We are adding a new archiving procedure at FOH that needs to be done at the end of the day every Sunday. Everything is automated, but there are still a couple of steps you’ll need to do:

• Save and Quit Pro Tools.
• Run the “Backup Masters” application located in the dock or on the desktop (the icon looks like a robot).

That’s all there is to it. There is also no need to shut down the Pro Tools computers anymore.

The online services won’t have a huge technical impact on most of our positions on Sunday morning. And, aside from adding a bigger audience to the 11 a.m. service, it will be pretty much business as usual for us as a team. To view the stream see this page: http://www.northpointonline.tv.

LED technology has been around for a while and we have had some cheap versions of LEDs here at North Point for several years now. The difference for me between cheap and high end LEDs is whether or not they flicker on camera and the intensity throw of the fixture. Other concerns are the low end curve and color accuracy across fixtures. The Colorado from Chauvet is our first serious venture into the higher end LED fixtures. These 1 watt LED fixtures perform very well for about half the price of their counter parts on the market. They have great color mixing capability and they have impressive intensity for the price. Most importantly they are flicker free on video.

They do, however, have a very poor low-end curve, meaning that they don’t fade in very well. When you try to fade them up they just pop on and then fade from there. This has been a problem with LEDs for a very long time but a lot of the manufactures out there have had some success fixing this problem.

All in all for the price I believe the Chauvet Colorado to be a very strong, competitive fixture.

We have reinforced the proscenium walls with a 1/2″ thick piece of plywood. Before you ask; no this does not mean you can willfully aim for the wall with the risers. This however should help prevent big gaping holes from accidentally appearing on our proscenium walls.

Unfortunately, there is a downside in this addition because we can no longer easily trigger Pro Tools to start and stop recording via the Venue. I’m working on a solution, but for now we will have to resort to old school methods of starting Pro Tools. This is due to the fact that we will no longer be pressing PLAY when using timecode. Instead we need to take Pro Tools ONLINE to sync it to the incoming timecode.

We will continue to manually record our Wednesday night rehearsals. Sunday mornings, however, will rely on timecode. Recording with timecode is very similar to manually recording. Once your tracks are armed for record simply follow these steps:

1. Arm the session for record by clicking the Record button on the transport button.

2. Click the ONLINE button to chase timecode.

When you click the ONLINE button, Pro Tools will start chasing timecode as soon as it reads and locates to the current location. One of the benefits of using timecode for recording is you will no longer need to move the playhead to a new location before you start recording; Pro Tools will automatically locate to the correct location in the timeline once it goes ONLINE. In the event that timecode fails in Pro Tools, please make sure to manually start recording.

Pro Tools Stopped

Pro Tools Running

In addition to Pro Tools, we are also adding timecode to the Venue. The current setup offers a good way to check if Pro Tools is recording since the Venue is reading timecode generated by Pro Tools. When Pro Tools is stopped, the MTC READ window on the Venue will show no time code. When Pro Tools is running, you will see timecode running in the Venue’s MTC READ window.

If you have any questions about using timecode at FOH, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Shortly before Christmas, the latest software for the Venue arrived. I want to take a minute to talk about some new features along with some other tweaks we’ve made to make our FOH workflow easier.

New Console Functions

First up are a couple new functions we’ve programmed into the console using events:

- Backup Mic Repatch
By pressing the “F4″ key located on the right side of the console’s main unit, you can activate an event that will re-patch the auditorium’s backup mic to the worship leader’s channel. This way, should you need the backup mic for the worship leader, you can press one button and have his/her mic show up on the exact same channel you’re already working with.

It’s important to note that when you fire the event, you are actually recalling a snapshot. By recalling that snapshot, you will change where you are in the order of your snapshots so make sure you have the right snapshot selected for your next cue before you recall it. Pressing “Next” may recall ALL SILENT if you’re not careful. If you want to return to the worship leader’s original mic, you have to manually re-patch it.

- Talkback Mutes the Band
If you look under “Events” on the Options page, you will see a new event “Talkback Mutes Band VCA”. By activating this event (click the green dot so that it is highlighted), you have a quick way to mute the band VCA. This way you can silence the band to talk to the worship leader or allow a producer to communicate with the worship leader. The Talkback button is a momentary button so it won’t latch. If you need to latch it, double-tap the talkback button. If you do use this event, we recommend that you disable it before the start of the service to prevent accidentally bumping the Talkback button.

Software Updates

The new software for the Venue adds a couple of great features for us:

- Snapshot the System Tempo
If you right-click on a snapshot’s name on the Snapshots page, you can “Show Tempo”. Clicking the metronome to highlight it for each snapshot will enable you to snapshot the system’s tempo. Clicking the lock icon in the Echofarm plugin will then force it to use the system tempo for its reference. The nice thing about this is now you can snapshot your tempos but also tap a new tempo in the middle of a song without having to mess around in the plugin.

- VCA/Group Spill
This is my favorite feature. By double-tapping the select button for a Group or VCA, you can “spill” the contents of that group or VCA to the left of the master section. For example, double-tapping the Kit VCA will bring all the Kit VCA members right to the center of the desk you can make your adjustments.

One thing I have started doing with this is using one of the VCA’s to create a virtual bank of channels. You might see a VCA on the console called Vitals performing this function. I assign any “vital” channels I need to this VCA. These are channels that might normally be on different banks that I’ll use during a transition. For example, I will typically assign Andy, keys, the worship leader, and title package to my Vitals VCA. This way I can get quick access to everything I need to grab during the transition from worship to the message.

There are some other new features as well such as the ability to copy plugin settings. To find out more, please visit Digidesign’s website. If you have any questions or would like a demonstration of the new features, please ask myself or Luke.

How to describe Christmas Service this year? I’m not sure I can but to say the NP production team knocked it out of the park! To all the volunteers who extended above and beyond with their time, talents and attitudes - THANK YOU!! The video clip of our opening song is just one shining example of how amazing you guys are!

For those who missed it, the Christmas service opener this year combined all 4 stages (@ 3 different campuses) playing together live as they traded verses from “12 Days of Christmas.” It was awesome. North Point East started with a 12 person choir singing a cappella. They were soon interrupted by Buckhead sporting Reliant K’s rock version of the tune. When Browns Bridge & North Point West followed suit shortly after, North Point East was able to maintain their enthusiastic foothold on “Five Golden Rings!” Technically the feat was pretty straight forward. Each auditorium cut their own cameras, added their own bug and delivered the feed to a multi-campus switcher that cut between each room. For audio, each venue mixed between their own band and a direct, stereo, mix minus coming from the each of the other locations. The bigger challenge was coordinating people, gear & information. Just for fun, here’s some multi-campus stats on the overall production:

(46) Video Positions
(16) Audio Positions
(14) Lighting & Stage Positions
(840) Production volunteer man hours
(23) Cameras
(4) Multi-Bus Switchers
(222) Audio Console Channels
(30) In-Ear Mixes
(500+) Lighting Cues
(75) pounds of snow confetti
(8) Fiber based SDI circuits with negligible delay (42ms)
(64) cross-campus, embedded audio channels
& (1) Master Click Track…IN A PEAR TREE!!

Enjoy…

We are going to make a simple change that I believe will help to prevent this from happening again.  The video director will call for the video in this format; video number + first name, e.g. 9A-Mary.  In order for this to succeed, we have to battle against complacency, no matter how many times we do this successfully.  Baptisms are one of the most, if not the most important thing we do.