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Changes and Deals at QSC
ThE NEws MagazinE For LivE Sound
FEBRUARY 2007 Vol. 5 No. 5
Audio on a Wing and a Prayer
COSTA MESA, CA — Key changes have been made in senior management at QSC. Joe Pham
has been named as the company’s chief operating officer. As the new COO, Pham steps up to an
office long occupied by QSC’s John Andrews, who will move to jointly share the duties of CEO with
brother Barry Andrews. Currently serving QSC in a dual capacity as CEO and senior VP of sales and
marketing, Barry Andrews will in turn relinquish all sales and marketing responsibilities, and the
position of senior VP of sales and marketing will be effectively eliminated.
“One of the secrets to QSC’s longevity and robust health has been our willingness to adapt,
learn and grow in capability through
self-development and the addition of
new talent,” Barry Andrews said upon
Future Sonics, Hear
announcing the organizational changTechnologies Hook
es. “As a company we’ve gone from a
few struggling guys building and selling
Up With Les Paul
guitar amps directly out of our shop to
an international pro audio leader employing hundreds of people. Pat [Quilter], John, and I are entrepreneurs—individuals who are comfortable with
ambiguity and risk. None of us have formal management
continued on page 13
Harman Appoints
Michael Macdonald
Executive V P,
Mar ke tin g
An aerial shot of FOH at Harvest Church
One of the main points of FOH’s House of Worship issue last August was that clarity of
audio is of paramount concern in an HOW environment. So, since we all know how easy it is
achieve crystal clear audio and a sharp mix with volunteers and constrained budgets, the FOH
road dogs are once again putting on their Sunday best for an HOW-focused issue. We’ll show
you a couple HOW installs that had the time and budget to do it right — like the Harvest, a
non-denominational, contemporary church located in Lexington, S.C., pictured above, full story
on page 22 — as well as tackle issues relevant to the worship audience, including how to deal
with the thorny issue of getting paid in the worship market. Now, if you’ll all open your FOH
magazine to page 18, where our coverage begins.
Shure Talks “White Spaces” with FCC, Congress
WASHINGTON — From Wednesday, January 24, through Friday, January 26,
representatives from Shure Incorporated, the Grand Ole Opry, the Professional Audio
Manufacturer’s Alliance (PAMA), the Sports Video Group (SVG), PRG Audio, Springboard
Productions, Masque Sound and Sound Associates, Inc., among others, participated
in a series of meetings in Washington, D.C. with U.S. Senators, members of the House
of Representatives and Commissioners and staff at the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC).
NORTHRIDGE, CA — The Harman
Pro Group has announced the creation
of a new strategic marketing position
focused on integrated systems and coordinated multi-brand communications.
Blake Augsburger, president of Harman
Pro Group, has announced that Michael
MacDonald has rejoined the company to
assume the newly created position of executive vice president, marketing, based
at the Group’s Northridge, Calif. headquarters.
Augsburger
said, “Michael’s
extensive industry experience
uniquely qualifies him to succeed in this new
position.”
Michael MacDonald
Michael
MacDonald has been involved in professional audio for more than 25 years.
Beginning in the 1970s, he was active
providing sound systems design and
production services for touring, broadcast and installed applications. He
crossed over to the supplier side of the
industry, joining Yamaha in 1986. MacDonald stayed at Yamaha for more than
nine years, the
Les Paul and Marty Garcia
HUNTSVILLE, AL — In a partnership
that will make waves in the personal
monitor market, Hear Technologies,
makers of mixing tools, will market the
new Future Sonics Atrio universal earphones. Their first big customer is audio
legend Les Paul, who has adopted a Future Sonics/Hear package for monitoring his live performances.
Paul has selected Future Sonics Ear
Monitors brand custom personal monitors, Sennheiser microphones/wireless and Hear Technologies systems
for his live concert performances after
consulting with Future Sonics. After
evaluating each product and brand
5
FOH-TV Launches
8
Love Letter to a
Road Dog
Online video coverage of NAMM leads
off our new webcast
Its hard to tell why they stay,
but thank God they do.
18 Sound Sanctuary
When is it appropriate to bill the Pope?
continued on page XX
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www.fohonline.com
FEBRUARY 2007, Vol. 5.5
HOW Installs
Feature
Features
What’s Hot
18
14 Winter NAMM
34 The Biz
The show has come and gone, but a path of
goodies leads us home.
More and more European companies are mastering that leap across the Atlantic.
20 Vital Stats
Take a walk in the Rane.
22 Harvesting Sound
Harvesting church brings in a new rig to spread
the Word.
For Vineyard Church, one left and two rights come
out just fine.
A compressor, a console and some mics wandered out into FOH’s wild world. Let’s see how
they fared.
29 Product Gallery
FOH Interview
That speaker you need for your HOW install is
right here.
What’s Hot
24
26 Road Tests
Columns
32 Regional Slants
Has shafting the crew become a sport?
32 On the Bleeding Edge
Can wireless survive?
34 Sound Sanctuary
“Skitch” Canady brings Disturbed to a new level
of metal.
It might be God’s money, but even God pays
for labor.
35 Anklebiters
So how do you tell the system designer’s wife
that the system doesn’t work?
36 Theory and Practice
Process these thoughts about processors.
40 FOH-at-Large
The Godfather of Soul left one more mystery.
Departments
2 Feedback
4 Editor’s Note
5 News
10 International News
12 On the Move
16 Showtime
28 Welcome to My Nightmare
28 In the Trenches
Feedback
More PM Training Advice
Jamie,
I read your article on PMs. I had a couple of
thoughts to add.
1.Think “Studio Mix”— One of the major
benefits of PMs is that you can eliminate
the audio fluff in the mix, allowing you to
hear exactly what you need in order to get
references for pitch and timing. Hopefully
every sound generated on the stage is
a positive addition to the character and
atmosphere of the song, but hearing it all at
once can make it hard to gauge ones own
position in the “groove” (especially if any
of the other parts are less than optimal).
However, performers who have never
done any studio work are usually not used
to hearing only a portion of everything
that’s going on, and most worship teams
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are volunteer “amateurs.” Most of these
folks are used to hearing everything,
and usually hearing too much of it. It’s
important to train PM users to set up their
mixes with key references for timing and
pitch (usually kick, snare, maybe overheads
and either the main guitar and/or keys —
whichever tends to drive the songs). When
using this approach the players need to
also remember to leave space for the other
players’ licks, embellishments, etc.
2. Go All the Way — If at all possible,
don’t give in to the “halfway” (or half@#$) approach of using just one earpiece.
Otherwise, you’re not really receiving the
benefits of the PM because one ear is
still bombarded with stage noise and the
other with PM. Newbies don’t realize just
how much louder you have to run a “oneear” mix. It takes a while — several months,
in some cases — to get used to hearing
things differently. Guitar players have a
particularly hard time adjusting, because
we’re so used to feeding off of the little
nuances coming off the cabs, etc. Once
things finally start to click, though, PMs are
a beautiful thing.
3. Mix in Stereo if Possible — This will
really open up the soundscape for a clean,
clear mix. Mono mixes, whether in wedges
or PMs, always have the struggle of
reproducing everything from a single point
source, ultimately resulting in multiple
sources competing for the same sonic
space. Stereo mixing lets you place each
source in its own little space, significantly
cleaning up the sound. If done right, you
can also pan everything so that the PM
mix reproduces the actual layout of the
players on the stage so that what you hear
matches what you see.
4. Take Time to set up a good mix —
This might be a huge challenge for many
teams, since few churches are blessed
with people who truly understand audio,
mixing, etc. (though many, many churches
have someone who thinks they know
audio). But a bad mix in PMs will never,
ever, ever be a convincing argument
for their implementation. It is of utmost
importance to get the best possible mix for
each performer… and doing so takes time,
at least initially. This is actually true when
mixing on wedges as well, but it really is a
deal maker or breaker when getting folks
to buy into the PM format. Nobody likes a
bad mix, especially when it’s fed directly to
your ear.
5. TAKE TIME to set up a good mix.
6. TAKE TIME to set up a good mix.
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EDITORI S NOTE
V
BY
All or Nothing at All
Publisher
Terry Lowe
BILL EVANS
[email protected]
Editor
Bill Evans
[email protected]
Managing Editor
Jacob Coakley
[email protected]
O
ne thing out of the way right
from the start: Yes, this is another
special House of Worship issue.
Yes, the desire to do these is driven by
the business folks who feel they can sell
more advertising because — unlike a
lot of other venues — churches are still
spending money on audio gear. But, if I
did not truly believe that we were bringing something of value to the table for
the READERS of FOH, I would stomp my
feet and hold my breath and scream and
yell (quite a feat to do all at once) and
likely end up fired for refusing to be a
“team player.”
But let’s get the dollars out of the
equation and look at what this church
thing really means. There are myriad reasons for it — ranging from a return to
values held when we were growing up,
and as yet unjaded and not yet tainted
by the road, to having kids and feeling a
need for some kind of structured moral
program for them — but a growing number of former road dogs are finding their
way into the pews of various churches
and temples. More than a third of FOH
readers identify church as a place where
they are involved in audio production.
Many of this group are being asked
to lead an audio team that consists of
volunteers who are well-intentioned but
often know little about audio beyond
how to hook up a home stereo system
or maybe a mic and a couple of speakers on sticks. As churches move into the
world of digital consoles, line arrays,
surround mixes and broadcast integration, the need for some real-world expertise is becoming ever more crucial.
Which is where, I hope, an issue like this
comes in.
As long as we are talking about
churches, let’s get another uncomfortable fact out of the way. Too many houses of worship either don’t budget for
good audio or think it is something that
just magically happens. One of the biggest complaints I hear from production
audio people who work with churches is
the fact that many of them are a huge
pain when it comes time to get paid. A
couple of years ago, I lost a church festival gig that I had done for half a dozen
years when the organizers decided that
— because it was for the church — all
services should be donated. Now, I was
already cutting these guys a deal that
verged on stupid cheap, but they went
with someone from the parish with a
small system and bands that would play
for free and… Well, I wasn’t there, but I
hear it sucked. And I got the gig back the
following year (and, yes, I raised my rate
a little bit).
The split seems very much to be
between “traditional” churches and
more modern — generally evangelical
— congregations with the traditionalists giving audio (and other production
elements) the short end of the stick and
charismatic evangelical congregations
understanding the value of entertainment technology in getting out their
message. It is also, no big surprise — and
this may be just my experience talking
— the traditionalists who don’t see why
they should have to pay for audio and
the evangelicals who are willing to fork
over what it takes to make their production values able to hold the attention of
a flock raised on MTV and action flicks.
A few years ago, the church I was attending was going through a pretty tough
time as the leader of the congregation lay
dying of a rare and aggressive form of cancer while only in his mid-40s. He specifically asked if he could get services recorded
and brought to his hospital room, and I
had to really do some hoop-jumping to
make it happen and sound at least coherent enough to understand. And, because
audio production was seen by this church
as an intrusion, I had to do it so no one
knew I was doing it. I found myself coveting the broadcast integration capabilities
of the mega-church up the street.
Like so many things it came down
to balance. Some churches want it all
production wise, and others want nothing at all if they can get away with it. We
need to find the balance point between
selling and installing the right system
(i.e., big enough to do the job but not
overkill, except to allow for reasonable
growth) and dealing with the inherent
“thriftiness” of the HOW market. Good
luck with that…
Associate Editor
David McGinnis
[email protected]
Technical Editor
Mark Amundson
[email protected]
Contributing Writers
Jerry Cobb, Brian Cassell,
Dan Daley, Jamie Rio,
Steve LaCerra, Nort Johnson,
David John Farinella, Ted Leamy,
Baker Lee, Bryan Reesman,
Tony Mah, Richard Rutherford,
Photographer
Steve Jennings
Art Director
Garret Petrov
[email protected]
Production Manager
Linda Evans
[email protected]
Graphic Designers
Dana Pershyn
[email protected]
Crystal Franklin
[email protected]
Josh Harris
[email protected]
National Sales Manager
Peggy Blaze
[email protected]
National Advertising Director
Gregory Gallardo
[email protected]
General Manager
William Hamilton Vanyo
[email protected]
Executive Administrative
Assistant
Mindy LFort
[email protected]
Business and
Advertising Office
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Ph: 702.932.5585
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Front Of House (ISSN 1549-831X) Volume 5 Number
5 is published monthly by Timeless Communications
Corp., 6000 South Eastern Ave., Suite 14J, Las Vegas, NV,
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February 2007
www.fohonline.com
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V
NEWS
Meyer Expands Berkeley Manufacturing Facilities
BERKELEY, CA — Meyer Sound has
brought a new manufacturing facility,
named Phoebe, online in Berkeley, Calif.
Since being founded by John and Helen
Meyer in 1979, Meyer has dictated that
manufacturing take place at the company’s headquarters in Northern California.
The company’s first years were spent at a
location in San Leandro, but since 1984,
manufacturing has been performed at
the company’s base in Berkeley.
Meyer Sound’s recent expansion has
led to making its products in several
buildings clustered around the original
building and named according to a plan-
etary theme. Named for a small moon of
Saturn, Phoebe is mainly an expansion
of the Saturn transducer facility. Phoebe
supplements Meyer Sound’s existing
driver production capabilities and adds
new ones. Parts of the driver manufacturing process are being revamped as they
are implemented at Phoebe in order to
increase efficiency and consistency.
Phoebe includes a new department
known as the reliability testing area.
Here, rows of thick concrete chambers
allow for accelerated life testing of
Meyer Sound products. Each chamber
is equipped with an identical test setup.
Engineering R&D also maintains two
large chambers in this room for testing
development prototypes.
Low-frequency driver and magnetic assemblies from subassemblies and components made at Saturn are being performed
in one room of Phoebe, while low driver
final QA (Quality Assurance) testing is conducted in an adjacent area. Newly designed
test rigs have already increased capacity.
Both testing areas (final QA and reliability)
are under the control of the company’s QA
department.
Phoebe continues coming online in
2007, as Meyer Sound’s facilities are being
Inside Phoebe
refined. Factory tours go through key production areas, providing graphic demonstrations of the testing that takes place at
the new Phoebe facility.
FOH-TV Has Landed
LAS VEGAS — Timeless Communications,
publisher of Front of House magazine, is
proud to announce the launch of FOH-TV, a
streaming video and audio report keeping
FOH readers (and now viewers) up-to-date
on the latest moves, shakes and rumbles in
the audio industry.
The site officially launched on
Wednesday, January 31, 2007, with special
reports covering the Winter NAMM 2007
show,.
Two reports have been released initially,
one carrying viewers through the world of
new audio releases and another focusing
on loudspeakers specifically.
Other features soon to be included on
FOH TV are video blogs diving deep into
your audio world, coverage of major events
in live audio and more.
To see the first installment, visit http://
www.fohonline.com/tv.
Akira Nakamura
to Retire from
Yamaha
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
BUENA PARK, CA — Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. has announced
the January 2007 retirement of legendary
speaker designer Akira Nakamura. Since
1965, Mr. Nakamura has led the development of a wide variety of commercial audio speakers, the most famous being the
Yamaha NS-10M studio reference monitors, which he developed in 1987.
Nakamura placed great emphasis on
designing speakers with excellent fundamental physical characteristics — an
even acoustic pressure frequency response and good distortion.
“We will be forever grateful to Nakamura-san for his dedication and passion
for superior design,” states Larry Italia,
vice president/general manager, Yamaha
Commercial Audio Systems, Inc.
“During our time working together,
I found Mr. Nakamura’s dedication was
surpassed only by his attention to detail,” states Michael C. Adams, acoustic
engineer, Audio Composite Engineering
(ACE) and co-developer for the Yamaha
Installation Series. “His sense of sonic balance is remarkable, and it was a pleasure
and honor to have had the opportunity
to work closely with him; I wish him all
the best.”
A celebration will be held in his honor
mid-January in Hamamatsu, Japan.
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2007 FEBRUARY
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NEWS
V
Sound Works With Worship Shift
ROSWELL, GA — While in the process
of shifting from a more traditional style to a
more blended style of worship, the people of
Northbrook United Methodist Church began
to notice that their audio system wasn’t capable of handling the change. Although parishioners had consistently complained that they
had difficulty understanding the sermons,
the inclusion of more contemporary music
made the old system’s poor fidelity and weak
bass response glaringly obvious. The growing problems moved the church to enlist the
help of Ronnie Stanford, systems advisor for
dB Audio and Video, Gainesville, Ga., a company that provides installations for schools,
government agencies, and businesses, in ad-
dition to their bread & butter — churches.
Northbrook seats 700 in a large, rectangular room with 60-foot ceilings. The front of the
balcony is 70 feet from the front wall, and the
balcony itself is another 50 feet deep. The seating is arrayed in a semicircle focused on the
stage. “From an audio perspective, you have to
keep your speakers in front of the pulpit, and yet
you need to cover a lot of seats that are actually
behind the pulpit,” explained Stanford. “In addition, part of the seating is underneath ‘wings’
that are 12 feet from either side of the pulpit.
Under the wings, the ceilings are a mere eight
feet. So your main speakers are hanging off of
60-foot ceilings, and yet you still have to reach
underneath these wings!”
Electro-Voice NetMax Installed
in Minnesota House of Worship
APPLE VALLEY, MN — Audio Logic
Systems recently completed an extensive
Electro-Voice sound installation at Grace
Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, Minn.,
featuring a NetMax/IRIS-Net digital system control matrix installation. The inputto-output EV system at Grace Lutheran is
intended to in balance sophistication with
ease of use and flexibility.
The main worship
space at Grace Lutheran
features three EV Xi1153A/64 loudspeakers with two Xi-1082
side fills, all powered
by CPS2.11 amplifiers.
EVID C.8 recessed ceiling speakers and ZX1iT
(transformer equipped)
surface-mounted
speakers are distributed
on a NetMax-controlled
70-volt system throughout the choir room, hallways, offices and nursery areas, powered by
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the new PA2250T amplifiers. Microphone
duties are handled by EV PolarChoice podium mics and RE-2 wireless systems with
N/D767a handhelds.
“Grace Lutheran has been one of our
happiest customers this year,” says Jason
Kartak of ALS, “It’s easy for the volunteers
to operate, and it performs superbly for all
their different applications.
Stanford brought a pair of Danley Sound
Labs SH-50s full-range speakers and a single
Danley TH-115 subwoofer for a demo. “We
flew the three SH-50 speakers above the pulpit
with an additional SH-115 as downfill. Now the
church heard the sound they wanted to hear
with the Danley speakers. The nice, high ceilings
eliminated the need for other downfills.”
With the help of their dB Audio and
Video engineer Ivan Beaver, Stanford tackled
the wings with a pair of Atlas SM82 full-range
wall-mount speakers. “We placed the Atlases
at the crown of the wall and ran them on delays,” he explained. “We had to be careful not
to create problems in the main seating area.
By making sure they were properly timed
The Danley loudspeaker center cluster in the 700-seat
Northbrook United Methodist Church
and then we kept the volume low.”
Stanford rounded out Northbrook’s
audio makeover with acoustic treatment
against the long, flat back wall. Outside of
the back wall, however, no other acoustical
treatments were necessary, owing to the
tight pattern control of the Danley speakers.
Klark Teknik Outfits Kentucky Arts Center
LOUISVILLE, KY
Doukas
and
— The Kentucky
Subotky
assemCenter for the Perbled four DN1248
forming Arts, in
Plus splitters in a
Louisville, features
custom rack with
five Midas mixing
high-end
multiconsoles
(Venice
connectors.
The
Subotky, head audio engineer at the Kentucky Center for
320, XL200, Heritage Ted
rack
is
wired
with
the Performing Arts, with Midas & KT equipment
1000, Heritage 2000,
all four sets of 48
Heritage 3000), and
outputs interconrecently added a rack of four Klark Teknik nected, ready for splitting into any number
DN1248 Plus active analog microphone of FOH, monitor, recording and multi-pursplitters to its equipment list. An additional pose mic configurations. Also included is
rack with a single DN1248 Plus is also on a rack-mounted powered monitor, confighand. Head audio engineer at the center is ured to PFL any of the 48 splitter channels
Ted Subotky; David Doukas is audio depart- utilizing the Solo Link feature of the DN1248
ment manager.
Plus splitter.
“We handle everything from presidential
“I’m definitely an analog person,” Doukas
conventions to rock concerts to lectures,” adds, “and it makes sense to have the same
says Doukas, “along with a handful of annual level of ‘rider-friendly’ sound quality we have
television broadcasts, so we need a mic split- in our consoles in our splitter rack. Analog is
ter to deliver reliability, high sound quality ideal for this application — warm sound and
and flexibility.”
plenty of headroom.”
Chilhowee Hills Congregation Applauds Audio
The Apple Valley sanctuary
KNOXVILLE, TN — Chilhowee Hills Baptist Church’s main sanctuary has just been
tripled in size and volume, as designed by
architect Bill Denton, and worship pastor David Stewart selected Audio Ethics to perform
the install.
Stewart is focused on applying good
technologies to enhance a refreshed and appropriate modern style of service. Worship
leaders are not expected to rap to thunderous bass, but electric bass may used to provide emphasis, as well as a rhythm section.
“We opened the new sanctuary at Easter; the building project has taken us a year,”
Stewart stated. “During the time of rebuilding, parishioners have been obliged to worship in temporary accommodations.”
“Through my research I found Audio
Ethics in Charlotte,” Stewart discloses. Audio
Ethics is a sound, light and video installation
company with an additional expertise in
acoustic treatment; they specialize in houses
of worship.
“We went to meet with president Donnie
Haulk, who took us to look at different rooms
they had done. Of one thing I was certain, I
wanted a specific decay time in our room,
1.7 seconds; not too long. So I provided them
with a quite specific brief. It is the length of
decay considered ideal for piano: 1.6 to 1.7
seconds.”
Stewart has a Bachelor of Arts degree in
Music.“That said, I’m ignorant of some things,
which is why we went to Audio Ethics.”
Stewart’s AV Director, Richard Bonds, a
retired music minister who runs the sound
board for Chilhowee, added, “We did a Red
David Stewart, pastor
Cross benefit recently with 12 separate acts,
and the features of the Yamaha DM2000
made that a simple process to manage.”
He stated, “The spoken word was most
important; we wanted that clean high end.
I also like a distributed system; one that is
even, and that is what Donnie Haulk has designed.”
Stewart continued,“Audio Ethics did a lot
of acoustic treatment for us. The back of the
sanctuary behind the congregation is concave and posed a particular problem, the flat
front to the balcony likewise and the back
wall above it.”
The sanctuary is fan shaped, facing onto
a shallow rectangular stage with a curved
front edge that matches the arc of the room.
Audio Ethic’s installed system has followed
this curved line, placing pairs of d&b Audiotechnik C7 loudspeakers at four points
around the arc as a main delivery system;
then 10 individual C7s are positioned farther
out. Ci80s provide a further delay for the balcony above, while E0s, d&b’s smallest loudspeaker, fill in underneath.
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NEWS
V
NSCA Gains Wider Accreditation in Florida
Brooklyn Public Library
Turns to Scharff for Gala
ORLANDO, FL — NSCA executive director
Chuck Wilson announced on December 28,
2006, that the Florida Electrical Contractor’s
Licensing Board and the Florida Board of Professional Engineers have both approved the
NSCA (National Systems Contractors Association) as a continuing education provider. The
NSCA now offers 12 classes accredited as continuing education courses for those seeking
to renew their electrical contractor’s license
in the state of Florida. A slate of 33 courses
scheduled for the NSCA’s upcoming Expo
2007 in Orlando will additionally offer CEU
credit to help Florida’s engineers fulfill their
state license renewal requirements.
Wilson said. “Virtually everyone that does
Guests mingle at the Brooklyn Public Library
NEW YORK — Scharff Weisberg supported the 10th annual fundraising gala,
on December 28, 2006, for Brooklyn Public
Library with audio, video and lighting inside the library’s building on Grand Army
Plaza. Some 400 guests attended the event,
which featured cocktails, an auction, dinner
and authors’ speeches.
“We fundraise for Brooklyn Public
Library’s 60 neighborhood libraries at the
Central branch every year,” notes Susan
Strebel, manager of special events and donor relations.“We did a lot of research on AV
vendors, and Scharff Weisberg was highly
recommended by a number of people.”
Scharff Weisberg provided lighting inside the entry tent and lighting and audio
as guests moved into the children’s wing,
where a three-piece band performed. The
main lobby was the primary venue for
the evening, a space where Scharff Weisberg furnished conventional lights and
ColorBlasts, video projection with doubleconverged Barco r6+ projectors over the
check-in and checkout desks, and 42-inch
plasma screens on stands. PowerPoint images of the library were displayed on the
screens during speeches, which were also
supported with audio.
“By using M2D line arrays, David Lynd,
our audio A1, designed a system to keep
sound from bouncing around the cavernous space,” points out Walter Elzey, senior
account executive at Scharff Weisberg.
“With the high ceilings we always have
an issue with sound,” Strebel acknowledges.“But everything sounded great this year
— and looked great, too. Scharff Weisberg
did an excellent job.”
Tony Rosello was project manager
for the library gala with Dennis Menard
serving as lighting project manager, Michael Cruz as engineer and Carlo Saravia
as projectionist.
low voltage work in Florida must be licensed.
Over the years, many in the state have asked
the NSCA to serve as a source of the continuing education required of the licensing renewal process. It’s been our goal to continue
providing the most advanced course of study
in our field, and to that end, now we’re offering fully accredited training classes.”
The 12 classes designed to meet the
needs of Florida’s electronic systems contractors will cover topics ranging from audio system tips, techniques and troubleshooting to
other courses focusing on management skills
and video signal processing.
A sampling of the 33 classes accredited
by the Florida Board of Professional Engi-
neers includes Access Control Systems Design,
Loudspeaker Layout Design, Computer-based
System Design Using EASE 4.1, Broadband Basic and Design Considerations for the Corporate
Market.
NSCA Expo 2007 will be held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando
on March 15-17. Featuring a number of other
educational opportunities and business seminars, plus manufacturer’s exhibits showcasing the latest technologies, the annual event
is free for members.
To obtain a complete listing of all courses
offered as well as registration information,
class agendas and times, dates and locations
of the classes, visit www.nscaexpo.org.
Digidesign Appoints Kyle Ritland as
Worldwide Public Relations Manager
DALY CITY, CA — Digidesign has announced the appointment of Kyle Ritland to
the position of worldwide public relations
manager. In this role, Kyle will be responsible
for leading artist relations and public relations efforts across all Digidesign product
lines and market segments, including home
and project studio, professional recording
and mixing for post and music, and live
sound products.
“As we continue to expand our product
lines and introduce the Digidesign brand
into new markets, strong media and artist relationships are critical to our ongoing
success,” asserts Digidesign’s vice president
of sales and marketing, Paul Foeckler. “Kyle
brings tremendous passion and strong re-
lationships with both professional audio
and music industry press, as well as a solid
track record for successfully planning AR/
PR programs and managing worldwide
AR/PR teams. His experience and strategic
approach are a great addition to our program.”
Ritland’s appointment completes an AR/
PR team that consists of press relations specialist Reinel Adajar, artist relations specialist
Anthony Gordon, and several market-specific
public relations contractors.
Prior to joining Digidesign, Ritland was
the director of public relations at LOUD
Technologies, where he assembled and led
a worldwide team representing the complete LOUD portfolio of brands, including
Alvarez guitars, Ampeg, Crate, EAW, Mackie
and TAPCO. Ritland has also held strategic
marketing positions at Carver, Digital Harmony and MCA.
Ritland will be based at Digidesign’s
worldwide headquarters in Daly City, Calif.
CIA Seizes First U.S. Soundcraft Vi6
COTO DE CAZA, CA — Corporate Image Audio (CIA), Inc of Coto de Caza, Calif, has taken delivery of the first Soundcraft Vi6 digital live sound
console available for sale in the United States.
The Vi6 includes default preset programs,
which allow for a variety of front-of-house and
monitor board applications, as well as color-coded bus groupings, which are “perfect for grouping assignments,” says CIA president Scott Mintz.
Mintz also cited the console’s portability, flexibility, processing, and roadworthy build as other key
reasons for the purchase.
Since acquiring the desk, the company has
kept its Vi6 busy on a steady stream of events,
ranging from big band performances by Les
Brown and his Band of Renown to a television
production for CBS 2 (KCBS-TV) in Palm Desert.
In terms of future use, Mintz is looking forward to using the digital Soundcraft desk for the
upcoming Rotary International 2007 Assembly
in San Diego, which is expecting delegates from
over 160 countries and will require 30 different
scenes to be programmed into the console to
accommodate the event.
CIA additionally plans to use the desk on the
2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mi-
Kyle Ritland
Inspecting C.I.A.’s new console
rage, Calif., in March.“This event is the first major
LPGA Tournament of the season, and the week’s
festivities get kicked off at The Kraft Gala, where
we’ll be using the desk on a live concert by Earth,
Wind & Fire,” adds Mintz.
CORRECTION
[In the Jan 2007 FOH Product Gallery on digital consoles, a multi-source brain fart resulted in a number of the fields in the Yamaha PM1D entry being left blank. (Trust us, you don’t want to
know...) So get out your scissors and glue stick and cut and paste the info below into last month’s issue. –ed.]
Company
Name
Yamaha
Commercial Audio Systemsp
www.yamahaca.com.
Model/Frame
Sizes
Outputs
48 Mix, 24 Matrix,
Stereo A, Stereo B
Outputs
Onboard FX
PM1D:48
or 96
8 SPX Effect Processors + 24 31-band
Graphic EQs + Input/
Output Channel Delay
200.0702 5-12.indd 8
FEBRUARY 2007
Input Location
Control Surface Config
Preamp Gain range
External
Inserts
Metering
Channel EQ
Channel Dynamics
4-band fully
Paramentric
EQ plus
dedicated
HPF
Two Dynamics processors: Compressor, Gate,
Expander, Ducking and
Compander
640 remote
or local
48 mono + 4 stereo
+ 12 DCA + 2 master
faders
+10 to -70dB
Yes
Meter on
every fader,
output meterbridge
plus onscreen
Plug-ins
Digital Interface
Oh, Crap!
Internal
PSU
Dimensions
Weight
Price
Yes
6 AES-3 In, 2 AES-3
Out
Optional MY-Card
Interfaces:
AES-3, Ethersound,
ADAT, TDIF, A-Net 16,
Optocore
Audio continues
to pass if Control
Surface fails. External PC Control
available. DSP Redundancy option
also available
Up to 2
External
supplies
75” x 38.3” x
13.9”
(W x D x H)
265 lbs
from $110,000
www.fohonline.com
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2/2/07 12:15:01 AM
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Adlib Steps
Out of Line
LONDON — ADLIB Audio is supplying
a NEXO Alpha sound system and crew to
Paolo Nutini and his first UK production
tour. The system was specified by FOH
engineer Graham “Hutch” Hutchison. He
started with the artist in the summer and
has worked with ADLIB on numerous previous occasions, as has monitor engineer
Rob Coles.
Hutch opted for the NEXO Alpha, as
opposed to a line array system, because
of the nature of the venues on the itinerary. They wanted a selection of boxes that
they could put all over the rooms — from
Paolo Nutini onstage
Rock City to The London Forum. The full
configuration is eight M3 tops, six B1 bass
and four S2 subs per side. “The policy is to
put them in, turn it up, and when it’s in our
face, we’re happy,” says Hutch.
System processing is via NEXO’s proprietary NX242s, and amplification is a combination of Camco 28.4s, 32.4s and V6 Vortexes. Compression is a mix of dbx 160s, 1066s
and 160As, and the gates are Drawmer.
ADLIB’s crew of Hassane Essiahi and
Richie Nicholson are ensuring that everything runs smoothly day-to-day in audio
world. “It’s a great band and crew to be
working with,” says Essiahi. “Paolo’s career is on a real roll; the sound is superb,
and the shows are all sold out. There are
also some excellent people on the tour.”
He adds that it’s great to be working with
engineers as experienced and prolific as
Hutch and Coles.
Hutch is mixing using a Midas H3000
console at FOH, which has enough channels to accommodate the opening act.
He uses an SPL Channel 1 valve preamp on Paolo’s vocal in conjunction with
the new Shure KSH 9 mic, which he thinks
is a great combination to emphasize the
richness and deep texture of Nutini’s voice.
The mic was originally suggested by Coles
as a solution to the artist’s tendency to cup
the mic close to his hand and sing either
very close to it — or hold it right away from
him. The rest of the band use Sennheiser
wired mics.
In creative terms, Hutch produces a loud
and assertive, but not overpowering mix, all
the time emphasizing its vintage tone.
A standard ADLIB FOH effects racks sits
alongside the H3000, containing two SPX
990s, a Lexicon PCM 70, a TC D2 delay and
a TC M3000 reverb.
Onstage, Rob Coles mixes monitors
from stage right, utilizing one of ADLIB’s
Yamaha PM5D consoles and maximizing
all its onboard processing.
There are three pairs of ADLIB’s MP3
wedges for Paulo and the two guitarists,
and the drummer has a pair of wired PMs
and a thumper seat. “They play well, and he
has a great voice,” says Coles, adding that
this makes his job very straightforward.
Monitor amps are Crown Pulse and there’s
a dbx Drive Rack for processing
10
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FEBRUARY 2007
V
Kingston Sound, JBL VerTec Serve Women’s Day
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA — Kingston
Sound, a South African provider of live event
production, recently supplied stage production, lighting and sound for the Women’s Day
Event held at Kingsmead Cricket Stadium
in Durban, located on the eastern coast of
South Africa. The company used JBL VerTec
VT4888 line arrays to provide the audio.
Kingston Sound has recently undergone
a transformation. After a decade servicing
live bands and cultural music festivals in
KwaZulu Natal (KZN), Brett Kingsland, owner/manager of Kingston Sound, decided to
invest in new sound reinforcement gear.
The company’s latest additions have
included Crown I-Tech power amplifiers, as
well as new AKG performance microphones,
all sourced from South African professional
audio equipment distributor Wild and Marr.
The system at the Women’s Day Event
was composed of 16 VerTec VT4888 line
array elements and eight VT4880 line array subwoofers (eight VT4888s and four
VT4880s per side). Additionally, 12 VRX932
portable line array elements were used as
side fills. Crown I-Tech amplifiers powered
the system.
Crawford and Sample Choose Ribbon
ZWAAG, THE NETHERLANDS — For
the promotion of their latest album Feelin’
Good, jazz artists Joe Sample (piano) and
Randy Crawford (vocals) have been touring
through Europe, accompanied by Joe’s son
Nick on (contra-) bass and Johnny Vidacovich on drums, reinforced by Alcons pro-ribbon line-arrays.
For this tour, Paul Mitchell was both
sound supervisor and tour manager. Mitchell has worked with David Sanborn and
Marcus Miller and The Rembrandt’s.
Mitchell states, “I always loved the
smooth top-end of a specific brand that I’ve
been working with for many years and never
thought of the possibility that it could be
beaten. I started my career in pro-audio in
studio recording, with high-quality near-field
monitoring. Being so close to the monitors,
all details in the music are audible. Hearing
the LR14s reminded me immediately of this
near-field monitoring sound quality.”
The system chosen was an LR14 pro-ribbon line-array, with nine LR14 + 3 units per
side, driven by two ALC4 controller-amps
on SDP processing modules. For larger halls,
six LR16 units per side were used with two
LR16B units, along with four LR14s as un-
der-hang. The
SR9s were used
as front-fill.
Mitchell
continues,
“I
do prefer an
uncompressed
sound; all audio today is so
manipulated
to sound big
on your cell
phone; in live
music, especially Joe & Randy,
the dynamics
are incredible,
and the ‘space’
in the arrangement is a very
big part of the
sound.”
T h o u g h Tom Back (Alcons Audio MD), Paul Mitchell, Philip “Dr.Phil” de Haan (Alcons Audio R&D), Carsten
Albrecht (Alcons Audio Germany) under an LR14 pro-ribbon line-array
Lünenburger
the complete tour as a result of the sound
company Profimusik (Germany) was called in for the quality and support, which was taken care
sound reinforcement for the German leg of of by Toby Lange monitors and by his
the European tour, they were asked to do brother Florian Lange at FOH.
Somewhere Over the Atlantic
LONDON — One of the latest shows to
transfer successfully from Broadway to the West
End is the musical Wicked, which opened at The
Apollo Victoria in September 2006. In December 2006, the show simultaneously broke the
all-time records for a single week’s gross box
office, both in London and on Broadway, taking £873,020 and $1.8 million respectively for
the last week of the year, plus reporting 95%
capacity audiences in London since opening.
Detailing the untold story of the witches of Oz,
Wicked is directed by Joe Mantello, with music
and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Sound design
is by Tony Meola, with equipment supplied by
London’s Autograph Sound Recording and
including an 84-slot Cadac J-Type Live Sound
Production Console.
Head operator Richard George has been
working on the show since the opening, joining
the team after working with Tony Meola and associate sound designer Kai Harada on Kiss Me
Kate in 2001. He gave an insight into the London
production:
“There are three of us on the team — myself
at our great FOH position, which is somewhat
larger than the norm, together with Suzie Hills
and Gemma Smith backstage. Wicked is a top
quality production in the true Broadway style,
and it is also a fun show to operate, as I am constantly on the move. The sound system comprises the Cadac J-Type at the core, running the
SAM automation system, and a full Meyer rig.
The J-Type is a nice-sounding desk, always
producing a good clear sound — I have
mostly worked on Cadacs during my career,
and once you get to know your way around
Wicked Head Op Richard George in
front of a Cadac J-Type console
one, it is perfect for the job.”
Tony Meola’s design for the West End uses
Meyer M1D and M2D line arrays as the principal systems, complemented by extensive use of
other Meyer loudspeakers located all around the
theatre. The sound system also includes 32
Sennheiser SK-5212 radio microphones.
Sugababes Sounds Sweet
LONDON — The Sugababes recently
played at the 100 Club in London’s Oxford
Street, and Concert Sound (Luton), the show’s
equipment organizer, chose HK Audio’s ConTour Array, brought in from London-based
ConTour users, Euroscope TV and Picture It
Facilities Ltd. FOH engineer was Chris Madden.
The ConTour set-up used for The Sugababes consisted of eight CTA 118 active
powered subs plus eight CTA 208 mid/high
speakers, also powered from the subs. An active, direct-loaded sub, the 18-inch-equipped
CTA 118 sub served as the system’s “engine
room,” with all required circuitry on board,
including a 56-bit DDO-Pro digital controller
with two 1,000-watt RMS power amps, one
to drive the sub’s 18-inch speaker, the other
a CTA 208 mid/high unit or alternatively a
ConTour Series CT 108, CT 112 or CT 115 enclosure.
Onboard filter presets fine-tune the
component integration of each configuration with the onboard display indicating information relevant to the given setting.
The 100 Club consists of a wide — but
not deep — room, so Concert Sound’s Sugababes rig utilized four by four ConTour Array box stacks in two-sub and two-mid/high
format with one stack on either side of the
stage, a further stack being placed three meters from each corner of the room stage side
and all stacks in a line along the back of the
room to project across the space.
The Sugababes performing live at the 100 Club
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 1:46:33 AM
200.0702.Ads.indd 11
2/2/07 12:16:01 AM
ON THE MOVE
Harman
Pro
North
A m e r i c a
(HPNA) has appointed Nick
Owen to the
new position of
vice president
of sales, assuming responsibility of sales for
NickOwen
AKG Acoustics,
Soundcraft and Studer in the United States.
Innovason has established Innovason UK.
Innovason UK will be organizing a number of
demos and training sessions throughout the
UK in the coming months.
V
S e e
F a c t o r
I n d u s t r y ’s
Harry Martinez died
at the age
of 49 on
January 4,
2007 after
a struggle
Harry Martinez, middle
with lung
cancer. Harry ran audio projects and
the rental shop of the Sound Division
of See Factor for 25 years, touring with
many pioneering acts of the 70’s and
80’s such as Deep Purple, Blue Oyster
Cult and Rush.
Symetrix,
Inc. has promoted Michael
Worona to the
newly-created
position of director of business development. As the
new business
Michael Worona
leader, Worona
will oversee efforts to establish new markets and develop new products.
TOA Electronics, Inc. has appointed
Daniel Shore as western regional sales
manager for the company’s Audio Prod-
ucts Division.
They have also
appointed Fox
Associates to
represent secuSome
rity products
in
ers at
southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona and New
Mexico.
of the new speakTexas A&M
Daniel Shore
If you’d like to see yourself
featured in “On the Move” visit
www.fohonline.com
to submit your information,
or e-mail [email protected]
Harman Appoints
Michael Macdonald
E xe c u t i ve V P,
M a r ke t i n g
continued from front cover
last four of which he served as marketing
manager. MacDonald moved on to work in
the post-production audio industry, joining
TimeLine as vice president of sales and marketing, focusing on digital audio workstations
and synchronizers. In 1996, Michael joined
JBL Professional and spent six years there developing products and strategies to improve
equipment that serves both the production
and fixed installation sectors. He served the
last four years as president of JBL Professional. MacDonald then spent four years with
Pilot Business Strategies, Inc., a consulting
firm founded four years ago to serve a number of professional audio, video and security
companies. Most recently, MacDonald served
as interim senior vice president of domestic
sales at LOUD.
For his part, MacDonald is excited to rejoin Harman. “I really enjoyed working with
the JBL Professional team, and I now look forward to working closely with the marketing
teams at each of the nine great companies
that comprise the Harman Pro Group. “
Future Sonics, Hear
Technologies Hook
Up With Les Paul
of this type, and in addressing the specific
needs for each show, Future Sonics’ president,
Marty Garcia, was on-site to create a production package that includes: Future Sonics Ear
Monitors brand PMs, Hear Technologies MixBackTM and HearBack systems, Sennheiser
Evolution Wireless Personal Monitor system,
Sennheiser MKH microphones and Neumann
KMS105 Microphones.
“We got deep into the technology during
many phone conversations, meetings at his
home and at his performances,” reports Garcia. “We began to evaluate many of the current earphone products and introduced Les
to the Future Sonics custom miniature single
dynamic transducer.”
In addition, Future Sonics and Hear Technologies have announced their new distribution agreement for the Atrio Series professional universal-fit earphones for the U.S.
market in musical instrument retail, sound
reinforcement retailers and sound contractors. This agreement brings together two
companies that each focus specifically on the
concepts of professional personal monitors
and systems.
12
200.0702 5-12.indd 12
FEBRUARY 2007
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 1:49:40 AM
NEWS
V
Changes and F e e d b a c k
Deals at QSC
continued from page 2
training. The company, however, is at a size
now where professionally trained leadership can add significantly to our overall effectiveness.”
Within the new order, QSC founder and
chief designer Pat Quilter will continue to
steer research and development on QSC’s
next generation of amplifiers.
Joe Pham was recruited by QSC and
groomed for the COO post based upon his
ability to fulfill and implement the company’s
core vision and strategies while promoting
its values and ethics. Pham, a UCLA graduate with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, will
report directly to Barry and John Andrews
within the new corporate hierarchy. His duties
will include day-to-day management of sales,
marketing, R&D, operations, human resources,
finance, and strategy.
QSC also recently extended a licensing
agreement with Cirrus Logic that will allow
QSC to begin producing products employing Cirrus Logic’s gigabit Ethernet-based CobraNet technology. CobraNet technology is
designed for delivering uncompressed digital
audio via Ethernet networks.
“CobraNet technology has long been
our protocol of choice for the transmission of digital audio,” said John Andrews.
“CobraNet serves a vital role within our
QSControl.net platform to help fulfill
digital audio transport needs in applications ranging from arenas and theatres to
broadcast facilities.”
The new products will be designed to
provide high-bandwidth, low latency and secure audio and video transport.
Anyway, I just thought I’d offer those
thoughts. It took me a while to buy
into the PM concept. Now that I’ve
done so, I wish every venue I played
had them. BT W — you mentioned
that your church uses Avioms. We
chose to use the more traditional
monitor console (unmanned, since
we don’t usually need on-the-fly
changes once our mixes are set up).
On occasion, I play at a large church
(3500 seats) that uses an Aviom
setup with wedges. I always hate
their monitoring because the drums
are all summed to a single Aviom
channel and poorly mixed and their
wedges are set up with bad gain
structure (and perhaps some system
noise) resulting in a constant hiss
in the monitors that sounds like a
waterfall onstage. Plus, their stage
is littered with Aviom mixers/stands.
My church’s system is so dead quiet
that you don’t know whether it’s on
or not until you play something (we
have three wedges for the singers
and/or guest players, PMs for myself/
drums/keys/bass/guitars).
Shure Talks with
FCC, Congress
The group, which collectively has
decades of experience and a wealth
of practical, real-world knowledge in the
professional design and application of wireless
microphone systems, highlighted the integral
role of wireless microphone systems in today’s
entertainment, sports and news productions.
They emphasized that professional audio
productions face significant interference risk
from the introduction of unlicensed devices
in television broadcast bands unless FCC
rules are developed that fully protect wireless
microphone systems. Concerns about
proposed legislation from Senators John
Kerry (D., Mass.) and John Sununu (R., N.H.)
were specifically expressed.
“The group we assembled for these
presentations included individuals who are
responsible for some of the country’s biggest
and most significant events in news, politics,
sports, music and theatre on a regular basis,”
said Jeff Krull, vice president for product
development at Shure. “We facilitated these
meetings to explain to these policymakers
that our industry is very important to many
sectors of American life and that we’re very
concerned about this proposed legislation
and resulting rules.”
The group consisted of professionals
involved with live music, entertainment and
sports production, wireless microphone
manufacturing and several of the nation’s
most well-respected experts in audio
production and engineering.
Thanks for your time,
Kevin Barham
Dallas, Texas
Custer
Road
Church
Finds Space for Wireless
CUSTER ROAD, TX — Custer Road
United Methodist Church (CRUMC) has
overhauled their sanctuary, including an
installation of a Venue wireless systems
from Lectrosonics.
Under the guidance of Dr. Ronald D.
Henderson, Custer Road United Methodist Church offers three Sunday morning
services, which are video recorded and
distributed to those who are unable to attend. “Aside from providing proper sound
reinforcement for those in attendance,”
said Bob Carter, CRUMC’s Director of Audio/Visual Services, “it is absolutely essential to capture clean audio signals for
the videotapes we distribute.”
The ambitious $3.1M facility was
blueprinted by Dallas-based Acoustic Dimensions while SPL Integrated Solutions
handled the installation.
Twin BSS Soundweb 9088ii DSP processors, used in conjunction with EAW
KF730 compact line array elements and
SB730 sub bass enclosures make up the
main house sound system. An Allen &
Heath 40-channel GL3300 console resides at FOH.
While wired microphones are used,
Custer Road United Methodist Church
has always had a preference for wireless
technology. “We’ve been increasing our
wireless capability in recent years,” states
Carter, “yet we had no place to go with
the equipment. We previously had three
receivers and a powered antenna distribution module occupying two rack spaces, with the rest of the wireless systems
LOVE LETTER TO A ROAD DOG
It’s another Thursday night, and I’m
watching Grey’s Anatomy with my cat. My
husband is a road dog and could be in Vegas, Atlantic City, L.A., or is it England? Hardly
ever home, barely have a life, missed birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations,
etc. At least once a month, someone (mostly
females) will ask me, “How can you stand it?”
Well, you have to really care about the person,
learn to adapt to the long absences and most
of all, have a life of your own. I have always
been independent and worked, so for me it
took less getting used to.
Road dog membership does have its
privileges. They get to eat out or order room
service, hang with the boys and girls on the
crew, travel to a lot of different places, and
meet a lot of people. But that gets old. And
they get older. They have responsibilities at
home, either for themselves or a family. And
most say the pay is pretty good, but more
importantly, they love what they do. They
do really love it.
Really, would anyone really enjoy traveling from place to place, city to city, forgetting
where you are going or where you’ve been,
while at the same time losing a lot of sleep?
You know how a road dog will say they can’t
remember what town they are in? It’s true…
when you’re on the road 225 days per year.
Wait! What if you are the partner of a
road dog? They are gone 225 days per year,
which means you don’t see them for a good
part of the 225 days. You are the bill payer,
maybe a caregiver, speaker of the house
and decision maker for unending problems
and crises that occur. When you answer your
home telephone number, and it is a frantic
sound company or venue staff person trying to advance a date, you are presumed to
be a production coordinator. You look at a
tour schedule that is never right, and you
try to remember if load is at 9:00 or 10:00
tomorrow. But you forget, so you just have
them call his cell.
And then they finally come home, and
there’s that laundry! Oh yes, and suitcases
that are never totally unpacked, the homecooked meals you feel compelled to serve,
trying to squeeze in a movie, going over a
few bills, spending quality time with the
kids (we have three), and yes, more laundry.
But hey, they love what they do. They really
do. You are on two different schedules; they
are night owls, and you are up at 6:00 am to
work out. Yes, there is the honey-do list; however, if you haven’t, you will learn to do many
things for yourself. (I refuse to cut the grass
and unfortunately have to shovel the driveway). But there are chores that you refuse to
do, and leave for him or her so that they feel
they “contribute.” When they are home you
get to give up dragging the garbage down
the hill occasionally — ooh, what a treat!
What about your privileges as a road
dog partner, you ask? You get a lot of “space”
(so do they), less laundry when they are on
the road, no need to make a home-cooked
meal, less laundry — and the opportunity to
be proud when someone says to you. “What
a great show. It sounded terrific.” What a moment, what a feeling; that’s my road dog!
www.fohonline.com
200.0702 5-12.indd 13
sitting on a ledge the console. We had no
more available rack space, and were actively looking for a solution. We found it
with the Venue wireless system from Lectrosonics.”
Carter reports having spotted the
Lectrosonics Venue system at an NAB
(National Association of Broadcasters)
show and being very impressed with
their space efficient design. “When I realized we could fit 12 channels into two
rack spaces, our lack of space issue was
suddenly resolved. Since we typically
use anywhere from three to ninechannels during a service, I found myself with
some extra ‘headroom’ for those special
events,” Carter says.
Presently, Custer Road United Methodist Church has eight belt pack transmitters (used in conjunction with assorted lavalier and headworn mics) and
four handheld wireless microphones. The
clergy are the most regular users of the
wireless equipment, with guest speakers and the occasional vocalist getting
in on the action as well. Additionally, the
LecNet2 software’s VRpanel interface
enables Carter and his associates to easily monitor the equipment. “Lectrosonics’
VRpanel software (part of LecNet2) is the
icing on the cake,” notes Carter. “With the
computer interface, we can check for battery level, signal strength, and a host of
other parameters at any time, and know
exactly where we stand.”
It helps if you understand the live sound
market. I am fortunate; I work within the
sound reinforcement industry, so he can talk
my ear off and I get what he’s saying. Sometimes, if I’ve had a long day, I don’t really
want to hear it, but hey, it’s okay….he loves
what he does. Oh, and the glamour! Yes, he
really works for Tony Bennett, and yes, he really did work for Ol’ Blue Eyes. Of course he
meets a lot of people, and I can travel to
some great places when I can take the time
to do so. And forget buying tickets through
Ticketmaster….you are Ticketmaster….you
are connected, aren’t you? And so are your
kids, your family, friends and co-workers.
But it’s worth it because sometimes he can
get the kids backstage and he becomes ‘the
greatest dad on the planet’ for getting them
hooked up.
It didn’t take much time for me to realize
he really does love what he does. The hours
are long; planes get delayed; graduations
and confirmations are missed. Does anyone
really think a road dog would voluntarily
give up practically their entire personal life
if they didn’t love what they do? So partner,
family member or friend, keep yourself busy;
adapt to the long absences; get a cat…but
be proud of your road dog. Eventually, they
will get off the road.
Happy Valentine’s Day — I’ll leave the
light on.
The writer is a publicist that services the
needs of a very large commercial audio
manufacturer.
2007 FEBRUARY
13
2/2/07 1:50:24 AM
WINTER NAMM
BY BILL
EVANS & MARK AMUNDSON
VVVV
IF IT’S JANUARY, THIS MUST BE ANAHEIM
Winter NAMM 2007 is as big and loud as ever, but a little lite on the pro audio side
W
hile the giant noisefest that is Winter NAMM was not totally devoid of any worthy-ofmention pro-grade live audio products, you did have to hunt a bit to find them. No big
surprise. NAMM is, after all, a show aimed at music store buyers and not soundcos. But we
went along for the ride regardless and came up with a few potential gems.
and hooked up with our boys at Hear Technologies who will distribute them with their line
of personal mixing products. Their first customer is some dude named Les Paul. [For a fuller
rundown on this, see the article on the cover –ed.]
Stick It In Your Ear
There was a lot happening in the personal monitor with three of the big five earpiece
suppliers showing new product.
Westone’s tryst with Gennum has finally borne fruit. The SD1 system includes a couple of
tiny mics attached to the cables that attach to the earpiece. Coupled with a DSP system that
is basically a speaker processor for the little speakers in your head, you get tons of control
and the ability to allow blends of monitor mix and ambient stage sounds. On the downside,
it ain’t cheap; it means something else to program, and you have to wear another beltpack.
(If there is a wireless guitar involved, then it means three beltpacks. Better have a big belt.)
On the upside, the ability to add real ambience may get more performers on PMs, which will
mean less monitor wash in the house, which is a good thing. Watch this space for a review.
Sensaphonics was showing a “3D” earpiece that sounds intriguing but, as they only make
custom products, we could not actually try one. If you have, let us know what we missed.
Finally, Future Sonics double-dipped on the news side with the release of a new prograde universal fit product called Atrio. These we did hear, and they rock. We were all blown
away by the consumer version of these called the FS1, but the Atrio is so much better that it
is really a different product. Definitely one to check out. Next, they took this cool new piece
In the Mix
Outside of some entry-level analog stuff, this show was light on mixers. We did hear rumblings that Digidesign is approaching 500 VENUE systems sold, which is quite an impressive
feat, and Crest Audio snuck out a new digitally controlled analog console, called the CV20,
that now includes VCAs (OK, DCAs) to spring up from the HP8 and HP-W consoles. The 40-
The Crest Audio CV20
channel version will retail at about $18,000, but the balanced inserts, 12 auxes and 4-band
fully parametric EQ section per channel make it worth the price tag.
As far as mics go, Audio-Technica showed a full line of re-engineered Artist series mics with
pro performance at an attractive price point. For a full rundown of the series, check out the
video coverage on FOH-TV on the FOH Web site (did we forget to mention that we are doing
some cool new Web stuff? Make sure to keep an eye on things over the next few months. Lots
is changing.)
Meanwhile, AKG Acoustics was making a big splash with its D5 and C5 vocal mics. The D5
features a super cardioid pattern and very novel diaphragm construction to offer performance
specifications beyond most dynamic mics. And the C5 vocal condenser mic has a next-generation capsule that eclipses the old C900 mic performance by quite a bit. The D5 retails at $119 and
the C5 at $219, and that should turn the heads of the competition.
The Other
End ofthe
Snake
Community Loudspeaker debuted their Sonus series of loudspeakers as Pro-sumer grade of
enclosures made for local/regional soundco’s and discriminating music groups. This series
replaces the XLT and XLTE cabinets and make improvements on
driver specs, cabinet quality, and
keeps the pricing very affordable. Our dream setup from the
AKG C5
Sonus series would be the 3294
top boxes (12”+6.5”+1”horn, 3way) at $699 each, plus the new
218S subwoofers (2x18” front loaded) at $1399 each. The cabinets have great sensitivity,
and smooth response where it counts
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FEBRUARY 2007
Ambling over to the QSC exhibit, Pat Quilter was in
all his glory draped in a white lab coat to help promote
the HPR122i 12”+1.4” horn powered loudspeaker that
“will knock your socks off”. Their little “knock your socks
off” commercial is quite humorous with Pat as “Dr. Q” and
his array of stick mounted HPR122i’s trying to de-sock
Elsa, an obvious member of the Swedish Bikini Team. The
HPR122i contains 400 watt and 100 watt amplifiers derived from the RMX amplifier family to drive high SPLs
and keep the weight about 60 pounds. And the $799 retail price should ensure a lot of HPR122i’s will be seen doing wedge and stick duty on various performance stages.
Stay tuned for more sock blowing news from QSC soon.
Jeff Taylor of Dynacord fame
showed off his D15-3 D-Lite
wedges with polypropylene
casing and 15”+6.5”+1” driver
configuration. I have to say, this
is among the best wedges we
have ever heard, and the clarity
plus insane SPL output is something every soundco should audition. The $1400 retail price is
plenty spendy, but this is tourgrade stuff.
And back in Harmanland, JBL
had a couple of cool offerings. Remember the old M-Pro series that first crossed a JBL
box with an internal Crown amp? The PRX500 series
builds on that idea with the addition of DSP and nice
real-world touches like a pole mount
that is actually tilted down. The series
includes five models including a 12”
two-way, two- and three-way 15s, a
three-way dual 15” and an 18”sub.
JBL also introduced a smaller
version of its VRX line array that it is
marketing to bands and DJs as well
as smaller installs. This may be the tipping point. Let’s put it this way: If the
local band with its own production
shows up at the gig with a small line
array and your soundco cannot offer one, even if the client wants it…
Hmmm. Something to think about.
Now, we don’t want to hear anything about trade shows for a couple of months, which will — ain’t
life funny? — be just in time for
NSCA in Orlando in March. Keep an
The JBL PRX500
eye out for our video crew.
The QSC HPR122i
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2/2/07 12:17:05 AM
V
SHOWTIME
TOGETHER AS ONE
Venue
Gear
Los Angeles Sports Arena
FOH
Console: Yamaha PM5D
Speakers: EAW 12 760s, 8 761s 20 750s
Amps: Crown Macrotech 2400/3600/5000
Processing: XTA Audiocore DP-226
Mics: 2 Shure U2-UA Wireless Tx
Crew
Sound Co/Provider: Pacific West Sound
FOH/Monitor Engineer: Danny Almeyda
Systems Engineer: Jared Marsau
Production Manager: Jonathan Wright
System Techs: Grant Martinelli
ST
ST
MON
Console: Yamaha PM5D
Speakers: 2 EAW LA325
Amps: Crown Macrotech 2400/3600
Processing: dbx 480 Drive Rack
Mics: Shure U2-UA Wireless Tx
North America’s L argest 20th Annual
Christmas Day Banquet
Venue
Shaw Conference Center
Crew
Sound Co/Provider: Axe Productions INC.
FOH Engineer: Chase Tower
Monitor Engineer: Mike Switzer
Systems Engineer: Chase Tower
System Techs: Jared Zook, Mike Switzer
Gear
FOH
Console: Midas Heritage 1000
Speakers: 16 EV XLC127+, 12 EAW SB850, 8 EV Xi1152
Amps: EV P3000, Yamaha H5000
Processing: EV DX38, BSS FCS960, TC D-Two,
M-One, Yamaha SPX990, Lexicon PCM80,
dbx 166A, Aphex 612, Drawmer DS404
Power Distro: Motion Labs
Rigging: CM Lodestar 1 ton
MON
Console: Soundcraft SM24
Speakers: Proprietary (15”, 2”),
Transparence Drum Sub (1x18”)
Amps: Yamaha H5000, QSC, Carver
Processing: dbx Drive Rack
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser
ONEFEST 2006: HASTE THE DAY, RED & OTHERS
Venue
University of Northern Iowa - Cedar Falls, IA
Crew
Sound Co/Provider: REACH Communications
FOH Engineer: Dan Brown/Chris Timmons
Monitor Engineer: Matt Dellwo
Systems Engineer/Production Manager: Dan Brown
System Techs: Mark Brown/Tim Brown
Gear
FOH
Console: Allen & Heath ML5000-40A
Speakers: 24 Nexo GEO S (tops), 8 AAS LW218 (subs)
& 4 EAW JF80 (front fill)
ST
Amps: Camco Vortex 6 (tops/subs) & QSC PL218 (front fill)
Processing: Nexo NX241, LA Audio EQ, Ashly Protea 4.24c, Yamaha
SPX990, Lexicon PCM81, TC D-Two, Behringer comp/gate, Crane
Song STC-8, Denon/HHB playback/record & SMAART
Mics: Shure - ULX/P Beta87A, SM58, SM57, Beta91, Beta98D/S;
Sennheiser - MD421, e609, MKE44P; Audio Technica - 4041; Beyer
- M69; Audix - D6; Countryman – Type 85 Active DI
Power Distro: Motion Labs Rac-Pac/Stringers, Custom Mains Distro
Rigging: 2 Sumner Eventer25
MON
Console: DDA cs12m 40ch. - 12mix
Speakers: EAW LA212/SM500V, Sennheiser EW300IEMG2 & Shure
PSM600
Amps: 4 QSC PLX3402 & 1 QSC PLX1602
Processing: 4 dbx 2231 & FMR Audio
Power Distro: Motion Labs Rac-Pac/Stringers
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FEBRUARY 2007
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2/2/07 1:58:53 AM
CHARLIE CHRIST INAUGURATION CELEBRATION
ST
Venue
Gear
Governor’s Mansion , Tallahassee, Flor.
FOH
Console: Soundcraft MH3-48
Speakers: JBL VerTecs 4888 (8), JBL SRX 19 subs (2)
Amps: Crowns MA5000 (4), MA3600 (2), Xti4000 (2)
Processing: dbx driveracks 4800, 480; Comps — dbx 1066,
1046; Gates — dbx 1074
Mics: Shure Beta87, SM57, SM58 & AKG D-112, C-419, C-431
Power Distro: Motion labs
Crew
Sound Co/Provider: American Audio Visual
FOH Engineer: Robert Sanchez
Monitor Engineer: Jorge Ortiz
Systems Engineer: Robert Sanchez
Production Manager: Mark Spinicelli
System Techs: John Azzarito, Allan Underwood
MON
Console: Soundcraft MH2-40
Speakers: JBL VRX915M, side fills EV Deltamax
Amps: Crown XTi4000 (8)
Processing: Ashly GQX-3102
Power Distro: Motion LabsPower Distro: Motion Labs
VAN zANT
ST
Venue
Waukesha County Expo Center Waukesha, Wi.
Crew
Sound Co/Provider: Intellasound Productions
FOH Engineer: Tim Woodworth/John Livoti
Monitor Engineer: Rufus Peterson/Chris Lance
Production Manager: John Livoti
Tour Manager: Mark Rogers
Gear
FOH
Console: Midas XL 200/Yamaha M7CL
ST
Speakers: EV XLC-DVX
Amps: EV TG-7
Processing: XTA
Mics: Shure/AKG
Rigging: Genie ST
MON
Console: Yamaha PM5D-RH
Speakers: Turbosound Floodlight/Shure PSM
Amps: QSC PL2
Processing: QSC DSP-4/XTA
Mics: Shure / AKG
AMERICAN SONGWRITERS CIRCLE
Venue
Gear
New England tour
FOH
Console: Midas Venice 320
Speakers: 4 Mackie SA1801 subs, 2 Mackie SA1232 high packs
Processing: Klark-Teknik DN300 EQ, DN500 compressors,
Eventide Eclipse, TC D-Two, M-One, M300, Yamaha SPX90,
Mics: 6 Shure Beta SM58
Crew
MON
Console: Midas Venice 320
Speakers: Sidefills – 2 Bose PS1 power stands, 2 Bose L1
Cylindrical Radiators
Processing: Klark-Teknik DN301 EQ
Mics: 2 Shure Beta SM58
Sound Co/Provider: More Sound Company
FOH Engineer: Henry Moreau, Jr.
Systems Engineer: Henry Moreau, III
Production Manager: C.J. LeBlanc
Tour Manager: Tom O’Keefe
System Techs: Kyle Moreau
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2007 FEBRUARY
17
2/2/07 1:59:36 AM
FEATURE
V
The Vineyard stage stands ready.
One Left and Two RightsCan’t Be Wrong
W
hen leaders of The
Vineyard’s congregation first sought out the
help of Jeff Sanderson, the principal consultant and founder of Olympia,
Washington-based Onpoint Designs, they
came seeking a key that would unlock the
“techno-handcuffs” they felt were inhibiting
their worship services.
“The Vineyard is a rapidly growing
church,” Sanderson says, revealing a major
factor influencing what turned into a successful collaboration between his firm and
the congregation. “Prior to moving into the
1,100-seat sanctuary they call home now,
they were in a very small space where not
much could be done. It had a low ceiling and
seated 500 or so. They wanted to change
the look and feel of their services entirely
with a theatrical stage offering rigging for
curtains and props, and most importantly, a
The Vineyard challenges the L-C-R norm
within a 1,100-seat house of worship.
By THOMAS S. FREEMAN
sound system that could manage everything from weekly services to national touring acts.”
Both tall and wide, The Vineyard’s new
Urbana, Ill. sanctuary is fan-shaped, measuring just about 150 feet across at the furthest point from the stage. After prescribing a series of acoustical treatments for the
room designed to tame its inherent reverberance, Sanderson specified three arrays
of QSC’s WideLine loudspeakers for house
sound reinforcement. The full-range WideLines were suspended from three locations
downstage of the proscenium in arrays of
six enclosures each.
Prior to its installation, one of the biggest
concerns the church expressed about the
sound system centered around maintaining unobstructed sightlines throughout the
sanctuary. Given the importance his client
placed upon this issue, Sanderson elected
not to use the sidefills that would usually
be the norm to help conquer the extremely
wide area of coverage.
Instead, drawing upon lessons learned
while facing similar challenges during the
development of an audio blueprint for a large
outdoor stadium, Sanderson broadened the
coverage of the house arrays themselves by
supplanting traditional Left-Center-Right
thinking with a Right-Left-Right design.
In order to fulfill his R-L-R vision, Sanderson effectively divided the room in half with
his design, using its center aisle as the line
of demarcation. Next he figured out a way to
bypass the filtering in each of the WideLine
enclosures within the center array, and produced a nominal LF pattern that stretched out
evenly in both directions across the width of
the entire array’s pattern. Now made capable
o f
providing left
channel imagery to both halves
of the
room from the single
center array, the rig called upon its dual right
channels on either end to complete the stereo image.
“Situationally, the overall effect of this RL-R system isn’t unlike listening to your car
stereo,” Sanderson explains. “Where you’re
seated all the way to the left within the field
of coverage, yet still can discern the stereo
imagery. Here in The Vineyard’s sanctuary, even if you’re sitting in the outer seats
on the right or left side of the room, you’ll
still hear a L-R stereo image. True, we’ve decreased our overall area of stereo coverage,
but we’ve increased the stereo saturation.
This type of design certainly isn’t right for all
situations, but in those where budget, sight
Another look at the Vineyard stage with a band setup
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FEBRUARY 2007
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2/2/07 2:01:01 AM
The Lowell rack houses CX amps and a Whirlwind E Snake system.
A band rehearses on the Vineyard stage.
line concerns, and the width of the coverage
area team up against you, it certainly is a viable option.”
A pair of QSC’s MD-S218 ModularDesign Series subwoofers are flown as part of
each outer array; additional low-end grunt
is also supplied by a trio of MD-L118 floor
subs. Compact, low-profile frontfill is provided by three QSC AcousticDesign AD-82H
loudspeakers.
Power for the main arrays and subs comes
from a dozen CX Series CX1102 amplifiers,
while the rig’s configurable DSP takes shape
with the help of a pair of QSC BASIS 922az
processors. “You cannot do something like
this without having multichannel control of
each array, and obviously each array component,” Sanderson points out. “When stereo
signals from the mixing console are routed
to loudspeaker arrays configured R-L-R, they
don’t just come out as a coherent wavefront
on their own, there is definitely a degree of
processing that must take place first.”
A Yamaha DM2000V2 40-channel console was selected to handle mixing in the
house, while patching and routing falls under the care of a Whirlwind E Snake system.
Outfitted with perforated front doors, a pair
of Lowell L278-61 racks house the main array amps.
“We wanted to keep the system package as compact as possible,” Sanderson further notes, “as in new construction like this,
every square foot costs money. The Lowell
racks and CX amps allowed us to squeeze
the available real estate for everything it was
worth and keep our footprint lightweight
and small. Using the perforated doors on the
racks let us ventilate with natural airflow as
well to maintain optimum temperatures.”
Four Lowell power strips (two each of
model U181RL and L188-IG) facilitated easy
installation via a breakout box on top of
each rack requiring only a single connection
on-site to hook up to transformer balanced
power conditioned on the front-end long
before it ever got close to the gear.
Loaded and tested in Portland, Ore. prior
to being shipped to Urbana, the racks were
built by Delta Systems Integration, the firm
that also managed the entire project build.
“In the end, what I believe makes the system stand out is its transparency,” Sanderson
adds. “Once we got our fingers into the processing and started massaging deeply, the
sound took on an extremely natural depth. It
doesn’t offend you, but it will quickly capture
your attention, and you feel you’re listening
to the music in its truest sense. While a R-L-R
system may indeed be a bit unorthodox, everything I did was done in a simple fashion
to minimize site time. Instead of spending
money on labor, I like to spend it on technology. The results are always well worth it.”
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2007 FEBRUARY
19
2/2/07 2:01:40 AM
V
VITAL STATS
By Kevin M. Mitchell
STATS
WHO:
Rane Corporation
WHAT:
Pro Audio and signal processing for the live
sound, installation and DJ markets.
WHERE:
Mukilteo, Wash. (20 miles outside of Seattle)
Rane’s packaging
department
WHEN: Founded in 1981
Fulltime employees:
About 100.
Number of products in catalog:
54
Colin Isler works
at a test bench at
Rane.
Services provided:
Technical and application support, product repair.
Products currently on tour with:
The Lost Trailers, Joe Nichols, Ricky Skaggs, Tower of Power,
Scissor Sisters, among others.
Recent product of note: The Rane Series Plug-ins by Serato (plug-ins which were based on algorithms developed for Rane’s live series hardware).
Recent company highlight:
Recently celebrated our 25th year in business this
past October.
People might be surprised to know:
Rane is privately held by two of the original founders. The company name was selected from an anagram created from the common letters of the first and last names of most of the original founders. This particular anagram was especially liked because of the double-entendre possibilities implying wet-links to the Northwest….
Degrees of Separation:
CEO George Sheppard was a Navy fighter pilot. The company founders worked together at Phase Linear.
Motto I Favorite Quote:
“If you have a situation with no solution, it’s not a problem — it’s a fact. The worst thing that you can do is treat a fact as a problem.”
Doug Bruey, a software developer at Rane
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FEBRUARY 2007
Rane owners Linda Arink and Dennis Bohn
pose in front of a rack of Rane gear.
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2/2/07 2:10:15 AM
FEATURE
V
A worship service at Harvest
GEAR
Harvesting
the Right Sound
The Harvest Implements a Solid
SR Solution for a New Sanctuary
By R. Maxwell
A
udio and video are not only gaining
acceptance among churches, they
are rapidly becoming integral components of the worship experience, as they
have proven themselves adept at making
the teachings of the church a more engaging experience — particularly among a
younger generation of worshippers. Recognizing the significance of this, the Harvest, a non-denominational, contemporary
church located in Lexington, S.C., recently
completed a new sanctuary where music
and sound are key components of the worship experience.
The church, guided by Senior Pastor Ken
Jumper and Worship Pastor / Music Director
Keith Stone, recognized early on the key to
implementing their vision was heavily dependent upon good planning. Their quest for the
right equipment, properly installed, began
with a call to Sid Gattis, President of Lexington, S.C.-based Gattis Pro Audio.
According to Gattis, “Church management wanted the sound system in their new
sanctuary to be an integral part of the facility design. On that note, we recommended
the hiring of an acoustician to oversee the
specifics of the new A/V system. The church
was extremely supportive of this recommendation and, as a result, we brought in
Michael Schwartz of Deliberative Designs
Consulting — based in Phoenix, Ariz. and
Denver, Colo. — to assist with the project.
22
200.0702.22-23.indd 22
FEBRUARY 2007
From the earliest stages, church management, Michael Schwartz and my own company made this a team effort and adopted a
‘built from the inside out’ approach to every
aspect of the project. Planning and preliminary construction for this facility exceeded
two years.”
The Harvest’s new sanctuary is designed
to accommodate over 1,200 people, with
1,000 seated on the main floor, and the balance of the seating capacity located in a balcony along the back wall. The dimensions of
the space are approximately 117 feet by 109
feet. Built much like a theatre, the sanctuary
includes a generous stage area that measures
60 feet across and 25 feet deep. Installation of
the A/V system began in June 2006 and was
completed in late October.
Determining the Type of Use
Gattis placed a high priority on a thorough
understanding of how the church envisioned
using their system. “Understanding the nature of the church’s activities is a must,” states
Gattis. “When we realized this was a space
where 30-voice choirs were supported by instrumental ensembles consisting of guitars,
bass, keyboards, drums, percussion, and the
occasional brass section is the norm, we immediately recognized the need for a system
on par with a touring concert rig, but with the
aesthetics that would enable it to blend with
the décor of a sanctuary. We also stressed the
need to equip the space with an adequate
amount of sound absorbing and diffusing
materials so as to avoid the problems caused
by hard surface reflections.”
Michael Schwartz first worked with the architect, Craig Otto, to optimize the room, and
then recommended a number of different
acoustical treatment methods. He specified
a multi-element broadband sound absorber
along the back wall of the stage, and a LowFrequency-absorbing/Mid–High-Frequency-diffusing system on the sides of the stage.
This system frames the stage and combines
with the finished hardwood stage floor to help
control low end “boominess,” allow a normal
stage volume and retain a sense of the room
and the crowd energy.
A similar LF absorber is used over the
entire sanctuary ceiling area, combined with
flown mid–high-freq. curved diffusion panels,
arranged in a fan shaped pattern overhead.
The sanctuary floor and balcony areas are
carpeted to absorb and balance the sound
of the sanctuary. The rear walls are treated
with an acoustic fabric wall absorber system
comprised of recycled cotton, with a track
system from WallMate, that attaches acoustically transparent wall fabric over the top of
the absorbent cotton core. The sanctuary side
walls are splayed to prevent flutter echo, and
the fronts of the side walls are treated with
absorption to prevent unwanted reflections
where required.
21
4
2
4
2
2
4
2
1
1
2
1
1
3
3
4
4
10
5
16
16
10
WorxAudio V10-PMD3
Powered Line Array Speakers
WorxAudio TL215S
Subwoofers
JBL AM4212/94 Side Fill
Speakers
Renkus Heinz CF121M
Powered Floor Monitors
Ashly 24.24M DSP Processors
Dolby Lake Processor Contour
Model
Yamaha PC9501 Amps
Yamaha PC3301 Amps
Yamaha M7CL-48 Digital Mixer
Production Intercom PS-2
Master Station
Behringer B-2031 Truth
Nearfield Powered
Monitors (Pair)
SMAART Live Acoustical
Measurement Software
Audix D-6 Kick Drum Mic
Sennheiser 604 Clip-On
Tom Mics
Shure KSM109
Hi-hat/Overhead Mics
Audix I-5 Snare/Horn/Guitar
Amp Mics
Marshall MXL770 Large
Diaphragm Mics for Choir/
Groups/Orchestra
Radial Pro DI R800 1100 Boxes
Aviom A-16D Unit 1
Distributor
Aviom A-16-II Personal Mixer
Aviom MT-1 Mic Stand Mount
Sennheister EIM300 PM
Systems
Loudspeaker Selection
Determining the type of loudspeaker system was somewhat simplified by the fact that
church management had shown a preference for a line array system. “We auditioned a
substantial number of line arrays,” says Gattis.
“The decision was made to go with the WorxAudio Technologies TrueLine Series line array,
as everyone involved in the selection process
felt their equipment offered the best performance with the right size form factor that
made the most sense for this space. Further,
the system price was highly competitive.”
The Harvest’s SR system consists of 21
WorxAudio TrueLine V10i-PMD3 Install line array elements. The main left and right line arrays
consist of eight V10s while the center down fill
section is comprised of five additional V10s.
These arrays are positioned approximately 24
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 1:52:21 AM
A view of the rig going in. Notice the “clouds above the sanctuary.
The Harvest Church sign welcomes worshippers.
The finished sanctuary
feet in the air at the top of the flybar. Accounting for the J-curvature of the main left and
right arrays, the lowest point of these systems
is roughly 18 feet above the stage.
When queried why these particular
loudspeakers were chosen, Gattis pointed to
several key factors. “The V10 is an extremely
articulate loudspeaker system,” says Gattis.
“It produces a very detailed sound and its
dispersion pattern is very even and wide. It
is possible to hear a clearly defined stereo
sound field throughout 80% of the audience
area, which is why we also went with the LC-R configuration to provide even coverage
everywhere as well as source localization in
the front center of the room.
“The powered version of the V10 was
selected for two reasons — we wanted the
power source to be optimized for the loudspeakers and we needed to conserve space,
as the equipment room isn’t terribly large.
When we auditioned the powered version
of the V10, we fell in love with them, and the
company’s TrueGrid rigging hardware is very
cool. The system attaches to a single point
and uses 2-inch diameter pipe with all the
cable running internally. This creates a very
clean-looking setup.”
Complementing the V10s for the sub bass
frequencies is the WorxAudio TrueLine 215S
Touring compact subwoofer. There are four
215S enclosures — two per side — placed in
specially designed acoustical isolation soffit
wall chambers at floor level and slightly off
to the side of the V10 arrays. Power for the
215S subwoofers is provided by four Yamaha
PC9501N power amplifiers — one for each
subwoofer enclosure.
Microphones, Monitor Systems, and Front
of House
Monitoring provisions for performers include both floor monitoring and wireless PMs.
“The bulk of the monitor systems are PMs,
while floor monitoring is provided for special
guest performers,” says Gattis. “We’re starting
out with 10 Sennheiser EW300IEMG2 wireless
PMs, and these are augmented by RenkusHeinz CF121M self-powered floor monitors.”
The Sennheiser wireless monitor systems are
being fed via the Aviom A-16II On Stage Monitor Mix System. There are 16 such systems
distributed throughout the stage area.
Like every aspect of the design, provisions were made for a dedicated FOH mix position. FOH is situated 55 feet from the front of
the stage area and is outfitted with a Yamaha
M7CL Digital Mixing Console with 48 mono
mic/line inputs, 4 stereo inputs, and three
Yamaha mini card slots. FOH is manned by Mr.
Seth Frizell, who acts as the Church’s tech director and multimedia minister.
To accommodate special events where a
www.fohonline.com
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2007 FEBRUARY
23
2/2/07 1:52:39 AM
V
Photo by Lisa Marie Hall
FOH INTERVIEW
Scott “Skitch” Canady works FOH for Disturbed during last summer’s Ozzfest.
Musically and technologically, monitor engineer Will
Miller’s run with Disturbed is a dramatic shift from
Miller’s previous gig with Josh Groban.
No, it’s not a line up. It’s the Disturbed crew.
BY
I
David Farinella
t’s one man versus 10,000 fists and one of
the most rambunctious rock bands that
hit stages last summer — Disturbed — yet
FOH mixer Scott Canady doesn’t look worried. It might be because he spent a number
of years with the quartet — singer David
Draiman, guitarist Dan Donegan, drummer
Mike Wengren and bassist Fuzz — working
as their monitor engineer, taking them from
wedges to personal monitors, or it might just
be that he knows what he’s doing.
In addition to this recent run of work with
Disturbed, Canady has recently spent time
on the road mixing monitors and FOH for
such bands as Nickelback and Chevelle. FOH
caught up with him while Disturbed was on
the road supporting their latest offering, Ten
Thousand Fists (Warner Bros. Records).
FOH: You’ve been with Disturbed how long?
Scott Canady: A little over three years.
I did a year and a half as their monitor engineer. I was brought in to take the singer
over to PMs. They made him so happy that I
brought in every other guy in the band. Eventually I got them all on PMs and about a year
and a half later the front of house guy went
24
200.0702.24.indd 24
FEBRUARY 2007
to do another gig, so they threw me out there
and never told me to come back.
How loud will it get tonight?
Tonight, I’d probably say, max, 118. Your
usual. We’ve been in situations where it
sounds ridiculous. I’ve run anywhere from
121 to 127. At the same time, people tap me
on the shoulder and try to communicate with
me at that level and say, “I can’t believe how
loud it is and it’s not something annoying.” It’s
loud, but at the same time, it’s comfortable.
Well, it is a metal band, and I’m sure it’s
loud coming off the stage.
When we were on Believe, [The band’s 2002
release. –ed.] our stage consisted of a drum kit
that rolled up and two microphones. Everything
else was iso-boxed and not even on the stage. It
was a progressive thing to get them to do that,
but for me it was absolutely fantastic.
So, you didn’t have to fight anything coming off the stage?
Nothing at all, and everybody was happy.
Then, while I was out with Chevelle and Nickelback, they started back up and were jamming
How big was the Groban gig?
I was running 39 mixes and had 112 inputs. There were seven musicians on PMs
and an orchestra and drum subs, sends to
the Pro Tools rig offstage, sends to the lighting guy and sends to the video guy. Then
there was the live orchestra being miked
and 16 channels of playback, plus the band
and the audience being miked. It was a lot.
How many mixes are you sending with
Disturbed?
Four stereo, three wedge mixes, two
side fill mixes and an emergency front of
house mix. That’s it. With the effects sends
and everything, I still use every send on the
board. Danny, the guitar player, only wears
one PM. He likes hearing the stack behind
him, and he works off that.
It seems as if many bands are not bringing out monitor engineers, and with the
1D or the 5D a band can plug in a card
and mix their own monitors. Does that
mean that there’s going to be less work
for monitor engineers?
Well, who wants to do it? It can be horrible, and even if it goes really well, you’re
probably not going to get people saying,
“Hey, good job.” It’s just, “Hey, I didn’t get
while nobody was in control. We were back to a
couple of stacks up onstage, but not like when
I first got with them where Danny’s [The band’s
yelled at tonight.” That’s as good as it gets
for me. As far as the whole personal mixing
thing, I don’t know. These guys could never
do that, they’re moving around too much.
Danny is very physical, jumping around
onstage, and it would look ridiculous if he
went over to adjust his mix. Also, the idea
that a musician is going to instantly know
how to give himself what he wants… That’s
why we are here. It’s like me going out there
and him saying,“Hey, play this arpeggio this
way.” I can’t do that, so there’s no reason to
expect that they naturally go, “It hurts my
ears, I should cut 3K.”
Right, it just seems with the pressure to
cut budgets that at some point people
are going to buy the gear rather than
hiring an engineer.
Well, I don’t want to compare it to lights,
because I don’t like to compare anything to
lights, but you look at an LD and say,“Where
do they go all night? They don’t make a lot
of changes. The show is set, and they can go.
Why do you have them there?” It’s because
things go wrong. It’s the same reason why
they have a monitor guy. You can put the
best sounding personal monitoring system
in the world out there, but what happens
when something goes wrong?
guitar player. –ed.] rig was anywhere from 118
to 121 within a 15-foot radius.
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V
ROAD TEST
Peavey
BY
Roddy Pahl
G
reetings! I’m Roddy Pahl, sound
engineer of 20 years — long-time
reader, first-time reviewer. I have
done everything from duos to orchestras, rock to country, punk to jazz, full-on
production shows to my daughter’s 2nd
grade school production and 10 years
of touring. I am currently the lead audio
engineer for the Fremont Street Experience 3rd Street Stage, and I am an audio
tech for the New York New-York Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas. Since this is the first
time I have written for FOH, I thought I
oughta clue you in and let you know who
I am. After working with some of the FOH
crew at a Fremont Street gig a few months
ago they asked me to review some gear,
and the first piece they gave me was the
Peavey 32FX mixer.
RT
The Gear
Peavey’s FX mixer series is available in 16-, 24- and 32-channel formats.
The 32FX features a three-band EQ section with one mid sweep on each of the
mono inputs, along with a 75Hz HPF. The
two independent DSP engines built into
the console have a lot of different effects,
along with some signal processing such
as comps, gates and limiters. There are a
ton of parameters on each effect that you
can choose for fine-tuning to your specific needs. The large LCD display also has
some parameters you can adjust for easy
viewing. There are a total of six aux sends.
Auxes one through four could be set up
for monitor mixes and are set at pre-fader
and post-EQ (an internal jumper switch allows you to change them to pre-EQ) while
32FX
five and six can be either FX sends or more
mix sends. There is a four-bus assignment
section, along with straight-to-L&R assignment, for easy grouping of inputs in the
master section. Signal can be monitored
at the input stage, the group stage or at
the main output with a bright LED in the
master section activated by the PFL/AFL
buttons along the signal path. The console
also features dual USB ports for connecting with a USB device for direct recording
or playback. In other words, you can leave
the laptop at home and record directly to
a USB memory stick. Phantom power on
all mono inputs, as well as mutes for channels, groups and returns, along with the
two BNC lamp jacks, top off this console.
The rear of the console has ¼-inch and
XLR balanced L&R outputs, of which all
four can be used at the same time for the
P.A. and a possible house mix for stage, or
an additional recording or press feed. Mic
and line mono inputs also have inserts
along with groups one through four. The
groups and aux sends all have balanced
¼-inch outputs.
RT
The Gig
Fremont Street is an outside venue
where we provide live entertainment five
nights a week during the season, along
with many different special events. I was
able to use the Peavey 32FX for the 2006
Las Vegas Marathon. I had a four-piece
jazz band during the event, coupled with
emcees and press.
The 32FX worked very well for everyone. I used auxes one through three for
band mixes, aux four into a multi box for
a press feed and auxes five and six for FX
sends. Being an engineer who loves to
TC Electronic
BY
I
Bill Evans
’ll never forget the time I went out on a
briefcase gig to step in for a guy who had
gotten himself double booked and had
to leave for another gig. The rack at the mix
position included a number of compressors
— none of which were even patched into the
system. When I inquired why this was so, I was
told by the other engineer that he didn’t really “get” compression, so he didn’t patch them
in, but I was welcome to.
Truth is, that is a great attitude to take.
Misuse and overuse of compression can send
your sound south as fast as any other misstep I can think of, and by not insisting that
something get used just because it was there,
26
200.0702.26-27.indd 26
FEBRUARY 2007
play with FX, this console had it all built
in with no additional outboard FX needed
for the gig.
I did patch in some outboard comps
and gates for vocals and drums, though.
I found a nice and warm ‘verb and a delay that, with a little tweaking, sounded
really good. The parameters available on
each program were great and stored into
the user section easily, where you can actually put a password on your program to
keep all your tweaking safe from being altered by others. The metering on inputs,
groups and returns are good and bite for
easy viewing. I liked the USB feature in the
rear of the console with the RCA inputs.
(If you’re in a pinch for adaptors, to go ¼inch in from a CD player, etc.) You can also
plug your iPod directly into the USB B port
for digital playback for break/background
music.
The EQ section is nice; you can actually hear a two–three dB cut at a given frequency where in other similar consoles it
may take a three–five dB cut to hear. One
more mid sweep in the EQ section would
have been great, though. [Peavey responds:
“With digital output processing, there are
dual 1/3 rd octave graphic EQs or five band
parametrics with Feedback Ferret. There’s
also a delay line so you can align your backline amps to your FOH speakers, an output
limiter so you don’t clip your amps and an
electronic crossover for subwoofer output.”
–ed.] The pre-amps are warm and quiet,
until around the 1:00 position where they
start getting a little noisy, but in a live
show situation, you would never notice
it. [Peavey responds: “There’s only noise on
un-terminated inputs if you crank them up
wide open. Otherwise the noise is within ½
dB of the theoretical noise limits.” –ed.]
I have to say that in this price range, I
think Peavey did a great job on this console and will give all their competitors a
run for your buck.
What It Is: 32 input, four-bus analog mixer
Who It’s For: Bands, small soundcos, church
and small theatre installs
Pros: Full-featured, good channel EQ,
great price
Cons: Pre-amps get a little noisy when cranked
How Much: $1499.99
Web site: www.peavey.com
C 300 Compressor
this mixer showed real maturity and restraint.
Now, given that this mixer is far from alone
in not “getting” compression, here is one to
strike fear into the bravest of audio hearts
— multi-band compression.
RT
The Gear
A multi-band compressor is basically a
group of compressors, each of which is frequency-dependant (in other words, it only
compresses within a selected frequency
range). The idea is to be able to compress
the parts of a signal that are causing problems without affecting the rest of the frequency range. For example, using a full-range
compressor on a vocal channel can cause
a perceived “dulling” of the high frequency
content of the channel, because it is the
midrange that needs compressing while the
whole signal gets compressed equally. While
multi-band compression is really something
more common in the studio — especially in
the mastering process — than on stage, there
are still a couple of units near and dear to
the hearts of your more compression-savvy
sound geeks. Chief among these is the TC
Electronic Triple C. If you want one, you can
occasionally find a used one on eBay for near
the price it costs new.
The C300 is an attempt at giving sound
pros most of the advantages of the multiband compression of the Triple C while improving its ease-of-use and getting the price
down. To do this, the software gurus at TC
have created algorithms based on the typical
settings of a multi-band compressor for different specific uses, which are accessible from
the front panel as presets. After dialing in the
preset or source, you still have control over
threshold and ratio — although attack and
release are handled by the algorithms — plus
makeup gain. You also have a knob labeled
“Mix,” which we will get to in a minute.
The C300 can operate in dual mono, stereo or serial modes. As a mono insert for a
specific channel or group, you plug it in like
any other compressor; ditto for stereo use. But
when hooked up for stereo use, you can also
do serial compressing with the first compression engine as a compressor and the second
as a limiter, or the first as a gate and the second as an expander. I/O connections are balanced ¼-inch plus S/PDIF and MIDI for program changes. The power supply is internal
and accessed via a standard IEC jack.
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 2:03:47 AM
E
Bill Evans
xpectations can be a bitch. Personally,
my approach is to under-promise and
over-deliver. This way, I can always be
sure that what I provide is at least what the
client expects, if not more. Sure, there are
times when expectations are so out of touch
with reality that nothing anyone can do or
say will get them met, but I still find this to be
a good approach. But for some reason I can
do that when I am providing a product or
service but have a much tougher time when
receiving — especially when it comes to
review gear. I expect that if a manufacturer
puts out a piece of gear for us to review that
it will be something cool.
RT
The Gear
The UL2000M — dubbed the UltraLink
— looks promising. A half-rack, true diversity
receiver operating in the 795-810 mHz range
(the lower part of the FM range). The receiver
features all of the stuff you would expect, and
some you might not, in a unit at this price point:
a scan function, squelch, auto mute and 24 preset channels. The two antennae mount to the
front of the unit, and all functions are accessed
via three menu controls, also on the front.
The rear panel has an input for the wall
wart AC adapter, a ground screw for attaching a ground wire (something you don’t
see really often) and two balanced outputs
— one XLR and the other TRS 1/4-inch.
The mic (transmitter) itself is a condenser (electret) with a Panasonic element.
Lightweight, all-plastic, except the grill, and
no readout. All functions are accessed via a
button and a 10-position rotary control of
the too-tiny-for-fingers variety. You will NEED
the little screwdriver.
As far as specs go the package is respectable with a frequency response of 30 Hz19kHz, max input of >120 dB and distortion
at less than .4%.
RT
The Gigs
Here is where the expectation thing got
in the way. I expect that the manual will give
me the information I need in a way that it
can be easily understood and used. Not so.
[Behringer responds: A new Quick Start guide
has been posted online since the release of
RT
The Gigs
The C300 saw use in a number of applications and shone in every one. We
used it on vocals, acoustic guitars, bass
and drums. The presets gave us a great
“base,” and then it was just a case of dialing in the amount of compression and
at what point it kicked in and then adjusting the gain. The final knob — the
one labeled “Mix” — allowed one to do
a trick that a lot of engineers do that requires two channels on the console, but
the C300 does it all inside the box. This
is the “parallel” compression feature, and
what it does is split the incoming signal
into two sources, compressing one and
leaving the other “dry.” This is perhaps
the best feature of the unit, as it allows
you to get the compressor punchiness
without stepping all over the input’s dynamic range. In other words, it allows for
the product in response to questions received
by tech support.] For example, there is no
mention anywhere except in the listing of
specs that says what kind of battery the mic
needs or shows how to install them. Most of
the world has gone to AA batteries in wireless, and the UltraLink uses 9-volts. I actually
prefer the nines (easier to change out in the
dark), but had to go out and buy batteries
before I could start using the mic.
Next, I expect the build quality to be
such that it can take a bit of “handling.” Unfortunately, that was not the case. The mics
(we used a pair of them on two female singers) performed fine in a series of rehearsals,
but when I went to change batteries out just
before hit time on the gig, the mic actually
broke in my hand. To be specific, the battery
compartment broke where it joins to the mic
body. I was in a hurry and maybe I twisted it a
little too hard. Whatever. It was not dropped
or stepped on or abused. It just broke.
Ditto for the unique AC adapter, which
uses interchangeable plates with different
plug configurations to handle the different
kinds of AC connections around the world.
Nice idea, but the spring that holds the plate
in place came flying out of the unit, and the
locking tab broke off. Behringer got me a
new one right away, but it didn’t help me that
night.
I also found the programming and setting process to be very confusing. Without
an LED on the mic, you are stuck “reading”
patterns of the power light flashing in order
to determine where you are in the process of
setting a channel or engaging a feature like
automute. It’s fine if you have the manual
right there, but on the gig we found some
interference in the band we had chosen during rehearsal, and trying to change it was
less than intuitive.
All of this is a shame because I like the
performance of the UL2000M. But the buildquality — essentially the lightweight plastic
mic body — on the transmitter end does
not feel like it will hold up under real-world
gigging conditions. And I found the way the
features are accessed to be confusing. Your
mileage may vary…
compression without “squashing.” Very
nice. And best of all, the C300 — which
sounds great, is easy to use and has capabilities far beyond most units in this price
range — sells for about a third of what its
predecessor did. And you won’t have to
scour eBay to find one.
What It Is: Easy to use multi-band
compressor
Who It’s For: Everyone
Pros: Quiet, sounds great, easy to use
Cons: I have to give it back.
How Much: $295.00
Web site: www.tcelectronic.com/c300
www.fohonline.com
200.0702.26-27.indd 27
What it is: Wireless condensor mic with highend features at an entry-level price
Who It’s For: Bands and small sound providers
Pros: Good sound quality and nice price
Cons: Review units broke easily. Manual hard to
understand, programming less than intuitive.
How Much: $249.99
Web site: www.behringer.com
BY
BehringerUL2000M Wireless Mic
and Receiver
2007 FEBRUARY
27
2/2/07 2:04:12 AM
welcome to my nightmare
,
u
o
Y
e
v
o
I L
Mommy
Dearest
V
O
ur 400-seat theatre often plays host
to children’s theatre productions requiring lots of sound reinforcement
for the child actors involved. In addition to
having to try to get the kiddies to understand that they don’t have to grab the lavaliere capsule and shove it into their mouths
to be heard, we also have to make sure that
they don’t step all over any boundary microphones that we might place on the front of
the stage.
On one show, after hanging some overhead microphones and placing three PCCs
on the front edge of the stage, I gave a short
speech to the cast about the placement of
the floor microphones. I pointed out their locations, and even marked them clearly with
bright yellow gaffer’s tape. This still didn’t stop
the little darlings from stepping all over them.
Every time one of the kids would step on one
of the mics, you could hear it come booming
over the sound system, and I would make an
announcement over the God Mic, asking the
cast to be careful of the microphones on the
floor, pointing out that they were very expensive, and that we needed them all to be working well for the cast’s show.
After about the fifth time that this happened, one of the stage mothers stood up
from her seat in the auditorium, and with her
hands on her hips shouted at me in the booth,
“Well! If those microphones are SO expensive,
then why do you have them on the floor in
the first place?!?”
in the trenches
V
Lewis “Butch” Reinert, Jr.
ITT
Clients:
MGM Grand Garden Arena, Mandalay Bay
Events Center, Fremont Street Experience,
Wynn Hotel & Casino.
Personal Info:
Hi, My name is Jamey Walls, and I’m writing
this for Butch because in October of last year
my dear friend passed away suddenly. He
was a top-notch audio engineer and a great
partner. It would mean a great deal to me to
see him get the recognition and appreciation
28
200.0702.28.indd 28
FEBRUARY 2007
ITT
Ben Blomander
Thomas J. Giannoni
Head of audio @ Jones Beach Theatre, NY
I.A.T.S.E. Local 340
Holtsville, NY
631.730.8645
[email protected]
www.Local340.com
Production Manager
A.V. Vegas
Las Vegas, NV
702.878.5050
[email protected]
www.avvegas.com
Services Provided:
Complete & professional audio for any
size event. Conventional & intelligent
lighting, video projectors up to 10,000
Lumens and screens as big as 12’ X 15’.
Large backline department.
If you’d like to see yourself
featured in “In the Trenches” or
“Welcome to my Nightmare,” visit
www.fohonline.com
to submit your information,
or e-mail
[email protected]
for more information.
Charles R. Kaiser
[email protected]
Services Provided:
We do it all, rigging to wardrobe.
that he should have gotten years ago.
“See ya soon, Butcher!”
Hobbies:
Writing and playing music, hanging out
with daughter Abigail.
Equipment:
Yamaha PM5D, Crest, Midas and Allen
& Heath Consoles. JBL VerTec and HLA
speakers powered by QSC. Shure and
AKG microphones.
Don’t Leave Home Without:
Spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch.
Clients:
Anything Live Nation throws at us.
Quote:
“Remain calm; all is well.” - Kevin Bacon
Personal Info:
After four years of working in local bars,
I got hooked up with a live national tour
in 1978. That was Andy Gibb. Now, almost 30 years later, I can say that things
have worked out very well. I love my
job, and I make good money. What more
could you want?
Hobbies:
Kayaking, woodworking.
Equipment:
As a head of a local crew, I see different
gear everyday. We are a 15,000-seat outdoor theatre in New York.
Don’t Leave Home Without:
Sense-o-humor.
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 2:04:53 AM
V
PRODUCT GALLERY
Install Speakers for the
HOW Market
Warning: You are about to get a glimpse into the inner
workings of FOH editorial planning. If you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip right to the comparison chart on the
next page. What you are about to see may be disturbing…
Toward the end of each year, the biz folks at FOH (i.e., the publisher and ad sales people) start harping on a certain editor for an editorial calendar for the next year. Said editor drags his feet and whines
and complains because he really does believe that editorial calendars for
a news publication are fiction by the time they exit the laser printer. (Note
that these are not lies told on purpose. It’s just that too much changes between the time a calendar is put together and when we finally put an issue to
bed to accurately commit to much of anything other than publishing what we
feel is the most important and compelling content available in any given month.)
This time around, however, the Forces of Darkness had a new ally in the person of
a certain managing editor who basically locked a certain editor in his office and made
him stay there until a calendar — however fictional — was completed.
Why do you need to know this? Because I want to make sure it is understood that it was
desperation to get out of that office and not a crack addiction that led a certain editor to put
House of Worship install speakers as a product gallery topic on the fictional calendar.
OK, so truth is that we all know there is really no such thing as a speaker made JUST for
the HOW market. OK, there are a couple of companies that specialize in making custom
cabinets to fit into the overall vibe of a church, and Peavey has their Sanctuary Series
that really is made just with churches in mind, but it really is pretty much a case of
looking at a lot of possibilities and coming up with the best choice in a HOW install
just like any other install.
So, on the chart that follows, you will find a few general specs for enclosures
that their respective manufacturers put forward as good HOW candidates. You
will also get as many as 50 words of “Comments” which is where we let said
manufacturers make their case as to why a certain box is right for church
installs. Another warning: There is marketing-speak here. We know that
given space to fill as they chose, that marketing types would start doing what it is that they do. (Remember, they can’t help it. They appear
to have been born that way…)
Space considerations forced us to limit entries to no more
than two per company, which is obviously not a lot. An expanded version of the chart can be found at www.fohonline. A Danley installation at New Covenant
com/HOWSpeakers.
Ministries, Lithonia, Ga.
The Adamson SpekTrix
The Tannoy-i9
The Community iBox installed in
a small sanctuary
www.fohonline.com
200.0702.29-31.indd 29
The NEXO Geo S Series
2007 FEBRUARY
29
2/2/07 2:33:56 AM
PRODUCT GALLERY
V
Company / Web site
Model
Driver Configuration
Sensitivity over rated frequency response
Power handling
A-Line Acoustics
a-lineacoustics.com
EMMA 806A
8x6.5" LF, 8x6.5HF Ribbon
99dB, 80Hz - 19kHz
1kW Program
SpekTrix Series
1x8" kevlar cone, neodymium LF driver, 1x 8" Kevlar cone, neodymium MF driver and a B&C DE900
8ohm 1.5" Compression Driver
Both SpekTrix & SpekTrix Wave: LF 94.5 dB-80-250Hz, MF 99dB250-900Hz, 112dB-900-18KHz, (2.83V @1m)
Maximum SPL (continuous) with Xover Mode Preset 130.1dB, with
Full Range Preset 135.8dB, (peak) with Xover Mode Preset 136.1 dB,
with Full Range Preset 135.8dB
CB-1
2 Way. ND8-B 8.5”, 1” HF Compression Driver
Full Range Sensitivity (2.83V @ 1m) 98.6dB
HF: 30 Watts RMS, 60 Watts Program. LF: 250 Watts RMS, 500Watts
Program
Crystal-I
Two way, 2 12" & HF
103 dB SPL 1w/1m
600 W sine, 2400 W peak
Quartz-I
4x18"
99 dB SPL 1/w 1m @ 45Hz
1600 W Sine
3-way, 15" + 8" + 1.4"
98dB SPL, 80 Hz to 16 kHz
1500W PGM
Adamson Systems
Engineering
www.adamsonproaudio.
com
SpekT
SpekT
18"
Bag End
bagend.com
Community
www.communitypro.com
iBox
iHP3564
d&b audiotechnik AG
www.dbaudio.com
C7-Top
Horn loaded 15", 1.5" compression driver
138 dB, 68Hz - 18kHz
200/800 W
DAS Audio USA
www.dasaudio.com
Variant Installation
Array
2x5", 2" HF, 18" Sub
120/134 db peak SPL
Self Powered - 400/2,500 watts
6.9" x
SH-50 Full Range
1x1" HF, 4x5" mid, 2x12"woofers
100dB SPL -1dB 80 Hz-20kHz
1,600W
Danley TH-215 subwoofer
Tapped horn - LF 2x15" long excursion drivers
99 dBSPL @39Hz: 135 dBSPL Peak @102-113Hz
1400 continuous- 2800W program
UB82e
2x8" and 1" on CD horn
92dB SPL, 1w @ 1m (overall freq response: 62Hz to 20kHz)
600 watts (full range)
MQH1346e
2x15" LF, 10" MF, 2" HF
MF: 110dB SPL, 1w @ 1m (overall freq response: 43Hz to 15kHz)
MF: 400w
AC-8, AC-10, AC-12,
AC-15
LF-8", 10", 12" or 15" cone depending on model, HF-1"
compression driver
98-101 dB
150-300 watts
AC-15S, AC-18S
15S: LF-15" cone; 18S: LF-18" cone
15S: 40Hz- 2KHz; 18S: 35Hz - 2KHz
250-450 watts
HDL 4215
2x15" + 2x8" + 4 x 2" + 4x1.75"
138dB peak, 80Hz to 19Khz
6 channel, 2000 W RMS, amps included
RL 4215
2x15" + 4x 8" + 2x1.75"
134dB peak, 50 Hz to 18 KHz
5 channel, 2000 W RMS Amps Included
VRX932LA
2-way, 12"
n/a
800W continuous/1600W program/3200W peak
VP7215/95DPAN
15" 2-way
n/a
2200 Watts peak, 1100 Watts continuous
112P
12" LF, 1.4" HF
96dB SPL ± 3dB, 60Hz to 18kHz
Long-term power handling at 8 ohms is 290 Wrms with a 1,160 W peak
2
KUDO
2x12" LF, 4 x 5" MF, 2 x 1" HF
96dB SPL LF, 102dB SPL MF, and 115dB SPL HF ± 3dB over 50Hz to
18kHz
Long-term power handling at 8 ohms is 2 x 425 Wrms, 400 Wrms and 85
Wrms for low, midrange and high sections, respectively
1
Martin Audio
www.martin-audio.com
W8LMI
2-3 way mini line array
99dB , 60 hz to 18 Khz
300 watts, 1600 watts peak
McCauley Sound
www.mccauley.com
IN.LINE
Dual 8" + 1.4"
102dB SPL ± 1dB, 60Hz - 18kHz
800w AES
Meyer
www.meyersound.com
M’elodie ultracompact
curvilinear array
LF/Low-midF: (2) 8”cone driver, 1.5” voice coil, HF: (2)
3” diaphragm/1.2” exit compression drivers
70 Hz - 18 kHz +/-4 dB
Self-powered
NEXO
www.yama.com/ca/ OR
www.nexo-sa.com
Geo S805 / S830 vertical
array
8" + 1" compression driver on patented Hyperboloid
Reflective Wavesource
99dB SPL, 67Hz to 19kHz +/- 3dB
Recomended amp ratings of 1500 to 3000 watts into 4 Ohms
SSE UB2
Four 2" high-performance speakers
90dB SPL (1w/1m); 160 Hz to 16 kHz (+/- 3dB with processing)
50W continuous, 100W program, 200W peak
SSE LA Line Array
Sixteen 2" high-performance speakers
93dB SPL (1w/1m); 174 Hz to 18 kHz (+/- 3dB with processing)
200W continuous, 400W program, 800W peak
QSC Audio Products Inc.
www.qscaudio.com
ILA WL2082-i
Dual 8" + dual 1.75" diaphragm
106 dB (HF), 96 db (LF) 1W at 1 m
Continuous/peak 100W (HF), 400W (LF)
Radian Audio Engineering
www.radianaudio.com
RCH-1564
15" two-way
101dB 1W/1M passive, LF 99dB, HF 113dB 1W/1M
1200W RMS continuous
Renkus-Heinz, Inc.
www.renkus-heinz.com
ICONYX
Vertical Line Array
117 dB peak, 120 Hz to 18 kHz
ICX7: 200 Watts RMS
SLS
www.slsaudio.com
LS7500
2 way
97dB SPL over 70-1.5kHz
400 Watts
i9
4x5" bass units & 3 x 1" tweeter
93dB anechoic
150 Watt Average, 300 Watt, program, 600 Watt Peak
V12 HP
1x12" PowerDual
99dB anechoic
350 Watt Average, 700 Watt program, 1400 Watt Peak
Turbosound TCS 121C
1x12" LF, 1x1" driver
97dB @ 1 watt 1Meter
300 watts rms- 600watts program
Aspect TA-500
1x15"LF, 1x10" MF driver on a midrange Polyhorn,
1xHF driver on a high frequency Polyhorn
1W@1M: LF-106dB: MF-105dB: HF-112dB:
LF 400 w rms-800w program: MF-300w rms - 600 w program: HF- 50
watts rms- 100 w program
WorxAudio Technologies
www.worxaudio.com
TrueLine V8-PMD1
2x8"-1x1.5"
105db SPL ± 1dB over 300Hz to 10kHz
500w program-1000w peak
Yamaha Commercial Audio
Systems, Inc.
www.yamahaca.com
Installation Series (IS
Series)
2-way and 3-way, 12", 15", 18" inch woofers, rotatable
horns, 3" voice coils, 1.7" voice coils in the matching
HF drivers
IF3115 (+3db) (4n) 45 Hz-20 kHz tri-amp mode; IH2000 250 Hz-20 kHz
bi-amp mode; IL1115 70 Hz-2 kHz low frequency. Frequency range:
(-10dB) (4n) IF3115: 70 Hz-20 kHz tri-amp mode; IH2000 200 Hz-20
kHz bi-amp modes; IL1115 Low frequency speaker 45 Hz-2.5 kHz
Model IF3115 3-way bi-amp mode - LF: 700W (AES), MF/HF: 125W, triamp mode - MF: 125W, HF: 80W (AES); IH2000 speaker 2-way - Passive
mode MF/HF: 125W, bi-amp mode MF:125W (AES), HF: 80W (AES); IL1115
speaker LF: 700W (AES)
Danley Sound Labs
danleysoundlabs.com
EAW
www.eaw.com
Grundorf
www.grundorf.com
ISP Technologies LLC
www.isptechnologies.com
JBL Professional
www.jblpro.com
L-ACOUSTICS
www.l-acoustics.com
Peavey Sanctuary Series
www.sanctuary-series.
com, www.peavey.com
Tannoy North America Inc.
www.tannoy.com
Turbosound
www.turbosound.com
30
200.0702.29-31.indd 30
FEBRUARY 2007
10: H:
23.75" W
15S: H:
13
2
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 2:39:16 AM
3-w
IH2000
th
dB,
ts
eak
d 85
0
riive
1115
Dimensions & Weight
MSRP
Blurb
53.4"x13.1"x9.4" (HWD), 70lbs.
$4,199.00
Slim, low profile speaker columns flown or stacked for true line array feature HF ribbons for clear, even coverage. ICEpower amps w/DSP deliver remarkable intelligibility & fidelity. Custom
finishes and curves available to enhance worship experience and decor. (Pricing is approximate only. Call for current prices.)
SpekTrix : H: 8.6", W: 27.9", D: 18.91", 62 lbs,
SpekTrix Wave: H:10.4", W: 27.9", D: 18.91" ,
64 lbs
$6,400.00
(CAN)
The SpekTrix incorporates two Adamson 8.5” Kevlar, neodymium drivers - one ND8-L midbass driver and one ND8-M mid-range driver, and one B&C DE 900 compression driver mounted on a
patented Adamson wave shaping sound chamber. The sound chamber has a coverage pattern of 5° V by 120° H, and is similar to the inner body of a Y-Axis drive module,giving the SpekTrix a
slightly curved, iso-phase wave front. (Pricing is approximate only, please call for current prices.)
18" (45.7) H, 9.75" (24.8) W, 11" (27.9) D
$1260.00 (CAN)
The Adamson CB1 is a rectangular 2-way passive enclosure that produces a 90° by 60° coverage pattern. designed to be used as a single source. It requires no processing and may be positioned
horizontally or vertically without affecting the dispersion characteristics thanks to its rotatable constant directivity horn. The cabinet may be used for a variety of installation purposes, making
it suitable for a variety of venues ranging from Houses of Worship to clubs, theatres and corporate boardrooms.
38" x 14" x 16" , 103 lbs
$3200.00,
$4270.00 self
powered
40" x 30" x 31" , 224 LBS
$3980.00,
$5540.00 self
powered
36.42" H x 21" W x 22" D, 123lbs
$2,165.00
580x580x620 mm 52kg
$4,590.00
The C7-TOP is a two-way horn loaded loudspeaker that exhibits true constant directivity above a frequency of 600 Hz, ensuring equal sound within the coverage area. The bass-reflex design of the
low end allows the C7-TOP to be used without a subwoofer, and with its medium to high sound pressure levels and extended directivity it is ideal for balcony or stadium sound reinforcement, delay
and background music playback.
6.9" x 22.6" x 9" 39.6lbs / 9.9" x 22.6" x 25.6"
108 lbs
$1,695/$2,550
The Variant Installation Array brings the unique advantages of the powered line array to the worldís small to mid-sized HOWs. The ultra-compact design of the Variant provides systems designers with
a product that offers high output and exceptional sound in an attractive and visually discrete package. The Variant Installation Array is ideal for use as a main system in theatres, houses of worship
or corporate events.
28x28x22.5
$3,925.00
22"x30" x 42", 190 lbs.
$3,395.00
The TH-215 uses Danley's patent-pending tapped horn technology to deliver honest sub-30 Hz performance with audiophile fidelity in a small footprint. Perfect for HOWs who are interested in musical
fidelity from a powerful sub.
10.6" x 30" x 11.7"; 57 lbs.
$762.00
The UB82e provides very high output and wideband response in applications such as house of worship underbalcony and stage lip fill applications. Can also be used as stand-alone mains in small
systems. Cabinets include comprehensive mounting points.
54" x 27" x 27"; 253 lbs
$2,542.00
The MQH Series (MQH1344e, MQH1346e & MQH1366e) is ideal for houses of worship where the array must address wide, fan-shaped audiences because these loudspeakers provide unique downangled coverage via specially designed asymmetrical MF and HF horns with effective beamwidth control to below 200 Hz, as well as enclosures configured for arraying in horizontal rows.
10: H: 18.75" W: 12.50" D: 12.75" 29 lbs; 12: H:
23.75" W: 15.50" D: 15.75" 38 lbs; 15: H: 28.75" W:
18.50" D: 18.5" 59 lbs
$359.00-$579.00
15S: H: 28.75" W: 18.50" D: 18.25" 53 lbs; 18S: H:
31.75" W: 23.25" D: 19.63" 94 lbs
$499.00-$699.00
48"W x 18.25"H X 24" D, 200lbs.
$11,753.00
36" W x 38" H x 28" D, 400 lbs.
$163,000.00
13.75" x 21.5" x 10.25" (HxWxD); 48 lbs.
$2,469.00
85 pounds, 30.13" x 17.62" x 20.61"
$5834
21.3" H x 16.4" W x 15.4" D; 63.9 lbs.
$3,520
14" H x 34.5" W x 27.1" D; 191.4 lbs.
$7,150
24" (W) x 9.6" (H) x 15.8" (D)
$3,299.00
27" x 10" x 18", 60lbs
$1995.00
28.54" W x 9.19" H x 12.75" D, 62 lbs.
$4,590.00
The M’elodie ultracompact curvilinear array loudspeaker shares the smooth, extended high-frequency response and easy-to-use rigging that are the hallmarks of the MILO family of loudspeakers.
M’elodie’s small footprint makes it outstanding for HOW, corporate AV and small theatres, and its peak output of 131 dB SPL can fill rooms much bigger than one would expect.
16 7/8" x 10 7/8" x 11 7/8", 29 lbs.
$2,500.00
Extremely compact, high output vertical array loudspeaker utilitzing three patented devices for exceptional clarity, coherence, and pattern control. While this product has been used for major U.S.
tours and by many regional production companies for live sound and other applications, it has proven extremely effective for HOW applications.
3.23" H x 13.78" W x 6.12" D; 5 lbs.
$209.98
38.5" H x 3.5" W x 10.13" D; 12 lbs.
$699.98
The SSE LA is a compound-radius, curved line array that provides a controlled and contoured vertical coverage pattern for improved intelligibility in larger or more reverberant spaces. Its dual-coverage pattern provides a tight 20° vertical coverage for the primary long-throw pattern and a 40° vertical coverage for the secondary near-field pattern. The smooth curve of the array allows the SSE LA
to be flown much lower than most "J" arrays, increasing the flexibility and utility in spaces with lower ceilings.
11.8" x 27" x 13.4"
$1,800.00
The ILA (Installation Line Array) WL2082-i offers houses of worship true line array performance in an affordable and attractive package designed specifically for installation applications. Capable of
providing 140° horizontal coverage, the ILA is available in black or white. A companion subwoofer, the WL115-sw is also available.
29.5" H x 18" W x 16.5" D, 68lbs
$2199.990
Radian RCH enclosures are built for precise pattern control, ultra high-output and are the perfect system where vocal intelligibility is a key in the design. Available in Black/White for permanent
installation.
ICX7: 44 3/8" H x 5 11/16" W x 4 3/8" D
$1199.00
ICONYX Array Systems integrate advanced technology to provide both natural music and intelligible speech, even in highly reverberant environments. Their slender stick vertical profile mounts flat to
the wall, blending easily with both classical and contemporary architecture. Choose from six digitally steered or two passive models.
7.25"H x23"W x 17.9"D 38 lbs.
$1,819.00
The 7500 was developed for applications from permanent sound reinforcement installations in churches, auditoriums, arenas and performing arts centers, to a professional portable PA system with
the highest performance characteristics expected from an SLS product.
30.56” x 6.69”x 7.875”, 27lbs 9oz
$1,429.00
The VRX932LA brings the qualities of JBL's VerTec Series to more intimate environments. It is designed for use in arrays of up to six units. Each speaker has a 15° (nominal) vertical coverage angle,
meaning a single enclosure or arrays consisting of 2 or 3 speakers can provide practical vertical coverage.
Self-powered 'P Series' enclosure featuring a high-power coaxial driver assembly; suitable for distributed sound reinforcement, floor monitoring, or medium-power FOH applications; coherent point
source radiation (90∞ axisymmetric directivity); high efficiency mono-bridged power amplifier module; digital system equalization (front, fill, monitor, and crossover presets).
The W8LMI is a dual 8 inch with dual 1 inch mini line array loudspeaker.
Tannoy i9 slim cabinet column loudspeaker is designed for acoustically difficult applications. Controlled dispersion characteristics of the i9 direct sound into the desired space while minimizing reflections from the ceiling making it ideal for use in highly reverberant environments.
19.125” x 14.5” x 14.75"
$2,529.00
The Tannoy V12HP is a premium quality installation cabinet based around a high power 12" PowerDual transducer for high SPL applications. The PowerDual uses larger HF and LF magnet assemblies
and voice coils to increase efficiency, power handling and SPL, while offering all the benefits of Tannoy Dual Concentric transducers. This high power output capability, in conjunction with the long
throw and constant directivity nature of the driver dispersion characteristic, makes the V12HP an ideal choice for larger audience sizes in medium to large venues.
21.8”x16”x13.9", 41.8 lbs
$632.00
The TCS-121C is a 12-inch system with a 1.8-kHz crossover in a well-engineered design. With a dispersion of 70° x 40° and an affordable retail price of $632, it has a nice balanced sound along with a
good, high-sensitivity of 95.4 dB/watt. It would do very well for a FOH (front-of-house) speaker, the youth center, the fellowship hall, and even surround speakers for effects channel speakers as part
of a larger church audio system. Churches contemplating remote sites should also look closely at this model for their portable FOH speakers, even though it is intended as an install model. With its
program power handling of 600 watts, SPLs in the mid-120 dBs should be easily achievable.
38.5"x22.6"x19.6"
$4,345.00
The TA-500 is a three-way, full-range (60Hz to 18kHz) enclosure that incorporates patented Polyhorn designs to provide wider dispersion characteristics of 50°H x 25° V, making it ideally suited to for
houses of worship and other fixed installations.
108lbs-10.5"Hx28"Wx18"D
$6,822.00
The V8-PMD1 Powered Touring Line Array is a two-way, high efficiency, line array loudspeaker. Designed as an ultra compact high performance system for the reproduction of speech and music
program material, the V8-PMD1 with integrated power and DSP capabilities makes an exceptional choice for a variety of applications, including corporate/industrial theatre, medium concert reproduction, theatrical musical events, and AV production.
3-way IF3115 140 lbs. 39.6" x 24.0" x 23.6";
IH2000 72 lbs. 23.3" x 24.0' x 23.6"; IL1115 84 lbs.
23.3" x 24.0" x 23.6"
$699- $2,999
The Installation Series provides a wide range of models with seamlessly integrated hardware to meet the expectations of contractors and end-users for audio quality, ease of installation and system
design. The exceptional uniform phase response is key to the accurate sonic performance of the Installation Series.
www.fohonline.com
200.0702.29-31.indd 31
2007 FEBRUARY
31
2/2/07 2:39:40 AM
Regional Slants
V
BY
Larry hall
You Book; You Pay
W
e recently did one of those shows
where the budget is weak and you
have to drive three to four hours to
get to it. But it was a Wednesday night and
the client — an agent and a personal friend
of mine — needed a favor.
This was a gig that should have paid
$7000 plus travel and meals, but it was paying more like $4500 plus travel and meals.
We came to terms on what he would get for
the money, with a little “gimme” for the act
on my part to make everyone happy.
We put together a basic system to cover
1500–1700 people in a ballroom, with the
typical “client pays for meals and rooms”
clause in the contract. My friend facilitated
the introduction between his client (another
agent) and me. At that point he stepped out
and had us communicate directly.
About two weeks before the gig, the
“new client” calls to tell me that he did not
book our hotel rooms when he did the band
contract. He simply forgot. He then offered
an additional $150 to cover rooms for us. I
was assured by this guy that it would be
more than enough money. This seemed okay
for one night and two guys.
We handed the problem off to Margo.
I am not sure what Margo’s “official” title at
HAS Productions is: Secretary? Shipping and
receiving? We have now added travel agent
and, oh yeah, she’s also an A-3. We dump a
lot of crap on her on a day-to-day basis, and
she cleans up a lot of mess for us. After a few
hours on the phone, she informed me that
the cheapest rooms in that particular town
were running closer to $200. On a show that
was already soft, as trivial as it seems, I was
down another $50. I called the “new client” to
inform him of this, and he of course said that
we were crazy, as he got rooms in that town
all the time for $50. I decided that fighting
with him over $50 was not worth it.
By now I was getting irritated with
this guy, but trying to “grin and bear it”
for my buddy. A few days before the gig,
“New Client” called needing lighting. You
know the call: “Oh, the venue has some
lights but not enough. Can you throw a
few lights on the truck?”
I asked what a few lights were. Three? 50?
120? “Oh, like, 10 or 12,” he said. I said, “Sure,
and dimming, too?”
“No, we will just leave them on”.
As a non-squint/lampy (disclaimer: we
do lights, but I don’t), what did I care if the
artist looked bad and burned out? So I gave
him a price for the lights.
on the bleeding edge
Sorry, Mr. New Client, but I am
not in the “throw it on the truck”
business. In fact, I am not in the
“throw it in” business, either.
“Uh…
What?!? I
asked you
to
just
throw them on the truck!”
“Sorry, Mr. New Client, but I am not in the
‘throw it on the truck’ business. In fact, I am
not in the ‘throw it in’ business, either.”
Needless to say, we didn’t bring lights.
At 4:00 pm the day before the show, as
the truck was being loaded, this New Client
called again. I looked at the caller ID on my
phone, and my eye started to twitch.
“HAS Productions,” I answered.
“Larry, please.”
“Speaking,” I said.
“Larry, it’s New Client; make sure your
guys eat a big breakfast, because I didn’t get
them any meals. Uh, I forgot. Sorry for the inconvenience.” Say what?
Then he said, “Oops, I need to grab this
call. I will call you back.” Click!
I was now officially pissed. I sent him
and my friend an e-mail saying what we
all thought:
“Hey guys, if you called the band’s manger and said, ‘Uh, oops, I forgot to book your
rooms,’ he would say, ‘We are not coming until you do.’ If you said ‘Uh, oops, I didn’t get you
any lights; I
had no budget,’ the band
guy would
say, ‘No lights? No show.’ If you said, ‘Uh, well,
I forgot to get your meals, so tell the drummer to eat a big breakfast,’ the band would
say, ‘Piss off.’ So my question is, ‘Why is it okay
to poop on the production crew?’
“You would never get away with any of
that crap with the band. It always baffles me,
the mentality that it’s OK to shaft the crew.”
I told them both we where not coming
unless the meal issue was resolved. We had
already played travel agent (not our job) and
were prepared to take heat from the band
crew on “New Client’s” behalf about the lack
of lighting. He wasn’t going to be there for
load-in, and band crews always complain to
whoever is there. It doesn’t make them asses;
it just is what it is.
New Client was shocked.
“I can’t believe this. I mean, can’t they just
go to McDonald’s or something?”
“Yeah, if that’s what they want,” I said,
“but you’re paying for it.”
Larry Hall owns HAS Productions in Las Vegas, NV.
You can reach him at [email protected].
V
BY
STEVE LaCERRA
T
he sound reinforcement industry will
soon face a serious issue of which many
people are not even aware. I am referring
to legislation brought before the United States
Senate and House of Representatives, specifically known as The Communications, Consumer’s Choice and Broadband Deployment Act
of 2006 (S. 2686, H.R. 5252). Introduced early in
2006, this amendment to the Communications
Act of 1934 incorporates proposed telecommunications reform, including FCC adoption
of new rules to increase competition in sports
programming, Internet Neutrality allowing ‘Net
users to access lawful content of their choice
and connect their choice of legal devices that
do not harm the network, and legislation designed to speed transition of TV broadcasting from the current analog system to digital
transmission. These and other aspects of the
bill do not directly impact those of us working
in sound reinforcement. However, part of this
bill (and its subsequent revision) is a provision called the Wireless Innovation Act of 2006
(“WIN Act”). This portion of the bill proposes
freeing up so-called “underutilized” broadcast
space for wireless broadband use.
To understand why this is important, we
need to take a step back and look at how the
government manages broadcasting. The FCC
was established in 1934 as an independent government agency (can you say “jumbo shrimp?”).
Their job is to regulate radio, television, wire,
satellite and cable communications in the 50
states, the District of Columbia and U.S. possessions. The FCC ensures that broadcasters do
not step on each other in an effort to get their
32
200.0702.32.indd 32
FEBRUARY 2007
content delivered to listeners or viewers. If I decide to start up a radio station, I must apply to
the FCC for a broadcast license; they make sure
I will not broadcast on the same frequency as a
neighbor (thus interfering with their broadcast)
and that I will not broadcast a signal so strong
that it steps on my neighbor even if we’re on different frequencies. This is an oversimplification
of the FCC’s role, but suffice to say that part of
their function is director of airwave traffic.
In years past the FCC’s job was relatively
straightforward: make sure that TV and radio
stations in a given region can all get along happily, allow some space between TV broadcast
channels 6 and 7 for FM radio and fine Howard
Stern for airing allegedly obscene material. But
in the past 10 years or so, wireless communications technology has exploded beyond anyone’s
wildest dreams. It was tough enough to imagine a cordless phone in every household, but
now we’re at the point where every person in a
family of four has a cell phone with a Bluetooth
headset, a wireless network for their computer,
printer and music server, satellite TV — the list
could go on forever. Some of these devices are
not subject to FCC licensing constraints due to
the fact that transmission power is low and limited to a small distance. For example, since your
cordless phone can barely send a signal 25 feet,
it is not a threat to your local news station. The
FCC sees no need for you to obtain a license
to operate that phone. As you might imagine,
every broadcaster in the country is fighting
tooth and nail for their place in the broadcast
spectrum, and the FCC is trying to create space
for wireless broadband. Some space becomes
available in 2009-2010 when analog broadcast
TV moves to digital transmission, while gaps between currently existing licensed users might
also be made available to broadband providers.
How does this affect sound reinforcement?
Well, our wireless microphones, instruments
and personal monitor systems need a “place to
live” — i.e., a frequency band in which they can
safely operate without interference with or from
local radio and TV stations. Typical pro wireless
mic systems transmit and receive in one of two
frequency regions: VHF (TV channels 7 through
13, approximately 170 to 215 MHz) and UHF (TV
channels 14 through 69, approximately 470 to
800 MHz). Within these regions, the frequency
space where no TV or radio signals are broadcast is known as “white space.” As we have
learned, you must carefully choose a frequency
for wireless mic operation in a given location
based upon what TV stations are active nearby.
In the past we have been able to use FCC data to
confirm the frequencies upon which local stations are broadcast, and adjust our frequencyagile wireless systems accordingly.
The WIN Act is going to throw that to hell
by freeing up the supposedly underutilized
“white space” for wireless broadband use.
The bill directs the FCC to permit unlicensed,
non-exclusive use of unassigned television
broadcast channels (the ones in the white
space). Unfortunately, this spectrum includes the bands within which we operate
our wireless production devices. Where does
that leave wireless sound reinforcement? In
the pooper basically, subject to interference
from all sorts of unlicensed transmission
that potentially could mess up production
of concerts, theatre, TV, sports, news coverage and worship services.
We can thank Senators George Allen (RVA), John Kerry (D-MA), John Sununu (R-NH)
and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for introducing the
WIN Act. Lucky for us Senator Richard J. Durbin
(D-IL) introduced a bill called Broadband for
Rural America of 2006 (S. 3820), which allows
expansion of broadband wireless while ensuring that new wireless users will not cause interference with existing users (us). It also requires
new users to submit lab test results to the FCC
demonstrating prevention of interference
of co-existing devices. (You can read a Shure
press release regarding this at http://www.
shure.com/ProAudio/PressRoom/Current
PressReleases/us_pro_pr_Durbin).
On June 8, 2006, The Communications, Consumer’s Choice and Broadband Deployment
Act of 2006 passed the U.S. House of Representatives. In October of 2006 the FCC concluded
that low power devices could be allowed to
operate on TV frequencies where those frequencies are not being used for TV — the areas
which we need for wireless production. Before
the bill becomes law, it must pass the U.S. Senate and be signed by the president.
If you’re really concerned that this might
become a problem — and you should be —
write to your senator while we still have time
to do something about it.
FOH is showing audio pros how to be heard
on this issue. Go to www.fohonline.com for
more info, and check out the cover article.
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 2:31:34 AM
200.0702.Ads.indd 33
2/2/07 2:11:36 AM
sound sanctuary
V
BY
Jamie Rio
A
s we get into the new year, most of us are
planning how we can make 2007 more
financially profitable than 2006. Now
don’t get me wrong. I really, really enjoy making
good sound, regardless of how much money I
make. However, money does make life more
satisfying (especially getting the bills paid on
time). So, I want to make great sound and get
paid buckets of money for it.
I believe that God wants me to do this work. In
other words, I am very sympathetic to the mission that many of these religious groups have.
So when I get stiffed for a worship gig, it puts a
different spin on the whole job.
Let me give you an example. I got a call
from a group called the Sisters of Power. This is
a Christian organization of black women with
some very notable members. Anyway, I got a call
from the organizer
of a Sisters award
ceremony just two
When I get stiffed for a worship gig, it
days before the
event. It was being
puts a different spin on the whole job.
held at a very prestigious hotel in
Beverly Hills, Calif.
This leads me to the subject that I will be The job was to amplify the various speakers and
discussing during this installment. This is a sub- award recipients for an audience of about 200
ject that I am definitely uncomfortable with, but guests. Given that it was a one-man job, I bid it
it needs to be discussed. The question is: What at about half of a “normal” gig. The producer and
do you do when that house of worship that I agreed to the price and details over the phone,
you worked so hard on, or that religious orga- and that was that. I showed up to the event on
nization for whom you (and your crew) set up a Friday afternoon, and rather than ask for a
a sound system for their big revival or awards check prior to unloading my truck (something
event, doesn’t pay you? If this happens with a I do with any non-contracted, first time secular
secular organization, individual or producer, I gigs), I went right to work.
make the appropriate phone calls, have my atThe show went very smoothly. The productorney send a letter and ultimately go to court tion team and hotel employees were all helpful,
to get my cash. But when you add God to the and the event itself was very spiritually uplifting.
mix, the dynamics change for me. I’ll let you in Everything was perfect up until the end of the
on what may seem obvious. I work in the wor- show, when I went to pick up my check. There
ship sound biz because I believe in a God and was no check to be had. I have been in this biz
The Biz
N
34
200.0702.34.indd 34
V
New Kids in Town
orth America comprises an estimated
50% of the world’s market for professional sound systems; it’s even a bigger
piece of the pie if you include installed sound,
which increasingly blurs the borderline with
the also-expanding high-end residential audio sector. No wonder everyone wants in.
Three European speaker and system
manufacturing companies have secured
beachheads in the U.S. in the last couple of
years, and each has their own strengths. Outline Audio, based in Brescia, Italy, brings with
it products for all of the major market sectors,
including three line array systems for touring
sound, architectural and cinema series and an
array of DSP, mixers and amplifiers that make
it look a bit like Harman with a light dusting
of Parmesan on top: a comprehensive, selfsupporting solutions set for a wide variety of
applications.
DAS Audio, based out of Valencia, Spain,
is strong in compact and installed systems
and components, and places an emphasis
on its D-15, Europe’s first indigenous injection-molded 15-inch enclosure. The company emphasizes its efficient manufacturing
design and is the first of the three to establish its own subsidiary offices in the U.S., in
Miami, after entering the market through
FEBRUARY 2007
for a while, but I gave the benefit of the doubt
because this is a Christian organization. The producer was apologetic and promised to send me
a check ASAP. Needless to say, after a month of
phone calls and frustration, I still didn’t have a
check. Ultimately, rather than take legal action
against the Sisters of Power, I decided to let the
matter go.
However, the experience did change how I
deal with religious groups and houses of worship. I would like to go through a few of my new
guidelines in the hopes that you can find some
useful information here.
First off, any non-contracted, last minute live
show that I am called for, I let the client know
that I must receive a check, cash, gold or silver
before the gear leaves my truck. The exception
to this is if the client is a repeat customer and
has a last minute gig. Of course, I will accommodate any and all tried and true clients. However,
this is the law for first-timers.The Pope could call
with a gig at the Vatican, and I would still ask for
the money up front.
The next thing is a good, simple but detailed contract. Especially for an install gig. It
goes without saying that the client wants to
know exactly what they are paying for. And of
course, a fat deposit always helps to get the
ball rolling.
I’d like to mention something about contracts here. I had a repeat church gig at a school
in La Puente, Calif. Every year it was the same
thing. Well, four years into it, I told the coordina-
domestic distribution.
Finland-based LDS (LjudDesign Scandanavia) went after theatrical markets in Scandinavia and Europe early on, and with the help
of noted theatrical sound designer Andrew
Bruce; its Line Source System speaker technology has penetrated the tough key first-run
theatrical markets of London and New York.
These three companies come to the U.S.
market at an interesting time, one that offers
advantages and drawbacks. Chief among the
latter are a market already dominated by a
strong core of brands, including JBL, EAW and
Meyer Sound, and the fact that the U.S. dollar’s year-long slide against the Euro — the
currency of record for all three new arrivals
— keeps upping the prices of their imported
products.
But there is a template for success in
crossing the Atlantic, pioneered by Francebased L-ACOUSTICS. That company brought
out a finished version of a new technology —
the line array — at the right moment, just as
the touring industry was highly receptive to a
wide-coverage P.A. system that could be flown
and broken down quickly and easily. In fact,
Outline Audio plans to follow in L-ACOUSTICS’
footsteps in another way in the near future,
by establishing some degree of manufactur-
tor I would be there and I didn’t need a signed
contract. That year went fine, but the following
year the school failed to budget my fee because
I had waived the contract for the previous year. I
got paid, but it took almost three months to get
things sorted out. All organizations have some
kind of protocol, and if you don’t follow it you
can screw yourself.
The third thing I insist on is some sort of
planning meeting with the principles of the
event or house of worship or religious organization. I have done a lot of phone meetings
and e-mail communication, but it really works
better to sit down with the people you will
be working for and get an exact idea of what
they expect. It is not uncommon for me to
pray with these folks about a particular event
or financial expenditure, even if I am not part
of their particular religious persuasion. Believe me, I want God to be a partner on these
gigs as much as anyone.
And lastly, I will drag into court anyone who
doesn’t pay me. Priests, pastors, rabbis, nuns,
whomever is responsible for my dollars. If I do
the job I will be paid, or I will make their life hell.
The fact of the matter is that we are all just
people, regardless of our spiritual affiliations.
Which means we are all subject to a certain
amount of error in our lives and work. So, whether the client greets you with a “God bless you” or
just a “Hi,” you still want the check to clear.
Contact Jamie at [email protected]
FINL AND
BY
ITALY
DAN DALEY
SPAIN
ing in the
U.S. That, says
Tim Morin, president of
Morin Productions, Outline’s New Hampshirebased North American distributor, addresses
two issues. “We’d be cutting 30% of the costs
immediately, which will make the products
more competitive,” he says. “And we’re doing
this at a time when EAW is moving its manufacturing completely offshore. Having U.S.
manufacturing operations is a way to keep
the relationship between the buyer and the
dealer strong.” However, Paul Carelli, the distributor’s vice president of sales & marketing,
says definite plans to manufacture in the U.S.
are still pending, and that the U.S. is still a buyers’ market. “With a couple of dozen companies making line arrays, the only way to really
make it is to get the product out in front of
customers,” he says, with a focus on regional
touring companies.
Jack Kelly, president of Group One, which
distributes XTA and MC2 processing and amplifier products that both complement, and
to some extent compete with, the new European arrivals, says the U.S. is a product-driven
market, one that’s receptive to well-timed
new ideas, regardless of where they come
from and, sometimes, regardless of the initial
cost. “If it’s a compelling product, it’ll get attention in the U.S. market,” he says.
In fact, the laments about the encroachment of Chinese economics on the live sound
technology might play into a desire for European design, for the same reason that people
don’t question the inherent value of a Maserati or a Saab when you compare them with
a Hyundai. That perceptual advantage is
speculative, but other economic arguments
aren’t. All three companies are based in countries that have well-evolved live and installed
sound infrastructures, especially Spain, where
Ibiza is to dance clubs what Las Vegas is to
gambling. And the equipment’s design and
execution is not theoretical; this stuff has
been tested under battle conditions.
The arrival of new European brands adds
a dimension to a market that has increasingly focused on costs, price and transfer of
manufacturing to offshore locations. Boutique brands are well-positioned to leverage
the niche-market trends that have emerged
across various market sectors. And if they can
absorb the punch caused by exchange rates,
they’ll be properly entrenched to take advantage of a stronger dollar.
E-mail Dan at [email protected]
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 2:30:58 AM
V
THE ANKLEBITERS
By BrianCassell & Paul H.Overson
on the idea of letting someone help them
improve the sanctuary sound each service.
Well, Brian, do you have striped pants and a
multicolored jacket?
How does a person go about selling someone something that they don’t think that they
need? Is it possible to have the band call your
contact person and explain what they need?
Do you think that your contact person will
then begin to understand that she is in over
her head?
Brian: I tried to explain that, in my opinion, the in-house system was insufficient for
the show. But it seemed to go deeper than
that. I’m told that there is no infrastructure in
the building to provide power for an audio
system. It wasn’t really that they were dead
set against using another system; it was
more to the point that they wanted to keep
things simple the first time that they bring a
national level artist into their room. They expressed to me that they are using this show
as an experiment, to get the feel for whether
they would like to host more large events in
the future. Once I got to understand what
they really wanted to do, their real goal, I
was able to think more on their level. After
all, making things easy on them is part of my
job description.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to do any convincing to sell them on the idea of using my
FOH setup and monitor rig. It was immedi-
ately obvious to all of us that it would be better and simpler to use a separate console and
outboard for the concert so that their equipment isn’t disturbed. The consensus was that
we’ll do that for this show, and if they decide
to do more shows in the future, that we can
address the need to add a power disconnect
and other amenities to the facility at a later
time. After all, the show we are planning is less
then six weeks away. While I’m used to making
necessary changes at the last minute, to them
the show might as well be this weekend!
Paul: I would then guess that the real issue is how to get them to let you make the
necessary changes to the in-house system
to make it sound better in the future. How
do you go about explaining to someone that
they designed a system that isn’t doing the
best that it could? I have had to do that in a
recent Broadway-type show. I ended up not
using the center proscenium speakers and
changing the timing of the other speakers. It
didn’t make the designer very happy, but the
end result was way beyond what anyone had
heard in the room. Reviews were written up
proclaiming that it was the best sound they
had ever had in the room. What are you going
to do for them, Brian?
Brian: In this situation, we will probably
bring in some subwoofers and run them off
of an aux send to supplement the low end
of the house system. Beyond that, my hands
www.fohonline.com
200.0702.35.indd 35
are somewhat tied. Without going behind
someone’s back to tweak their system, I will
naturally provide the touring engineer with
an EQ in my rack so that he can tweak it to
his heart’s content. This won’t solve any of the
core problems with the system, but on this
one I kind of need to respect the wishes of
the venue so that we can do more work there
in the future.
The real challenge with the house system
is an overabundance of point sources. There
are multiple speaker clusters in the room, and
the biggest problem is caused by an overlap in
the coverage from cluster to cluster. At some
points in the room, you can hear four different
sources of audio, and that is with CD playback,
not accounting for direct sound coming off of
the stage. I could cover the whole place with
two stacks on each side of the stage, plus a
couple of small center fills. This would give me
a much more coherent sound, not to mention
the low end extension and overall capability
that the house system lacks.
Someone had suggested that I have a set
of racks and stacks in the nose of my truck
in case the tour engineer or artist complains
about the house system. I’m thinking it will
be at my best interest to do what the venue
has requested, and the tour personnel can be
the ones to make a stink about the rig if they
aren’t happy about it. I might come out the
hero if I say, “I’ve got my rig in the truck.”
Brian: Hey Paul, I’ve got an interesting one
for you. I recently went out to do a site survey
for an upcoming show and had a rather awkward experience. You see, one of my clients is
a local Christian radio station that promotes
a variety of CCM concerts in the area. They
typically use one of the larger area churches
as the venue. While I am used to most of the
rooms, I occasionally have to look at a new
room that we haven’t done a show in before.
It was on one of these visits that I got myself
into a bit of a bind. I listened to their system a
bit and determined that I would rather bring
in my own rig to cover the room, as I was not
pleased with the coverage that their distributed house system provided.
Here’s where it got a little sticky. My point
of contact at the church was the wife of the
engineer who not only installed and designed
the system, but had designed the custombuilt speaker cabinets as well. How was I supposed to tell her that I didn’t think the system
was appropriate for a concert? Frankly, I don’t
know how it’s appropriate for the contemporary worship they have every Sunday.
Paul: That is a sticky situation! I think that
one way to go is to bring up a rider and explain that the band requires certain name
brand gear and in certain configurations. I
have used the rider (it doesn’t matter which
one) on an occasion to get things in certain
places when the venue wouldn’t let me do
what needed to be done. Hopefully, your
point of contact and the engineer who designed the system will be able to hear the difference in the sound and start to think about
why it sounds better with your gear. Maybe
a few well-placed compliments on how it
sounds at the concert will also turn the tide.
Human relations are a huge part of what we
do and how we do things. I certainly have had
my fair share of problems in this area. What
are costs going to do with this concert? Can
they afford to use your gear?
Brian: The funny thing is that the bill for
my services doesn’t come out of the venue’s
pocket. My client is the promoter, not the
venue. So when I did mention that I wanted
to bring in my own racks and stacks, it surprised me that the church was opposed to
doing that. It turns out that this will be the
first concert in their new building, and they
want to keep things simple. I’m not sure that
they completely understand that, regardless
of how much equipment I bring in, there is
no additional effort on their part, as I have my
own crew that handles all of the equipment,
and all I need from the venue is someone to
let me in the building.
Paul: It appears that you have a tremendous selling job to do. First, as I see it, you
have to sell them on the idea of using your
equipment; second, you have to sell them
on the idea that you are really doing them a
huge favor to have different sound systems
in the room, and third, you have to sell them
2007 FEBRUARY
35
2/2/07 2:30:19 AM
8
PRACTICE
VV
BY
MARK AMUNDSON
Using Speaker
Processors
I
n the past couple of years, digital speaker
processors have gone from early adopter
stuff for the rich and touring to too economical not to have. Not so long ago, good
soundcos were racking and stacking analog
crossovers, signal limiters and equalizers to
create the secret sauce known as a drive rack.
And in that chain of processing, everything
had to be set just right or the show had no
headroom and speaker drivers were in peril
of death-by-amplifier.
Now fast-forward to today, and we can
purchase decent quality sub-$800 digital
speaker processors in 2-by-6 or 4-by-8 configurations and feel the love. However, newcom-
I find that, even with a single brand for both
pr ocessor and speaker s, ther e is not always
the nir vana that newbie digit al pr ocessor
operator s expect.
v
Flying Without Autopilot
The rest of this column consists of tips to
create your own personal speaker processor
presets and using an example from my personal experience. The first thing is to choose
your speaker drive configuration. Many newbies will just replace ye olde analog crossover
that split the subs and passive driven tops,
and that is a good comfort configuration to
start with. And if your LF drivers on your tops
are 15 inches and you have 18-inch drivers on
the subs, start with the tried and true 80Hz to
100Hz crossover setup and match up cabinet sensitivities at the crossover frequency
area (typically a modest bump up on the sub
feed). And just like good analog crossovers,
start with the 24dB Linkewitz-Riley crossover
filters at the chosen frequency.
If you instead have 12-inch LF drivers on
your top boxes, then do the same as before
but in the 100Hz to 125Hz frequency band.
Now, after doing the baby steps in the speaker
crossover menu choices, you are ready to play
36
200.0702.36-1.indd 36
FEBRUARY 2007
v
Preset Woes
I find that, even with a single brand for
both processor and speakers, there is not always the nirvana that newbie digital processor operators expect. The pre-settings may
be adequate, but the equalizer settings are
usually tuned to what the brand’s application
engineer thinks of as his favorite “room EQ.”
While I feel that absolute flat frequency response out of the speakers is not the best end
goal, it is a good starting point and probably
something that factory presets should be offered as. Myself, I look at the 100dB to 110dB
equal loudness curves on the Fletcher-Munson chart (the chart in the March 2003 Theory
and Practice column) and note that I should
put a couple extra dB dip in the 3 to 5kHz
range to make the perceived speaker output
sound flat. The good news is that most hi-mid
drivers have plenty of efficiency in the 3 to
5kHz passband to trim out using the new EQ
capabilities of the digital speaker processor.
equalizer filter games in the sub and top box
passbands. And I will expound on this more later in this column. If your top boxes are two-way
(HF horns and LF), then better speaker brands
should permit a bi-amp capability via a back
panel switch or minor jack panel surgery. You
should have the existing factory recommended
passive crossover frequency points if possible.
If not, you can approximate these points based
on the size of HF driver you have.
Size of HF Driver
Your typical pro-grade 4-inch diaphragm/2-inch throat HF driver should have a
crossover point near 1000Hz. For a pro-grade
3-inch diaphragm/1.4-inch throat HF driver,
1250Hz is a good crossover point. And for a
pro-grade 2-inch diaphragm/1-inch throat
HF driver in bi-amp mode, 2.5kHz is nice for
a crossover point. There are smaller HF driver
sizes, but I would be amazed if they have biamp provisions; as these small HF drives are
typically found in budget MI cabinets.
So easing into a three-way system, I would
recommend keeping your subs set up just like
the previous sub/top crossover point, but now
splitting the top boxes by adding a mid/high
crossover point for bi-amp drive. For example,
my EV QRx218/QRx212 rig is crossed at 125Hz
and 1250Hz. No polarity flips are needed, but
adding 5.5 inches of voice coil delay on the
mids and sub passbands aligns the HF crossover point phasing between mids and highs.
That 5.5 inches of delay actually is 0.417 milliseconds of delay time when divided by the
nominal speed of sound at approximately
1100 feet per second. Typically, the factory
will recommend a delay, but you could take
an approximate MF to HF phase distance
measurement if none is provided.
v
v
ers are still intimidated by the user interfaces,
sending prayers to the manufacturer’s help
line for presets to their chosen set of speakers
and passive/bi/tri-amp patching configurations. And woe to those who bought brand X’s
speaker processor to power brand Y’s speakers. And expect charity on brand X’s help line?
Good luck with all that…
The Three-Way Exception
With most mid-market three-way cabinets, such as a 15-inch LF plus 8-inch MF plus
1-inch HF horn, the top boxes do not have
tri-amp capability, but offer bi-amp capability with the passive MF/HF crossover left intact. What this means is that you have only
the flexibility to choose the LF/MF frequency
crossover point on the three-way top box, and
the gain, polarity/phase and major HF equalization is provided for you. And that LF/MF
crossover frequency should pretty much stay
near where the manufacturer recommends it
to be set, lest you stray too much and toast
the mid-frequency driver (which is typical).
If you have the luck and capability to
have a 4-by-8 speaker processor to drive
subs and a tri-amp top system, then you better abide by manufacturers’ recommendations on crossover points and time delays.
But the good news is that you now have
the flexibility to fine tune the equalization
across the whole audio frequency range —
and then fine tune the power amp limiters
for best headroom capability.
v
THEORY
Equalization
While most digital speaker processors
have a graphic equalizer feature before the
crossover signal chain, I recommend leaving it
alone. Instead, focus on targets of opportunity
using the parametric EQs for each post-crossover passband output path. Now I am going
to commit heresy by recommending that you
at least borrow some kind of noise generator/
RTA display device to stimulate, measure and
smooth things up the first time you get a new
set of speakers. At this point, you should feel
that you can power up the drive train (processor, amps) and inject fairly low volumes of pink
noise to set the passband gains. If the speaker
documentation is lost or not trustable, start
with subs and LF/MF sections at unity gain
boost/cut (i.e., 0dB) and drop the HF section
gain by 6dB. You should have much flatter responses on the RTA, but ugliness in the 3 to
5kHz band peaking, dropoff above 6kHz and
possibly some modest dips or peaks in the
150Hz to 1kHz area. Figure 1 shows a typical
RTA/pink noise spectrum plot if everything
starts at unity gain passbands.
Ideally, you want your SIAsoft SMAART
Live or Spectrafoo noise/RTA package to
show you these nice peaks and dips. My first
attack on EQs is actually at the ends of the audio bands by choosing something like 40Hz
and 16kHz shelving equalization with a Butterworth three-pole (18dB/octave) slope roll
off for rumble and hiss that the drivers or cabinet can not reproduce. After this, I identify my
sub cabinet — 10dB bottom end frequency
response (typically in the 40 to 50Hz range for
dual 18-inch subs) — and place a parametric
peak filter just above that drop off to lend support in 40 to 60Hz range, which tends to need
a bit of help. The boost may only be 2–6dB,
and the bandwidth a few tens of Hz wide (e.g.
40 to 60Hz centered at 50Hz), but that touch
of bottom will add immense fidelity to kick
drums and bass guitar reproduction besides
the expected chest thump at 80Hz.
Going up to the low presence band at
3–5kHz, most HF drivers have a resonance
peak in here that needs a few dB of drop at a
moderate bandwidth to flatten things up, or
in my case, place an additional mild dip here
for the equal loudness compensation. After
6kHz, you may realize
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 10:18:47 AM
ALL PRODUCTION ALL THE TIME
YOUR
YOUR PASSION
PASSION IS
IS PRODUCTION.
PRODUCTION.
SO
SO IS
IS OURS.
OURS.
At Timeless Communications our staff includes
production company owners, audio mixers,
lighting programmers & designers.
We understand your world because we are a part of it.
Stay passionate. Read the industry’s #1 trade magazines.
100.00702.48.indd 37
2/2/07 2:13:12 AM
EMPLOYMENT
You’re reading this message
So are 20,659 Purchasers of
Portable Live Sound and Theatrical Install.
Put the power of FOH to work for your company
Call Peggy Blaze at 818.435.2285
38
200.0702.38.MP.indd 38
FEBRUARY 2007
www.fohonline.com
2/2/07 10:14:40 AM
ADVERTISER’S INDEX
COMPANY
PAGE
PHONE #
WEBSITE
A-Line Acoustics
6
814.663.0600
http://foh.hotims.com/12796-100
Renkus-Heinz
C4
949.588.9997
APB Dynasonics
16
973.785.1111
Roland
27
800.380.2580
Crown International
9
574.294.8056
TC Electronic Inc.
C1
818.665.4900
DAS Audio
23
888.DAS.4.USA
TMB
17
818.899.8818
dbx
33
801.568.7660
Westone Music Products
4
719.540.9333
DiGiCo
25
877.292.1623
WorxAudio
36
336.275.7474
Digidesign
7
650.731.6287
Yamaha
714.522.9011
DPA Microphones
1
303.485.1025
21, C3,
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Hear Technologies
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JBL Professional
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AudioEast
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Martin Audio
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Bag End
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Meyer Sound
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dblittle.com
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NAB
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Hi-Tech Audio
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Northern Sound & Light
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COMPANY
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Sound Productions
PAGE
PHONE #
WEBSITE
Harvesting the Right Sound
larger sound reinforcement system may become necessary, there is a microphone split
and multiple tie-lines designed into the
house wiring system that can accommodate
an on-stage monitor mix position should one
become required.
Since not all activities require the support
of a dedicated audio technician at the mix position, the 16-channel Ashley automix system
consisting of the Ashley 24.24M Matrix Processor with three additional 4-channel expansion
cards for support of 16 microphones.
Microphones for performers at the Harvest include 18 Shure SLX24/Beta58 Hand-
held Wireless Systems, selected for their easy
setup/channel configuration as well as their
excellent sound quality. Additionally, there
is an Audix D6 microphone for miking kick
drum, used in conjunction with Sennheiser
e604 drum mics for the toms, along with various Shure SM and Beta series mics, and large
diaphragm condensers from MXL. For traditional choir miking, AKG C 3000 B cardioid
condenser microphones are employed.
Loudspeaker management for the system is handled by two Lake Contour systems.
There is also a TASCAM CD-A500 combination
CD player and reversible cassette deck to ac-
commodate playback of pre-recorded materials, as well as a Marantz CDR632 rackmount
CD recorder for recording events that take
place in the sanctuary.
the best consoles would be the smallest.
How do you like the digital desk?
I think there are a lot of advantages. For
instance, last year I went to Sturgis [The annual
Harley-Davidson gathering in South Dakota –ed.]
with Nickelback and we dragged an H-3000
and all these gates and comps. There were racks
everywhere in monitor world, a ton of gear, and
it rocked. This year we are going back there, and
you can ride a bicycle around monitor world,
because there’s a PM5D and there’s a PM5D at
front of house. Then there are times like when
we played with Queensrÿche. Even though they
were playing first, by the time they would load
out and drive to the next date, they would be
three hours behind. So their engineer came up
and said, “Can we use your desk?” I said, “Well,
if you have a card,” and he pulled out his card.
Within 18 seconds, his entire show was there. He
saved his songs as scenes.
Now for me, with Disturbed, a straightahead rock/metal band for 90 minutes, 60 minutes, 45 minutes, I don’t need it. I’m not saying
that I don’t like it, but I don’t have to call somebody and have it freighted because I have to
have it. I grew up on everything. I’ve climbed every rung on the ladder. I think that was the best
way to learn.
That’s a generational thing, and I think your
generation is going to be the last that can say
they learned on every rung on the ladder.
verify the peak/dip is stationary and not just
coming from the floor/wall/ceiling reflections.
check your choices by knowing the passband
driver program power ratings and amplifier
power ratings.The idea is that limiter clamps at
or before the amplifier runs out of headroom,
and the drivers get all the power they need
for near program ratings. Note that with all
that filter gain in the HF passband, you may
limit first at HF before the mids and subs get
going. That may be an indication to back off
on the HF filter boosts and suffer a little less
highs as things get loud.
The Finest Worship Space in South Carolina
By identifying the capabilities they wanted, hiring the services of a dedicated acoustician/system designer early in the design
phase of the facility, and working with professional installers, the Harvest has assembled a
state-of-the art A/V system with the capability to support future expansion as their worship requirements evolve.
“From the onset,” says Gattis, “this entire sanctuary was developed with a focus
on music and contemporary worship. Similarly, acoustics was a key consideration all
through the design phases of this facility.
As the Harvest’s Worship Pastor, Keith Stone
played a vital role in the development and
selection of the overall system, and recognized the need to involve an acoustician
and other professionals from the start of the
project. This is a system that was done right,
and I am absolutely convinced the Harvest
is the finest worship space anywhere in the
state of South Carolina.”
Disturbing Turns
And there’s nothing you can do.
Well, you can kindly say this and that, but at
some point, you’re gonna see somebody or he’s
going to ask, “Turn it up or down?” Sometimes
you have to bite your tongue, and sometimes
people will listen and understand. Sometimes
they don’t.
You guys are carrying the 5D on this tour?
We carry two PM5Ds. This band had a successful three-year touring period off the first
two albums. They kinda needed a break; they
had babies, and they wanted to take time recording this album. They’ve been on hiatus for
about a year, so when they came back, they
wanted to re-associate themselves instead of
jumping into arenas. There was some possibility that some of their fan base had grown up
and gone away. Anyway, this is the Jagermeister tour, and that dictates where we play. We
can only play where they sell Jagermeister, so
it’s not going to be in an arena; it’s not going to
be an amphitheatre. It’s going to be in the local
House of Blues and the local, 800–2,000 capacity clubs. So with all of that in mind, we decided
So, I’m guessing you’re using all the dynamics and effects on the board.
Yeah. I’m new to the console. I have been
on it for about six or seven months now,
through a series of different legs and breaks.
I was kinda freaked out like every other engineer. When we have a local opener, their FOH
mixer comes walking up, thinking they are going to do their show. The next thing they see
is something they might have not read about
or touched. The thing that I learned was that
I still knew how to mix; it was just the visual
burden that I didn’t know what I was doing.
The learning curve was really quick. The console, to me, basically sounds like and works
like a 4K, and if you’ve ever been on a 3K or a
4K, there’s half your battle. It’s just a matter of
knowing what to do and how to do it; you’re
just not familiar with grabbing something
and immediately going to go do something.
You actually have to think. Like anything
else, it becomes routine to where you’re not
even realizing you’re doing something to get
where you need to go.
Can you see any disadvantages with digital
desks?
One of the drawbacks for engineers, and
you nailed it on the head, is that there’s a gap. If
you don’t start in the trenches and locally in the
bars and in the clubs… I think one of the first
consoles I mixed on was a Sun. Technology has
progressed, and I’ve said to people,“Well, you’ve
run a 3K or a 4K? Are you familiar?” They’re like,
“No.” That was a huge shock to me. Another disadvantage with a digital desk is that on some of
them you can’t multitask like you can on an analog desk. You can’t grab a gain, mess with the
fader and do this. You’re either going to confuse
it, it might lock up or you’re going to tell it to do
something and send something somewhere or
back that you don’t want to do, because you’re
not paying attention. But once you get comfortable with the technology, you’re not even really
aware of what you’re doing because you know
what you’re doing and how to get there.
Using Speaker Processors
you are going to need a whole bunch of gain
eased on as 6kHz builds towards 15kHz. There
are a couple of ways to get here, depending
of the EQ capabilities of digital speaker
processors. If you have a shelving filter
capability in the HF besides the previously
mentioned 16kHz drop filter, start it at 12kHz
with a 6dB gain and one-pole slope (6dB/
octave). Then adjust the gain and frequency
to get the desired flatness. Do not get greedy
with 1.4-inch and 2-inch throat HF drivers,
as 10 to 12kHz may be all you can expect
with those larger diaphragm masses, and
piling gain much beyond 10dB at 12kHz is
just a recipe for diaphragm burnout. But a 1inch throat driver should easily make 14kHz
without goosing the gains too much.
If you do not have a shelving capability, try
using a parametric EQ boost centered at 14kHz
with a one-octave bandwidth. Be prepared to
slop on a 6–12dB gain peak to flatten up the HF,
and even tack on another filter in the 6–12kHz
region for smoothness (boost or dip). Lastly,
attack modest dips or peaks in the mid bands
using the RTA to seek them out, and flatten
them up. Beware that imperfect shop testing
acoustics may be the root of these bumps, so
move the RTA mic placement closer/further to
Limiters
If you practice safe amplifier sizing and
same gains for each passband, as mentioned
in previous Theory and Practice columns, then
your passband limiter settings will track your
passband gains. For example, all amplifiers
have 40V/V gains (+32dB) and full power
input ratings at about +7 to +9dBu levels. So
from Figure 1, I limit the mids at +7dBu, subs
at +9dBu and tops at +1dBu tracking the
passband gains. The challenge is to double-
www.fohonline.com
200.0702.39.indd 39
Test your theory, contact Mark at marka@
fohonline.com
2007 FEBRUARY
39
2/2/07 2:27:56 AM
FOH AT LARGE
V
Years Pass,
n
i
a
m
e
R
s
e
i
r
e
t
s
y
M
e
h
t
t
u
B
D
ecember 31, 2006, 8 p.m. Four more
hours, and I will be heralding in a new
year with hope, faith, renewal, good
cheer and great expectations for the next 365
days. I have resolved to transform my negative
behavior into a positive force that will change
the world and enrich all of mankind. Believe
you me, I have some lofty ideals for a guy who
is home alone on New Year’s Eve, but it wasn’t
always like this. As a matter of fact, I took
great satisfaction in my own personal record
of having worked 15 straight New Year’s Eve
events. Quite frankly, it was a matter of pride
to know that I had a gig on New Year’s Eve,
since the money was always good and the
party always fun, but in 1999 I decided that it
was more important to welcome in the New
Year with my family than to be out mixing a
show and drinking with strangers. Ironically,
seven years later, my teenage kids are out at
parties, and my wife, who is an OB-GYN, is on
call delivering babies, which means that I will
be welcoming in the new year with my computer and a cold beer. That said, I probably
won’t even make it past 11:00, but that’s OK,
since I now take pride in the fact that I have
not taken any New Year’s work for the past
seven consecutive years. Things change.
Speaking of change, the 38th president of
the United States, Gerald Ford, passed away
in December of last year and received much
media attention, as was a president’s due,
but in my world Mr. Ford’s passing was overshadowed by the demise of the first Godfather of Soul, James Brown. I wasn’t surprised
at Mr. Ford’s send-off, as it was befitting of a
United States president, but I did find it impressive that, in Harlem, Mr. Brown was drawn
up 125th Street by two white horses to lie in
state at the Apollo Theatre inside an open
top 14-carat gold coffin. He was dressed in a
shiny blue suit complemented by silver shoes
and, according to CNN, it was his first of three
coming next
month
• RoCK the boat
20+ bands,
2000 fans,
11 soundguys
and one big boat
• Kill the Squeal
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40
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FEBRUARY 2007
costume changes in
as many days, as there
was first The Apollo
showing, then a private funeral in Augusta, Georgia James
Brown Arena.
I saw pictures
of the event, and
even his hair looked
great; the only thing
I thought was missing from the production was his cape.
You must remember
the famous cape
that draped the exhausted Mr. Brown’s
shoulders as, spent
from expending so
much energy during
his show, he fell to his
knees trying to exit
the stage. Could that
really be the end?
Was the Ubermensch
of Soul finally done?
Had he exhausted
his last bit of soulful ebullience? Not
a chance. With a swoosh of his cape and a
quick pirouette, our caped crusader was on
his feet giving one last soulful gasp, only to
turn and repeat the exhilarating experience
two or three times before finally exiting the
stage and leaving the audience soulfully super-charged.
In the summer of 1999, the year that I
would work my 15th consecutive New Year’s
Eve event, I received a call from a promoter
asking me to produce James Brown in New
York at Central Park’s Summer Stage. I was
on the road at the time, doing monitors for
Chaka Khan, and wasn’t sure that my schedule would be clear, but as fate would have it,
Chaka’s road manager informed me that Chaka would be opening for Mr. Brown in Central
Park. By mere serendipity, I found myself producing the show and doing monitors for the
opening act. I was thrilled.
Chaka had a big band and a fairly extensive rider, but I knew what was needed, and,
fortunately, the 10 mixes I used for Chaka
would work for Mr. Brown as well. It was
scheduled as an afternoon show, so lights
were minimal, but I did have to bring in a few
mobile dressing rooms and a catering truck
for the bands. I made sure the bands had all
of the backline gear requested on their riders
and meticulously calculated my run of show
and labor call. Therefore, when I placed the
call to Mr. Brown’s tour manager, I was prepared, or so I thought. He didn’t seem very
concerned about the equipment or run of
show, but he was quite anxious to know if I
had the hair dryer as requested on the rider.
I told him that there would be a hair dryer in
the mobile dressing room, but he let me know
that, without exception, Mr. Brown would not
perform if I did not provide a beauty salon
hair dryer. Not a handheld hair dryer, but the
BY
BAKER LEE
[email protected]
type that fits over ones head as they sit in the
beauty salon and have their nails done.
I have had to fill many unusual rider requests, and by and large this was not that unusual, except that it was for the Godfather of
Soul himself, James Brown. I guess I just never
pictured James Brown, before coming out to
do a gritty, soulful show, sitting under a hair
dryer waiting for his coif to be done; apparently real steps need to be taken to create
the magic of show business. Anyway, while it
wasn’t overly difficult to find the hair dryer, I
did learn that this type of equipment was not
for rent and it had to be bought. I spoke to
a few different beauty suppliers and finally
settled on a hair dryer of decent quality and
reasonable price. I assumed that Mr. Brown
would take the unit with him after the show,
and I could only imagine that he had a huge
warehouse somewhere in Georgia, in which
he stored hundreds, if not thousands, of these
dryers. Nevertheless, the tour manager was
happy, which meant that Mr. Brown was happy, and therefore I was happy.
My concert with Chaka was great and
went off without a hitch. The sound was perfect, and she and her band played a great
show and set the stage for the Godfather of
Soul. Mr. Brown and his band had all arrived
later in the day and hadn’t left themselves
much time for a sound check, so I had expected a bit of scrambling in monitor world,
but this didn’t seem to be the case, as nobody
onstage seemed to have any regard or care
regarding the sound. JB’s band came out first
and started to vamp; then a magician came
out and did some comedy laced magic tricks,
followed by some of the backup singers who
took the stage and sang for a bit. While all
this was going on, I kept thinking that the
band was good, but not great, something
just wasn’t locked in. And then James Brown
took the stage. No, it wasn’t the young James
Brown of the previous three decades, but as
soon as he hit his first note, the band tightened up and everything fell into place. His
rhythm, phrasing and even his shouts were so
in the pocket that the groove was impossible
to deny. And to top it off, his hair was perfect.
I had arranged for a limo, and as soon as the
show was finished, James Brown walked off the
stage directly into the waiting coach and rode
off into a soulful sunset. When everyone had left
I went into Mr. Brown’s mobile dressing room
for one last check. There, to my great astonishment, was the hair dryer that had been the focus of my attention for the past six weeks as I
had advanced the show, and it was unopened.
I couldn’t imagine why, after putting up such a
fuss, they couldn’t even peek inside to make sure
that it was what I said it was. I was confused. Did
I get the wrong dryer? Was this the show where
JB threw all caution to the wind and performed
without sitting under the dryer?
The mystery remains to this day, but one
thing is very clear from my encounter with
James Brown: It should be a prerequisite at
any show for the sound to be top notch, no
worries, end of story. Image, on the other
hand, must be nurtured and cultivated, as it is
all held together with gaff tape and hairnets.
James Brown was a one-of-a-kind musician,
being brilliant and innovative as well as being an inspiration, an influence and an icon, a
musician who will be greatly missed. May he
and his coif rest in peace. It is now 12:30 AM on
January 1, 2007, and I have completed my seventh consecutive year of not gigging on New
Year’s Eve. More importantly, after 53 years of
legendary music, it is also the beginning of the
first year of our collective lives without James
Brown in the world. R.I.P., JB.
E-mail Baker at [email protected]
www.fohonline.com
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