaded 340 times

Webcast Monitoring (Webcast was being run from my new laptop (in library) and monitored via VNC and a stream on an older (P4) laptop):

Webcast Monitoring (Custom).jpg: (92.28 KiB) Downloaded 334 times

All cables were run in under the door from the chapel (taped down), through the "stake foyer" and into the stake clerks office. We are looking into having 8 XLR runs made to go from under the piano to the stake clerks office to facilitate this for the future. Essentially a built in 8 channel snake built into the building.

We had rave reviews from the leadership of the units who watched it and we are going to work on purchasing equipment for the stake to do this in the near future.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Aaron Z

russellhltn · #2

I'm curious as to the wireless mics. I've never seen them used in "formal" sessions, just the less-formal training.

What mics did you use for the piano?

How did you tap into the sound system? Did you control that as well? (I've always run everything through the board so I had full control.)

Aczlan · #3

RussellHltn wrote:I'm curious as to the wireless mics. I've never seen them used in "formal" sessions, just the less-formal training.

They were used for a choir number on Sunday. I had the handheld mic (in a stand) setup for a group of primary children to sing into and the Lavalier was shared between two young women who had solos.When they were the only ones singing, it wasn't loud enough to trigger the gate on my compressor, so I had to mic them separately.

What mics did you use for the piano?

I had a pair of Shure MX393/C microphones that I set on top of the sound board inside the piano. One mounted to the lid would work, but I would then need permission to modify it.

How did you tap into the sound system?

We have an XLR input under the Sacrament table for one of the wireless mic receivers and I just connected into that. I need to try the line in that is in the stake clerks office and see if that bypasses the gate in the house system.

Did you control that as well? (I've always run everything through the board so I had full control.)

All sound (other than the organ) goes through my board. I have found that if I don't lower the volume (or mute) the podium mic when the choir is singing, it causes weirdness, so I switch that over when I set things up.
I also switch it back when I leave for the night as I didn't do that once and the high priests didn't have any sound for their meeting on sat night (which I wasn't told about) because I had the board shut down and unplugged.

Aaron Z

russellhltn · #4

aczlan wrote:I need to try the line in that is in the stake clerks office and see if that bypasses the gate in the house system.

I haven't seen that before. It might be there to tie into the phone system if needed.

aczlan wrote:All sound (other than the organ) goes through my board. I have found that if I don't lower the volume (or mute) the podium mic when the choir is singing, it causes weirdness, so I switch that over when I set things up.

Same here. I just unplug the mic at the base of the podium and send it though the board.

Aczlan · #5

RussellHltn wrote:I haven't seen that before. It might be there to tie into the phone system if needed.

I think that is why that was done. There is also supposed to be a pair of line outs to run into a phone bridge, but something happened to them and they don't work now.

Aaron Z

harddrive · #6

aczlan wrote: We have an XLR input under the Sacrament table for one of the wireless mic receivers and I just connected into that. I need to try the line in that is in the stake clerks office and see if that bypasses the gate in the house system.

I am looking to do webcasting and everything you did here sounds great. One question that I do have is that did you try just the podium microphone on your first attempt? If so, how did it sound at the other buildings?

Also did you zoom in on the speakers and then zoom out when the choir was speaking?

The one issue that I will have is that the stake offices where I would control everything from is in the back of our building and the chapel is in the front, so there is like 60' between them.

I'm looking at doing a network pan/tilt/zoom camera to be controlled by the network I have set up in the building.

With so many microphones, what was wrong with running it through the current sound system? Also was your stake center set up for closed circuit TV. Mine is and that is what I plan on tapping into to make ours work.

Thanks for the response.

Aczlan · #7

harddrive747 wrote:I am looking to do webcasting and everything you did here sounds great. One question that I do have is that did you try just the podium microphone on your first attempt? If so, how did it sound at the other buildings?

I have never intentionally used just the podium mic to mic the choir, as it will not get enough volume without feeding back. This building is my home ward, so I use the choir mics 5-7 times per year.

Also did you zoom in on the speakers and then zoom out when the choir was speaking?

Yes I did. That is why I borrow the remote controlled camera. We had a fixed one that was mounted and left alone, but people commented that the speaker (as seen on the projector in the back) was smaller than looking down the gym to see them.

The one issue that I will have is that the stake offices where I would control everything from is in the back of our building and the chapel is in the front, so there is like 60' between them.

With the choir mics, they could be setup with a mixer on the stand (sort of a "set and forget") but I can get ~1/3 more volume out of them by manually controlling them.

I'm looking at doing a network pan/tilt/zoom camera to be controlled by the network I have set up in the building.

Network would be nice. We are looking at installing a Sony EVI-D70 and controlling/powering it with a pair of CAT5e cables.
The current debate is whether it is worth it (complexity wise) to control the camera from the computer, or if the remote will suffice.

With so many microphones, what was wrong with running it through the current sound system?

Lack or phantom power, lack of control and lack of inputs.

The choir mics require phantom power to run, so they have to use a board
It is nice to be able to control the sound levels mid meeting (so that the people in the back dont hear the choir members whispering, etc)
On the stand there are 3 XLR inputs, one under the podium and two under the Sacrament table. In front of the stand there are two XLR inputs. Not enough for 3 choir mics, the podium mic and 2 wireless mics (let alone a piano mic)

Also, this way, I can make the choir mics louder on the mix for the webcast than on the mix for the chapel.

Also was your stake center set up for closed circuit TV. Mine is and that is what I plan on tapping into to make ours work.

Yes it is. The camera fed directly into that and we took the output from that for the webcast.

Aaron Z

russellhltn · #8

harddrive747 wrote:The one issue that I will have is that the stake offices where I would control everything from is in the back of our building and the chapel is in the front, so there is like 60' between them.

In that case I'd consider setting up "control" someplace closer to the chapel.

harddrive747 wrote:With so many microphones, what was wrong with running it through the current sound system?

You usually end up with poorer quality sound. The sound system selects the mics based on volume alone. That's not always the mics you want on.

And in PA systems, the more mics you have on, the lower you have to set them before they go into feedback.

Aczlan · #9

RussellHltn wrote:In that case I'd consider setting up "control" someplace closer to the chapel.

That or (if building logistics permit it) renting an audio "snake" to run back to the "control room" (at least for this meeting).

You usually end up with poorer quality sound. The sound system selects the mics based on volume alone. That's not always the mics you want on.
And in PA systems, the more mics you have on, the lower you have to set them before they go into feedback.

Exactly. Also, having multiple mics on which are located at different distances from your audio source (such as choir mics and the podium mic) can cause oddness in your sound. See http://www.soundinstitute.com/article_detail.cfm/ID/122 for some useful information on the subject (no affiliation, but they have a good, clear description of the effects of multiple microphones at different distances from a sound source)

Aaron Z