Barrington Hall - Cambridge

[visualdjmax]

Hi all

I have got a wedding this Saturday at Barrington House in Cambridge. Has anybody worked there before? They have a sound ceiling(PDF attached) that I have to patch into does anybody have any experience of these at all? On the one hand it's great as I don't have to take any PA and on the other it scares the life out of me.

Cheers and thanks in advance.

MAX

[Vectis]

I've used a sound ceiling - there's one in a local venue here.

It's very effective when you're stood underneath it (apart from sounding a bit "odd" because the music seems to be coming from the 'wrong' direction), but at this particular venue the stage area was a good 5 or 6 metres from the dancefloor and so as the DJ it was a nightmare knowing how it sounded during the gig - I was back and forth, twiddle, back and forth, twiddle all night

Punters didn't mind, so that's the main thing.

[[email protected]]

As it happens i worked there last saturday night. Nice venue, and lovely people that run it.

While the guests had a great time and a good level of people dancing, i felt (the same as Vectis) a bit detached from the music. It sounds great over the dancefloor, but step away from it the 6ft or so where i'd set up and it was really.

Cheers
Alan.

[CRAZY K]

Hi all

I have got a wedding this Saturday at Barrington House in Cambridge. Has anybody worked there before? They have a sound ceiling(PDF attached) that I have to patch into does anybody have any experience of these at all? On the one hand it's great as I don't have to take any PA and on the other it scares the life out of me.

Cheers and thanks in advance.

MAX

Sound ceilings--heres some good advice.

ENTERTAINERS WITH MICROPHONE NIGHTMARE

PLAYED ONE FOUR WEEKS AGO, HATED EVERY SECOND OF IT.

As VV explains the sound comes straight down and theres no dispersion.

The reason normally is SOUND LIMITATION PROBLEMS.

You can only hear the sound if you are DIRECTLY below them--also tend to be bad on feedback.

However if your doing minimal voice over work should be fine.

Also the two venues I played like this the sound equipment wasnt 100 per cent so give plenty of time to get set up, test sound and learn controls.

It tends to get abused by all and sundry using it.

Final thing, if anyone is not under a speaker they cant hear whats going on, that includes you unless you can sneak in a powered speaker to use as a monitor which appears to be what a lot of DJs do.

You didnt hear me say that

The problem is invariably a lot of the audience cant get near enough the speakers to get any feel for the music--sounds more like muzak in the Coop.

Also if your used to loads of power and bass end--you might be very disappointed.

Make sure they can hear you announcing the FIRST DANCE because although I have a powerful mike technique--I COULD NOT get people who were sitting a distance away from the Speaker Ceiling area to hear anything I said.

Believe it or not I had to go down on the Dance Floor and shout at people WITHOUT AMPLIFICATION sitting down--HEY ITS TIME FOR THE FIRST DANCE---totally unprofessional but no choice.

If I were you I would either take a Roadie with a loud voice OR enlist the Best Man/Ushers to make sure people know ITS THE FIRST DANCE.

Effectively you have no proper PA.

Maybe you might be lucky

[visualdjmax]

Cheers for all of your help so far lads. Top advice. Also thanks to Alan, who PM'd me and I spoke to ref his gig last week. Thanks again. I will let you know how I get on. Cheers MAX

[CRAZY K]

As it happens i worked there last saturday night. Nice venue, and lovely people that run it.

While the guests had a great time and a good level of people dancing, i felt (the same as Vectis) a bit detached from the music. It sounds great over the dancefloor, but step away from it the 6ft or so where i'd set up and it was really.

Cheers
Alan.

How did you get on with announcements Alan--could anyone outside the speaker area hear what you said?

Bonus if they can

[yourdj]

Just bring a decent monitor I would say?

a studio small speaker would be ideal.

[CRAZY K]

Just bring a decent monitor I would say?

a studio small speaker would be ideal.

Until the Function Manager sees it

I would suspect theres a noise limit problem.

The gig I did in Hertfordshire the DJ hid the additional Active speakers under his Starcloth as he wasnt supposed to have it there because of complaints about excessive noise

[[email protected]]

How did you get on with announcements Alan--could anyone outside the speaker area hear what you said?

Bonus if they can

If i'd used the sound ceiling for the annoucements it would have been disasterous, but the venue realised this and they gave me a microphone which was patched into a pair of speakers at the other end of the dancefloor which they used for the speeches earlier in the day, so you could make annoucements quite effectively, using that.

The only time i spoke on the mic through the dancefloor PA was at the very end of the night, when the majority of the guests were all on the dancefloor.

[charlie]

Iv worked there mate, like Alan said, nice place, and nice people but the ceiling is shocking!

You wont be able to gauge levels very well and you could easily have a phone conversation from the side of the dancefloor!

I didnt enjoy it at all, as i couldnt mix anything!

Have fun though