LR controls for streaming vs AUX outs 1-6

[Hugh]

In our very small summer only Blue Ridge Mountain church we have a stellar Internet following that greatly out numbers our 100 seat venue capacity. The Black Magic video system in place is well above the bar of acceptance: however the audio is in need of much better processing to prpoperly deliver the world class faith based teaching service we are streaming. I have a back ordered CQ20b that I planned to use for my small one man solo gigs but after thinking about it I could loan it to my little church for auditioning potential audio quality improvement. I am throwing out the following questions for comment;

1) Would a deoloyment of LR mains with their available compression be better for the streaming mix, and use the brick wall limiting available with the AUX outputs for venue SR mix. (Truth told only the pastors lav mic is critically important to deliver well thru the house SR system. Ancilary music production needs very little SR enhansement )
2) Will moving up to a preimum AT wireless lav mic (A831cw) & a hand held (ATW-C5400 + ATW 3212) wireless mic system, replacing entry level wireless mics, be a better fit for the world class FPGA processing available with the CQ20b.

Reversing the LR mains assignment to an ancilary delivery will be a radical departure from everything I have practiced over the past 50 years, but looking thru the cracks it appears to be the best use of the CQ20b for this specific use.
Hugh

[Mike C]

For just about and system using a single mixer I would set up an aux mix to feed the live stream. Setting the mix to be post fade will allow the mix the track what changes are made to main house mix, being that it is on an aux that send level could be set to take in account the room mix levels. For instance the drums may be loud o their own in the room but need to be added into the live stream audio feed.

That basic set up can be applied to analog or digital mixers, you just have way more processing available in the digital mixer.
Lot of post here about setting up a live stream audio feed.

[Brian]

Mike C is correct. Don’t use the Main L/R feed to also send audio to your broadcast feed. It is VERY likely that you will need to add “more” to the broadcast audio than you do in person with the PA. As Mike mentioned, you might not have ANY drums going through the PA, but you absolutely need to have them in the stream. If you only used the Main L/R mix to also be the broadcast audio, it would have no drums.

That’s just one example…. another example is that it is likely you will want to send your pastor’s LAV mic to the stream at a louder level than you have it in the PA. It’s weird, but a speaking mic will often sound “too soft” in a broadcast feed even when it is plenty loud in the room, so you will generally need to add more broadcast volume to any speaking mic while not affecting the “in the room” experience.

Initial setup: Set up a dedicated aux send for the broadcast as a “post fader” mix.

Each Week:
Step 1: Each week you’ll first need to get your FOH (or “in the room”) mix where it sounds good.
Step 2: Once the main FOH mix is “dialed in”, listen to the broadcast audio (usually on good isolating headphones) and adjust the levels of the individual input’s aux sends until the overall broadcast mix also sounds good. Step 3: Go back to mixing FOH for the room. Now during the service, any changes in the room will also be made in a relative way on the broadcast as well. For example, if a soft spoken person comes up to the mic and you have to turn the mic up 6db so they can be heard, that change is made for both the FOH and broadcast mix automatically. When you turn the mic back down to a “normal” level, again that change will be made for both mixes.

[Hugh]

Mike C & Brian have advanced conventional wisdom that I too have followed over the past 50+ years. However I did not initially provide several unique details that caused me to think about reversing “Conventional wisdom”.

1) A miced digital piano and a small amount of organ or violin is the only instrumentation ever in use: never drums.
2) 5 up to 8 professional singers man the small choir loft and for the first 30 min. of the service, that features congregational singing of old hymns, the choir needs no amplification for the Hymn sing.
3) I have recomended an AT U841R ambient mic to mount on the ceiling to capture the congregational response to be used for the streaming mix only.
4) 20% of the atending parishioners are seated under a tent in front of the church. They have the back third of a 6 speaker distributed system as well as a large video screen to audit the service.
5) One high quality wireless mic, CATW-C5400, is the only aditional mic for the first 30 min. of the service. It also doubles as a soloist mic along with an overhead mic for the choir for special music during the servuce.
6) I am total agreement with the Importance of maxing out the resonate quality of the pastors lav mic mix and to that end have recomended a A831cw wireless system.
7) The spoken word and song leaders mic along with the mic serving the digital piano are the only important inputs to mix for general SR purposes: Most all of the total of 7 inputs and processing will be centered around the streaming mix and to that end this is where full processing is necessary.
8) Aux outputs 1-6 on the CQ20b do not offer compression, only a brick wall limiter that can function very well for the limited sancturary SR demands, but not for the main stream mix.

I advanced this post to illustrate the importance of knowing the limitations of the gear to be deployed and properly fitting the subject gear to the task at hand. In this case we are dealing with a simi retired teaching pastor that has a large world wide following after 10 years of remarkable success leading the Marble church in NY city. My contention is the LR mix needs to be assigned to the function where it is most needed, not necessarily where convention dictates.
Hugh

[Mike C]

The CQ outputs have a compressor option.

I would look at using a headset mic for the pastor.

[Hugh]

Mike, The pastor will only work with a Lav, this has been his practice for more than 30 years.
Check out the user guide V 1.2, issue 3, PG 42; “Sends to outputs 1 thru 6 are sourced POST EQ from the input channels.This means that the full dynamic range is delivered and that a compressor on each input affects only
the Main LR” This is the primary reason for the decision applying the primary LR mix to the more important Streaming function that will be processing several additional inputs!
However the brickwall limiter is always available on outputs 1 thru 6 for the limited sanctuary mix.
Hugh
I have a lot of time invested in both live SR and studio audio/video recordings. IMO The audio quality with most streaming is no where close to the visual capture and much the same is true of the mountain of videos saturating U-Tube etc etc. There are many reasons for this disparity however the primary culprit is the fact that an I-Pad or I-Phone will capture a better than decent visuals and rudementary audio that was ambiently available. Computer controlled gobos offer much the same decent quality for church video streaming however the audio processing with Black Magic systems is way below todays’ digital audio accpetable standard. This is where A&H can deliver in spades 21st century audio quality if a budget is available to pay for the high end mics.

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