SOUND REINFORCEMENT

All,

A report for January 7, 2014

Minstrel sound system:

So far, so good. We wrapped up 2013 with minimal maintenance and repairs required, with just a couple of small connectors that need attention.

2014 plans

Most of the committee members have suggested various changes and upgrades, so the FP Board could be seeing proposals for some in the coming months.

We will continue to enlist and train additional soundies to increase the number of regular bodies at the board and for more flexibility at festivals and bigger events.

We'll make a higher priority to get one our Minstrel amplifiers from Kevin Redden.

We'll make a higher priority toward sorting the collection of retired sound stuff in the MUF basement, and we may purchase additional totes for that purpose, possibly rationalizing the uneeded stuff.

One-day Nerfa

The Northeast Regional Folk Alliance is interested in the one-day Saturday event in North Jersey hosted by The Folk Project and The Sanctuary Concerts. The date isn't yet determined, likely in late March. The location will likely be in Chatham at the Sanctuary location. Multiple sound systems will be required, and the Sound Commitee will work on that as if it were a festival. Nerfa will organize the attendance, events and daily schedule, so the Folk Project should need to only supply volunteer staff. There will be a separate report by Wendy Keillin at the February meeting of the Board on staffing end of it.

Sound at the door

Jean Scully's plea for immediacy in finding some sound for those staffing the door led us to a simple and good solution. This is a portable, battery-powered speaker enclosure with a built-in wireless mic receiver. The speaker is high quality enough to sound good with a footprint small enough to sit directly on the door table. The wireless mic can be set up either near a stage speaker or anywhere appropriate. This mic will fit the standard cradle in all of our mic stands. Simply hit the "on" switch on both the speaker and mic, and the door-team can hear the show, or the kitchen crew, or anywhere needed. This unit has enough high-quality audio range that it could fill the entire lobby if desired.

The battery powered speaker is rechargable within the speaker unit -- merely plug it into the wall -- while the mic requires dry batteries. I tried it in the store and the range of the wireless mic seems more than adequate for our needs. This type of set up could not be more simple. The speaker enclosure is small enough that it should easily fit into one of the rolling boxes in the lobby with little rearranging.

In addition, this little unit will be quite handy for workshops at the Festivals in any environment. And with its rechargable battery it can be used outdoors well away from a power source. It has two inputs so that a standard mic and an instrument (guitar or keyboard) can be amplified together.

The list price is $299, street price $249, plus maybe $20 for a supply of batteries for the mic.

Expedition XP40iw

Respectfully submitted, with a copy to the sound squad.

Mike Del Vecchio