Setup 5 Minutes

Setup 5 Minutes

Here's how we get our four piece band setup with the Bose systems in under 5 minutes (from the point that all the gear is on the stage).

Positions

I start with the PS1 Power Stand (Classic) / Model I a couple of feet from the back of the stage (if necessary for "elbow room" or lighting).

It takes me about a minute to make all the connections. It will be faster when I get some nail polish to mark the "front" of the connectors for the remote and XLR connectors and some dummy plugs for the inputs that we don't use.

The Snake

(one per player)

I have all the cables for each player bound up in a "snake". This includes cables for

• Microphone (s)
• Instrument (s)
• Remote Control

This means there's only one "thing" to coil up and store instead of several. I bind them with pan-ties or split-coil tubing.

I also have some spare bags organized by typical "role" and gear requirements for example:

Electric Instrument/Vocal

• 1 XLR for Microphone
• 1 ¼ inch for Instrument (typically connects to a preamp or processor)
• 1 Remote Control

Acoustic Instrument/Vocal

• 1 XLR for Microphone
• 1 XLR for Instrument (could also be for mic'ing and amplifier)
• 1 Remote Control

The System Bag

(one per system)

The bags is labelled with the name of the player who uses it. It includes:

• R1 Remote
• Power cable and if the player requires it for accessories, a small power bar
• B1 cable(s)
• Flashlight (small, the white LED ones work really well)
• Microphones (actually - I only do this for the drummer's bag because the microphones are really sturdy). The more delicate vocal microphones travel separately in our individual gig bags.

The PowerStands

• The PowerStands are labelled with the names of the players who use them.
• All the settings (presets, gain) are "dialed in" for the player who uses the system. * I use 1/2" white "first-aid" tape for labelling things (including the presets, gain settings, phantom power on/off normally used for each system). I'll probably get around to finding caps to block the inputs that aren't used.

Okay - so it takes maybe two-three minutes to find power,

• Place the PowerStand and B1 for easy access,
• Plug in B1 cable and power (these hold the access door open although I usually use the 'plug' from the L1 receptacle)
• Plug in the snake
• Slide the PowerStand and B1 into final positions
• L1 Cylindrical Radiator^® loudspeaker goes into the hole (note: this is the last step, and since learning to do it this way, I've spent a lot less time banging my head against it).

After that we just don't need to access anything on the PowerStand. All the real-time, performance adjustments are on the Remote.

Another two-three minutes gets the mic stands placed and microphones and R1 Remotes connected and we're ready to go.

And that's how we do the setup (not including load-in, and assembling the drum kit) in under 5 minutes.

Original post in the Bose® Musicians Community Message Boards