Arena Kids Show Advice
Operating audio for a kids show in a few arenas soon. Just basic playback and 9 headsets. A couple of things I'm curious to hear opinions on...
Most importantly thinking about a workflow when ringing out the PA to maximise head room with the head sets. I've done similar shows before and can get a bit overwhelmed with the amount of options for ways to make EQ cuts.. Eg. to hack on the matrix feeding the LR and FFs, the LR bus feeding the matrix, the headset group feeding the LR bus etc. Or since I'd have a system tech using the drive processing (this is a new one for me and probably wont use this option). Or is it a case of making a few subtle, initial cuts then using this and then basically this is your amount of headroom. No amount of EQ is going to turn the mics into magic wands, and will quickly just be turning things down.
Secondly I was wondering what your opinion on putting omni headsets into foldback speakers would be. Will have a few flown boxes to cover the stage. I've done some light reading in the past and most would say absolutely not, its musical theatre essentially (and I tend to agree). But last show I did like this I had one very pesky cast member who could never get enough (leads eh) so I'd send a little (of course couldn't get much level but I think it was a decent amount of reinforcement) just to keep her happy(ish). Would love to just put a bit of the playback through the foldbacks but I can imagine it would be fairly hard to hear your own and other cast members voices during musical numbers especially when the audience get loud. Was running these mics on a post fade send to the mons so they'd turn on and off as i moved the faders (not ideal I know but seemed to work) if there's a better way I'd love to hear your ideas. Although even if it wasn't feeding back it seemed to (from memory) muddy the sound of the headsets.
Thanks for any opinions/advice hive mind