Nuts and Bolts - Some practical observations
The Website
In programming this site I have eschewed the use of a web page generator such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver. Such programs tend to be expensive and to generate bulky code. Instead, following the lead of the book, 'Build Your Own Website the Right Way Using HTML and CSS' by Ian Lloyd (Sitepoint), I have chosen to write the HTML code by hand using a programmer's text editor. I use the excellent BBEdit (Macintosh only), which colour codes the markup language and can check code syntax and links. These features make writing the code far less daunting.
Using a style sheet (the CSS component) ensures that formatting is determined mainly by the style sheet, so changes can be made to the appearance of every page merely by changing a line or so in the style sheet. Very efficient!
If you compare the source code of a page on this site with that of a typical modern web site, you will notice how compact the code is. When re-coding the web site after abandoning FrontPage, there was an enormous reduction in page size. This should result in speedier page loading. Although some browsers will recognise and utilise colour management profiles in images, I have removed the usual sRGB profile to make the files smaller. Most browsers will display untagged images in the sRGB colour space acceptably.
The pages are reviewed mainly with Firefox running under OS X on a Macintosh Mini computer, with occasional checks with Safari and Opera on the Mac, and Firefox and Internet Explorer on a Windows XP PC. On a PC, the site is seen at its best with Internet Explorer, since Firefox under XP does not render text very attractively. All of the common Macintosh browsers appear to be fine. I have made no attempt to make the code compatible with ancient, non-standard browsers, but do try to ensure that it complies with the XHTML 1.0 standard. If you use a modern browser you should have no problems with this site. Recent visitor statistics suggest that users of Internet Explorer are using version 6 and above, so I anticipate no problems here.
I disable JavaScript on my own browser because of security concerns and do not use JavaScript on this web site except for the invisible StatCounter code on each page, and the W3C buttons on this page and the home page. I may introduce JavaScript on the Contacts page to assemble email addresses on the fly: the idea being to prevent 'harvesters' from discovering the email addresses, yet making them more clearly readable by human beings viewing the page.
Why can't I hear the preacher?
One of my tasks is to supervise the church audio-visual equipment. Because we have preachers who drop their voice, and because increasing the gain of the sound reinforcement system produces 'ringing' and squealing, I have endeavoured to understand the scientific basis of our task. The outcome is that there are clear theoretical limits on the amount of amplification we can get without problems; and reverberation compounds the problems. I have prepared a brief paper on the subject; and here is the current version.
Expressed in the simplest terms here is the main thrust of the argument:- The microphone must hear a louder sound from the preacher than from the loudspeakers, otherwise there will be a loud squeal from the system.
- Sound echoes and reverberates in the chapel: the result is that the loudspeakers create as much sound at the microphone as at the back of the church.
- The sound at the back of the church therefore can never be louder or clearer than the sound that the preacher delivers to the microphone.
- Reverberation makes the preacher’s speech less clear.
Quality Church Sound Starts With The “Talkers” - The People At The Microphone
This is the name of an article I came across recently about the importance of clear speaking when it comes to addressing a church congregation (or any other group, for that matter). Here is the link to the article.
Recording the Sermon
Sound level There are various problems in the recording of sermons, and not all of them technological. Some speakers have such a dynamic range that the quiet passages are inaudible and the loud passages overload the system and cause distortion. A compressor helps by reducing the amplification of the loud parts and by leaving the quiet parts untouched; but the quiet parts can be lost in the background noise of the chapel and the electronic systems, so no amount of amplification will record an intelligible sound. We are working on the problem.
Noise The microphone picks up unwanted noises as well as speech. Our lapel radio microphones pick electrical interference and the occasional radio message, especially the UHF systems; and the microphone and its lead are are easily knocked or scraped, thus introducing unwanted noises. The lectern microphone is suceptible to thuds and bangs when folk caress or thump the lectern: we have installed a simple shock-absorbing grommet and must see whether this suffices. Watch this space!
Operating Manuals and Hints for the Audio-visual Team
I have placed a number of equipment operating manuals and some user guides on an A-V Information page. I shall attempt to keep these up to date as our experience and understanding develops.
Tim Mimpriss
Webmaster