Behind The Scenes
This year, I wanted to focus on sound and lighting. I have also updated some components since last year. Here is the breakdown.
Center of Operations
New Technology
Small changes, but still welcoming. This year, I upgraded from the Denon amplifier to a higher power Crown amp. With more speakers comes more power in the amplifier department.
I also upgraded the small PC that sits at the top. This one is also much more modern and powerful than the previous machine. Its primary responsibly is recording channels from the mixer and acting as a failover for the lighting software.
The control desk also received a welcoming upgrade. I moved to a full XTOUCH surface, which gives me more controls both during the show and when programming them.
- In
- Crown CDi1000
- Dell Precision 3431 SFF
- Behringer XTOUCH
- Out
- Denon DN-474A
- Dell OptiPlex 7020 SFF
- Behringer XTOUCH Extender
Sound
More speakers were introduced this year. The audience seating previously only had two flying speakers at the center of the ice. This added a lot of echo and delay, and became noticeable during the audio-synced cues.
I was able to add a speaker to every other column which gave me more spread. I staggered between JBL Control 25’s and 28’s.
Lighting
Lighting is always my favorite. One of the soloists this year had an act starting from the center, with different poses after a different piano note. I was able to tie a light right above and cue the light along with the notes.
Gobos! I added two moving heads to the end-ice as well, which sold an awesome closing to the show with this soloist’s performance.