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Village Halls


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Has anyone had the same problem as me in village halls ? I have found that when I plug my lights in all the bulbs blow together, and the power goes off accasionally. I did a Disco in Milton Keynes Bradwell Memorial Hall the other week and had problems there. I plugged a surge protector in for the amp, decks and 1 light and they were the only things that were fine.

 

Email :: info@nrgize-disco.co.uk

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use more than one mains socket and check all your leads .... one could have an intermittent sort .

 

the village hall will have an earth leakage prtection of some sort, is your rig PAT tested ?

 

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Never switch on all of your equipment at the same time. Power up in stages. The same applies to lighting equipment - invest in a mains switch panel or plug in each effect one at a time, and never switch on Audio and Lighting equipment together.

 

Use one socket for sound and another for lighting, run them from seperate leads and sockets if possible.

 

When inductive equipment (equipment that contains a motor or wound component like a transformer) is switched on, it exhibits a surge which lasts for a few milliseconds. However if all equipment is switched on together the surge can be huge and can also trip circuit breakers inside a venue. Amplifier and lighting effects all contain inductive components and can create swtich on surges.

 

It is very rare on modern equipment, but sometimes these surges can travel back from an appliance into the mains and blow other equipment on the same mains circuit. I would guess that it is this issue (refered to as "Back EMF") has happened and caused this problem for you. It is rare, but it can happen especially if your lighting and sound equipment is on the same outlet, and you switch on several items at the same time.

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I would like to add to the above advice on 'village halls'.

 

1) Either during or after a downpour / heavy rain, have a look at the venue walls, ceilings and DJ area before setting up / running any disco gear.

 

2) Whilst unnoticed when switched off, never set-up disco gear in front of a caged parafin / oil heater.

 

3) Never interfere with the village hall electrics / fuse box!

Edited by discodirect
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Just a possibility, but does the village hall have a sound limiter ? many I go to now do, if your sound level gets too high they cut off the power to stage sockets. Damn annoying.

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Main trouble I seem to deal with the odd village hall I work in is echo on the mic when few guests have arrived at start of the evening, wooden floors / no carpets / high ceilings dont make for nice sound

 

Never really noticed bulbs blowing, power surges on the surge protector more than other venues I work although would never go out of my way to secure a booking at a venue like this!!!

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They didnt have sound limiter at that village hall i done. I always use 1 socket of rlights and 1 for sound. Think it must be that individual hall as the village hall i done somewhere else last night was fine with no problems at all

thanks everyone for your advice, really appreciated

 

Email :: info@nrgize-disco.co.uk

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QUOTE
Something which can help a bit with echos in halls is if you are on the stage then set up infront of the curtain and close it. THis at least eliminates most of teh reflection from one of the walls.

 

Yeah have tried that and it definately makes a difference....

 

Cheers mate

 

 

Steve

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As nrgize has found there are some good halls and some quite shocking (literally). I think you cover geographically the same area and there are some really dire ones, especially in winter! Tottenhoe is good!

 

Where possible, I don't use the "stages" unless there a many guests. I find them too remote and prevents guests coming up. Also you do wonder as to the structural integtrity of such structures as they flex up and down! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/fear.gif

 

Cheezy

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Depends what occasion it is, but sometime I dont setup on the stage. For example when its a Teenagers disco I find your more cut off on the stage and is better on the floor at their level. never DJed at Tottenhoe but its about 10min drive for me. U local round beds area then Cheezy ?

 

Email :: info@nrgize-disco.co.uk

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  • 6 months later...

Hi there,

 

We work a few halls, they can be very dodgy, last one we did, the power kept tripping out, we thought it may be us, but it was the mobile bar, they had a fualt on a cooler, everytime he switched it on the power went, it was a simple trip switch to put back on. In the end I refused to power our kit up if the bar was using his cooler, I stated that we were not prepared to risk blowing any of our kit, or bulbs due to someone elses faulty wiring.

 

The client sorted the mobile bar people out, they were cowboys to say the least!

 

Others we have visited have had really dodgy looking electrics, we have refused one before now, and we always without fail visit the venue prior to th event to check all this sort of thing out.

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Good to see that this Topic is still being read after me posting almost a year ago!

Have only done a couple of Village Halls since. Last one was Edlesborough which i was told by a guest that jamelia lives few houses past the hall i was doing. So it made sense to play Jamelia - Superstar as the first track lol

But am experiencing problems with some venues introducing in the "LOVELY" noise pollution control units! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/thanks.gif

 

Email :: info@nrgize-disco.co.uk

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QUOTE
So it made sense to play Jamelia - Superstar as the first track lol

 

Why ?

 

I did a gig near Benny Hills flat, didn't play Ernie....

.....but what do I know ?

 

 

 

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QUOTE
So it made sense to play Jamelia - Superstar as the first track lol

 

A friend of mine attended a private river boat party where one of the guests was Brian May.

The 'DJ' apparently spotted the poor man and started playing Queen tracks.......Mr May looked very dismayed!

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif

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We dont have seriouse probs with village halls, the only thing we have to do i run long cables from other sockets around the place, when thats sorted all you have to do is hold the roof on http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/tongue.gif ,

 

But caint say there's been a prob with bulbs blowing though

 

Dave

--------------DAVE-------------

D&J BEATZ ENTERTAINMENTS

 

davetherave_624@hotmail.com

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It's not only village halls that you have problems with.

Last year we played a social centre in East London. We tried 3 socket outlets before we found one that didn't cause minor shocks from some of the gear, and that was with protected 6-gang leads. The earth warnong lit up light Blackpool illuminations on most of the outlets. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/nono.gif

 

And, no, it wasn't an old dilapidated building, it was about 8 years old! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/533.gif

You want me to play what?

 

Secretary of NADJ, Member of SEDA

 

Magic Moments.. making your moment magic

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QUOTE (discodirect @ Mar 1 2005, 08:39 AM)
QUOTE
So it made sense to play Jamelia - Superstar as the first track lol

 

A friend of mine attended a private river boat party where one of the guests was Brian May.

The 'DJ' apparently spotted the poor man and started playing Queen tracks.......Mr May looked very dismayed!

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif

I feel sorry for Mr May. My experiance is that these people like to blend in with the normal people when not "on duty".

 

Over the years I've done the occasional party/wedding reception for artists/band members and they have always stipulated not to play any of their tracks. (Of course promotional events are different.)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I did a friends wedding a few years back and he is a mate of Paul from the now defunked S club 7, he was at the reception so I made a consious effort to avoid playing S club no matter how many people thought it would be funny to request it.

 

As for Village hall's I played a venue in Hemel Hempstead and every time I turned on the last piece of equipment it blew the fuse no matter what order I turned them on, the first time round my amp blew it. I got very scared! I ended up turning everything on except the bubble machine, every time I hit the bubble switch...pop! so no bubbles that evening!

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Well I was rushing a little and the first song that sprung in my mind was Superstar, and thought after driving past where she lived to play it!

 

Have found before that electric sockets on stages and places in some venues dont actually work and end of "trailing" to the nearest ones the other side of the room! Or in 1 case was told that I had to run all my gear from 1 socket which the guy from the Venue had run from out the back. It was either plug into that or nowhere at all. Just had to watch how much power I was pulling from it.

 

Email :: info@nrgize-disco.co.uk

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  • 1 month later...

Many halls have made improvements over the years. But I always use my socket tester.

 

Some of the problem events are outside or marquees.

 

I have a term in my conditions stating the supply must be safe and suitable. A 2 core lown trimmer extension lead just doesn't fit the bill!

 

Cheezy

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QUOTE
Use one socket for sound and another for lighting, run them from seperate leads and sockets if possible.

 

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/scared.gif not such a good idea if you happened to be in a room which has 2 different phases onephase on each of the sockets either side of the stage. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/oops.gif

Why don't we start making hellium filled bubble wrap?<P> It would help keep postage costs down.
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http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif

i did a village hall on saturday. a wedding.

did not get told about the limiter until i tripped it . and no-one who knew how to reset it in the building. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/533.gif .

great.

found the bloody box and then found the reset button .

good huh,

no-one tells you about the limiter and then when it trips no-one knows anything about it . DOH!!!!!

do they think its funny . or do you think they just like the power thing.(pun)

(well you must of been to loud then )

good job i was on the ball as quick as i was but i dont like all my gear powering up all at once as it did when the limiter cuts back in.

this village hall is also in the middle of nowhere . and a new brick built building with double glazing aswell.

and yet they set it so low.

spoils the evening i think as you are always watching the bloody lights.

not to mention youre gear being switched off then on all in one go,

wont play there again i can tell you http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/wallbash.gif

too many old buggars doing the rules, http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/1106.gif

 

www.smdentertainment.com

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Hi Jazz,

 

Sounds like a venue to aviod

 

Could you add the details (including the name/town of the venue) to the "Venues with Sound limiters" thread so that we can all aviod it?

 

The thread is here:

 

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=6678

 

Robbie

(In Miami!)

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