Limiting Band Member Access

[jonallen356]

We just started using Mixing Station this weekend with our band from church, based on recommendations here on the forum. I love the customizability and stability of the app. So much better than the native apps.

However, we had a couple of issues with band members forgetting to select Personal Monitoring and then their MixBus this weekend, which left them in No Restrictions mode and they were changing the master faders. Not good.

I'm not even sure how this would be done, but is there a way to only give them the option to select Personal Monitoring in their app? Could "No Restrictions" mode be password protected, or could we maybe set the default state to Personal Monitoring instead of No Restrictions?

[KMaxwell]

https://mixingstation.app/ms-docs/getti ... ermissions This might help.

[KMaxwell]

some more info from David Veldman on the Mixing station Facebook group.
You can setup a specific layout and password protect it. Make it the default layout and it will launch to that. Add password and then they cannot exit out of it without password, therefore, not able to get into any of the menus.

You want to set the Top Menu to Off in the settings for that layout too.

[pvannatto]

However, we had a couple of issues with band members forgetting to select Personal Monitoring and then their MixBus this weekend,

For a number of jamborees that I do (10-13 per year), I provide small android tablets for the backline musicians. When I start up Mixing Station on each tablet, it remembers the restricted setting (eg. Bus 5) from the last jamboree. So the "forgetting" doesn't make sense.

[jonallen356]

Maybe describing our setup and usage will be helpful in explaining what I am asking.

We have a team of about 30 musicians that rotate in and out, with approximately 10 people in the band each week. We have 12 wireless IEM systems. Each week our team changes, so the musicians end up with different IEM packs from week to week. The musicians have two options for control. They can download the Mixing Station app on their phone/tablet, or we have two Android tablets on stands on stage that they can share. This all means that our musicians using their own devices must select their busses from week to week (because they may be different), and our musicians sharing the tablets on stage must disconnect from the previous Bus and connect to theirs when they want to make changes.

My concern is with the fact that "No Restrictions" is an option for them at all. With them re-selecting their Bus for the week, or swapping between busses on the shared tablets, there is the potential of accidentally entering NR mode. It happened once this past Sunday. I would like for this to be as foolproof as possible because people make mistakes...

Is there a way to remove that option completely for them or to password restrict entry into that permissions level (I know you can password restrict on exit)?

[pvannatto]

we have two Android tablets on stands on stage that they can share.
...
Is there a way to remove that option completely

Yes there is - by providing 10-12 android tablets that are dedicated (and labeled) to each of the 12 IEMs. That way, when they are handed their specific IEM for the day, they are also handed the respective tablet. This is one of the approaches that I've taken when using mixbuses for the musicians' monitor/IEM mixes. The other approach is to use the Hub4/DP48 personal monitors, which I tend to provide more and more lately.

[KMaxwell]

What mixer are you using? When I set up a system like this we set it up with a full size X32 at FOH (Front of House, the house mixer position) and an X32Rack as the IEM monitor mixer. This was using a Midas DL32 stage box with the AES50a port going to the full size X32 AES50a port and the DL32 B port going to the X32rack AES50a port. The advantages of this setup were that the musicians couldn’t mess up the house mix at all. And the musicians didn’t even have gain control if they managed to get to that layer, they only had a trim control. This church also had the environment of switching IEM packs and their vocal mics on different days. The IEM pack is used with a matching Vocal mic. They all were using their own device to mix. It does require some coordination and the ability of the sound person to help them out. It is also setup with a hardwired network connection to the X32Rack so that the sound person can help out them out If need be. One trick with this is to set up the X32Rack IEM mixer like a real monitor mixer. All of the Mix Bus sends in this kind of setup are post fader. Because the channel fader itself is all started at the nominal level as is done in most professional monitor mixing setup with a monitor engineer. This way if you need to change the level of an input to everyone it is just one fader instead of a whole bunch of them.

I would personally prefer (like Paul suggests) that the church supplies the device to the musicians to mix on (for the service) that is each married to a particular IEM receiver. One church I consult with has that setup and the tablets sit in a multi bay charger after each use. A very simple Tablet is all that is needed with nothing else on it except for maybe the sheet music or just the lyrics. I have not had good luck with the Fire tablets a few years ago because it always was looking for the internet before it would handshake with the network. But that problem may have since been solved.

The first church I mentioned has upgraded their FOH mixer to a WING. I think if they made a WING rack that would make a great IEM mixer. Or if you have the space to put a full size WING as a monitor console somewhere.

[jonallen356]

Thank you for the replies. We are using a Wing as our FOH mixer, but we do not have a second board running for monitors. We use 12 mixbuses on the FOH console for IEMS. Maybe we can get some more tablets and dedicate them per IEM in the future, but budget and storage space are limited. We are meeting in a theater and have to set up our own console and system week-to-week.