Is it loud enough?

[Ivan Beaver]

Re: Is it loud enough?

On average, 75-85% are using earplugs. Listening distances are 0 to 30m. My measurement microphone is on axis 8m from R PA, 2.5m up in the air. Recorded 110.7 dBA Leq30 last night during the final set.

Now THAT is what I like to see when somebody states a measurement! It actually MEANS something. THANK YOU

By any chance would you have an average RTA measurement? Like averaged over time? Just curious in the typical sub-top SPL ratio you are running.

 

[Helge A. Bentsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

Live and direct.



Edit: Have no idea why it's upside down, it's the correct way on my computer.

 

[kristianjohnsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

Now THAT is what I like to see when somebody states a measurement! It actually MEANS something. THANK YOU

By any chance would you have an average RTA measurement? Like averaged over time? Just curious in the typical sub-top SPL ratio you are running.

Last time I visited one of these events 4 years ago, my Radio Shack SPL meter was bottoming out at the C-setting, and sometimes at the A-setting, too, all night long. The only people I noticed wearing ear plugs were security, techs and Police. I'm glad things are moving along.

 

[kristianjohnsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

I might be crazy and actually like working here, but I'm not risking my hearing in the process.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. For me, this is so far removed from what I try to specialize in within the sound and lights business, I might as well be working in a completely different industry! I know the money is good for those willing to put up with the whole "Circus", though!

 

[Helge A. Bentsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

For me, it's all about how you look at it.
My job is to make sure that the sound system performs at it's best, make sure nothing get's destroyed and keep the DJ and customer happy.
And the kids love it, the customer is really happy, I have a tent to sit in with heat(24x12000HD), internet connection, catering, no stupid event planners running around with silly ideas and no Marshall 4x12" aimed at my head turned to eleven. Not bad at all.

 

[Helge A. Bentsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

A picture from yesterday, was a day off. Show again today....

 

[Ivan Beaver]

Re: Is it loud enough?

A picture from yesterday, was a day off. Show again today....

You can have it-I am out washing/scrubbing my deck today High is supposed to be 80F

 

[kristianjohnsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

I did the first round of high school graduation celebrations today.

Imagine a field, roughly 100x50m where the kids pull up with they're buses which they have spent a lot of money on decorations on the outside, interior, reasonably indoor sound system etc.

They line up in a circle, put up a small stage in front, a dj on the roof and have a 10 minute performance to show off.

What would you use as a sound system for this?

Today I had 20+12 JBL VTX/S28.
The two buses to my left had 20+12 K1 each.
Next one had 20+12 Kudo.
Across the field they had 24+10 D&B J.
In the corner they had 14+12 ARCS/SB218.
And the two last ones had 24+12 and 12+12 Kara.

I recorded 114 dBA, 30min Leq in the middle of the field from my system during their performance.
It was actually quite funny walking around and listen to all those hi-class sound systems.

Hi guys, Helge is at a major graduation event in my home town this weekend. Here is a picture "carousel" taken from the online edition of the local newspaper in my home town. Gear porn starts at about frame 14.

Åpningsdagen under Russetreffet 2013 | gd.no

 

[Dick Rees]

Re: Is it loud enough?

Thanks for the pics. Now I'm "homesick" for Norway.......

 

[kristianjohnsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

Thanks for the pics. Now I'm "homesick" for Norway.......

No problem!

One thing I'm a little proud of that I like to show off in photos like this is how little security staff there is (and they're just volunteers with a stab-proof jacket at most, no kevlar, helmets, radios, batons, maze, guns, etc) how some of the more "normal" kids are tenting out in the cold and and how the guys at the urinal just wave and smile when the photographer shows up while they're taking a leak. We are becoming more large-corporations-focused and gradually more stuck-up and TV-oriented here, also, but, luckily, it's not happening at landslide speed.

That being said: Some of these kids are renting these sound/lights-systems, so there's definitively some "new values" showing up everywhere, too.

PS: You might not have enjoyed working with Helge today, though: Here's a photo out my kitchen window right now!

 

[Dick Rees]

Re: Is it loud enough?

It's snowing here, too......

 

[Max Warasila]

Re: Is it loud enough?

I'm stuck inside a black heated box all day... best of luck to you all!

 

[Helge A. Bentsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

I have 26 heaters in my tent, 24 of them are Itechs. Right now it's 22C inside, not bad at all. Teardown later tonight might get colder....

 

[Ivan Beaver]

Re: Is it loud enough?

I have 26 heaters in my tent, 24 of them are Itechs. Right now it's 22C inside, not bad at all. Teardown later tonight might get colder....

That's what the old fashioned par cans are for-heaters.

Decades ago I shared a house with some other guys (in a band) and they could not come up with their part of the gas deposit-so we had not heat-and it was January.

So I used my par cans for my bedroom and workshop heat. Kinda hard to get to sleep in the bright light-but you get used to it. I took showers at work in case you were interested.

Those were the days------------------------------

 

[kristianjohnsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

Hello guys.

The graduees went to visit a big event in my home town this weekend and I went to visit Helge and a few other techs there.
I took some photos before the crowds really gathered and thought I'd share them here.

I'll make three posts, the first one with pictures from Helge's setup, the second with various fun stuff from the three "dancefloor circles" and lastly some photos from the main stage of the event, which is a typical (but very nice) festival-style stage setup for bands and various entertainment hosted by the organizers (the "dancefloor circles" are entirely brought in and run/financed by the kids in the fanciest party-buses).

I'm sure Helge can share more about how "his" setup is run. I can confirm that his super-neato driverack from another thread works!
The rig was very impressive, but honestly, it was too loud and too close for me to really be able to listen. All top-of-the line JBL gear being beautifully muffeled by hearing protection... The low end goes straight through the plugs, so still very, very loud!

One fun experience was when I visited Helge's "tech-tent" right behind the JBL rig we were wearing ear plugs and screaming our lungs out to communicate. As soon as the "next-door" system switched off it felt like dead quiet - even if the JBL stuff was going full-tilt! Very cool!

One hillarious thing I noticed about the rig was that on this setup they had actually put the DJ on a small stage ON the dancefloor. That's right, in front of all those subs and two big line arrays. The hillarious part was the 10(?) inch floor wedge he had at his feet. I'm sure he heard that thing REALLY well! :lol:

Oh, yeah. "Obviously" they've made all this circus into a competition. It's actually well-judged by professionals and safety and rigging plays a bigger part than audio quality and general appearance. And the system Helge had deployed and watched over caught first place! So congrats to you, Helge!

 

[kristianjohnsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

Here goes with some other photos from the various other "dance-floor circles".

There was so much L-Acoustics K1 boxes there that it actually became uninteresting watching them after a while - and that's saying a lot!

I was a lot more interested to have a look at the Martin MLA as well as the Meyer LEO (which I had never seen before).

There was also a really nice Adamson system there, and the lights and rigging was pretty crazy, all in all.

There was a plexiglass roof over a dancefloor made to look exactly like the two opposing pyramids at the Louvre Museum in Paris, that was neat.

There was also a "moving head chandelier" made out of something like 7 "layers" of circular truss hung over eachother from a construction crane.

For a gear head like me it was all really impressive, yet at the same time a little lame and uninteresting as there was no way to really judge the gear on the merits that are important to me and how I would aspire to utilize it.

Also, this being made into a competiton, it's a little comical that about 70% of the systems seem to be the same, and delivered by a giant rental company from Germany called Rentall.

Oh, and yeah: The only difference between a normal festival crowd and this hoard of jumpsuit-clad youngsters? The graduees are slightly better behaved than the typical festival crowd! It was more than a little gratifying to watch all the kids having fun, many of them the "time of their life"!

 

[kristianjohnsen]

Re: Is it loud enough?

OK, and here goes the stuff that was the most fun for me, the "main stage". It was a nice change of pace to see a live music stage and listen to a band after all the dance-floor crazyness

The sys-tech at the main stage gave me a tour while one band was playing and it was all top-notch, as well.

First of all, Randy, you have nothing to worry about! That Outline stuff really works! The sound quality was pleasing to my ears with nice "impact" over the whole audience area. There were 6 subs either side that were set up as two cardiod stacks placed behind eachother in an endfire arrangement. I could hardy believe how quiet it was behind the subs: I would have no issue whatsoever running monitors from right behind one of those subwoofer stacks! The 90 degrees horisontal tops are also cardioid boxes and they also "go quiet" as soon as you step out of the pattern. It was quite impressive, and by just walking 3 meters the difference was tremendous over almost the entire spectrum
The amps for the line arrays just fill two small racks, and the subs are self-powered (and have a wireless router built in, so they can all be accessed "directly" from a tablet, or whatever!).

At FOH they had a Profile and a VI1 console with all lines split analog on stage to reach both preamp racks, on deck somewhere. There was also a Yamaha CL5 on monitors that got the last analog split feeding its RIO rack.
The returns from the VI1 (LR + monitors for one act) was run digital from the V1 into the Yamaha/Profile so that all sends could reach the speakers without physical repatching or going analog again, very smooth. The LR signals also ran via a Dolby Lake that was remoted via cat5 and a computer from FOH. The Outline racks all have proprietary processors as part of the amp racks.

The monitoring was a combination of IEM and 12 of the new Nexo "line-array" monitors I can never seem to remember the name of. Did get a chance to wander the stage, so no opinion of those. The amps look really clumsy and big sitting next to the super-sleek-looking racks for the Outline line-array, though!