10:43
A mobile disco night, September 2007
On YouTube this video is called Mobile Disco DJ Tutor Gig Log, 29,9,2007
What this lesson teaches
A wedding in a marquee in private grounds, an hour and a half away, and he spends the setup talking through things that will save somebody a bad night.
What he brings, and why three
Four scanner lights, a couple of colour changers, an oil wheel, a decent PA - and three CD players, just in case. The third-entity rule from the professionalism course, in practice.
Two radio microphones, because the client asked for them: a handheld and a lapel, because there are two best men.
Worth noting as a booking detail. How many speeches, and how many speakers? is a question with an equipment answer.
Tip one: keep audio cables off power cables
Stated first because it matters most.
Try never to run audio cables over power cables. Keep the mains runs together and neatly out of the way, and route the signal cables separately.
The reason is interference: a mains cable running alongside a signal cable induces hum into it, and in a marquee with long runs there is plenty of opportunity. Where they must cross, cross them at a right angle rather than running them side by side.
Tip two: amplifier airflow
He points out which way the amp is facing, so the heat goes out of the back rather than into something.
The fans draw cool air in and blow hot air out, as the stage 7 lessons explain. Pushed against a marquee wall or boxed in behind a table, an amp cooks itself.
Tip three: test a radio mic by walking the room
The best tip in the video.
Do not test the microphone standing where you are standing. Walk around the room saying one-two, because that is where it will actually be used.
Test it at the decks and you learn nothing about what happens when the best man stands forty feet away: it may be too quiet, or you may get interference, and you will find out during the speech.
Tip four: test two radio mics together
And this is the one almost nobody knows.
Even on different frequencies, two radio microphones can interfere with each other - the signals cross and you get a high-pitched squeal.
So take both microphones, hold them together, and talk into each in turn - one-two on this one, one-two on that one.
Because that is exactly what will happen at the speeches: two best men standing next to each other, each holding a live microphone.
Tip five: unwind cable reels completely
The safety one, and he is right to flag it.
If you use an extension reel - the kind with the drum - unwind it entirely, even if you only need two feet of it.
A coiled cable carrying current heats up, because the coil has nowhere to shed the heat. At best the thermal cutout trips and your power goes off mid-set; at worst the insulation suffers. Unwound, it is fine.
Tip six: the idiot-proof scenario
His phrase, and it governs where everything goes.
In a marquee the walls are not solid, so somebody falling against one could bring a speaker down.
So one cabinet is placed hard against the corner pillar, where the structure is strong. The other is next to him, where he can politely ask anybody leaning on it not to.
Every placement decision in a marquee should be made this way: assume somebody will fall into it, and put it somewhere that does not matter.
And the lighting is done last
He leaves the colour changers until later because it is still broad daylight and he wants to position them properly - particularly around the oil wheel projecting onto the back wall, which he does not want to wash out.
Sensible. Aiming lights in daylight is guesswork.
The closing thought
After all of it: tonight was hard work. You walk into a club with a box of records; here you load everything into the van, out of the van, into the marquee, and then do it all again at two in the morning.
Which is the honest difference between the two jobs, and the reason the mobile fee is what it is.
Contents of the video
0:00 On the way to a little town, little hamlet near Leinster
Right folks, Jonathan here. On the way to a little town, little hamlet near Leinster. So at the moment now I'm travelling on the A44 on the way to Llangurig and doing a wedding in a marquee, someone's private grounds, that kind of thing. Got the usual setup and four nice decent mad scans, couple of colour changes, oil wheel. Decent sound system, three CD players just in case. They've asked for two radio mics so I've got a handheld radio mic and a lapel radio mic. They've got two best men and that's about it really. An hour and a half near the venue now. We're on one of these dodgy side roads so we shall take a look at the venue very shortly. And here we are. Okay we've got the toilets there and we've got a nice carpet.
All the way down to the marquee. Who's parked that dodgy van there? Right guys, let's go and take a look inside the marquee. It's rather good. Now that is my kind of wedding. A chocolate wedding cake. Num num. Now if I'm not mistaken, that's going to be chocolate fudge cake. Wow. I wonder if they've missed a berry bean nicked. Probably. Alright, everyone's been hassling me to play the sound system loud so I'll give you a blast. right but first of all some pointers for you okay try never to have actual audio cables over the actual power cables so as you can see i've got a power cable there and yes admittedly there is that over there but there you go like that something like that so all your power is neatly out the way we've got that stacked up there quite nicely i've got the amp going
2:41 You want to do is test
That direction, not that direction, so the heat is going that well, actually in the front and out the back. Now also in this function they've asked for two, not one, but two radio mics. I've got the one radio mic, I've got a lapel mic as well. So what you need to do, two things. One is always walk around the room testing your microphone, going 1-2-1-2. The last thing you want to do is test it right by where you're standing because all that happens then if the whoever wants to use the microphone stands quite a distance away from the speakers either it's not loud enough, it's too quiet or you know you may get interference which you don't want. Now a disadvantage about using two microphones even if they're on at different frequencies you do get sometimes the signals do cross and you get like this almost like a high-pitched sound so it's always a good idea to take those two microphones take them together.
All right and talk with them you know one two and then the next one one two simply because then you know that if the actual guests are going to be talking next to each other they're not going to get any feedback okay just another tip for you let's turn it up did you say something i haven't set up all the lights yet i'm going to put the color changes up later simply because it's broad daylight at the moment i want to position them quite nicely because i've got that optokinetic oil wheel that's actually projecting on that back wall there so don't really want to interfere with that I've got that light sort of pointing that direction, that one is pointing that direction and that one over there is pointing in that direction. So ideally it would be nice to have one in that corner but never mind. I have to always consider the idiot proof scenario and that is that someone, you know this is a marquee so the walls aren't exactly solid could hit that and everything could go flying.
5:18 The truth of the matter is you have to undo these entirely, okay?
The actual position of that speaker there is right dead against the pillar on the actual corner of the marquee, so there's no problem there. And then that one there is next to me, so if I get any drunkards coming along, just very politely ask them to not lean against the speakers. Right, alright, let's have a check around and I'll speak to you later. Just another important fact here guys, you can see there, that is one of those extension-y things that has a spinny about bit in the middle there, right? Now then, if let's say you have to use one of these and, you know, really all you need is two metres length. Well, the truth of the matter is you have to undo these entirely, okay? Even if it's just two foot away because inside there it'll get really hot and there's a good chance that it'll stop working so always make sure you just unravel those completely. That dodgy van around the back now, I don't know. Tonight was hard, you know, like I've said, I've shown before, you walk into a nightclub with a box
You imagine loading everything into your van, loading it out, loading it in, loads of hard work. Practice and enjoy.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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