I put together a few technical notes to accompany Andy’s recent post about the backstage choir setup… These specs will make a great deal more sense if you check it out first below.

The basic setup uses (2) AT-4050’s to pick up the singers studio-style. Since this setup is in the middle of a busy backstage area, we use a couple of SE Electronics reflection filters to give a bit of focus and directionality to what the mic is hearing. There are plenty of old drum shields floating around too that have further helped isolate some of the unwanted background noise.

For monitoring I send 1 mono mix down to (2) Rolls headphone amps. This gives each singer a volume attenuator and a set of studio headphones that offer a bit of isolation to what they’re hearing.

We’ve also supplied a 40” monitor with the video program feed so they can keep their bearings of what’s going on out front—this is quite important so they can stay connected with the other parts of a service.

This isn’t a real pretty setup but it’s extremely flexible, is easy for the stage crew to setup and strike while remaining quite functional—everything is already something we had on hand and using road-cases for tables and such is perfectly acceptable for a backstage area (or my office).

I’ll second what Andy said about getting a full sound—I still have to be careful with how I use this in the mix so it doesn’t take over or sound contrived but it’s an effective and creative way to bulk up the “bigness” of the vocal sound.

Even though this is far from conventional or standard to how one would normally mic or utilize a small choir or ensemble—it bodes well that there really are no rules in creating good audio. Achieving success by adapting to a situation based on factors like content or set design can send you in a completely different direction. We’ve had a love/hate relationship with the sound of a properly mic’d choir for quite some time—strictly from a mix standpoint, our house mix precludes a choir from being very effective in the house—this process has allowed us to revisit some of the same sounds while going a different direction.

You can hear this setup in action on both of the weekend service videos below:

Lost & Found - Part 2
Easter 2012

We’ve found a great way to a get bigger, bulkier vocal sound and keep more of our current worship team members involved throughout the year. We call it the “Backstage Choir”. We stopped using a choir onstage several years ago for a variety of reasons (lighting, miking, stage space, etc.) but there were many weekends where we missed that massive sound.

We have forced ourselves to stop relying on Pro Tools tracks in the past year or so during services - there’s always that risk that if it doesn’t run right, your best laid plans go down the toilet. So, in an effort to do everything live all the time we’ve gotten creative with, among other things, our group vocal sound.

As you can see in the pictures below, it’s a pretty simple set up. The best part about it is that Andrew can really control their sound without any bleed from stage volume. Let me know if you have any questions about the gear you see in the pics.

By the way, our choir members LOVE this set up. It’s way more relaxed and it encourages those with shy personalities to get involved. And they can “come as they are” as you can see in the pictures…

Time creates tension.

In other words, the longer your video goes, the more tension is created, and as a result, a bigger payoff is expected.

That’s why season finales are usually longer than a normal episode, because the payoff is much greater.

Here’s the point, unless your video’s payoff is HUGE, you may want to shorten your video, or you’ll leave your audience thinking “that’s it?” One of the biggest mistakes I see in church videos is simply length. Most 3 minute videos could easily be shortened to under 1 minute.

Give it a try.

This post is an answer to the question I’m asked the most: “How do you key the background out in your announcements?” Here is a walkthrough of the process I use in Adobe After Effects. Pay special attention to the brightness of the graphic background and shadows on Sam. There is no keying or tedious rotoscoping, just an illusion. It’s so simple to do that my audio commentary isn’t even necessary. Click here to download the After Effects CS5 project to try it yourself.

We’ve been getting inquiries about what texting service we recently used for our Stuck In A Rut series text polling, so I wanted to answer the question for all of you who have been wondering. If you have any further questions, drop a comment!

We use a service called Twilio and it is really fantastic, but there is a catch… you need to have a developer who can build out where / how you want the texts displayed. Twilio is basically for developers who just need to buy a cheap phone number and get an XML feed to do with what they will. We have a dev on our team who also does video / graphics work so he custom built what you see on the screens during Stuck In A Rut. It updates real-time and was a really cool element to each weekend’s service, both during the service and polling people pre-service. Basically you buy a phone number for $1/month and then every text sent or received is $0.01 so it’s a great deal, even for high volume usage. Our number is a 10-digit local number rather than a 5-digit shortcode, but because of that, we don’t have to require a keyword in front of the text, which is great for the people who get easily confused by how to format their text using keywords!

We’ve used JarbyCo before and they’ve done a great job for us, but Twilio gives us more flexibility with their blank slate approach to create exactly what we want and to have full control over the process. Another option I just heard about today is Google Voice which sounds like a pretty incredible (and free!) tool to use for easily connecting you to your church guests via text, though I can’t speak to the polling ability of it. Texting overall is such a great way to connect with people since it is universal to the masses and doesn’t require installing an app or extensive details on how to text in. Do some research and find out how you can utilize it in your services!

Been considering and reflecting lately on the sometimes reviled topic of Consistency. Depending on the context of a situation, consistency can be a huge negative when absent or a major plus when prevalent. For this writing, my thoughts are concentrated primarily on how to design and operate a production on a more consistent basis. On both a personal and professional level, developing, maintaining, and improving my consistency has been, and remains to be one of my greatest challenges. Striving to find consistency is paramount amongst the thousands and thousands of decisions that make up every event.

At COTM, we’re known to change it up considerably from time to time but overall there is consistency on several levels that is always present. This could translate to something as simple as the warmth you feel when entering our main auditorium prior to an event; how the house-lighting, music, volume, color, and texture of the décor all work to create an atmosphere that is consistent and true to what our guests have become accustomed to. Or maybe it translates to the complexity of a full-blown production element involving layers of personnel, equipment, scene changes, lighting cues, audio mix, and video shots all converging into one glorious moment.

However basic or complex our production is, our consistency directly reflects the level of excellence that has been established by everything that has preceded us—we’ve grown accustomed to the consistency of a professional and top-notch production: consistent audio, consistent speech intelligibility, consistent lighting, consistent video, etc. Maintaining these consistencies has just about become a state of mind as they start to operate from the same common denominator. My production team’s commitment to maintaining this consistency is what protects us from losing valuable production ground as we continue to grow and change.

No matter what situation you come from or whom you represent, staying consistent doesn’t cost a cent nor does it involve being lavish or extravagant. You don’t even have to make some huge leap from marginal to awesome overnight—you can make a massive difference by simply finding what things you already do great and make them amazingly consistent—then spend time focusing on making improvements consistently over time.

Consider this, if your event fails from the most fundamental task, a mic goes out, a lamp blows, a projector dies, etc—a better foundation could be established by perfecting these small things on a consistent basis. Excelling at a small level may allow you to start rising above the minutia and build to something bigger and better.

Well we are right smack in the middle of planning and preparing for Seeds Conference 2012. Honestly, I can’t wait to host so many pastors and leaders from all over the world. It’s truly the highlight of our year!

I’m in the middle of prepping for some my sessions and getting content together and I’d love to hear from YOU! That’s right, you reading this blog right now. I don’t care if you’re planning on coming to Seeds Conference or not, I want to know what you want to hear from us. I can’t promise I’ll use your suggestions but they will provide me a leaping off point for what I’ll share when the time comes so respond using the comments of this blog and let’s hear it!