Calling all audio heads
Somehow, I have become the resident techie at church. We have a PA system. It's broken. It's my responsibility to fix it / buy replacements / get someone to come and hit it with a hammer. I am a Bear of Little Brain when it comes to this sort of thing. Possibly more brain than everyone else there, but even so.
Once upon a time, someone was hired to put in a PA system. It's in a cupboard. You don't open the cupboard, unless there's a wedding or funeral and you're using CD music. Even then, you don't touch any of the rest of it. Everything is powered off a power bar, the lead of which exits the cupboard. The power switch on the plug socket is used to turn is used to turn everything on and off.
When it first went wrong, I earned my techie credentials by daring to open the cupboard and power cycle the box that was obviously not working...
Said box slowly deteriorated, needing more and more power cycles to turn on. The number now approaches infinity, and we need a new solution.
The system consists of the following:
Edit: there is now an update on this problem here.
Once upon a time, someone was hired to put in a PA system. It's in a cupboard. You don't open the cupboard, unless there's a wedding or funeral and you're using CD music. Even then, you don't touch any of the rest of it. Everything is powered off a power bar, the lead of which exits the cupboard. The power switch on the plug socket is used to turn is used to turn everything on and off.
When it first went wrong, I earned my techie credentials by daring to open the cupboard and power cycle the box that was obviously not working...
Said box slowly deteriorated, needing more and more power cycles to turn on. The number now approaches infinity, and we need a new solution.
The system consists of the following:
- 2 Sennheiser EM100 G2 True Diversity Radio Mic Receivers (manual)
- 1 PDA Range 500/2 Induction Loop Amplifier (manual)
- 1 broken Behringer UltraCurve Pro DEQ2496 Digital Audio Processor (manual)
- 1 Tascam CD-A500 Tape/CD deck (manual)
- 1 Inter-M PAM-240A Public Address Amplifier (manual)
- 3 mics (1 fixed and 2 radio) into ch1-3 of PA amp
- tape deck line out (I think) into ch6 of PA amp
- link out of PA amp into induction loop amp
- preamp out of PA amp into in L of audio processor
- out L of audio processor into line in of tape deck
- aux out L of audio processor into amp in of PA amp
- speakers driven by PA amp speaker output
- Is there a way I can "fudge" a working system without the processor? I'm thinking something along the lines of joining "preamp out" to "amp" on the PA amp. Will this just cause massive feedback?
- If the answer to 1 is "yes" or "maybe", and I get it working, do I need to replace the audio processor at all?
- If the answer to 1 is "no", or I can't get it working, what should I replace the audio processor with, and how do I set it up? I reckon that with patience, I have about a 50% chance of getting the current box to come up and let me see how it's set up. How would I do this (I haven't yet tried reading the manual...) I would prefer to have a simple, reliable system. Price is also an issue. I can get an identical replacement for about £250 including VAT and postage. However, I'm a bit unsure about replacing with a box which will probably die in the same way 3 years down the line.
- Is there any point in having the audio processor connected to line in of the tape deck? Even if they wanted to record a service (unlikely given that most of the liturgy is actually not amplified at all - only the readings, sermon and intercessions), I can't see them doing the required technical jiggery-pokery. Simple really is the order of the day here. Edit: they have now confirmed that they have never used the facility, and can't see it being used in the future.
Edit: there is now an update on this problem here.