Comcast bait and switch update

I did contact Comcast Executive Customer Relations via email and did get calls and emails back from Eric G. He seemed to honestly want to get to the bottom to the issue of seeing a $29.99 special price and then not having it available in my area when I went to sign up. A few emails and and phone calls back and forth and it looked like he would do the $29.99 for one year with no contract. I would have to pay a $50 deposit or get a hard hit on my credit. That sounded bad, and was going to do the $50 and possibly a self install since my connection to Comcast's service was still live.

I called Eric back after connecting the modem and verifying that all was working on Oct 26th. Since then, I've not heard a work. I followed up with an email on the 27th and one more yesterday (the Nov 5th) and no a peep from Comcast. 

I did call Centurylink today and re-up'ed with them. The details are 40+ plan for $24.95 (about $30 with taxes and fees) as long as I do auto pay within 30 days. While I am not 100% satisfied with the quality of service during peak hours with Centurylink if we are streaming TV, it does seem to be working better using an Nvidia Shield Android TV, and not the aging Core 2 duo Mac Mini that is on it's last legs and not supported by Apple anymore.

A couple of notes:

I thought it was odd that the Eric was aware of my original blog post that I wrote out of frustration. -But it was helpful to point out the process I went through and the road blocks I hit.

I also thought it was odd that there was a new splash page for www.xfinity.com/internet-service within a day or two of my calls to customer service. There is no special prices when you land there, but places to fill out your address to see what is available in your "market". The top of the old page is in my previous post if you want to look. Special deals that are may or may not be available to to prospective customers was confusing, and possibly unethical in my book. -So we'll call that fixed for now.

I'm not sure why Eric stopped calling and emailing me back. I'm sure he's busy. But not getting any communication back after doing what was asked, was a bit frustrating.

Centurylink and Comcast are not the only choices for service in Spokane. There are Ptera and Cougar Wireless. Both of which I want to check in to. I believe they are both WISP's, or wireless service providers that are touting minimal buffering and good streaming speeds. Let me know if you have used a WISP and how well they work. It's just something I've not tried yet. They seem to provide service for rural areas, but maybe also in Spokane.

What else... major service providers... Why can't you just offer good service for decent prices. A working internet connection for about $30 is what I want. $30 dollars a month is what I pay for my cell phone (T-Mobile prepaid plan). It's what I used to pay for cable TV before it got more expensive then what it seemed to be worth. That seems to be the magic number for me. Sorry for the rant! I feel a bit shitty whining about first world problems...

Comcast Bait and Switch

I'm 1:02 mins into my 2nd phone call and third sales associate with Comcast Xfinity trying to order a special on the Xfinity website. Before I called, I went through trying to get the deal by doing the ordering online.

I simply want to get in on a advertised special for 25 Mbps for $29.99 regularly $39.99.

This is not an awesome deal, but a decent price for basic internet.

Clicking on "Pricing & Other Info." brings a box with nothing in it.

I might as well add this to the cart and I get the spinning ball.

A few seconds later, I get this box and get slightly excited that I might even get a better price! I click on "See Offers".

Now I get a whole new Xfinity-Comcast splash page with $10 basically added to everything and no special deals. My 25Mbps is now 10Mbps. Gone is the deal I once thought I had. I think they just baited and switched me?

Gone is the x'd out $39.99 and the $29.99 sale price for 25Mbps.

Also, now when I click on Pricing & Other Info, I get "fine print" that even this deal is not good in all areas.

I figure customer service will be able to honor the online deal and call the 1-800-XFINITY. The first person I talked to asked me if I wanted any TV, phone, or security bundled with my service to save me money. I told him that I just needed the basic internet with nothing else at the advertised price. I was told that it was not available in my market. I guess my market is the city I live in or area in the State of Washington. He offered me the 25 Mbps plan for $39.99. I started to protest that I wanted the offer I first saw and then we got disconnected.

I went through that whole process two more times. While on hold, I cleared my cache in Google Chrome and reloaded the page, and sure enough the 25Mbps deal was back for $29.99. I asked them to do the same since they seemed to not see that deal anywhere on their computer, but they said they could not. The last sales associate I talked to basically said no go on the $29.99 and we politely hung up. I could not get the special price via phone customer service.

I'm going to go to the local Xfinity store tomorrow to see what they might be able to do...

While on hold, I did look at Washington State Code and it looks like state law might be broken. Some of what I read looks like it's more about bait and switch with cars, but the code as it reads starts with: 

(1) Directly or indirectly employ any scheme, device, or artifice to defraud or mislead any person, including but not limited to engaging in bait and switch advertising or sales practices;

This is RCW 19.230.340 of Prohibited Practices

Sending SMS from Google Hangouts Desktop

I've been a long time user of Google Voice. When Google made the conversion allowing talk, SMS, and Hangouts from one application, I switched over right away. There was one thing that I thought was an oversight or feature that was lacking since the change. I could never seem to initiate a SMS message right from the new Hangouts Extension. I'd have to start an SMS message from my phone, the continue the conversation on my computer.

When typing a name in the search box in the Hangouts desktop application, I would get long lists of Google+ users and never find the contact I wanted like when I used to SMS with the Google Voice page. I just chalked it up to a oversight figuring it would be a feature that would get added down the road. 6 months later, no...

It turns out it was there all along. Simply click on the Hangouts Icon in Chrome:

This will bring up the Hangouts Application on your desktop. Click on "New Conversation"

But then notice the telephone icon that pops up. Click on that!

Type in a name that is in your Gmail contacts or a phone number like below, and then hit Send SMS. 

Maybe I am the only one who didn't know this, but I thought I'd post this just in case. I'd just figured the phone icon had to do with out going calls, and it does, but you also get SMS with your contacts, and not have to try and sort through all the Eric Smiths in G+

If you landed here expecting some ballet photography...

...it's at my website and photography blog. Okay, here's one shot...

I'll continue for right now not really knowing what I want to do when I grow up. I am a photography studio owner and I would consider that my career right now, but I have a part time job as a IATSE stagehand and continue to get jobs designing audio for musicals and then mixing them. I guess that keeps things interesting, but I do have battles with myself about where to spend my time when it all gets too busy.

It looks like my time mixing with Coeur d'alene Summer Theatre might be done or postponed for a while. After coming off a fantastic experience like designing and mixing Mary Poppins, it was a shock to hear that they were shutting down, or at least taking a break to restructure. The good news is there will be a christmas show at the Couer d'Alene Resort. I'll get the opportunity to work with Mark Cotter, Jack Bannon, and Ellen Travolta again, but not under the CST umbrella. I am glad that we will be able to continue this new tradition. A Christmas Cabaret opens Nov 29th!

Happening about the same time, Lewis and Clark High School's Tiger Drama will be running 8 shows of a newer tap classic called "Thoroughly Modern Millie. I just finished doing some work as a local on the stop of "Anything Goes", so I have some inspiration after hearing the silky smooth tap and great vocals (P.J. was mixing I think) of that classic.

On a technical note, I might get an opportunity to use some EAW 650's for mains. It should be a step up from the powered EV's and JBL speakers I have hacked together into a A/B system on the previous high school's musicals. The problem I face in this venue is there is no pit and the orchestra sits right in front of the 1st row of audience. Maybe the 650's will give vocals the punch and intelligibility without getting harsh like the smaller speakers I've used in the past. The rooms is great to listen to it's built in organ, but a challenge to say the least to do musicals in.

Lewis and Clark High School - In the Heights

Big River in Coeur d'Alene

I wanted to blog daily about getting this show going and never quite made it happen. I thought I would throw a few pictures up and a brief description for now at least now that the show has closed. Starting tomorrow, I'll see if I cannot do a better job with the show currently in production "Mary Poppins".

Big River is not a new show to local theatre, but it was completely new to me. Typical load in to preview night (final dress) for Cd'A Summer Theatre is 10 days. This is done for four shows that run from June to late August. I'll post some shots from my Nexus 4 camera from Big River and add descriptions over the next day or so since I have to run off to record some click track in a bit for Poppins.

Front of House with PM5D and Qlab 3 Basic Audio

View from Front of House

Not ideal, but 22 channels of ULX-P with one splitter per 4 channels and stock antennas

EAW front fills. 4 of them for this show.

EV speaker for lower, outer seats. A problem coverage area with the current PA system.

Brand new 5 box Nexo center cluster was installed into a temporary location just a day before sitzprobe. It's quite high, but improved the overall intelligibility of the venue for musical theatre. The house is a very nice acoustic hall and is known for great opera performances. The existing Left-Right EAW 730 was difficult to work with because of the nature of the hall's reflective walls and the spilling of the wider 730 coverage on them.

A couple of JBL powered boxes for downstage monitors. I tried to move them on more and focus them upstage a bit, but the lights won that battle. 

With the limited resources, my final two monitors were on the upstage wall to help with entrances and some orchestra fill. A conductor camera was used in the greenroom for offstage vocals parts.

Another small EV speaker to help with "The Crossing" entrance. Another set of speakers hanging from a batton would have been great, but we didn't have anything that was riggable. 

View from house left to FOH.

Slightly annoying, but the show is called in the tech booth behind the mix position. The glass has been removed from the windows unfortunately. 

22 Channels in a shoe bag and a 9 volt rechargeable station in the spot booth.

Speaking of the spot booth, that window was also removed and it's fan is loud enough to mask soft dialogue. I went looking for the glass since one light was on for the entire show (no luck).

The show went pretty well, I got the actors in mics for the first time for the sitzprobe and then had two dress rehearsals before the preview opening dress on Wednesday. E6's were used mostly, but a B3 was used on a wigged character and another was for Duke who toupee clipped in his. I really prefer the sound of the B3 the forgiveness of it like when the Duke character was in agony after getting tarred and feathered. The E6 will overload a pack more quickly than the B6 when screaming or moaning in agony. 

Today is Day Three of Mary Poppins and I will update this page with it's trials and successes I hope if time allows. Today has a designer run I hope to get on video so I can spend the limited time the theater is open to get the pit wired. I am making labels for the mic packs, PM5D and working on sound effects.  I have purchased the iPad Qlab remote so the stage manager can fire cues during the upcoming tech rehearsals. I did this for Big River and it worked pretty well. There was a little delay with the remote, but it might have been when it was used through the building's network. 

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions or comments. 

In the Heights sound design

I sincerely apologize to anyone expecting new pictures from my studio in this post. I thought I would geek out a bit with the other 25% of my life, and put my thoughts on the internet about the setup for Lewis and Clark High School's production of "In the Heights".

I am not sure how technical this is going to sound, but it could be very non-interesting for many of you. I'll be sure to post some archive photos and some behind the scenes after I get a bit further along with the programing and setup.

• About the venue

LC's theater is one of the older here in Spokane. It was remodeled about 12 years ago and has a permanent installed PA with a Yamaha 24 channel mixer and a EV center cluster speaker system high above the proscenium. I started mixing the school's musicals with this system, but the center cluster is aimed poorly and lacks coverage in the balcony and other parts of the 750'ish seat theater. The walls are pretty reflective, and the reverb time in the room start to make it hard to understand dialog when the volume of orchestra or the PA get loud. The theater has no pit, and the band usually plays in front of the stage. The original front row of seats have been permanently removed to accommodate. I've noticed that the balcony fills with direct and reflective acoustic sound, and the PA cannot keep up with louder passages mainly up there. This usually causes a harshness when I try to boost the sound to get voices over the level of the band. I've had little luck with talking to the musical directors, trying to get them to turn down amps, play softer, or pull back when even the underscore gets too loud.

Lewis and Clark Theater

The Set

• Applying touring technology

I've been union stage hand since I got out of college, and have worked as a local for many musicals at Spokane's INB performing Arts Center and Spokane's other venues. There seems to be a basic, almost standard for setups in the audio department. This makes setup and trouble shooting quick and easy. I've been trying to apply some of these techniques when possible to work in the high schools and other local theaters. The first update I tried at LC was to have a carpenter friend build some wooden speaker towers. I originally envisioned a top speaker  aimed to the balcony, and a lower box to the orchestra level. The powered EV speakers did not work well together and it tuned out that the top speaker covered the venue pretty well by themselves. Bringing the image down closer to the stage helped the overall experience. The lower level of the tower was used for stage fills for about two seasons. The intelligibility was incredibly improved, but can still harsh sometimes since I am using about $800 EV powered speakers.

Side view of speaker tower and side fill

Speaker Tower

• Digital Console

We've rented a M7CL-48 for the last two years that's helped with more complex shows like Legally Blonde, Little Mermaid and others. It's a double edge sword, but I'll take a digital any day. Having all the processing in one box like parametric EQ, compression, and flexible routing is handy and saves time. On the other hand, programming scenes takes time. -Sometimes a lot of time. The turn around from setup to open is anywhere from three to seven days and it's hard to take the context of a show and put it into scenes if you are not familiar with the show. Leaning continuity between scenes and programing when the orchestra should be muted and un-muted is not always clear right away. Programing usually continues after the show has opened while mixing, but I try to not make any big changes since i've programed mistakes when not given a chance to test until the next show the following evening. 

Front of House Mixer

For "In the Heights" my routing is as follows. I am running a mono A/B system. It worked pretty well when I mixed "The Little Mermaid" last fall. Routing two vocals to two different speakers really helps any phase problems that might create an unnatural sound. Routing with a digital mixer makes this trivial, even from scene to scene. I decided to try this after Jersey Boys stopped in Spokane last fall. I do a basic tune of the speakers with an old copy of SMAART. A room can really color the sound of even a great speaker system. Some parametric EQ at the matrix output to cut mid-bass build up improved gain before feedback and gave me a cleaner voice needing less EQ from the actor's microphones.

I send my mics to groups and my groups to matrix's. It's not super complex, but more flexible than using the old Yamaha analog mixer. I have lead, women, men, keys, winds, brass, percussion, and drum kit groups. I have a bit more compression on the music groups than the voices hoping that when all the levels are set, when I push the levels into compression, the vocals should stay on top of the mix.

Early aux send/group list

On a show like this, I had a hard time believing that I could run out of groups, but the bass is routed to main matrix. I'm not sure it would be a good idea to group the bass with anything else since a loud bass slap might affect other instruments in it's group. They could not get a guitar player for this show unfortunately.

As of right now, I am only using three matrixes. The top and bottom speakers, and the stage monitor is also a mix from the groups. I maybe should have the side fill to come from an aux send in case an individual wants a bit more or less of them. I guess I could roll a little more from the channels matrix send if they need a little more.

I don't have enough returns (or channels) in the snake to make this system into a stereo A/B. At least I didn't at first. I rented another 16x4 snake since I ended up with about 22 inputs from the orchestra.

• Wireless System

Lewis and Clark's Tiger Drama applied for Glee grant and won it last year. We added and racked up new and existing ULX-S and ULX-P with antenna distribution, and a couple of directional paddles with the funds. I can now check the first 16 channels of wireless before a show starts since the system can reach all the way to the corner of the school where the students circle up before a show. I would love the move the racks to the stage, but there is little space and not enough snake channels at this point. Also, I can better keep a eye on battery levels durring long rehearsals and shows. I have twenty two wireless in this show not including a wireless god mic.

Front of wireless racks

Back of wireless racks

 The school has access to some loose wireless systems that I use for additional channels for ensemble.

Good use for a case lid I think!

The main microphone we use is the Countryman e6. We also have some e6s's and some b3's. I have fitted the b3's with wig clips and prefer their sound and aesthetic. There are easy to hide under the bangs of a wig, but I cannot get as much gain from them as I would like. They are always the first to feedback.

• The Orchestra

We've done shows with the orchestra on stage like with "Chicago" and a few others, but this time we managed to get a 10 piece off stage right. There are no large sets or props that move on this show. Only the cast that has to enter and exit, and that still has to be tested since we've only had a sitzprobe with the band so far. I will know more on Monday when we actually start running the show through dress rehearsals. Stage right is going to be pretty tight.

Sorry a little dark. From the conductors view.

Cramped, but I'll tell you that I love have some control of the volume of the band. The main percussion is in the room that stores the grand piano and organ. I forgot to mention that this is the only school in Spokane that still has it's original organ and organ lofts. I think that a lively room like this is meant for it, but hurts the musical theater experience a little.

Storage Room

I've also wired for a conductor camera and the conductor also has a shot of the stage from front of house. One note, my old 720p LCD TV at front of house had a pretty good delay when I first plugged it in. I tried another of the composite inputs and it was acceptable. -Go figure...

• Subwoofers

We also rented two powered Crown subs. Riddle me this, but they seemed pretty muddy at first. I reversed the phase of the 1st one and got a nice, usable boost of low frequency. They are out of phase from each other. I guess that physics for you...

Subs

• A few more pictures 

Front of House

9 Volt Charging Stations (Thanks Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre)

Qlab for the 10 or so sound effects. A student is running this for me.

The shoe bag is ubiquitous with touring shows and Broadway, it seems like no one locally has ever thought to use one in each venue I work in.

• A few notes

I really enjoy these gigs with the high schools. The kids work on these shows for months. They audition, learn choreography, and memorize scripts. The sets are designed and built by a stagecraft zero hour class. They also do some lighting design and programming. The only job they hire out for is sound. -I have only a few days to try and get the sound in a place that won't let them down when the show opens. It's quite a challenge! What's pretty nice about it is the main instructor and director of the shows, Greg Pschirrer is pretty hands off and just wants me to make it happen. His notes are usually useful and he does not tend to micro manage. He and the students are easy to work for and they are very appreciative.

I might add to this post later if I can think of anything. Be easy on me since I am not a good writer, but I hope that somebody might find this interesting. Let me know if you have anything to add or have a question.

The show opens on February 28th and the tickets are only $10. Visit Tiger Drama's website for more info.

Mac vs. PC and Why I Switched Back

A Facebook thread has got me thinking about my choice to build a PC and do a cross upgrade of my Photoshop suite. I have owned and loved the build quality and reliability of various Macs over the last 8 years. I still own 5 of them and use two heavily at my photography studio. When it came time to upgrade to a new Mac Pro, I just could not justify it any longer. The price vs processing power felt like a compromise. I felt like I was paying a large premium for a slightly aged hardware compared to what I could buy and build with a PC. In the meantime, I ended up buying a pre-LED dual core iMac to do some video editing on. I found that it screamed compared to the Power Mac and moved to that for all my Photoshop. I had to connect and edit on a secondary display because the iMac's display, even at its lowest setting was too bright and left me with dark looking photographic prints.

This worked for a while, but I jumped at the chance to buy a Quad-core i7 with the large LED display. It was a major upgrade in terms of speed and I now had a large, calibrated LED display I could edit with. I still use this machine today. But I found that when it came time to edit video, its built in video card was not capable of real time displaying of HD video from Adobe Premiere's timeline. If I needed to color correct or do even the most basic edit to a video clip, I had to preview small pixelated image. I never really knew what my video looked like till I rendered and burned a DVD.

I don't do a ton of video business, but I have a few things I do each spring that left me wanting the Mac Pro with an Nvidia card. -I just couldn't pull the trigger. I might be into my PC about $1200 with a Quad Core 8 thread Intel Extreme. -Nowhere near what I would have to have paid for a Mac with similar features. Nothing is overclocked for reliability, but I could do that if I wanted to tinker. I simply filled my PC with RAM and a couple of SSD drives. I have a couple of working external drives connect via firewire (Drobo), USB 3 (Seagate 4TB External) and eSata. I now have realtime previewing of DSLR and HDV video when I need it. Windows 7 64 bit boots in seconds and my programs load quickly off the SSD's. I made a compromise by getting a smaller display then my iMac, but have gotten used to working with it. Prints to my Epson 3880 look great and Lightroom just screams.

I am not going to be an Apple basher here. I recently purchased an Mac Mini for the studio's customer viewing station that's connected to a HDTV. There is not a PC in that form factor that does what it does that well. Many customers are wowed by the slick looking keyboard and mouse. The never see the hidden Mini, even though they probably should. It's like a work of art! My concern is Apple is seems to be moving away from it's industry professional customer base to the masses. I think the move from Final Cut Pro to Final Cut Pro X is a trend that will continue. The video professional experienced a step backward and felt like the new Final Cut was more like a more advanced version of iMovie, then the upgrade they hoped for. This sent many professionals to Adobe's Premiere Pro that already had features that they were waiting for from Apple's upgrade. I was not sure what Final Cut Pro X was really supposed to accomplish at first. It alienated professionals but expanded to a market of hobbyist? -Not really making a product that the soccer mom or a video professional could use. With broadcast quality video in the range of an advanced amateur, I guess Apple is seeing this as a customer it wants to grow rather then continue to make products that only cater to a few. Developing iMovie and Final Cut Pro X is probably money better spent on their bottom line. This has me wondering about the potential demise of the Power Mac from Apple's lineup...

So there you go! Profit and the bottom line. My guess is Apple is doing this for the reasons that all companies do things like this, and that is to make money. In order to continue to grow profits and stock price, they need to sell computers. With all the great iOS products, Apple is now poised to sell Macs to people who previously owned a PC. I think this is great for the general consumer who wants things that just work. With all the connectivity and digital media in the masses Apple is poised to make a killing selling Mac's to view, store and share their lives in pictures and video. While I don't follow industry sales figures, my guess is they already are.

Getting back to my point of why I built a PC. My opinion above about Apple slowly leeching its professional base is just an opinion, but the price vs performance is real and can be bench marked. New motherboards and processors come out on what seems like almost daily intervals. Apple will roll this into it's line 6 months or a year down the road. The PC was and always has been able to meet the needs of the masses and with a little work, industry professionals. While Apple may introduce a product or range of products that will reverse this trend, I believe that my investment was wise and am a pretty happy PC owner. I am sure there might be some cost of ownership figures that might might negate some of what I said, I just have not experienced them yet with my current setup. And while I can run out and get the latest and greatest motherboard/processor combo, I will stick with what I have until the upgrade will have some sort of usable, meaningful user experience improvement.

One real positive thing to say about the Mac is that it does work well for families, students and moms. Friends that have asked what to buy have purchased and love them. They no longer have issues with spyware, malware and viruses. iTunes works great with their iPod, iPads and iPhones. They can download pictures from digital cameras and share them with built in programs like iPhoto. Garage Band is a great way to start learning about and playing music. Apple has done a great job of making its Unix core very usable for someone like my mom or a person who just wants to be able to boot the computer, do the above things, and check their email.  While the Mac is not a closed system like the iDevices, it kind of is by obscurity. To someone who does not program or install many programs, it can be a little daunting. The Mac App Store seems to be one more move in the direction to fix this while also bluring the lines between the Mac and the rest of iOS. I think that this is great for Apples ever expanding customer base, but might be the writing on the wall for video and photographic professionals.

Let me know if you have any thoughts on this. Have a safe and wonderful holiday!