Event at VIVO + Analysis = Chance to Learn!!

I guess most of you can see by now that this post will be another one of those where I go and dive deep into PA stuff and then leave most of you out there gasping for breath as you try to surface to get a bit of air before you go back in again...
Well, you could say that its becoming a bit of my hobby, but I think its quite nice, and as Eng Yian as kindly put it, we need a LOT of case studies...

So anyway, I was at vivo city today to eat lunch (after ventures) and it turns out that they like to wander around before eating lunch. I happened to run into a PA set-up for a concert to be held at the roof tops of vivo city and... lets just say that I decided to take a closer look =P

Before we go in any further, lets have a brief overview of what the event is about:
This concert is a part of the crime prevention campaign that is being held at vivo city (no prizes for guessing why). Anyway, they had gotten in a PA crew to set up for the concert that they are going to have, and lets just say that the first look of the set up is enough to make me stand up in awe!!...

Anyway...
As you should be able to see by now, the title of the concert is... yup: "Roof Top Jam Dance Party". They mean it quite literally, as the dance party part is happening in the night, but the concerts are still held in the morning and afternoons.

And before we go and plunge our head in, lets have a general overview of how the set up looks like, shall we?

Now as you can see from the picture, this is an outdoor event. However, their set up can rival even that of the most expensive indoor PA system. We will be going in-depth into each section after this brief overview, but lets take a look at the environment first.

Firstly, since the event is held at the roof top of vivo city and is also an outdoor event, the speakers and amplifiers need to be strong enough to overcome the large amount of noises that will be flooding the event spot. As stated by the golden rule, people absorb sounds, and this is further aggravated by the fact that it is a wide open area. Thus, the speakers and amplifiers need to be strong enough to be able to project the music that is to be played to the large audience that should be present there at night.

Because of a lack of reverberation, there can be firstly a lack of warmth in the music. Warmth in music is created through reverberation of the sound wave around the venue. This can seriously hamper a band's attempt to bring soothing and warm music to the audience as the effect may not be there.

The remedy for this would be to either create a separate foldback for the audience that creates an artificial reverb by setting delay using an equaliser, or if the mixer is high-tech enough (Allen&Heath PA12 has this functions), it can create an echo in the main mix as well using the sfx functions. This way the warmth can come back...

Another important thing that the PA crew has done is to set up two separate group of speakers. One group is set to face the audience that can have a seat and watch the event while the other group is set to face the rest of the crowd present at the event. Before we go on further:

If you can see in the picture on the right, the large dome structure that you see standing there is the place where the concert is held. If you noticed from the picture of the overall view above, the event is actually facing inwards towards the audience. So what about those that are at the event but are not seated? The PA crew has them covered and has set up the other group of speakers that I had mentioned to take care of them.

Lets take a look at their speakers that they have set up for the rest of the audiences:
Now, notice that even though this could be considered an auxillary speakers for this event, it is still very large and seemingly very powerful. This is to compensate for the fact that they need the music to be able to cover almost the REST of the rooftop. This way, the dance party can then be carried out and also at the same time, important announcements can be made.
They had also done a good job of splitting this speakers into twitters and subwoofers. This would sure allow the speakers to pack a punch during the dance as each speaker do not need to cover a large frequency range and thus prevent sound distortion. At the same time, it can provide the booming chords needed for the times when you need to get people's heart racing during the dance.

Now, lets head over to the main group of things shall we?
Lets take a look at the... SPEAKERS!!

I must say I am very impressed by the speakers, just take a look at it:

Yes, if you still can't see it, its composed of 3 twitters along with 2 subwoofers (OK, one of the twitters seems to be blocked out). Evidently and also based on some of my assumptions, this is a bi-amp system that uses a crossover to allow each speaker to only have to project a limited frequencies of sound. Before you start going on the question of how many amplifiers they need to do this, let me explain the wiring for their speakers...

Their tweeters are all connected to each other. The idea is something like, they have 2 NL4 jacks behind, and one of them is an input while the other one is an output. (It looks that way). One of the speakers receives the signal and then transmit the signal on to the next speaker. This means that the amplifier powering this set of speakers is probably a bit powerful so that it can do that, but whether or not this is even possible still leaves a lot to be discussed (perhaps we can go and take a look again?) The two subwoofers however seems to be separately wired for the event...

Now, we always hear complaints from performers that they can't hear themselves, but I think this crew has really taken it very literally...
Yea, as I have mentioned, I feel that they have taken it way too literally. If you count all the black boxes on stage that are acting as the stage monitors, there are approximately... seven stage monitors. 4 in the first row, 3 in the back row.

I don't think this is a good set up because there are just way too many stage monitors, and just too many way for feedback to occur here with seven stage monitors. Face it, if seven stage monitors are on at the same time and they are THAT freaking close to a mic... I hate to imagine what would happen. Even Mel was asking how is it possible...

As it turns out, the crew did suffer quite a lot of problems. I was there when the event just started, and they ran into several monstrous feedbacks right at the beginning and then it evolved into an endless whining from the speakers coming at around the high-mid frequency (although I think this has to do with the wiring... More on this later)

Either way, 7 feedback monitors is suicide, but might just be needed for those sort of rock concert that they are going to play around with. And lets just say that we had more then enough of rock concerts for a while after the end of year celebration (I am soooooo not going to get started on that)

Anyway, I went to take a look at their mic placements, and I guess there is somethings we can learn from there as well...

This is their mic placement for their drum set. I know it doesn't look very clear (The camera isn't that powerful). But anyway, there is a mic for each drum and each cymbal. So basically, the WHOLE drum set is mic up to the speakers...

Did I just say that?!

Yes, everything is mic up, and I got no idea how they are capturing it. But I think basically what they have done is to ensure that the gain on this mics are not very high and they use super-directional mics to ensure that they won't pick up the rest of the sounds from the other drums creating a super powerful drum sound coming from the speakers. But it does show what we can do with a lot of mics and a lot of mic points...

Next up, some of the mic placements for the players:

Yes, their mic placement for their saxophone players are very good. If you can see it in the picture, the saxophone mic just happens to be positioned at the correct place for the sound from the saxophone to be captured easily by the mic.

Also, before we move on to the next section of our event analysis, it is to be noted that most of the mics that are used either uni-directional or super-directional. This is to ensure that the mics will capture from one and only one sound source. This will allow the peopel up there to control all the inputs and outputs easily and also prevent situations where a certain sound overpowers the rest because it is picked up by the rest of the mics as well.

Oh yea, just a note before we move on to the lights system.
For all their keyboards, guitars and what-not, they have given them direct insertion boxes, ie DI boxes to send the signal up to the mixer. Its good as it minimizes the problems of using a portable amplifier (end-of-year celebration comes to mind) and also allows a good input to be received to be sent to the speakers (no distortion, no nothing). Unfortunately, the pictures for this section seriously cannot make it, so we're not putting any up here...

Next up, we're onto our lights.
As already mentioned, this IS a dance party (at night that is) so obviously you'll need something to fire up everyone's mood (although a dance party in a crime prevention campaign doesn't seem to exactly fit in). Anyway, lets take a look at their lights...
First off, we go into the simple stage lights, also known as par lights.

If you had noticed by now, this is an outdoor event. Why do I say that this set-up can rival even those of the indoor events? Well, just take a look at the lights...

All those black little things at the top are lights. Their power cables are wired by connecting it to the lights (obviously) and then coiling the cables around the metal all the way until it reaches the source of the electricity. Sure it takes time, but it sure looks good once its done (especially when you can't see the cables easily)

And before you think I am easily impressed...

Here is a bunch of intelligent lights, also known as intel lights. There are 6 intel lights and (not in this picture) 4 intel lights positioned on the stage most likely to provide some background lighting.

Now, I am not pro at lighting and setting up powerful scenes that uses light to convey emotions and feelings... yet. But this seems to be a very versatile set up to allow the PA crew to whip up the mood of the crowd and also generate the effects of slow moving soothing music. Lights are usually very versatile unless your set up sucks, but they may impair your performers ability to perform (which is highly evident during the end of year celebration).

Also, lest you think the lights float up there by themselves...

Here is the control for the height of the intel lights and also where they are placed. The picture is here just to show you how versatile light can be if you have the proper equipments. Tanglin secondary also has a few sets of this light holding structure, and lets just say that their intel lights are the mobile intel lights...

Sorta reminds you of mobile suit gundam... but anyway...

Now, lets take a look at the wiring...
This is where I think the PA crew has screwed up.
The wiring is brought down from the control that is located on top all the way down to the place where the stage is. They had placed all the cables along the same freaking straight line. That includes balanced cable, power cable, light wiring, receivers....

Did I mention lights and sound together?!
Remember me talking about the high-mid whining coming from the speakers? At first I thought it was a ground loop (which can be quite common when your ground sucks or if you have lots of equipments) but the frequency of the buzz is too high for a ground loop. (50Hz in the US and 60Hz in much of the rest of the world). Evidently, it can't be a ground loop, and besides if it is, they COULD have lifted the loop using the DI boxes already ("lift" function inside DI boxes will potentially disable all problems brought about by a ground loop). Its got to be something else.

I've got a feeling that it is due to the light and sound cables being placed together. The current flowing through the cables generate a magnetic field around the cable. This will thus creates the interference. Adding on to the fact that this is a constant interference, and you've basically just sealed the case.

What the PA crew might have done is to lay the lights cable totally separated from the sound cables. That way, less interference could have occurred and thus allow the audience's ear to not be pricked by the never ending high-mid whine...

Now then...
This is the control that was present there. It was located very far away from the stage. There are both pros and cons for this...

Pros
Its location allows it to be at the same spot as where the audience is. This way, the people at control will be able to hear what the audiences are hearing. This allows accurate adjustment and allows the audience to enjoy the performance at the highest standards.

Cons
Its far distance means that it might not be able to consider the audiences that are seated in front (I can imagine an audience being blasted out of his seat thanks to the subwoofers =P). Also, there can be a lot of communication problems between control and backstage bcause of distance. This can be a significant issue especially in such a dance party where the sound of the instruments crashing is often much louder then what you can hear with your ear (Trust me on this).

They are equipped however with headphones and gooseneck mics, but I question the ability of the backstage to be able to hear anything through the barrage of crashing instruments that might happen later on. Also, their's is one way, so backstage can't report anything back to control. That's definitely a seriously bad news. But it might not be that bad since there isn't a curtain...

And that's about it for the evaluation of the event at Vivo City. I had combined my evaluation of each parts as I went along describing so that you guys don't need to go back and forth on this page to understand what is going on.

If any of you guys have the chance or are interested, lets have an outing to vivo before this event is over. That way we can all catch a nice movie, spend time together and also examine a cool PA system ^^

Amount of time it takes to observe a system: 10 minutes
Amount of time it takes to evaluate and analyse: 25 minutes
Amount of time it takes to type this out as an archive: 1 hour 30 minutes
Amount of time this knowledge stays with you: Forever...

Discmon

Things that make you happy

I realised that I had been very happy for the last few days, and I know the reason why!!
It's not because I had completed my holiday homework (which I would be definitely happy to get rid off), nor is it because something extraordinary had happened in my life (It won't for a long long time to come). It's just because there have been a lot of small things that have been happening that have been keeping me happy...

Lets start with yesterday...
1st thing that made me happy
I was able to slack at home and created another brilliant wallpaper for my phone. Ok, I didn't really draw everything by myself. Basically, all I did was to use photoshop and edit out parts of a photo that I need and then put them together in a way that I find that it looks nice. It won't be the first time I had made a wallpaper, but I think it made me able to relax and enjoy putting things together on photoshop. So it contributed to me being happy.
Here's the wallpaper that I made yesterday haha:

You might have noticed that the top of the picture seems to be a bit empty, but that's simply because the top of the phone is more cluttered with text and thus I try to reduce the complexity of the wallpaper by not putting so much things at the top...






Anyway, now on to the second thing that has been making me happy...
I had managed to book the BBQ pit for PA!! It was quite a last minute affair as it turned out that east coast park bbq pit won't be as ideal as what we thought it would be. In the end, the excos called me and asked if I could get a bbq pit at my house there. Of course, this was plagued by much difficulties (which included some family trouble that caused me to be unable to ask them about this). After enduring much difficulties, I finally managed to get to talk to my parents and before too long, I was off to booking the bbq pit.

The good news is that nobody had booked on the ideal date that I wanted the bbq. Therefore, I was very happy about that cause things are going my way!!

And we go on to the third thing...
My eyes did not get worse.
I was seriously worried about my eyes. I had been using the computer quite often over the last few days thanks to the holiday and I had been experiencing those sort of situations where the object you are trying to see starts to go out of focus quite commonly. My eyes are also starting to get tired more easily, and I was hoping that my eye won't get any worse (any worse and I'll be blind without my spectacles).

Anyway, with my spectacles spoilt again (my spectacles ALWAYS spoil), I decided that it's time to go for an eye check-up, and at the same time get a new pair of spectacles. After some careful examinations, it is concluded that my eyes have not became worse and all I needed was a new pair of glasses as my current ones is nearly beyond repair...

So yea, I am happy about that ^^ It shows that my short-sightedness and astigmatism would probably not get any worse then this.

Now lets see, what's the 4th thing.
Oh yea, it is being outside of the house. I don't know why, but somehow, I like it when I am outside of the home and am all by myself. I kinda like being able to go around Singapore by myself without any interference and just do random stuff such as visiting shopping centers to check on things and possibly run into people I know accidentally and have short chit-chats... Sounds kinda like a slacker eh?

Anyway, I went to funan to check on the price of a Nintento Wii console, and I guess being outside by itself is a very happy thing. All I had to worry about is to get myself home safe and sound and not to get into any big troubles while I am out there (that hasn't really happened... yet)

Ok, that's what happened yesterday, today...
Today, I think I am happy because I met everyone in 4D again.
To me, 4D is very different to all the other classes that I have had. 4D is a very noisy class and lets just say that the class is usually in a state of "organised chaos".(If chaos can be organised, that is...) I guess I am missing that state of organised chaos, where things such as calling other people's names in a funny way, doing childish stuff, talking about politics in a fun way and targeting 4A with all our actions are normal everyday stuff.

I miss the calling names session every morning too...
"Caiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-zhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii"
"bobobobobobobo-yuan
"CHYUAN-sheng"
"marTIN"
Yea, the list goes on...

And I think its just this great feeling to see everyone all over again, seeing their happy faces and learning about the funny stuff and the crap stuff that has been happening in each other's school. Another great thing is that we somehow all have a common interest in computer games (ok, some of us) and I think that really sets them apart from all the other classes which I had came from. People nowadays are getting more and more studious, so studious in fact they are starting to eat books, and I just missed the days where everyone just drop whatever homework they are doing and start doing some fun stuff together...

Yea, sorry no photos (because I don't like taking photos of people) but lets just say that today is those days that will stay vivid for some time.
And oh yea, today I am the main cook for the bbq all over again. I think I did a great job !!
We'll let those who went to the bbq to comment on that statement =P

Looking back at it all, it actually isn't that hard to make yourself happy. We have seen countless stories of people throwing their life away as they struggle to earn cash in what they hoped was the path to happiness. We had heard tales of people trying to achieve something but in the end, they lost their happiness.

Happiness is always there, always present, just waiting for you to embrace it, for you to accept it with your hearts. Its the simple things in life that makes you happy and keeps you going on in this, perhaps, dark world...
So, wake up to a smile... The world is waiting for you!!

Dedicated to all you people out there!

Discmon

Mediacorp + PA = Improvements

I guess some of you guys out there might have received a frantic sms earlier today which goes along the line of: "OMG!! There is some freaking big event at JEC!!!! COME COME COME !!!!!"
Ok, I exaggerated the contents of the SMS, but it did go along something like that. Their system is quite well prepared and yup, this is for the record ^^

Basically, what happened is that I ran into the filming session of the current affairs show in Singapore "有话就说". Other then the fact that some times their comments are seriously shallow and their topics do not usually go into the really important issues in daily life that we talk about daily, their show is pretty much ok!

Anyway, I had learnt previously that this show do their filming at different shopping malls every week, and they are hoping that one day, some members of the public might just come up and start a conversation with them. (in fact, that was the original aim of the series and was also the very reason why it stood out from the rest) This is the second time I ran into them and lets just say that I couldn't resist myself from stopping and taking a very close inspection of their system...

Basically from preliminary examination of the system, they basically comprise of three distinct system, which you can see in the photographs below:










These three photos are basically placed in the order in which they were arranged there. My technical skills are not up to the standards of mediacorp yet, but based on observations, I can deduce what each section does...

I shall now move into each of the sections, based on which one I perceive receives the first input.
The first section to receive the input is the second section, the one where you can see the tv screen in front of the two person sitting at the mixer. Their main job is most likely to control the amount of output for each of the cordless mics that were used. They had used a total of 11 cordless mics.



If you can count the number of receivers on the rack, there are also 11 receivers.
The output that they have obtained is sent out to the first section.



The first section consists of one mixer and a bunch of amplifiers. Basically what I think it does is this:
It takes in the output from the second section and then its main job is to
1) Record the signal to tape for post-filming editing and what not
2) To be broadcast to the public
This is especially true since there is a large amount of public audience there listening to the talk, and they have already set up two speakers there to broadcast what is going on to the public.

Section three consists basically of the visual component of the recording process and also the place where the director does her work. The third section can be split into two distinct groups...


The first section correlates to basically the rest of the video taping crew, whose main job, I believe, is to capture the footages that were being used during the actual process. This is more complicated then how it sounds. Just look at the whole length of the set up there that is used for capturing the videos...

The second section is basically where the director does her work. If you can see the small little black gooseneck on her table, this gooseneck mic sends signals from the director directly to the host of the show so that the director can instruct the host what to do should the director feel that something should be done. Also, notice the large amount of screens that are in front of the director? This screens are used by the director to determine which camera should be used at a particular time for the final show...


Oh yea, there is also the cameras section...
For this particular shoot, 4 cameras were used. One was trained on the overall view of the layout of the show, one was on the host, one was on the group on the right, and the last one was on the group on the left usually. In this way, the director can quickly adjust his camera angles by switching cameras to obtain the view that she wants her viewers to see...

Anyway, now on to the technical aspects that we have learned today:
1) The reason why cordless mics are used.
-Corded mics are not used because it would be a great hassle. Just imagine if you have approximately 11 cables running up and down the stage connecting the participants of the show to the mix. It would not only add complication to the event at hand, and will also drastically increase problems with troubleshooting should such a need arises

-Condensers are also not used because it would have picked up too much background noise and this will have a seriously negative impact on post-filming. Also, the condenser would have been located at a large distance away from the source and this could result in cancellation due to sound waves not being in phase. This is especially true when the venue isn't built for acoustics.

-Cordless mics are used because they do not create a huge mess on the stage and also at the same time, can be very close to the original source of the sound. Through that, chances of feedback, cancellation caused by reflective surfaces and capturing of unwanted noises are very largely reduced. Thus, cordless mics are best in this situation, although interference caused by near-frequency wave are not unheard of.

2) Each cordless mics had its own receivers
-This is because when two mics share the same receiver, the receiver will not be able to receive both signals at the same time. If one mic sends out a signal, it will cancel out the signal from the other mic because the receiver cannot handle this. This will thus allow the event to run smoothly because there will not be cut-off resulting from mics use and it might also be easier to troubleshoot should a mic be faulty during the shooting process

3)Stage monitors
-A single stage monitor was used in the recording process. The stage monitor was placed right at the front where most of the participants of the show will not approach. This reduces the possibility of feedback occurring and in fact, should totally negate feedback because the stage has been built in such a way that no one will reach there. A very good learning point...


4)Backstage crews
-For this filming session, there wasn't a very physical backstage crew. But it is still somewhat present to some extent. Instead of running out to solve problems, they had (most likely) foreseen most problems and thus do not have to worry about them at all. Should there be any problems, they address it during the commercial break when the cameras stop rolling, thus allowing the event to be very smooth when you see it on TV.

-Also, the backstage crew have very good communication with the director running the show (remember her gooseneck?).Other then that, each member of the control crew also have a headphone. This must most likely act as either a control monitor, a director instruction receiver, or both. By using the headphone, they reduce the possibility of feedback caused by control monitors (This is VERY rare by the way)

Time for us to improve and apply what we have learnt!!
I'll upload the rest of the photos that I have taken when I have the time haha ^^

Discmon