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Wireless microphones have been with us for decades, and musicians on stage have happily uncoupled from their amplifiers for almost as long, but the most recent example of pro-audio cord cutting has been the migration of the FOH console work surface from the console itself to a software app that can be used on a wireless device like a tablet or smartphone. It’s also an area that designers and consultants in the HOW sector increasingly need to provide guidance about to their clients.
... the most recent example of pro-audio cord cutting has been the migration of the FOH console work surface from the console itself to a software app....
The good news is that this wrinkle in audio mixing is not only inexpensive to integrate — access to the apps particular to each make and model of console are usually included as part of the purchase price, and they’ll generally work on any iOS or Android device the user already has — but also allows software-based future upgrades that manufacturers offer via downloads. In fact, if a church has decided for whatever reason to keep an existing digital console in place during a systems renovation or update and it was manufactured within the last five years or so, chances are that console has firmware already installed that offers at least a rudimentary level of wireless control. And that same firmware can be updated, as well, to improve performance and functionality. So it’s important for the consultant to emphasize to the client that there is virtually no downside to incorporating a remote-mixing capability to a sound system.
Big benefits
The benefits are significant, the most important being that the front-of-house engineer is no longer confined to a single location within a church, and can move about and listen for acoustical and coverage anomalies anywhere in the room. That’s especially beneficial in churches, which often have eccentric interior geometries due to things like balconies and complex-reflection ceilings, as well as architectural changes over time. The mixer can use the ability to listen to the room at different locations to tune the sound system’s coverage patterns, or at the very least find a good overall compromise setting that satisfies most of the congregation.
[Remote-mixing capability is] especially beneficial in churches, which often have eccentric interior geometries due to things like balconies and complex-reflection ceilings, as well as architectural changes over time.
Another benefit could be that the mix console is either moved to the stage, where it can also be used to mix monitors for musicians, or replaced entirely by a rack-mounted mixer, since all of the functionality of typical hardware mixers is now found on their software counterparts. Placing the mixer on the stage also puts it in the same place as the stage I/O boxes, significantly reducing cabling requirements and thus eliminating more failure points. These are all key points to underscore to budget-conscious HOW committees.
Permission to mix
App-based remote mixing has also kept the HOW’s particular requirements in mind. For instance, says Wesley Smith, documentation manager at console maker PreSonus, app-based mixers offer varying user-set levels of control over access to a mixer’s features. For churches that rely heavily on volunteers to mix services, that can make a huge difference.
“On some apps, including ours, you can set various levels of permissions that determine how much control a user can have on a device, “ she says. “You can lock out certain critical functions,” such as basic EQ and compression settings, “so that a volunteer, for instance, can only see the functions they need to control, such as volume faders.” (She adds, however, that not everyone is immediately at ease mixing on a software GUI. “It comes easier to millennial users,” she says. “It might take someone who’s used to mixing on hardware faders a while to get used to.”)
“The stability and reliability of the network is the most important thing.” Wesley Smith, Documentation Manager, PreSonus
Apps permissions can be extended to other devices on the wireless network, allowing a single user to mix front of house and monitors, or check on the audio mix during a service in an adjacent overflow room that has its own networked mixer.
Smith strongly suggests that consultants recommend establishing a dedicated WiFi network for remote-device mixing, and that each base console have a control port that can be connected directly to a router via an Ethernet cable, to ensure signal robustness.
“The stability and reliability of the network is the most important thing,” she says.
As can happen anytime personal devices are used to connect to a shared network, there is the potential for OS conflict; it’s a problem that AV integrators in corporate enterprise-level verticals encounter, when the device makers issue OS upgrades that can affect the operation of apps on the device. Anyone who recently updated their iOS and finds that their Uber app didn’t work at the airport because it, too, needed an update understands that dynamic. However, says Smith, it’s an unlikely scenario in this case, because pro-audio app makers try to push out updates ahead of device OS upgrades.
“As long as your device is within one or two versions of the most recent OS, you should be fine,” she says.
Up close and personal
Ryan Shelton, vice president of pro audio for Group One, which distributes Digico consoles, points out that wireless mixing on tablets can directly impact members of the congregation. Noting that the impetus for new sound systems often comes from complaints by churchgoers that they are unable to clearly hear what’s going on on the stage, the FOH mixer can take the tablet right to the seat where the complaint was generated, to see if anything can be done to address it with the existing sound system. That same dynamic can occur when the FOH mixer is able to be on stage with musicians and vocalists during soundcheck, hearing the sound as they experience it.
“People feel cut off from the congregation if they’re not hearing the service the same way everyone else is, and it’s similar with musicians.... A portable wireless mixing surface lets the FOH mixer go where the congregants and the musicians are." Ryan Shelton, Vice President of Pro Audio, Group One
“People feel cut off from the congregation if they’re not hearing the service the same way everyone else is, and it’s similar with musicians — they can feel cut off from the audience if the FOH position feels remote and distant,” Shelton explains. “A portable wireless mixing surface lets the FOH mixer go where the congregants and the musicians are. It can help fix problems but as importantly it lets them know that the church is trying to see and hear things the way they do.”
When you think about it, there are not many pieces of AV hardware that can accomplish all of that.
