An Overview of the Sound booth

Now, what I am about to share with you is through the lenses of my own church so if you have something different, I am not insulting your church by calling it stupid. Now, on with the mental picture.

Out in front, the widest portion of the booth, is the sound board. This is where the sound is mixed to make the worship sound awesome, as befitting our volunteer praise team. This is a complicated process to those not accustomed to it, but I'll try to explain it in as plain detail as possible. The individual drums are mixed together, the guitars are mixed together, and the singers are mixed together and then those mixes are mixed as a whole. While mixing the individuality instruments, the sound man EQs them and sets the gain. These complicated terms, this jargon, means that you make sure it sounds good in the house and up on stage. Once this is done, the volume levels are set. From there, the channels somehow wind up sending the information to a main channel where you can then mix drums, guitar, and ensemble together to create a wonderful united sound. Did I lose you? Don't worry, that just means that I did a good job telling you how awesome sound guys are.

Next to the sound board, on either side, are cameras. I don't really think I need to tell you how those work. One camera is on the wall of the sound booth(on a tripod of course, we aren't iditots) and the other is in a separate booth that my dad and the other 'fix-it' man built. There is usually a person in the camera booth and Dad works the other one, which is a broad shot static cam. We take the information recorded by the cameras and combine it with the sound board's mix, which also includes Pastor's mic, and not only stream Sunday live, but records it as well. The recording is handed, to the best of my knowledge, by a PC sitting just outside the sound station. Since we expanded the sound booth to hold media as well, this means that the sound board is in one section and the recording/broadcasting station is slightly behind and above it.

To the right of the broadcasting station, you have lights. The lights are controlled by an all-in-one PC and an awesome program. You want swirling spots? OK! You want strobes? We got it! From that computer, which has a secondary monitor because we have so much stuff attributed to lights, we can change the level of the house lights, stage spots, pillow cans(we have pillows lining the back of the stage. Don't ask, I have no idea why), movers, and various other lights. We can strobe, color cycle, and move in various patterns at various speeds almost every single light in the sanctuary.

To the right of that, you have media. From our IMac, we can display video, motion backs(moving backgrounds), song lyrics, Bible verses, play music, and messages. Putting up words for the worship team is harder than it sounds by the way. And following Pastor when he gets to preaching and wants his notes or scripture up there is a challenge as well. ProPresenter 5 is an amazing program to work with and while I'm not an expert on it, I've gotten really good at throwing up the slides, as long as they're prepared for me or I'm given enough time to put them in the presentation. I'll need a few hours without people standing over me or people getting ready to play and sing to figure out everything about the program.

Anyway, there's an overview of the sound lights and media booth. To make it easier to understand what we mean when we say we're going to the place that holds these station, we just call it 'The Sound Booth' or 'The Back.' Personally, I want to put up a curtain and have everyone refer to us as 'The Men Behind the Curtain.' If you don't get that joke... YouTube 'Wizard of Oz man behind the curtain' and educate yourself(and I mean that is the nicest way possible).

And for my follower, you got Hannah's name right and honestly, I don't see what's so much better about my imagination. I haven't read any of your work, but I'm pretty sure it's as amazing as yours. As for Hannah... girl, what chu talkin' 'bout? You won second place in book chapter from Fine Arts at state level without knowing the theme and I doubt you had a cover sheet or a summary attached when I didn't know we needed it. You got the goods same as me sista! Ok, I'm good now. Oh wait! And what about the secret agent pirates that are unable to die and are locked in an eternal struggle against their opposites even if they don't fully remember their past lives that you made up by playing with LEGOs? I never made up anything like that, even when I was six. Pass that on will you Mel? Or maybe I will.... Eh, I've said it.

More ranting and randomness later. I need to put away some dishes. Blea. Anyhow, hope you guys liked the little insight I just gave about the Back and have a good, safe, day.
Later!
Lil Bit