Dave Hakes' – Island Mode

I was recently sent an email asking me if I had any favorite new toys.  I responded, having no idea it would get posted in the company newsletter.  Anyway, this was my email:

“Now that I have the new iPhone 4 – yeah!  Aside from the iPhone itself, and all I can do with it – I’ve already shot and edited a few pretty nice videos with it – there is a variety of toys that I’ve been discovering in the last year or so…
Basically, I’m using my old iPhone 32GB-3GS as my work horse, this saves battery time on my active iPhone immensely.  I mostly use it for playback, walk-in, walk-out, and walk-up – it is the ultimate “Instant Reply”.  I have a nice stand for it – which puts it right where my fingers like it to be – and multiple cables.  The A/V Component Cable for the iPhone and the A/V Composite Cable for iPhone are really nice to have – I can charge the phone while using it for playback (really nice!)…
The best purchase I made recently was the iPad to VGA cable.  When I first saw it, I had to test it.  Doesn’t work with the iPhone 3GS, but it totally works with the iPhone 4.  I burned a 4×3 (and 16×9) Test Pattern into a 10 minute movie and keep it on my phone at all times now…
Why does any of this matter?  Just this last week, we had all of our breakouts going at the same time for the exception of our main ballroom, which was going first thing in the morning.  We had the screens and projectors in the air and everything running to FOH, but there was no switcher available till late night.  We had the speakers placed and run, a 1640 and EQ in line as well.  Problem?  We had nothing else available.  I wanted to tweak the room and had absolutely no gear available to do it…
I took my A/V Component Cable (just using the L/R Stereo Audio) and plugged it directly into the 1640 Tape In – which allowed me to EQ the room (Using “SignalSuites” Pink Noise and Frequency Generators, then tweaking to a few familiar songs).  Then I took the iPad to VGA connector and plugged my iPhone directly into the video feed – I tweaked projectors to this feed (my 4×3 Test Pattern Video) and it turned out perfect (I was extremely surprised).  Later that night, when the guys were turning the room, they didn’t have to worry about ringing out the room or tweaking projectors – I saved them quite a bit of time with gear that fit in my pocket…
I’m also very impressed with many of the new iPhone Apps – but I’ll save that till next time…”