[Richard Crowley]

Without knowing anything about your recording or the style of music, etc., it seems very unlikely that simply normalizing the entire concert recording will yield good results. It is typical to apply level adjustments (at minimum normalizing each segment) separately to each song and each speech segment.

It may be that normalizing the loudest songs and maybe the speech to 0dB Full Scale may be appropriate, but only you can make that decision because you have the video and audio to work with and know what the music should sound like. You probably wouldn’t want to normalize ALL the songs to the same level. Unless they are all max-volume head-banging heavy metal or something. 🙂

[Richard Crowley]

You can make a mono track play out of either or both speakers depending on how you mix it during production.

The problem when boosting levels that are too low is not distortion. The problem is more likely to be higher noise floor. The noise (both ambient noise and equipment noise) will get boosted when you increase the level of the track.

Having a good monitoring system is critical to creating mixes that will sound good on whatever playback equipment. Playing at higher levels on large speakers will not change how something sounds, but it will make flaws (like increased background noise) more noticeable.

Making “clean and crisp” audio is more a function during production recording than what you do in post-production editing and mixing. Using the proper microphone for the job, and keeping it at the optimal distance and aimed properly are minimum requirements for capturing decent audio.

And setting appropriate levels is also very important. If the levels are too low, your signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) will suffer (too much noise). And at the other end, if your levels are too high, you run the risk of clipping at full scale which is a very severe problem in the digital world.

[Richard Crowley]

I am using commodity 4-ft “shop lights” from Home Depot just for lighting green screen. Be SURE to get the kind with high-frequency electronic ballasts vs. the old traditional strobing, buzzing, heavy 60Hz magnetic ballasts. You can get very inexpensive fixtures at commodity outlets with HF electronic ballasts that function just like Kino’s ballasts.

Note that the traditional fluorescent tubes have a horrible green spike in their spectrum which is why they are mostly unsuitable for shooting quality video. HOWEVER for simply illuminating the green screen (NOT lighting the foreground actors/objects) that green spike turns into rather an asset. 🙂

Spending extra $$$ on balanced-spectrum tubes seems like a waste for dedicated green screen illumination. OTOH, if you needed to use the light fixtures ALSO for more traditional kinds of lighting, then balanced-spectrum tubes would be necessary.

[Richard Crowley]

The other responders have all made excellent points. Note further that there is probably LESS job security in “corporate video” than in most other corporate jobs. It is increasingly seen as “peripheral” and is a target of downsizing and outsourcing. And it appears that internal corporate media production groups frequently seem to price themselves right out of most of the day-to-day jobs.

In-house production for a government agency would appear to be more “secure”. Government appears to just continue expanding regardless of the economy (and the politics in power at the moment.)

As someone in a big corporation (but NOT in production) I can confirm that contractors are hired by individuals in the corp and get the bigger and more complex jobs which can’t be handled in-house.

[Richard Crowley]

You might want to talk to someone in the production equipment business. Wolf Seeburg is one name that I recall from his participation in the rec.arts.movies.production.sound newsgroup. You could contact him through his website: https://www.wolfvid.com

Another regular participant in r.a.m.p.s is Karl Winkler with Lectrosonics, one of the leading manufacturers of wireless microphone equipment to the film and video production industry. I believe Karl is their director of business development. https://www.lectrosonics.com

Note that the latency issue (which you are likely well acquainted with) may be the primary answer to your question about why you don’t see HD quality live POV shots.

[Richard Crowley]

The optical interconnect you are referring to was originally designed for the “TOSLINK” low-cost 2-channel interconnect by Toshiba for consumer stereo equipment.

The same connector and fiber “cable” was re-purposed by Alesis for their unrelated 8-channel protocol. The ADAT interconnection system was originally proprietary to Alesis equipment, but has become a rather open standard used by others who make 8-channel audio equipment.

You are correct that is it quite possible that an “ADAT” cable configuration won’t necessarily have Alesis-brand equipment at either end.

[Richard Crowley]

Some black air mattresses filled with helium? They make large lighting fixtures that are essentially helium-floated blimps. Why not float some up to block the overhead fluorescents? Don’t forget to attach the ropes so you can retrieve them when you’re done. 🙂

[Richard Crowley]

I concur with Mr. Ford. That is a good solution and recommendation for isolation transformer.

Note also that it is possible that the speakers will work connected directly without any isolation transformers. Its worth a try before spending the $$$. The Mackie speakers have no power cord connection to the ground pin, so they are less likely to suffer from ground loop problems. But many of the problems with the analog line-level output from computers is more than simple ground loops.

Note also that if you just want something temporary until you get a decent audio interface, the Radio Shack 270-054 is actually not terrible. It is around $17 at most any RS storefront. It even comes with the required 3.5mm stereo mini-phone to RCA adapter cable.