As I delved into the subject, I was struck by how various front of house engineers approach the tasks to get the job done and was surprised to find that computers were not always their first choice for every chore.
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
A Whole Lot Going On: Computers And Interfaces At Front Of House
As I delved into the subject, I was struck by how various front of house engineers approach the tasks to get the job done and was surprised to find that computers were not always their first choice for every chore.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I lighting designer teaching a workshop that i was in said "Our tech worlds are looking more and more like mission control centers, sometimes we can get lost inside that world, and it could even possibly scare the actors and director." While that was in reference to the lighting world, with digital consoles taking over the sound world it seems, this may become their problem too. This doesn't relate so much to playback and recording but it can. A friend of mine mixes with an iPad displaying a live freq/amplitude graph of the ambient noise, and it does make the analogue mixing console feel a little more high tech. It is easy to see how having a live feed monitor, output monitor, recording mix (you could have like 6 of these) not to mention playback and other things, a sound person could very quickly become overwhelmed.
It's cool that they record the shows every night, even if it is just to keep in records. There are a lot of computers and things at FOH, but some of them are kind of necessary. They have yet to make a trust-worthy All-In-One board that will do everything that anyone could possibly want, so until that day, there will continue to be a lot of fun little gadgets at FOH. Not too long ago, the systems were run off big, hulking computers, whereas now we can run it off of a small, skinny laptop. That's a HUGE decrease in space that is being taken up at the FOH. If it is such a problem to have multiple interfaces, then create a thing that can do everything.
Historically, computers have been used at FoH positions to provide an alternative control surface to various pieces of gear. For example, many mixing consoles can be accessed via a computer in order to provide a more workflow friendly user interface. Other pieces of gear, such as some DSPs have no physical controls, and must be accessed via a networked computer. Things have not gotten to the point where all an audio engineer needs to do his job is his laptop. There is a reason mixing consoles, DSPs, and dedicated hard disk recorders exist. The personal computer is a great tool to have and to interface with other devices, however the time of running an entire show solely off a laptop has not arrived int he mainstream yet.
Post a Comment