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Church and H.O.W. – Forums for HOW Sound and AV - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Church and HOW Forums => Church Sound => Topic started by: Alex Sikes on July 24, 2015, 09:26:29 PM

Title: How do you handle sound for Weddings @ your H.O.W.?
Post by: Alex Sikes on July 24, 2015, 09:26:29 PM
I am our sound and visual tech director at my church.  My job is to make sure we have someone for both our computer and our sound board for our services and that they are both ready for the services.  My question is how do you handle sound for weddings at your house of worship?  Right now we have a situation where a family having a wedding has someone who knows how to use a sound board but hasn't been vetted or trained by anyone of our church.  They are wanting this person to handle the sound this isn't something we normally do but at the same time when I was told about the wedding it was really to late to ask if any of our guys could be there.  How do you handle this situation?
Title: Posting Rules
Post by: Mac Kerr on July 24, 2015, 11:01:15 PM
I am our sound and visual tech director at my church.

Please go to your profile and change the "Name" field to your real first and last name as required by the posting rules displayed in the header at the top of the section, and in the Site Rules and Suggestions (http://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/board,36.0.html) in the Forum Announcements section, and on the registration page when you registered.

Mac
Title: Re: How do you handle sound for Weddings @ your H.O.W.?
Post by: Lee Buckalew on July 25, 2015, 10:06:51 AM
I am our sound and visual tech director at my church.  My job is to make sure we have someone for both our computer and our sound board for our services and that they are both ready for the services.  My question is how do you handle sound for weddings at your house of worship?  Right now we have a situation where a family having a wedding has someone who knows how to use a sound board but hasn't been vetted or trained by anyone of our church.  They are wanting this person to handle the sound this isn't something we normally do but at the same time when I was told about the wedding it was really to late to ask if any of our guys could be there.  How do you handle this situation?

When I was a church Technical Director we required our trained staff or volunteers to be the ones responsible at an event. 
This is not simply an issue of being familiar with equipment or of trust.  You are dealing with issues of liability ranging from possibly damaged equipment to injured guests (cables not properly dressed, etc.) to equipment not put back where it should be or even to console or system settings being changed and not put back properly for your regular service. 

We even required that our people be present for wedding photo sessions to be sure that sound, lighting, video, etc. equipment was not improperly moved and inadvertently damaged and that it was put back properly.  Photographers always wanted choir mics moved, stage monitors moved, stage decorations rearranged, audio cables pulled off stage and out of their shots, etc.

We also required that this was paid time from the wedding party just as it was for a photographer, musicians, caterer, etc. 

Lee
Title: Re: How do you handle sound for Weddings @ your H.O.W.?
Post by: Stephen Swaffer on July 25, 2015, 01:02:52 PM
They are wanting this person to handle the sound this isn't something we normally do but at the same time when I was told about the wedding it was really to late to ask if any of our guys could be there.  How do you handle this situation?

Everything Lee wrote is spot on.  I would add that a wedding is (should be anyway) an important enough event that they want it done right-really needs to be done by someone that is familiar with the system and can deal with unexpected issues (unless things never go wrong at your church).  Most people do not realize the complexity of modern sound systems-and all it takes is for them to change one setting (even inadvertently) that you never change because you don't need to-to really give you a headache during the next service(especially if you have volunteers to know how to do just what they need to for a service).

Told you too late?  This really needs to be addressed way ahead of time-when did they ask the pastor?  Any couple that wants to have a wedding in our church is giving a list of protocols.  What they can/can't do.  Who is responsible for cleanup (I think they may be required to hire our janitor so things are done right), who can do sound and that it is their responsibility to ask.  Traditionally, "soundmen" have been invited to the rehearsal dinner here.  Since I would  usually be at the  wedding anyway, I only have a little extra time involved-rehearsal and a bit early to set up-so a nice meal and bring my wife along is plenty for me-but that might not be acceptable in every situation.  Bottom line is lining up a sound man is just as important as having any of the other participants there-but they may need to be "reminded" by the pastor.
Title: Re: How do you handle sound for Weddings @ your H.O.W.?
Post by: Taylor Phillips on July 25, 2015, 03:39:25 PM
The last couple churches I attended and volunteered for had digital consoles and completely cleared the stage after each service, so their methods may or may not work for you depending on your equipment.  Both churches had 8 channels of wireless that anyone with access to the soundboard could use (one had lavs/headword or handheld for each channel, the other had 5/3 handheld/headworn) - the other channels were locked unless you had the password.  All of the cables, DIs, wired mics, etc, were in locked closets - nothing on the stage floor.  They did have one or two mic stands accessible.  The microphones and transmitters were in lockable drawers, but were typically unlocked with the room - I guess it was assumed they would be used if the room was.  They didn't require someone from the staff to be present at every event, but did for weddings etc.  One of the churches had a number to call if you had any tech issues that sent an audio and transcribed text message to everyone on their tech staff, one of whom would call back within five minutes to walk you through fixing whatever problem came up.
Title: Re: How do you handle sound for Weddings @ your H.O.W.?
Post by: Philip Langlais on July 25, 2015, 06:04:11 PM
Just like Taylor said, I work at one place where in addition to main mixers (which are passcode protected), there are Shure 8 ch auto mixers. Nothing needs to be done or changed to use these. If this is a situation that happens frequently and someone from your team cannot be there, your church might want to invest in something like this. If not, I echo everyone else's thoughts here... never let someone else mix on your systems. Liability plus the fact that something can be changed which will make life difficult for you and your team come Sunday morning.
Title: Re: How do you handle sound for Weddings @ your H.O.W.?
Post by: Bill McIntosh on July 27, 2015, 10:29:29 AM
Just like Taylor said, I work at one place where in addition to main mixers (which are passcode protected), there are Shure 8 ch auto mixers. Nothing needs to be done or changed to use these. If this is a situation that happens frequently and someone from your team cannot be there, your church might want to invest in something like this. If not, I echo everyone else's thoughts here... never let someone else mix on your systems. Liability plus the fact that something can be changed which will make life difficult for you and your team come Sunday morning.
We require a member of the church tech team run lights and sound for a wedding.  Also for any event using the projectors, these had been left running for days afterwards.

Tech fees are included in the rental rate along with custodial services. 

For some events that only need one podium Mic then the staff person responsible for the event can bring up that Mic. 

Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: How do you handle sound for Weddings @ your H.O.W.?
Post by: Jonathan Johnson on July 27, 2015, 02:03:14 PM
I'll go along with what everybody else said. As for scheduling, at one church I occasionally attend (and occasionally give tech support for, but don't actually "run sound" at), they have a number of techs that they schedule for a week at a time. Anything happens during the week, that tech is responsible for either providing the sound or arranging for another tech to fill in. Sometimes things happen on short notice, like a funeral. Nothing happens without a tech onsite.

It's a system that seems to work pretty well, and the key is having several techs available and a rotating schedule to help avoid the "nobody available" problem and to avoid burnout.
Title: Re: How do you handle sound for Weddings @ your H.O.W.?
Post by: Alex Sikes on August 02, 2015, 04:47:47 PM
Thank you all for your help with this matter.  All of this info will allow me to go to my pastor with ideas that are backed up by others in the community.