Audio for Video at Live Events

[rob aylestone]

I'm doing lots of video work, now I have sort of officially retired from running a theatre - just not fun any more - so I'm feeling the water. The thing now is that the PA gear is pretty decent, even when loud, but the mix of course is a one off - so you just have to hope. You need your ears for talking to the camera ops, so best you can do is check overall level when it actually running. The live streaming seems to work pretty well - but you have to expect the odd weirdness - especially when the band are playing from real music. No tracks.

 

[Papanate]

I'm doing lots of video work, now I have sort of officially retired from running a theatre - just not fun any more - so I'm feeling the water. The thing now is that the PA gear is pretty decent, even when loud, but the mix of course is a one off - so you just have to hope. You need your ears for talking to the camera ops, so best you can do is check overall level when it actually running. The live streaming seems to work pretty well - but you have to expect the odd weirdness - especially when the band are playing from real music. No tracks.

The Video is good - although I can tell it was difficult to capture with the changing lights - as for the band the singer needs be a little more active like Diamond was - and for me they need three backup singers instead of the solo one.

 

[rob aylestone]

I think the band size and BV singers grow and shrink depending on the venue size - that one was around 300, they've asked me to maybe do it again at a 1400 seater - but my costs go up too - from 2 people, to 4. Adds a lot to the budget. Monitors were floor wedges not IEMs, so the sound was surprisingly clean I thought.

 

[TAE]

Very cool Rob I'm sure you'll dial it in and kill it like you can.

In fantasy land I've thought it would be cool to set up a performance venue with 3 or more cameras rolling where bands could come and perform in front of a small audience and the whole thing was streamed...Even a battle of bands kind of thing where viewers could vote for their favorite band of the night. A lot of moving parts but it'd be cool... Too many projects not enough time or $$$ to pull em all off for now.

 

[rob aylestone]

There is a potential problem with streaming. The organisers add it to what they are doing and sometimes the bands freak out. Any mistake, or out of tune guitar, or a weird sound balance is out there. To a room of 500 people, maybe a small number will be musical enough to notice, but a stream immortalised, out of your control? Difficult. I suppose the other weird thing would be if it went viral - would they get a cut? Streaming is great if everyone is totally for it, but there will always be one person who really doesn't want to be involved. The Neil Diamond thing had loads of audience participation, which I actually shot. Arms waving, holding phone torches up, but I realised that this really needed their permission. You could have had a notice - this show is being live streamed, contact front of house for any queries, when they could be sat out of vision maybe? I'm doing a series of live streams and we are doing proper releases, because if it goes wrong, damage is done.

 

[TalismanRich]

The local bar where my friend's band plays once a month streams on Facebook every night, whether it is a band on the weekend, or the open mic nights during the week. It's just a couple of fixed cameras, but it covers the little dance floor in front of the stage, so if you're dancing you are probably streamed out there.

I don't recall anyone ever getting upset about being streamed. I don't remember ever seeing a notice that the stage is being streamed either.

 

[TalismanRich]

The Cats Meow in New Orleans streams their karaoke cam, and they have an outside camera that covers their corner of Bourbon Street.

You see some pretty wild stuff on Mardi Gras night.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I have sort of officially retired from running a theatre - just not fun any more...

I don't think I've ever found it fun. Fortunately, tonight I'm hanging out with my band friends and taking a swing at getting some live studio performance video. Probably just one camera. They need fresh content to post.

 

[rob aylestone]

In my life, all major career changes happened when the job stopped being fun. I always enjoyed working. If a job becomes a pain, it’s time to go.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

When possible, I capture multitrack audio and mix later. Trying to mix it at the venue is a recipe for frustration.

 

[rob aylestone]

Totally agree - however, so many venues are mega protective of their gear and I actually did one where I reminded the 'engineer' they were providing a left and right for the video? He looked panic stricken, Do you know how to do do that. We have an event tomorrow and it's been 'programmed' so I can't take the risk that I would wreck that show? I pulled out of my case 2 XLR Y-splits. No problem I said, pulled out their l and r and plugged in the split, then reconnecting. He was happy. Most of these venue have digital desks that could just be plugged into a macbook and recorded, but it's usually very difficult to get access. A few, like one the other day, actually offered it, and I passed. Reason simply being costing. I had not quoted for extra audio work - getting enough for two people for one show was hard, mixing and tweaking a 2 hour show would have been extra hours of work. Quote for video, do video. I've decided to always give options, and guide prices, but if they don't take me up on it - do not stress!

 

[bouldersoundguy]

My version of that is to capture the board mix plus a stereo mic in the room. The mic gets what board mixes often lack, basically whatever is loud on stage like drums and amps. As the room gets bigger, that's less of an issue, but it's nice to get some room anyway. I use a Zoom H5, and I have the XLR attachment so I don't have to use the XY mic on the recorder.

 

[rob aylestone]

The blackmagic cameras have pretty decent mic preamps - best thing is that they are encoded and go down the video cable where in the switcher you can treat them as a separate audio source, and either mix them, or route them to a recorder. Pretty handy.