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[Ike Zimbel]

Hi All,
I have a new article up on PSW and some of the motivation for writing it came from reading posts right here over the past year or so. These were mostly posts of the "how do I..." or, "how many do I need..." or, "what's everyone doing about..." sort of thing. Here's the link:http://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/live-sound/eye-on-efficiency-what-i-learned-running-a-pa-company/   Which relates my experiences (well, a few of them... ) running a PA company back in the last millennium.
I will try and check back in here every few days to answer any questions that may come up.
Cheers,
Ike

[Bob Charest]

Hi All,
I have a new article up on PSW and some of the motivation for writing it came from reading posts right here over the past year or so. These were mostly posts of the "how do I..." or, "how many do I need..." or, "what's everyone doing about..." sort of thing. Here's the link:http://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/live-sound/eye-on-efficiency-what-i-learned-running-a-pa-company/   Which relates my experiences (well, a few of them... ) running a PA company back in the last millennium.
I will try and check back in here every few days to answer any questions that may come up.
Cheers,
Ike

Love it, Ike!

Even at my local level, just running my one band, these principles apply. if it doesn't need to be unpatched: Leave it in place. When striking, put gear in the cases in such a way that setup is enhanced. For example, the two speakerpoles. Crew were packing them in either the big cord case or the drum case, and sometimes at the bottom of the drum case, so the case would have to be unloaded to get at them. Now they're loaded last so at the next show, they're right on top, ready to go.

On another post on PSW, it was mentioned that if one can find 12 spots to save 5 minutes, that's an hour. Everything really adds up.

Best regards,
Bob

[Matthew Knischewsky]

Hi All,
I have a new article up on PSW and some of the motivation for writing it came from reading posts right here over the past year or so. These were mostly posts of the "how do I..." or, "how many do I need..." or, "what's everyone doing about..." sort of thing. Here's the link:http://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/live-sound/eye-on-efficiency-what-i-learned-running-a-pa-company/   Which relates my experiences (well, a few of them... ) running a PA company back in the last millennium.
I will try and check back in here every few days to answer any questions that may come up.
Cheers,
Ike

Ike, great article! Being prepared seems like common sense to me but in this business I'm often proven wrong

[Keith Broughton]

if one can find 12 spots to save 5 minutes, that's an hour. Everything really adds up.

I have said many times that crews that have been on tour usually have a much better idea of how to save time. Every extra half hour on load out is that much less sleep on the bus.
Same coming in. Wandering around looking for stuff is a time killer.
It's really hard to get the load in crew, or even the provider crew, to organize the cases on load in to make things easier.

[jesseweiss]

Great article and absolutely gives me ideas how my band can simplify setup and teardown down. Given our setup is almost always the same, simply labelling cable lengths may do a lot.

Our biggest issue is storing mic cables in a way that makes them easily accessible/findable. Maybe separate cases for different lengths, with the case labelled?

For our general setup we use about 15 xlr cables of varying lengths. 4 for drum mics, 4 for vocal mics, 4-5 for mains and monitors, etc...

With our XR18 our snake is really now used to run drum mic cables to the mixer (we keep the mixer as a stage box up front), so maybe the snake and drum mic cables (drum mic case too) in one case.

What kinds of cases do people use for mic cables?

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[Rob Spence]

Great article and absolutely gives me ideas how my band can simplify setup and teardown down. Given our setup is almost always the same, simply labelling cable lengths may do a lot.

Our biggest issue is storing mic cables in a way that makes them easily accessible/findable. Maybe separate cases for different lengths, with the case labelled?

For our general setup we use about 15 xlr cables of varying lengths. 4 for drum mics, 4 for vocal mics, 4-5 for mains and monitors, etc...

With our XR18 our snake is really now used to run drum mic cables to the mixer (we keep the mixer as a stage box up front), so maybe the snake and drum mic cables (drum mic case too) in one case.

What kinds of cases do people use for mic cables?

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

One thing to consider is to reduce the number of different lengths.
I only have 10' & 20' on my B rig. The 10' are used on the drum kit. Everything else on stage is a 20'. I concluded this watching a helper go back and forth to the cable bin trying to get the shortest cable that would work. Just coil up the excess and move on.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Ike Zimbel]

Hi All,
I have a new article up on PSW and some of the motivation for writing it came from reading posts right here over the past year or so. These were mostly posts of the "how do I..." or, "how many do I need..." or, "what's everyone doing about..." sort of thing. Here's the link:http://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/live-sound/eye-on-efficiency-what-i-learned-running-a-pa-company/   Which relates my experiences (well, a few of them... ) running a PA company back in the last millennium.
I will try and check back in here every few days to answer any questions that may come up.
Cheers,
Ike

And here's Part-2! Thanks to everyone who read and commented on the first one! http://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/live-sound/more-things-i-learned-running-a-sound-company-in-the-1990s/

[Bob Charest]

And here's Part-2! Thanks to everyone who read and commented on the first one! http://www.prosoundweb.com/channels/live-sound/more-things-i-learned-running-a-sound-company-in-the-1990s/

Thanks, Ike!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jesseweiss]

One thing to consider is to reduce the number of different lengths.
I only have 10' & 20' on my B rig. The 10' are used on the drum kit. Everything else on stage is a 20'. I concluded this watching a helper go back and forth to the cable bin trying to get the shortest cable that would work. Just coil up the excess and move on.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Bringing this back, one of our bigger obstacles as a small band is storage and transport mostly of cabling.

I've spent some money on speaker covers, rolling bag for mic and speaker stands, but we have to awkward repurposed bags, one for power and one for xlr.

Are there any standard rolling cases/bags that people use?

I'd love to have one for each xlr length, one for IEC power cables and extensions cords, etc... So things are easier to find.

I'm also going to start color coding cables!

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[Tim McCulloch]

Bringing this back, one of our bigger obstacles as a small band is storage and transport mostly of cabling.

I've spent some money on speaker covers, rolling bag for mic and speaker stands, but we have to awkward repurposed bags, one for power and one for xlr.

Are there any standard rolling cases/bags that people use?

I'd love to have one for each xlr length, one for IEC power cables and extensions cords, etc... So things are easier to find.

I'm also going to start color coding cables!

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

I'm a firm believer that some cords should never be separated from the device, ESPECIALLY power cords.

In the A/V industry stripping every interconnection is common, probably because no two setups are identical and it makes sense to start fresh every time.  Setting up your band and PA?  Not so much.

I'm with Rob, it's not cool to have a dozen mic cable lengths.  Standardize on 2 lengths that are good choices for the majority of your stage connections.  Use sub snakes.

This has all been covered before (and recently), but in general the less stuff that has to be individually handled the faster and more efficient you are.  The more you can accomplish without walking to get an accessory or cable the more efficient you are.  As for how to pack stuff you might find it better to use containers for a specific task or location, i.e. "this is the MONITORS bag" and all the monitor speaker cables - signal, power, speaker, etc - go in it.  At setup you drop this bag right down stage center.  Same with PA speaker cables & accessories, put all the speaker related stuff in one bag or case and then another bag for FOH/console stuff.  However you do it have a standard place each thing goes at load in so you know where things are (and hopefully you can train your band to help once everything is easily located)  None of these will be big, so get some kind of case with wheels under it and put the bags in that case.

IEC power cables should remain with the device (in the case, cover, in the handle) whenever possible.  Nothing pisses me off more at setup than chasing down IEC cables. Grrrrrr.

[ProSoundWeb Community]