We got everything ready by lunch and had a few minutes to chill. Our first sound check was 3pm and everything was going well. The clouds started moving back in and we started covering everything. By 4:30pm the deluge had begun. Within an hour it felt like the temperature had dropped 30 degrees and I was looking for some kindling to make a fire.
The service started on it's own at 7pm. I know that sounds like a funny line but we don't really know how it happened. Miles, the FOH A2, was at FOH trying to re-patch a line (more on that in a minute). Jeff, the FOH mixer was on stage next to me, as was Rick. Winfrey
was under his plastic listening to the mic that we were trying to fix. It is somewhat of a mystery how the track started, but it started on time and the program was off and running.I need to give kudos to Rick (see photo on right). I took this photo the first time I saw him sit down all day. Actually it was the second time because he got up before I could get my camera out and I asked him to sit back down. He is soaking wet from standing at the podium while we are working on trying to figure out why one of the lecturn mics had some noise on it. Actually, Rick spent the better part of the afternoon working on the 2 lecturn mics trying to get them clean. Something happened while we were at lunch and the mics didn't sound good at all. These happen to be the mics that Franklin and the translator use. The comical part now was that when the CD started we all scrambled back to our positions for the service. Rick and I were trying to get the mic issue finished and I decided to run a new cable. I got all the pieces together and headed out on stage to hook up the mic. I grabbed the loose cable on the stage, plugged it in and the to the cable we had just run and Jeff turned it on so the speaker could talk into it. I know that sounds a little crazy, but it really happened that way. We talked about it at dinner when we got back to the hotel and Jeff said he was watching the channel for the spike when we made the connection, as soon as he saw that, he turned it on and the speaker started talking. I was one of those, "I can't believe that just happened moments".
The rain was off and on for the service and the wind blew really hard. We had to hunker down to keep from blowing away. I'll end with this picture of our work in progress.
Have a great rest of your day. I'm off to grab some shut- eye.
4 comments:
Wow Jim,
That sounds crazy. Good thing you guys are pros. Moments like that keep all of us on our toes. Great job, it looks cool. Stay dry!
Well, we had our share of obstacles to overcome, but we did it, thank God. In spite of the few speed bumps, the weekend went well. What became very evident is that with the combined knowledge of the right people, we can do it all.
Unfortunately, you are the only source of all the technical info in-house. I've said it before; I need to gain more of that knowledge. I'm making progress though. I can now get the load-in lights up without causing the computer to lock-up. I figured out how to get audio from the Mac behind FOF, but not how to get the audio out from the video feed from back in the cave. Luckily, Randy did, and with a phone call to him, we go audio going just in time for the Friday night service. Boy was that close though!
It's good to be stretched and to be placed in a situation where we can no longer rely on our knowledge, but rely on God to pull it all together to get us through.
Praise God for his mercy in helping us and showing us that even with the talents, that He has given us; we can't do it without Him.
God is good!
Thanks for the update Ed. It is a good litmus test to see where we can strengthen the team. We can't over communicate. It is good motivation to get some documentation on our processes. Looking forward to how we can make this better.
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