# Orchestra & Conductor Monitors



## oakwoodtechie (Jun 16, 2014)

We have a very alternative theatre space where in we mount huge dramatic and musical productions. We often time have to have our Orchestra backstage. This past year we used GoPros for monitoring but the battery changes and video quality was pretty terrible. It worked, but i know it can be better. 

I really want to know what touring productions use? I've seen small cameras focused on the conductor, but with video monitors by the footlights. 

What is this set up? The quality looked great.


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## kiwitechgirl (Jun 16, 2014)

CCTV camera (possiblly a dual mode infra-red/regular one for low light conditions) with CRT screens, all cabled together via splitter/boosters as necessary. LCDs/plasmas are not great for mission-critical applications as the lag on them can be enough to throw singers and the orchestra out of time; I work at the Sydney Opera House and while we do use flat screens for show and conductor relay in the auditorium, all the screens for the orchestra (the orchestra pit has the percussionists in a spot where often their view of the conductor is obstructed by other musicians), singers and backstage musicians are CRT because the lag is much, much less.


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## oakwoodtechie (Jun 16, 2014)

We use cctv for stage management to monitor when the stage is ready during a blackout. The image quality on that is pretty terrible. 

I don't have any budget concerns on this. What I have seen in the past looked like helmet cams but not go pros. And the screens looked like the kind you'd see on an airplane head rest.


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## Chris15 (Jun 16, 2014)

kiwitechgirl said:


> CCTV camera (possiblly a dual mode infra-red/regular one for low light conditions) with CRT screens, all cabled together via splitter/boosters as necessary. LCDs/plasmas are not great for mission-critical applications as the lag on them can be enough to throw singers and the orchestra out of time; I work at the Sydney Opera House and while we do use flat screens for show and conductor relay in the auditorium, all the screens for the orchestra (the orchestra pit has the percussionists in a spot where often their view of the conductor is obstructed by other musicians), singers and backstage musicians are CRT because the lag is much, much less.



I thought I heard Cam O'Neill say at one point that testing with OLED and HD-SDI had proven good enough to keep OA even happy


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## rochem (Jun 17, 2014)

For a small monitor, the model that I see 98% of the time is the Delvcam 5.6" TFT LCD monitor - something like this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...LV_PRO56_DELV_PRO56_5_6_Inch_LCD_Monitor.html. It's not uncommon to see these mounted on every music stand in the pit, as it's often easier to just give everyone a monitor rather than try to fight through sightlines. These also get mounted backstage for pit singers and such. For balcony rail or FOH monitors, or anything where the screen is more than 10' away from the person viewing it, CRTs are still the defacto standard. I've never seen a flatscreen monitor solution that's had a low enough level of lag, but from what I've heard, there are some out there that some people have had success with.

As for cameras, the go-to workhorse around here is the Panasonic WV-CP480. It sounds like you're looking for a smaller camera, which usually go by the name lipstick camera or bullet camera. The image below shows some of the small version that one of the shops around here send out - unfortunately, I don't know the model number offhand. Hope that helps!


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## kiwitechgirl (Jun 18, 2014)

Chris15 said:


> I thought I heard Cam O'Neill say at one point that testing with OLED and HD-SDI had proven good enough to keep OA even happy



Possibly! Thinking about it, when we did an opera with the orchestra in another room (SOH Studio) the conductor did have flat screens for his stage view. Although that's less vital in lag terms...we're still using CRTs in most places though!


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## Jacques Mersereau (Jul 21, 2014)

I was going to say to be careful about using/buying gear that induces lag. I haven't had to do this for a while, but years go when we did, the orchestra found that the flat panels we initially tried had about three frames lag. They bitched big time. We ended up going back to old TV sets. Big and heavy, but (I guess) acceptable lag.


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