Digico Install

Digico D5 at homeToday was the day that we removed the older of the two Soundcraft Vienna consoles and replaced it with the Digico CS-D5.  Over all, the change over went very smoothly.  Last night John and Vincent pulled the Madi cables for the connection from the stage racks.  They ended up needing to be pulled in the iron. The console is in it’s final home and the stage racks are wired up and communicating. Tomorrow, Bryan is going to bring in the snake and we will get them all connected between the stage boxes and the stage racks. After that it is just finishing up the final patching and rehearsals start Tuesday afternoon.  So far we are right on schedule.  Pictures of todays work are on my flickr account.

Changes 3/30/2008

Sunday Photo

Video:

  • Temporarily installed a 5000 lumen project on the ledge above door five.  This projector had a long throw lens and I focused it on the baptistry wall, just for some more stage color.  It looked pretty cool; I guess that it is called architectural projection.  Have a look at the pictures linked below.  I did get one complaint from the choir – that it shined in their eyes being that it was mounted right below the confidence monitor.

Audio:

  • Installed the cable for the switch to the Digital console.  We planned on pulling it through the conduit under the floor but it was full of water.  Ended up bringing in Vincent and his crew to walk the iron.

Here is a link to this Sundays pictures

Digico Unboxing Photos

CS-D5Yes the Digico is here and I have the photos to prove it.  John is foaming at the mouth and has half of the configuration done.  Started pulling the madi cables, but found the conduit full of water.  After checking with Digico, we decided to run the cables over head.  Vincent is going to come in Sunday afternoon and walk the iron.  Bryan will be in Monday  with the patch cables to connect to the stage racks.  All should be ready for a launch next Sunday… please pray for us.  Here are the photos…

Easter ’08

Easter PhotoWell this was my first Easter as a Technical Producer and it was a great day of worship.  I’m glad that it is passed, but also excited for the next program that I get the opportunity to have a part in.  Lighting is something that is new to me, but it is one of my favorite parts of my job.  For this program, I decided to take on the design and programming of the lighting myself.  It was lots of pressure, but over all I was pretty happy with the results.  You can have a look at some of the photos from my Flickr album.

In the worship center we have have three screens that can project two different video streams. We added two more projectors so that we could play a third video stream for the song Yahweh.  That song had dance, three videos and the worship team.  There was so much going on and the volunteers did a great job of executing all of the cues.

I want to say thanks to all of the techs that served this Easter and a special thanks to George and Joe for helping with the setup and tear down.  Can’t wait for our next special program.

UPDATE: The Digital Shift

Digico CS-D5AND THE WINNER IS: I just sent the purchase order into Digico for the CS-D5.  After much research, number crunching, calling references, and most of all prayer, I executed the purchase order for the Digico today.  Studer has a great product and at some point I want to get my hands on the console.  Digico just has the best combination of features and price.  Keep an eye out here for information on delivery and un-boxing photos.

UPDATE: The Digital Shift

Studer VistaWe are getting closer to making the decision on a console…kind of.  I spent a good part of the week reviewing the consoles and talking with customers from both products.  As I was reviewing the requirements with the technical sales staff of both companies, I came to an interesting conclusion.  Soundcraft recommended that we look at moving from looking at the Vi6 to the Studer Vista 5 SR.  We had not looked at this console because it was out of our price range, but they have some options that might get it into range.  At this tim,e our requirements are greater than the capabilities of the Vi6.   Soundcraft will be add to the Vi6 and meet todays requirements for a console, but really doesn’t give us much room for growth in the future.

At this point in the process I’m not really interested in reviewing another product, but I did tell the folks at Soundcraft I would give them a few days to get an updated proposal to us.  If it seem interesting we would need to schedule a demo of the console as soon as possible.  I have heard good things about the Studer.  Grainger Community Church just installed three Studer consoles.  We just have to wait and see what they come up with.  In the mean time if you are interested, have a look  at the Studer.

Changes 3/9/08

Over the next two weeks we are greatly reducing production at SCBC getting back to the basics of worship.  Because of that, I had time to focus on some office items I have neglected.  But here is the changes for this week:

Video:

  • Updated to ProPresenter 3.3
  • Installed Leopard on both of the CG machines.

Lighting

  • Setup the Avolite software on my laptop and did a good part of the programming for this week at home.

What would I do without Quicksilver?

QuicksilverI can’t tell you how lost I would be without Quicksilver.  OS X is very cool but it is not the same without Quicksilver.  Now that QS is open source I love it even more.  I have been using QS from about the day I got my mac and what makes it great is that I’m still learning things.

I find myself thoughout the day needing to connect to different servers and using the Finder Connect to Server option.  Little did I know that you can just type the URL into QS using the text input option and then hit enter and you are connecting.  That is awesome.  To enter text mode on QS just type a “.” to start.  Go QS!!!

The Digital Shift

Over the past few months at Sugar Creek we have been in the process of evaluating digital audio consoles.  Our current analog consoles are Soundcraft Vienna 2 consoles with a total of 80 inputs.  They are around 12 years old and are getting a little worse for ware.  About a month ago we turned in a report to the finance committee recommending replacing the current consoles with a digital solution.  Today I got the call from the committee chairman letting me know that they approved the budget and to get the project started….thank you!  WE ARE MAKING THE DIGITAL SHIFT!!!!

In the report, we had four console options two of which really didn’t fit our long term requirements.  One option has all of our needs today and the fourth is a nice cosole with a road map of new features that meets the requirements by the end of the summer.  Now we have to choose, that is the hard part.  So what will it be Digico CS-D5 or the Soundcraft Vi6?  Your suggestions are welcome and I can’t fully answer that question right now.

Some other parts of the system are going to need to be upgraded as part of the process.  Starting next week, we will be having a vendor work on getting the stage cabling ready for the switch to preamps on stage.  We also will be ordering a new Aviom II system in the near future to replace our version one system that is not compatible with either of the consoles.  Be looking for more information to come soon.