Posted by Arny Krueger on 02/01/08 13:53

"Richard Crowley" <rcrowley@xp7rt.net> wrote in message
news:13q68h43ol2v216@corp.supernews.com
> "Jim" wrote ...
>> For proper monitoring of house sound, the foh engineer
>> should be in the sweet spot.
>> In the middle where the speakers converge.
>> You can put him wherever you want to, but you will be
>> sacrificing the ability to properly monitor what is being
>> presented.

Agreed. Of course the worst limit you can put on a FOH op is to put him in a
little room that is separated from the hall. The next step is shooting the
poor guy in the head! ;-) But, I've seen this done by a few people who
should know better, and also done many more people like church leaders, that
couldn't be reasonably expected to know better.

> Indeed. Instead of compromising on WHERE to put the
> FOH operator (and mixer) think of ways to reduce its
> footprint. It doesn't have to resemble the launch control
> center at Cape Canaveral.

One of the slickest tricks around involves a digital console, the console
manager software that goes with it, a network with a wireless access point
or router, and a laptop with a wireless card.

The FOH engineer sits anywhere in the room, pops open his laptop, and fires
up a remote console program that operates a PC back in the sound booth. The
PC in the sound booth is running console manager software for the digital
console, and can control the console from his laptop.

There's a variation of this that even works, with some pretty tight limits,
on a cell phone.

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