Why Rent When You Can Own? (cont'd)The birth of an in-ear rig By Jim Roese |
The rack contains an AT two-channel RF mic set-up, and a MOTU 828 mkII interface for tracks. In-ear units are by Shure. All band members and the cue-mix ears are PSM-600 units fed thru a PA-760 antenna combiner. There is also one set of PSM-700’s in the rack as a spare set in case a mix goes down or a PSM-600 unit is suffering from unusable RF hits.
Front of lower rack.
All of the thru’s on the PSM-600 in-ear units are parallel patched to a single-space, laser engraved rack panel in the rear of the rack built by RAPCO. The outputs for the hard-wired drum ears and the inputs for the spare PSM-700 unit are mounted next to the PSM-600 thru jacks for quick and easy cross patching if a mix needs to be re-routed to the spare pack. This panel also includes output jacks for the 2 RF mics, the drum thumper, and the “just because” aux.
Rear output single rack space panel
The input-patch panel was also built by RAPCO. This panel consists of 40 XLR(F) non-locking Nuetrik metal connectors. All inputs terminate both to tails in the rear for monitor needs and a 40-channel LK-150 Veam multi-pin output for an FOH split. Patching channel 31 to the monitor talkback line, and channel 32 to FOH talkback was key. This is such a helpful tool, as now the FOH engineer can hear when the monitor operator is talking to the band on deck during soundcheck just by soloing channel 31. It also supplies a patched line from FOH to the monitor rig. All that is needed to get the FOH engineer’s voice to the band member’s ears during soundcheck is a female to female XLR turnaround plugged into snake line 32 at the FOH console, a mic cord, and a mic . The input panel also contains three BNC jacks for ear and RF mic antenna hookup, a firewire 400 jack to patch a Mac computer running MOTU Digital Performer 5.11 to the MOTU 828 mk II for tracks, a tap start locking ” jack for tracks, and an IEC power input to send AC to the rig’s Tripplite rack mount UPS unit. A 75’ LK-150 to bare-end snake trunk was fitted with a 3’ XLR(M) fan-out by RAPCO also to get signal from the FOH output of the panel to the venue’s house main-split.
Custom Laser Engraved RAPCO Panel. 
How do you fit a total of 17 ac cords into 1 Tripplite UPS? Customized the AC lines with 2-fers and 3-fers!
Custom RAPCO 75’ LK-150 Veam to 3’ XLR(M) fanout snake for venue main snake tie-in.