[DrDaveParticipant]

And the people at A&H probably all say “Arrrrr” most of the time.

(Sorry)

That’s alright me ansum.

[DrDaveParticipant]

The different login method works well for my church, as services alternate between using the Basic and Standard user types; the volunteers at the traditional services are actually pleased that they are locked out of using the scary knobs etc used for band-led worship services, and have the assurance that the system behaves always in exactly the same way. Only once have I been called out – an earlier operator had powered down the system with a global mute, and the visually-challenged volunteer switching on the system didn’t notice the logon prompt on the touch screen.

As Andreas points out, the startup scene recall only takes place on power-up if the User type changes, and to me that is a good thing if you momentarily lose power for instance.

The Soft key plan should be OK; we use a Soft Key scene recall approach from a protected range of scenes for rearranging the loudspeaker routing for a simple service in a side-chapel, and this is available to Basic users.

[DrDaveParticipant]

Yes, this procedure, without softkey, has been in operational use at my church for over 2 years now.
Be careful though with your shutdown and startup procedures: the start scene is only recalled if you actually logon. If you just cut the mixer power after messing with routing settings, then when you apply power again I don’t think you will be asked to logon, and all the messed up settings will be preserved.
But then, that isn’t that what you would want if you had a power cut mid-performance?

[DrDaveParticipant]

So can I put Scene 1 (which is usually outside of Standard users control) on a soft key that standard users can use?

Yes.

Choose Setup/Control/SoftKeys, select “Recall Scene” and enter scene 1 as the scene to be recalled. There is more info in the manual section: “Control Setup – SoftKeys”

[DrDaveParticipant]

Yes. It was important for me that for non-technical users, the system always works, and this has worked successfully over the last 2 years.

Define a scene range for standard (and basic) users (eg 16-100). Define a start scene (eg 15) outside of that range. Put a scene recall for the start scene on a soft button. Set a password for the top level user. Whenever a user logon occurs, or whenever the soft button is pressed, the start scene will be recalled, resetting any parameters which are not made safe.

If you grant top level access to all operators then of course all bets are off. I store routing changes for different seating layouts as protected scene recalls on soft buttons.

The desk configuration is preserved over power cycles and so you need to cycle through user types to refresh the start scene. My church situation has services which alternate between Basic and Standard logins, and so the appropriate desk configuration is always loaded. But a soft button refresh may work better for you.

[DrDaveParticipant]

Yes, as long as you password protect the top-level user. You can then assign a start scene to non-admin users which is out of the range of editable scenes, supplemented with a soft key to refresh the desk with this scene. This allows users to save and recall their own scenes, whilst protecting the start scene.

In my church, the services alternate between basic and standard user logins, and the appropriate start scene is therefore automatically retrieved for each service. Without changing user types, setting changes are preserved over power cycles.

For my people who only want “faders and mutes”, the basic level user provides an assured start setting every time.

[DrDaveParticipant]

Like the OP, I set up channels 1-16 as band, and 17 up for radio mics etc., because back in the day, the dSnake input channels used for the band weren’t patchable. That arrangement still works well, given the current constraint on Qudrive playback for virtual soundcheck, which can only return signals to input channels 1-18.

To make wholesale flips from scene to scene or layer to layer goes against the fixed channel pattern and absence of electronic scribble strips. (If I wanted flexible channel assignment then I would have selected the GLD, but the requirement for intuitive use by novice operators drove me to the Qu-32.)

What would be really nice would be to the ability to select AMM on channels 1-16, 9-24 or 17-32.

[DrDaveParticipant]

All scenes can be cleared with the Qu-Pad app in version 1.7, so whether you update or not to 1.8, use of the Qu-Pad app leaves your configuration vulnerable to modification.

This cannot be addressed by using protected startup scenes for Standard and Basic users. Looking back through the manuals, this function apparently was not present in V1.6.

Whilst I can see the use of Audio setup features for system techs, for the general volunteer operator it would be useful to have a restricted modes of the Qu-Pad app with access control mirroring those of the Standard and Basic users.

[DrDaveParticipant]

There is not much in the manual around these areas and I had to experiment to find ways which provided safe and repeatable operation for the basic users yet control and flexibility for the power users.

The Qu powers up into whatever state it was last left. This includes the user type as well as the the selected fader layer in use and fader settings etc. I ask the power users as a matter of courtesy to change the user type back to basic. Upon changing user types, there can be a predefined startup scene for that user which is loaded, which can recall various fader and mix settings.

Using a scene outside the range allocated to users together with applying a simple password to the standard user means that however the desk was left, on power up the basic users cannot help but end up in a known safe state on the custom layer, unaffected by anything that the standard users can do.

Things can still go wrong if there are global safes preventing the total recall of the basic scene.

[DrDaveParticipant]

In a church with a range of skill levels and needs, from simple speech to a full band with monitors, I concentrated first on making it as easy and foolproof as possible for the basic users, who get access only to their custom layer.
To make room for 4 DCAs (and FX returns) on the custom layer scene for standard users, the drum parts (and the recording/ambient mic) are only accessible from the inputs layer. Things are otherwise in the same place on each layer, to avoid labeling confusion, and the labels are repeated on the AB168 stage boxes. Standard users can do most setup and mixing on the custom layer as well, resorting to the inputs layer only for the drums setup, and to the mix layers for setting up monitors. There seems to be no need to access the aux inputs and outputs layer.

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[DrDaveParticipant]

What is too restrictive in one church may be too permissive in another – I have a similar situation where I want the standard users to have free rein as much as possible, but not able at all to affect the setup on power-up for the really basic users (mic faders and mutes on the custom layer only). In your situation I would start by defining your objectives and, from that, laying out the process that you want your operators to follow.

During a service (live operation) your operators have no need to change the system configuration. The only thing that I have not been able to do within the Standard User is to change the configuration parameters of the Effects engines.

There are a number of tricks to enable you to lock down your processes which aren’t found in the manual – the best way is to test ideas out. I have protected the scenes used by the Basic Users by locking them out from editing by the Standard Users. Again, to make sure that the Basic users start in a guaranteed stable state when powering up, I have put a very simple password on the Standard user. No-one has had an issue with any of this, or pushed back on not having “admin” access.

However, other churches may be different. If you still have errors in your basic setup, or if your culture is to permit anyone to make up or change the rules at will, then you may well find that Admin access is still necessary.

Dave

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