Remember the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray is stuck re-living the same day over and over again and can’t do anything to stop it? I was recently involved in a project that was the house of worship audio version of that movie.
It all began when the head of the church I attend asked me to review plans for the new audio system that had been spec’d as part of our million dollar remodel. No problem, right. Take a look at the plans, maybe make a suggestion or two. If only it were that simple…
Well the first thing I noticed was that $110k was being spent on two speaker cabinets for the mains along with a dinky eight-channel mixer, satellite speakers for three small non-public areas and a whole lot of conduit. The gear was worth maybe $10K, so that is a hundred grand in conduit.
To make matters worse, we have a worship band with a minimum of 12 players and singers. It’s a big band and we need a 32-channel mixer—eight is not going to start to cover it.
So I call this guy in charge to talk to him. He was very thin-skinned, cried and ended up dumping the entire project in my lap. I was just supposed to review the plans, and now I’m running things, and I got involved not knowing that everyone is basically hosing the Church.
With a real crew working, the project should have been finished in a few weeks. I get delays and excuses, but the truth is that no one is really putting any time into the project—four guys on the job is a good day.
When I finally get things moving in a direction that makes sense, I get into it with the lighting guy who wants to use conventional fixtures, except we don’t have the equipment or labor available to change out bulbs all the time. I ask him to please use LEDs. He says I am an ass and the powers that be believe him.
Until, that is, we have to spend more money to replace the boiler. We are adding to our usage not going green (Remember the LEDs?)…
Today I built a fence so people don’t fall off the new deck. So, how’s your day going?
Midnitemarc
midnitemarc@msn.com
CrewWorks
Baltimore, Md.
