Today we inspected the sound system at the Davis, the theater we are using this year. It is not as old as the 3 Penny Theater (our first home) but still has little in common with the larger chain theaters. Of course we'd never be able to get into one of those places.
It's a nice old theater. The manager is very accommodating, but he got very nervous when we broke out the RadioShack™ bag o'cables to wire us into their audio system. It must've been like when Joe Morton gets that Terminator arm in T2 because our technology was light years beyond the stuff we found in the projection booth. The manager immediately fell to his knees and began chanting. Talk about awkward moments...
Like I said this is a nice old theater, the kind of place that will surely be gone before too long. All the signs were made on the managers Windows95 Paintbox program, there were lots of labels made out of papertape and a general lack of knowledge when it comes to figuring out how this stuff all works together. Guess what? It doesn't.
There is a slight hum, a ground hum. It's not terrible, but if it were gone we'd be really happy. After much speculation (but decidedly little action) I found myself behind the screen tracing the audio cables to the speaker. It is cramped and dark and dusty with cobwebs. When I find a link in the cables I'm surprised that we're getting any sound at all. In my hands I was holding exposed wires and the twist caps holding them together. When I give them a jiggle I am both surprised and disappointed. The audio is not interrupted. So the twist ties work, which is good. But I haven't found the source of the hum, which is bad.
Chalk this up as, To Be Continued...
I have to go and make some more show reels.
--toby wallwork (from Sidekick)
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