Jason Cole - Production Nuts

The Unexpected Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:17:00 +0000

Are rechargeable batteries the way to go?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:40:00 +0000

My good friend Mike Sessler has been telling me for years I should move to rechargeable batteries. He has been using them for years and has recently completed a yearlong study of using them and how they perform in the long term. His data is compelling to say the least. It has made me step back and think about how and why we use batteries at Lake Pointe.

We average about 40 double A batteries a weekend just at our main campus auditorium alone. Certainly this adds up to a lot of dollars over time but we also are able to provide batteries to all the other ministries in our church. The used batteries are collected and then given to other departments in the church. This way they do not have the need to buy any and the batteries get used for more of their life. They are also given to our volunteers to take home and use in the Wii remotes or other devices they may have. It’s a small token to them just to say thank you. At our place we have lots of classrooms with TVs and DVD players all of which have remotes and these are powered from the used stock we collect. Our missions group gives them out to local partners where money is very tight and even buying batteries for that one or two wireless they may own is a big deal. With all that usage, I’m getting a tremendous value from a 44-cent battery. Not just a monetary one but also the good will that is spread throughout our church.

There would need to be at least some level of management put into a rechargeable battery system. This means that I, or someone with significant accountability, will need to make sure the system is being handled properly. This is not a job I’m willing to put in the hands of a part-time student employee. That management will take time and time is money. I have the resources I need to do the job but don’t have the time. If you have the time and not the resources then the equation changes. This is one factor in our decision to not move to rechargeable batteries. But there is more, much more.

I have to be real honest here. There are these little things called credibility and trust that our team has worked hard for many years to gain. Our leadership and those on our worship teams know that we are doing everything possible we can to help create the best environment for our services each and every week. We are given significant freedom because of that trust. It’s not something to be taken lightly. If I have a failure in a wireless device there are 3 questions that will be asked from our senior leaders.

1. Was there a new battery in there?
2. Was it just a bad one then?
3. Anything we can do to improve the situation?

If the answer is no to the first question because I was using a rechargeable then the next questions change.

2. Why was it not a new one?

"Because I was trying to save some money and become more green by using rechargeable ones."

3. So you think its ok to create a major distraction and ruin the efforts of lots of people who spend their time working to create a great environment for thousands of people because you didn’t want to spend 44 cents?

UG! There is no way I can possibly answer that question and justify the risk knowing that this is the conversation that would happen.

“But Jason, Procell batteries fail sometimes.”

Yes they do, however, I can say with complete confidence that I did EVERYTHING I could do to prevent failure. That is all my leadership will ask of me. I don’t ever want to have that hard conversation and loose my credibility.

“There must be some way you can use this technology, right?”

Indeed, I think there is a great place for our church to use rechargeables. Over the past couple of years we have given away dozens of our old wireless systems to partner churches all over the world as we moved out of the 700Mhz region. These systems are still perfectly viable in many parts of the world. The downside for our partners is that sometimes batteries can be expensive or difficult to even get. This is where a set of rechargeable ones would be a great gift. They have the time to make sure things are handled well and no longer need to worry about buying new ones when they are more concerned about making sure the water in the building is running. I’m ordering 2 Ansmann systems this week to send to some partner churches.

All in all, when I look at how many uses I get from the batteries we buy and the good will and credibility they bring, I have to say that I am getting an awful lot of bang for my 44 cents.

April Webinar

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:47:00 +0000

We're back. Coming April 23rd Mike, Dave, and I will be doing the next webinar. This month we are talking about strategies for your upgrade proposals. Both Dave and I have been thru major upgrades recently and Mike is about to do several big projects. We think you will gain some insights into making your presentation more agreeable to your leadership. Hope you will join us on our Live Stream channel at 10pm EDT/9CDT. See ya then.

Faith Story/Beautiful Things

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:43:00 +0000

Here is a story of faith we did for Easter. It flows into some cardboard testimonies we did at all our campus locations the previous weeks before Easter. I work with Kevin everyday and know what a great guy he is. It was awesome for him to share his story with everyone. Again, all the video for Kevin's story was shot with a Canon 5D Mk. II. Love the options a DSLR gives us for video.

Easter 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Our worship pastor, Danny Davis, put together this mashup for our Easter opener. The video was shot in and around Dallas with a Canon 5D Mk II camera. You can see more of the video on the screens in the background during the song. This was a lot of fun to do live.

I'm working on getting another piece put together and hope to get it posted soon.

Feb Webinar - IEM

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:30:00 +0000

The February webinar will be Tuesday, the 23 at our normal 10pm est/9cst. This month our topic is IEM. Mike, Dave and I will discuss the when, why and how's of using them as well as some discussion of Aviom and other like systems. We are doing something different this month for the broadcast. We are going to use LiveStream instead of TokBox. Last webinar, TokBox was a train wreck of technical problems. Also, it only allows 20 people to participate. We hope LiveStream will give more people an opportunity to join in the discussion as well as provide a more stable environment. I suggest you go ahead and sign up for a free LiveStream account to make it easier to see who is asking questions, rather then just your chat name being "guest21."

Ghana 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:32:00 +0000

We had a team from Lake Pointe go to Ghana a couple weeks ago to do some medical missions work and help our partner church there. In addition to the medical missions my boss, Wes, and one of our other staff media guys, Damon, went along to help the church with some technical needs.

As you probably know by now, the FCC has completely banned the use of wireless mic systems in th 698-806Mhz range. We had to replace dozens of systems. Since then we have been giving away the older banned systems to partner churches all over the world. The church in Ghana was thrilled to have 6 channels of Shure UHF wireless with Beta87 handhelds and belt packs with lapel mics. It is really great to see how God has blessed that church with what we could no longer use. For the first time, their pastor was able to step out from behind a podium and preach. Very cool.

Webinar Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:52:00 +0000

If you were unable to attend our webinar last Friday on system design, Mike Sessler has posted it for us. You can download it here or you can get it as a podcast from itunes.

Webinar & Wireless

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:31:00 +0000

Coming up Friday night, Jan 29th, at 10pm eastern/9 central, Dave, Mike and I are hosting our now monthly webinar. This month Bob Nahrstadt will be joining us to discuss system design. We'll also talk about when to hire a consultant, what to look for in a consultant and the questions you should be asking as your work on designs for your system. I hope you will join us. If you are real nice to Mike, you might get him to tell some stories about his current installation. I promise you will get a good laugh. As always we will all twitter the TokBox link a few minutes before start time.

Begin Nerd Speak
Last week the FCC finally made it official, no more wireless mics in the 700Mhz range. You have until June 10, 2010 to stop using all wireless from 698 - 806 Mhz. Hopefully you knew this was coming. At least you still have a few months to deal with changing things out. Please take the time to talk to your leadership. Help them understand the importance of upgrading your wireless systems. Most of the manufacturers have extended their trade-in programs. Time to take advantage of them. I'm glad to try and answer any questions you might have in this matter.

Look forward to seeing you on Friday night.

Google Wave Invites

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:51:00 +0000

I have 15 Google Wave invites to give out. Post your email here or send me an email asking for one. First come first serve.

Tokbox

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:54:00 +0000

Its time! Here is the link. Join us for some of "Our Favorite Things: Vocals"
http://www.tokbox.com/conf/zgc9f2qa87ntjsek/t

Please wear HEADPHONES and MUTE your mic. Mouse over your picture and you can turn off your mic there.

Amazing Post Production

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:04:00 +0000

I can't even begin to imagine the effort it would take to do a video like this. It's a little creepy, but truly inventive.

Thanks to Joshua Blankenship who turned me on to it.

TokBox Webinar

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:08:00 +0000

It’s time for another TokBox webinar session with my friends Mike and Dave. We have a lot of fun doing these and hope you enjoy them and learn something too. Coming up on Thursday, October 15 at 10pm eastern, 9 central time we will gather to discuss “Our Favorite Things: Vocals.” I will be focusing on effects processing mostly. The other guys will cover different things they like for vocals. Each of us will share some tricks and techniques we think you will find valuable. We will take time to answer questions as well. Get yourself signed up on TokBox and plan to join us Oct 15th.
Mike, Dave, and I have made a plan for a new webinar every month, except December, until May of 2010! If you have some ideas on subjects you would like to have us cover, please send them along or ask us about it on the 15th. I will post a link to the session about 5 minutes before start time here and on Twitter. Just a reminder, please, please, use some headphones for the session. Otherwise we have terrible feedback problems. It would be sad for all us audio geeks to have feedback when we can avoid it so easily. Just grab your iPod ears if nothing else. Hope to see you then.

Install Time Lapse

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:14:00 +0000

Our great Video Director, Kevin Dooley (@CaptainDooley), put up his camera during our install to document the process. This is 7 days worth of footage in 2 minutes. Enjoy.

Speaker Install Timelapse from Kevin Dooley on Vimeo.

New Audio System

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:58:00 +0000

This past week has been one of the most exciting I can remember in a long time. Those of you that follow me on Twitter (if you don’t why not?) are aware of the massive audio system upgrade that Lake Pointe church has been doing. I’ve gotten a number of questions so I thought I would put together some details and some better pictures in hopes of providing a good overview of what we did and why. First, some history.
Lake Pointe got this building back in the mid 90’s when the church that was in it could no longer afford to keep it. They and LP literally traded buildings and LP did not assume any more debt. A blessing to both churches for sure. The original sound system was in a speaker cloud over the stage that you can still see in some of the pictures and was filled with Community horns and subs.

In 1996, LP had Acoustic Dimensions design and install a new sound system. The system was all EAW including some custom made boxes all powered by Crown Macrotech amps. The console was a used PM4000.

Over the years the programming of LP has changed and grown into a very modern worship music style. The increase in the level of excellence along with the increased demands of programming and the age of the system it was apparent the EAW system was not up to the task. Even before I came on staff at LP there were plans to upgrade it as soon as possible. Numerous band aid measures had been taken to keep things running. The old system was just falling apart. Plans were put in place earlier this year with Clark Pro Media so when the time came the homework would be done. Little did we know then it come this quick. The steady decline culminated about 2 months ago when during a weekend service there was some major driver failure that caused most of one side of the auditorium to lose significant high end. The down hill slope we had been on just fell off a cliff. We did some SMAART testing the next week and learned that there was a lack of adequate coverage in 50% of our seating area. It was time to make a change.
About 2 weeks ago we installed the new Digidesign Venue D-Show console at FOH. This let us start working with our team and get them comfortable with using the desk. We also did not want to add this to the tasks that would be needed during the speaker install week. Just by changing the console, there was a very noticeable difference in the sound. Already a win.
The new system consists of 56 Meyer MICA boxes hung in 4 arrays in a LRLR configuration. There are 2 DF4 speakers at the bottom of each array to provide down fill coverage and 13 M1D’s on the front of the stage for front fills. We cover the bottom end with 18 700HP subs that fan out across the front of the room. Driving it all are 3 Meyer Galileo processors.

Clark did lots of work on configurations in the MAPP software to insure we would get great coverage all over the room. It’s incredible how accurate the software is in real world situations. It tells it like it is.

We started on last Sunday the 6th taking down all the old boxes. Monday was mostly a rigging day and getting front fills wired which are actually mounted to the front of the stage now.

Tuesday we got all the arrays up and stopped to listen with no processing and it was already amazing sounding.

Someone missed a wire.

By Wednesday we had the front fills and subs all running. We did some very basic EQ and timing work as we had a big men’s ministry event that night. The system was great. On Thursday Will Sargent came in and began his magic and by late Friday all the DF4’s were up and the system had a solid tuning. I think I had some tears that night. All of us couldn’t be happier.

Communication is key

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:16:00 +0000

"that was Luke’s attitude too, when he found out Darth Vader was his father. But instead of talking about it, he overreacted and got his hand cut off. Instead, Boba Fett got eaten by the Sarlacc, and they got ewoks. That all could have been avoided if they just communicated. Let’s face it, the ewoks sucked.”

— Hugo Reyes

Easter Opener

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:37:00 +0000

I wanted to share the opener from our Easter services. The singer is Matt Fuqua from The Afters in case you are wondering where you have seen him before. Matt is a great guy and we love having him around when the band is not touring.

The flowers you see on stage were all placed one by one, approximately 4000 of them. Many volunteers and staff did a great job with everything from set design to video to camera work. I'm very blessed to be a part of the team.

I hope to post some more over the weekend.

Drum Webinar

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:27:00 +0000

In case you were unable to join Mike, Dave, and me Thursday night for the drum mic'ing webinar, Mike was able to record it. He has edited and posted it for everyone to get the recap (link below). I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did. Please feel free to post any questions you may have and if I don't know the answer I'm sure I can get one for you.
We plan to do more of these webinars in the future. As always stay tuned to the blogs and twitter for the details.

Drum mic'ing webinar

Drum mic'ing and mixing

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:07:00 +0000

Thursday night at 10pm eastern, 9 central, Mike Sessler, Dave Stagl and I are hosting another TokBox session on drum micing and mixing. I am planning on stealing all of Dave’s tricks. (shhh… don’t tell him). All of us plan to post the link a few minutes before start time and also Tweet it.

All of you are smart tech people so here is the deal. TokBox is a wonderful tool, but must be used properly. First get some headphones, use your iPod ears, something, but no open speakers, can you say feedback? Second, when you join the session please look at your window in the upper right corner you will see a mic icon. Please click the icon to mute your mic until you have something to say. We really don’t want to hear you munchin’ on snacks while we are talking. You do not need to have a webcam to join us, you can just do the audio side if you wish.

An interesting thing happened last time we did this. I reconnected with a cousin of mine, John David Boring. We had not seen each other in years. You never know what might happen.

Dallas Media Tech Tweetup

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:36:00 +0000

Come join us for some good food and good stories. I would love to hear what you are doing for Easter. Please follow the link below for details.

If you are not on Twitter yet, why not? It couldn't be easier. Even John C. Maxwell is twittering now. Twitter was recently profiled on both Nightline and Charlie Rose. What are you waiting for? Follow me when you sign up.

Dallas Media Tech Tweetup

ShareThis

Favorite Auditoriums

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:43:00 +0000

If you could pick a few large auditoriums in the US, say 2000+ size, that you think look great and sound great, what would they be? Here in Dallas there are several I think are great, but I need ideas from all of you. They do not have to be churches.

The End is Near

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:36:00 +0000

…well, not really. Today was supposed to be the last day we could use the 700mhz band for wireless gear. However, it has ALL changed. The past few days have seen a flurry of new notices from the FCC. The one that sticks out to me is an update on the public safety channels. The FCC has now mandated that the public safety sections of the 700mhz band must now wait to implement their use of those channels. Previously, they had already forced a delay by private companies to begin using their purchased channels, but had told public safety they could begin using theirs on February 18th, as had been the plan for the last few years. Here is what this means to you and me. We have until June 12th to vacant the 700mhz band. The FCC is requiring all users to cease using equipment in that band by then. According to FCC 08-188 (NPRM&O), Paragraph 14:

"As discussed above, the Commission and various affected parties, such as SBE and Shure, have contemplated that low power broadcast auxiliary devices would lose their secondary status, and would need to vacate the band, upon completion of the DTV transition. We therefore tentatively conclude to revise our rules to make clear that low power auxiliary stations authorized under Part 74 of our rules – including wireless microphones – will not be permitted to operate in the 700 MHz Band after the DTV transition."

There it is. No wiggle room. You have four more months to be compliant. I've read that the FCC has promised it will not delay the transition again. It is time your leadership understand they have no choice. Either stop using wireless mics or replace what you have. Most of the manufacturers have a rebate program in place to help offset the cost of these new systems. Check out Shure and Sennheiser to get more information.

Mike Sessler posted this chart showing who has what frequencies. You can find even more details in this article, including maps of the US showing details of what the big players, Verizon, AT&T, and Qualcom own.

I hope you have enough data to help your church make the needed changes. I’ll be glad to answer questions if I can. Happy frequency hunting!

TokBox - Join us now

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:34:00 +0000

Come join us right now at http://www.tokbox.com/conf/7v87az6an8rqyxtw/t for a discussion of the upcoming 700mhz transition.

Talk it out

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:26:00 +0000

On Thursday, February 12th, Dave Stagl, Mike Sessler and I are hosting a Tokbox session at 9pm central time where we will discuss the upcoming 700Mhz transition. We all have questions and we hope to try to put our heads together and make some sense of the confusion. If you have wisdom to share or would like to ask questions this is a great opportunity.

I do recommend that you use headphones and a mic during the discussion as it can create feedback loops otherwise. It would be sad if a bunch of audio geeks have feedback problems. I will post both here and on Twitter the link for the Tokbox session a few minutes before 10pm on Thursday. You can see my tweets in the right column or just subscribe to my feed.

Functional Social Networking

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Cole) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:41:00 +0000

Yesterday a group of local church tech guys gathered for lunch. It was a great time to catch up and learn what everyone is doing and where they are going. I got some good tips from Tom at Bent Tree about resolving some issues we had on our Venue. Learned about construction projects going on for several other churches and had a great time. We talked about the 700 Mhz band issues. There are some church leaders out there that are sticking their heads in the sand and not preparing for the coming storm. Especially in big metro areas like Dallas, I feel for these guys who are going to have to deal with some hard services in a few weeks (40 days) when things stop working. I'm praying for you.

There were seven of us from four different churches and one from Worship House Media. In putting this together there were no emails, no phone calls, only Twitter and Facebook updates. I was curious if anyone would show to be honest. If you have any doubts of the power of these social networking tools put them aside and jump on board. Its such a great way to communicate. Bobby Gruenewald posted a story about going mobile over on Swerve. With the tie in of Twitter and Facebook to cell phones via text messages, it reinforces the Church's need to keep up with new communication technologies.

How are you or your church leveraging these technologies to reach people?