If you’re a regular reader, you know that every holiday season, I give my personal insight and advice. This year I will be doing the same, but I also want to add my views on portable speakers and how I have used them during this time and beyond. The Christmas season (or Hanukkah season for many of you) starts for me right after Halloween. I always have a gig on Oct. 31 and, right after that, I start to schedule my duties for the holiday season. The last few years I have limited my actual mixing commitments to one house of worship on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas day. That said, there are still a lot of potential gigs (mainly holiday parties) leading up to the big day. That is where having a healthy assortment of speakers on a stick (tripod) in my arsenal comes in very handy.
Portable P.A. To the Rescue
Now I know a lot of you have mixing commitments at one particular house of worship and I totally respect that as your calling. However, if you’re like me and you mix audio for a living, then the holiday season can be very lucrative, which brings us back to my discussion of those very portable speaker systems.
Here is a typical scenario: I get a call from an individual who is throwing a holiday party and needs some audio. I can set up a couple of speakers on tripods in the house, the yard or wherever, plug in an audio source, EQ using whatever onboard equalization the speakers have and I’m done. I show the client how to adjust the volume and turn off the speakers, and that’s it. And like Santa, away I go to my next gig.
Almost all of my speakers have multiple inputs. Generally, they sport two audio channels, which means that I can plug in an iPod or some digital source and, if needed, an announce mic in a separate channel. This holiday season, I have booked half a dozen parties, and every one of them will be very easy to set up and operate.
I also use portable speakers like this at some of my house of worship events. This year, I’m supplying sound for a children’s Christmas show at a church in Monrovia, CA. The event will be in the kid’s room next to the main worship house. The room has no audio, so I am bringing in a pair of speakers on tripods and a small mixer. I will be mixing four or five live mics and some programmed music. The setup is basically like one of my holiday parties, except that I will be there, monitoring the system and mixing the event. This particular Christmas show is for the real young ones (from 5 to 7 or 8 years old). No monitors will be used, so, as I mentioned before, it’s a very simple sound system.
I actually think that every house of worship should have at least one pair of self-powered boxes and a couple of tripods on hand. These come in very handy for small musical events, speaking presentations and any time there’s a need for a portable sound system.
For guys like me who make a living with their gear, small self-powered boxes have a lot of uses. I can do small worship or secular events and parties as I have just mentioned, or I can supply audio for more elaborate events where four, six, eight (or more) speakers are needed. Car shows are a perfect example (but not the only one). Sometimes I will use a dozen small powered boxes to equally distribute audio over a larger area (such as a car show). They are excellent for that type of scenario. You can daisy-chain as many speakers together as you may need. Now if I happen to be supplying audio for a gig with a stage and live performers, I can use most of my powered speakers as stage monitors. And if I am mixing from the side of stage (as opposed to the front of house), I can use a powered box as my front of house monitor.
Holiday Advice
Now back to that holiday advice. The most important thing you can do is communicate as clearly as possible. If you are working with two or more worship houses, find just one liaison for each church. Let your liaison know you are working with more than one house of worship. This should make it easier to book your rehearsals.
If possible, do not book two rehearsals on the same day. My experience is that rehearsals always run over, and unless you plan on walking out at an exact time, you will be late your second rehearsal. Just remember, churches work on “God time,” or God works on “church time.” Whatever it is, actual time is usually left out of the equation.
Next, please take care of your physical body. You cannot afford to contract any sort of disease during this year’s holiday season. A stuffed head or flu will negatively affect your hearing (and this is your most important tool). Besides, dragging your sick body from church to church will be no fun at all — not to mention anyone you infect with your germs. So, instead of drinking buckets of coffee and eating dozens of donuts, try buckets of water and dozens of vitamins.
Lastly, don’t overbook yourself. This is a time of year when, as techs, we tend to be working on more events than ever. Whether it’s just extra time at your church or your calendar is filled with gigs, you need to also take time for yourself and your relationship with your God. After all, as believers, we are celebrating all things spiritual. So, just don’t overdo it. Enjoy this time, enjoy your work and enjoy your friends and family. As you know, Christmas comes but once a year and, for that matter, so does Hanukkah and New Year’s Eve.
Have fun, and I’ll talk with you next year.
