formats

Booker T Washington HS – theater sound system 090616

Today I visited the Montgomery Arts Theater at Booker T Washington High School in Dallas Texas to do a check up on their sound system before their upcoming production of “Oklahoma” begins the tech process.
Booker T Washington Montgomery Arts Theater

The main sound system consists of:
(2) Renkus Heinz PM-3(ST4/44R) Side L / R
(2) Renkus Heinz PM-3(ST4/64R) Main L / R
(1) Renkus Heinz PM-1L(ST4LW) dual 12″ sub woofer
(1) dbx 4800

A few things that slowed the process down. First, the dbx 4800 dsp is located in the amp rack on the 3rd floor of the theater and without a way of controlling it remotely, a lot of time was spent climbing stairs and ladders. Next time I would be extend the dbx 4800 network cable to FOH measurement position. Secondly, during the measurement process, it was discovered that the Main L / R speakers were out of polarity. How do you troubleshoot a connection that runs all over the building? Easy! You use Soundtools XLR Sniffer / Sender tester. What is known in the industry as a “Rat Sniffer”. Unlike a normal cable tester box, the two parts of a Rat Sniffer / Sender kit can be used at any location all over the building. This is one of the 2 most important audio tools I use on a daily basis. Get one or more if you don’t have one already. If you have more than one kit, you can troubleshoot multiple lines at the same time.

soundtools rat sniffer
Using a RAT SNIFFER we narrowed it down to a bad XLR cable between the catwalk patch point and the self powered speakers. Resolving that issue made the system much more usable:)

measurement results to follow: