Toby Keith - Mobile Production Pro

TOBY KEITH
LIGHT, LIGHT AND
MORE LIGHT!
PLUS
...AND MORE
Contents
on the COVER
TOBY KEITH
VARI*LITE
24
30
SYNCROLITE
32
KEITH URBAN 12
BITS & PIECES
2 PUBLISHER’S NOTES
4 SOUND
D.A.S. Audio
Rocks Delta Fair & Music Festival
Innovason
Debuts DioAV A-Net
connectivity module
6 LIGHTING
UVLD
Brings Media-Management Expertise
MA Lighting

8 VIDEO
XL Video
New Trix for Maximo Park
18 INDUSTRY PROFILE
Robbie Greenberg
36 VENUES
Resch Center
Celebrates Five Years
38 IAAM
Arena Management Conference

48 ADVERTISER’S INDEX
&
BREAKOUTS
event PHOTOS
12 KEITH URBAN
38 IAAM - AMC
IAAM’s 18th Annual
Arena Management Conference
industry profile
ROBBIE GREENBERG


Tour Guide Journal
1
tour guide journal volume 10 issue 8
Publisher’s Notesc
HOME OFFICE STAFF
Fall is here and as the leaves
start to change, so do our priorities. This is the season
where tours start to wind up and corporate events spring
up. As the industry begins to shift priorities and focus
on inventories and new products we present a cover feature on Toby Keith and two prominent manufacturersSyncrolite and Vari*Lite.
Our coverage of the industry is clearly the most diverse
and comprehensive in the industry, as evidenced in
our Journals and annual Directories. Our Road Book
Directory is the primary source of data and information in the Mobile Production
Industry. In our Journals, we strive to cover events, issues and products as well as
possible. To that end, we encourage the industry to send us regular press releases
and information on activities that are of interest to our readership. We invite you
to add us to your list of press resources as often as appropriate.
Finally, we are always in search of data on new touring professionals. Please
encourage anyone on the road to send us their contact information and touring credits. We are nearing completion on a massive searchable global database
that will present this data to the industry in a unique format. We need the input
of everyone to make this database comprehensive and functional. Stay tuned for
more information on this exciting project and enjoy the seasonal change.
L A R RY S M I T H
ph: 615.256.7006 • f: 615.256.7004
email: [email protected]
tourguidemag.com
750 Cowan St • Nashville, TN • USA 37207
Owner: Larry Smith
email: [email protected]
Publisher In Chief: Michael Waddell
email: [email protected]
Advertising Coordinator: Chris Cogswell
email: [email protected]
Chief Writer: Michael A. Beck
email: [email protected]
Contributing Writer: Nat Hecht
email: [email protected]
Contributing Writer: Loren Faye
email: [email protected]
Contributing Writer: Phil Bourne
email: [email protected]
Art Director/Graphic Designer: Kristin Searcy
email: [email protected]
IT Support: Michael Stalcup
email: [email protected]
TOUR LINK BOARD OF ADVISORS
Benny Collins, Jim Digby, Nick Gold, Jon Nevins, Stuart Ross,
Bobby Schneider, Jay Sendyk, Seth Sheck, Nicki Goldstein,
Karyln Hawke, Kim Okeson, Chuck Randall
tourlinkconference.com
ADVERTISING SALES OFFICE
Jessi Wallace • Nashville
email: [email protected]
ph: 615.256.7006 • f: 615.256.7004
Steve Byam • Nashville
email: [email protected]
ph: 615.256.7006 • f: 615.256.7004
Peter Lorimer • UK
email: [email protected]
ph: +44 (0) 20 8340 1138 • skype: peterlorimeruk
PUBLISHED BY
Anvil Productions, LLC
ph: 615.256.7006 • f: 615.256.7004
Email: [email protected]
©2007 Anvil Productions, LLC. Nothing may be reproduced without written permission of the
publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit any and all editorial content included in this
publication. The publisher has made every attempt to insure accuracy and consistency of this
publication. However, some listings & information may be incomplete due to a lack of information provided by various companies listed. Please send any inquiries to the attention of the
publisher. All advertising appears at the paid solicitation of the advertiser. Anvil Productions,
LLC, can not be held liable for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies appearing in this journal
in the form of editorials, listings or advertising.
Member of:
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Tour Guide Journal
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new
ALPHA WASH 1200
Putting it to the test is an exclusive privilege for
Professional Lighting Designers
www.claypaky.it
www.claypakyamerica.com
SOUNDc
D.A.S. AUDIO ROCKS DELTA FAIR AND MUSIC FESTIVAL
Allstar Audio Systems, Inc.
selects D.A.S. Aero system
for new regional event
ered also played an important role in this
project. The system cabling was considerably easier and cleaner than one typically
encounters with non-powered systems,
and the entire rig was much easier in
terms of our truck pack. For these very
reasons, we’ve deployed D.A.S. systems on
numerous projects.”
A
brand new fair recently opened to record
crowds at the Agricenter and Grounds in
Memphis—the Delta Fair and Music Festival.
Coined as an alternative fair to the 151-year
old Mid-South Fair of Memphis, the Delta Fair and Music
Festival focuses on wholesome family entertainment. In
its first year, the festival broke all expectations for attendance. Running August 31st through September 9th, the
festival included a broad range of performers, including
the Spin Doctors, Mark Chesnut, Grand Funk Railroad,
Survivor, and the Gym Class Heroes. The sound reinforcement system driving these acts was none other than a sizeable system from the D.A.S. Audio Aero catalog.
Smyrna, Tenn. based Allstar Audio
Systems, Inc.— a full-service sound, lighting, and staging design firm in the touring, festival and corporate marketplace
— was chosen as the production vendor
for the kick-off year. Allstar provided all
sound, lighting, staging and personnel for
the two large entertainment venues. For
the festival’s main stage, the Allstar crew
deployed twelve D.A.S. Audio Aero 38A
self-powered line array elements coupled
with twelve Aero 218A self-powered subwoofers. Each side of the stage saw six
flown Aero 38A’s with the six Aero 218A
4
Tour Guide Journal
subs in a 3-wide, 2-high ground stack configuration.
According to Mike Borne, President
of Allstar Audio Systems, “The D.A.S.
system offered incredible coverage to the
main stage area. By utilizing the D.A.S.
provided EASE Focus aiming software,
we were able to focus the top three boxes
for long-throw penetration, while arching
the bottom three elements to fill in for the
areas right up next to the stage. The fact
that the D.A.S. Aero system is self pow-
The Aero 38A is a powered, medium
format line array module which integrates
low, mid, and high frequency transducers
into a single unit. Low frequency reproduction is handled by two D.A.S. 12GNC
loudspeakers in a bass-reflex configuration. Two D.A.S. 10LMN16, 10-inch cone
transducers incorporating neodymium
magnetic assemblies and 3-inch voice coils
are used for mid frequency reproduction.
High frequency reproduction is handled
by a single D.A.S. ND-10 large format
compression driver using a 4-inch titanium diaphragm, copper clad aluminum
edge-wound flat wire (EFW) voice coil
with a 1.5-inch exit throat. Power is provided by a three-channel class “D” power
amplifier.
Looking back on their experience with
the new the Delta Fair and Music Festival,
Borne offered this closing thought. “All
of the staging and production gear was
installed in one day by Allstar’s Smyrnabased crew prior to the fair’s grand
opening,” said Borne. “Fair Production
Manager Darrin Hillis was totally amazed
by how fast the stages and systems went
up, and he was particularly impressed the
quality of the audio when it was turned
on for the first time. This was another
highly successful event for Allstar Audio,
and our D.A.S. Audio rig was a significant
part of that.” c
INNOVASON
DEBUTS
DioAV A-Net
connectivity module
Following the recent announcement at AES
in San Francisco of a development partnership between digital mixing console company
INNOVASON and Aviom, world leaders and
pioneers in personal monitor mixing technology, INNOVASON unveils the first product
resulting from the collaboration.
DioAV is an INNOVASON Dio module
which is easily installed in one of the two
locations available on the DSP board of the
Sy48 and Sy80 consoles. Two CAT5 connectors offer direct digital connectivity to two
16-channel networks and Aviom’s signature
Pro16 Personal Mixers via Aviom’s proprietary
protocol, A-Net. The virtual patchbays within
INNOVASON’s proprietary management software, Sensoft, enable you to assign quickly and
easily any audio bus (direct input or mix bus)
to these channels. DioAV offers the option to
provide musicians, conference attendees and
public speakers alike an extremely high level
of foldback listening comfort thanks to the
independence provided by Aviom’s personal
mixers.
INNOVASON’s Xavier Pion, director of
sales and marketing, regards the development
as a highly positive move for all concerned.
“This is all about offering choice to our users,
and adapting to the ways in which they like
to work,” he explained. “A growing number
of musicians like to have a personal monitor
mixer on stage with them, and Aviom is the
market leader in this field, so it made perfect
sense for us to incorporate the A-Net protocol
into our Sy48 and Sy80 platforms in the shape
of a specially designed Dio module in order to
offer simple and direct connectivity to Aviom’s
Pro16 Personal Mixers. Furthermore, it also
benefits users in the corporate environment as
AV technology develops apace and corporate
consumers have ever-higher expectations.
It sits perfectly with our ethos of providing
superlative audio quality, flexibility and ease
of use.” c
Tour Guide Journal
5
LIGHTINGc
UVLD BRINGS MEDIA-MANAGEMENT EXPERTISE
TO SLAYER AND MARILYN MANSON DOUBLE-HEADLINER TOUR
UNLIMITED VISIBILITY LIGHTING
DESIGN (UVLD) brings its media and
media-management expertise to the concert-touring arena with Cameron Yeary
consulting on the dual Slayer and Marilyn
Manson tour.
Slayer
Yeary teamed with lighting designers Jason Cain
and Sonny Satterfield, with the Slayer and Marilyn
Manson tours respectively, as the bands set out on a
double-headlining tour of the US this summer. “They
brought me in to help merge the two shows together
as they moved from small venues and European festivals to large amphitheaters,” says Yeary. “My job was
to assist with the equipment interface and make the
transition as seamless as possible. Combining equipment and managing media for a show now twice the
size was quite a challenge.”
According to Yeary, Slayer had been deploying High
End Systems’ DL.2 digital lights and a Catalyst system
while Marilyn Manson favored Coolux’s Pandora’s
Box. "I had to figure out a way to run Catalyst
through Pandora’s Box as an input and to add the
cameras Slayer requested,” Yeary explains. “We
needed to operate five lipstick cameras and two front
of house cameras through Pandora’s Box and mix the
live cameras on top of Catalyst.”
In addition, the designers had to be capable of controling, from front of house, seven cameras and their
own media and content live. “That was a pretty cool
feat,” Yeary notes. “I had to make sure all of those
elements would be able to come together in time for
the show. It was definitely fun to see cameras come
into a show that been programmed with nothing but
prerecorded media; now the tour was able to use live
content.”
Yeary was also tasked with re-encoding media and
checking files as they were received from production. “There were drastic differences between the
two bands in terms of content and technology,” he
notes. “Slayer's content was very literal while Marilyn
Manson's was more theatrical. It was also interesting
to see the two media systems combined, one Mac and
one PC, each requiring drastic different codec types.”
Two stacks of two Christie Roadster S+ 16L projectors handled the big-screen display which along
with the Pandoras’s Box, were provided by Delicate
Productions. All the lighting gear, rigging and
Catalysts were provided by Gemini Stage Lighting. c
Marilyn Manson
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Tour Guide Journal
LIGHTINGc
Starlight:
MA LIGHTING NETWORK
Starlight: MA Lighting network
controlled lighting of Mercedes
Benz booth during the IAA
As the 62nd International Car
Show (IAA) recently opened its
doors in Frankfurt a nine month
preparation and a two month
setup ended for the planners
of the DaimlerChrysler AG
booth. The company furnished
Frankfurt’s “Festhalle” (festival
hall) with state-of-the-art LED
technology as well as more than
500 moving lights and scores of
PARs. 10,000m² and 68 cars were
sophistically illuminated this way.
Besides the Mercedes-Benz booth
there were also the booths of
Smart and Maybach located in
the festival hall.
For lighting control the planners
of TLD Planungsgruppe GmbH
relied on an MA Lighting system
consisting of 5 x grandMA fullsize, 3 x grandMA light, 7 x MA
NSPs, 24 x MA 2Port Nodes as
well as 11 x HP ProCurve Switch
2626. The installed fibre optic
network had a length of 1.4
kilometres and connected seven
equipment rooms. 35 DMX
universes were used for the show.
MA NSPs, located in one room,
provided the necessary processing
power and distributed their signal
to the MA 2Port Nodes which
were located throughout the festival hall. They provided DMX
to control the entire lighting rig
in real time. During the fair a
fully automated show was run.
Lighting, video/LEDs, sound and
two turntables were synchronised
via Timecode.
The planners took a lot of steps
to ensure maximum reliability.
Amongst others a Spanning Tree
Algorithm was used for the network. Furthermore the system
structure was build up in a way
that even the failure of multiple
NSPs would not have affected
the show. Also, the main console,
controlled via Timecode and
MIDI, was seamlessly backed up
by another MA console. All these
precautions were undertaken due
to the fact, that a failure would
have caused every light in the
booth to go out.
During the setup it was possible
to focus the cars and architecture
and to view the lighting from
continued on page 40
Tour Guide Journal
7
VIDEOc
NEW TRIX FOR MAXIMO PARK
XL VIDEO UK IS SUPPLYING MAXIMO PARK’S LIGHTING AND VISUALS DESIGNER STEVIE MARR WITH
BARCO MITRIX SCREEN AND CATALYST DIGITAL
MEDIA SERVER FOR THE BAND’S CURRENT UK AND
EUROPEAN TOUR, MARKING STAGE 3 OF A PROGRESSIVE VIDEO/LIGHTING DESIGN PROCESS WHICH COMMENCED AT THE START OF 2006.
The account was handled for XL by Jo
Beirne and Phil Mercer who comment,
“Stevie always comes up with new and
refreshing ideas, and it’s been great to
see Maximo Park’s video design evolve.
He knows what he wants and is great
to work with on all levels”.
For Marr, an enthusiastic exponent of
video and lighting “convergence”, the
MiTrix added a new edge and depth
to the show as well as providing surfaces for his 70 or so custom created
video clips. These were all sorted on
and played back through two layers of
the Catalyst.
8
Tour Guide Journal
tour are
completely new,
although with several stylistic links and
references to what has gone before.
The MiTrix are arranged in 7 rectangular columns of various shapes and
dimensions across the stage, its gentle
asymmetry suggesting an optical illusion of uniformity which isn’t quite
what it seems!
His initial brief from the band – who
he keeps updated with visualisations
as the content evolves – was to keep
it bold and blocky utilising plenty
of primary colours - in the vein of
the industrial and angular oeuvre of
Russian constructivist art.
Offering 602 x 192 pixels, the MiTrix
was relatively high resolution for
Marr who used VersaTILES and
then VersaTUBES respectively on the
previous two tours. The clips he has
designed and made for this leg of the
Marr’s collocation of clips were primarily non-narrative, with a couple
of notable exceptions, including “Our
Velocity”, which sees the screens come
alive with sequences of rapidly jumping and flickering numbers.
VI
IDEOc
He also used the occasional clip that
has persisted throughout the entire tour
– in this case an oscillating graphic EQ
effect, which also graced the Tubes and
the Tiles of the previous shows, activated during the high energy “Limassol”.
That content takes on a totally different ambience when displayed on the
MiTrix.
Operating both lighting and video via
a RoadHog console supplied by lighting contractors Lite Alterative, Marr
is really impressed with the speed and
response time of the MiTrix. At times
he flashes between different clips just
as if he was operating lighting fixtures,
“The response is instantaneous” he
states. He maximises this functionality
during the spikey guitar riffs of “Girls
Who Play Guitars”, adding that MiTrix
is “The best surface I have seen yet
for playing back graphics and material
timed exactly to the music.” c
Tour Guide Journal
9
KEITH URBAN
NOT A BAD SEAT IN THE HOUSE
“LOVE, PAIN & THE WHOLE CRAZY WORLD TOUR”
b y MICHAEL A. BECK
From the very beginning of the Keith
Urban show, anyone who wanted to
see a country show knows they came
to the wrong place. The stage was the
basic rectangle in an end-on configuration at one end of the room playing to
the whole house.
There was, however, a runway that ran
out into the house to a point beyond
where the mix position would normally be where there was a circular
B-stage upon which Urban and his
band played a short acoustic set during
the latter part of the show. During the
show Urban worked a good portion
of the runway as a tool to get closer to
the crowd.
The visual highlight of the show is
the gigantic video wall that comprises
the entire background of the show.
The overall design was done by design
legend Mark Brickman and looks very
similar to the show he designed for this
year’s Roger Waters show.
The hot seat on this show is without a
doubt the LD position, as Urban was
himself an LD before he became successful in his musical career. While the
video wall is certainly the 900-pound
gorilla in the room, anyone really pay-
ing attention to the visual action in the
show sees that specific care has been
taken to make sure that the first law
of lighting is duly adhered to, which is
Light the Money.
As is too often the case, lighting
designers correct the show to account
for video to the point where one can
scarcely see the players on stage. In the
case of this show, if the lighting was
corrected, it was done with such sensitivity that it had no effect on the naked
eye when watching the action that was
taking place on the stage as opposed to
the action on the video wall. The performers were lit for the live experience
and the video looked great because of
video engineer, Danny Whetstone.
Regardless of where he is, Urban is
well lit and stands out from the rest
of the action that is taking place on
stage. The video system was fed by the
usual compliment of cameras both
in the house on sticks and hand-held.
But the cool video twist was that there
was a camera on an arm that retracted
vertically and ran along a track that
followed the runway and was able to
get great shots of Urban while on the
stage.
The other issue of the video portion
of the show was that it weighed 30,000
pounds in a show that had a total
weight of just over 50,000 pounds.
This was a bit of a challenge in some
of the older stadiums that the show
played in.
As was said before, the lighting system
was well handled by LD Joel Reiff in
that no matter how close Urban was
standing to the screen, he was always
the focal point of the room unless
something was happening that was
intended to take the focus off of the
artist. This was a very well lit show by
a very sparse rig giving the message
that it really was all about the music.
There isn’t really a lot to say about
the audio. That is to say that this show
sounded great. Once again we came
to a show where the audio paid intense
attention to full coverage of the room
and it paid off.
Keith Urban came out and put on
a screaming rock n’ roll show. Every
aspect of the production kept perfect
pace with his performance. There simply wasn’t a bad seat in the house. c
CONTINUED ON
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Tour Guide Journal
page 40
Scott Frey: System Engineer,
Andy Hill Monitor: Tech, Chad
Franscoviak: FOH Engineer, Mike
Adams Monitor Engineer, Rudy
Paniagua: Audio Tech
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL A BECK
band
Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Bass: KEITH URBAN
Drums: CHRIS McHUGH
Bass, Guitar, Keys, BK Vocals: JERRY FLOWERS
Guitar, Ganjo, Bass, BK Vocals: CHRIS RODRIGUEZ
Guitar, Mandolin, Ganjo, BK Vocals: BRAD RICE
Guitar, Mandolin, Ganjo, Keys, BK Vocals: BRIAN NUTTER
tour related offices
Artist Management:
BORMAN ENTERTAINMENT
Business Management:
FLOOD, BUMSTEAD, MCCREADY & MCCARTHY
Legal and Business Affairs
ANSEL DAVIS ESQ.
Booking Agency:
CREATIVE ARTISTS AGENCY
Publist: PFA MEDIA
Record Label:
CAPITOL RECORDS NASHVILLE
Travel: PRO TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL
Set & Lighting Design:
BU WHO ENTERTAINMENT
Sound: CLAIR BROTHERS
Lighting: BANDIT LITES
Video: XL VIDEO
Video Content:
GRAVELROADS PRODUCTIONS
Staging: SGPS INC
Buses: ROBERTS BROTHERS
Trucks: STAGE CALL CORPORATION
Air Charter: MARQUIS JETS
Stylist: WENDY SCHECTER STYLIST
Merchandise Vending:
CROM TIDWELL MERCHANDISING
Merchandise Manufacturing:
CHASER MERCHANDISE
Credentials: CUBE SERVICES INC
Itineraries: SMART ART
Tour Guide Journal
13
KEITH URBAN |
crew
Tour Manager: CHUCK HULL
Production Manager: MARK MILES
TCB: MIKE PONTES
Ticket Manager/VIP Services:
LINDSEY LONG
Production Assistants: AMBER OWENS, DEAN
BAYLOR
Stage Manager: DAVE CARNEY
Guitar Techs: MARC LARESE, STEVE COHEN, GALEN HENSON , JEREMY DENTON, SCOTT WELCH
Drum Tech / Drum Line Boss:
MARK ARNOLD
Security: MIKE SMITH, RANDY FOSTER
Riggers: SONNY OYLER, AARON DRAUDE
Carpenters: BERNARD SLATTON,
MIKE ANDERSON
Wardrobe/Stylist: GILLE MILLS
Trainer: JP LOURENCE
Show Rig Crew Chief: BJORN MELCHERT
Show Rig Asst Crew Chief:
JOSEPH SMITH
FOH Engineer: STEVE LAW
MON Engineer: JASON SPENCE
FOH Audio Tech: JOE KEISER
Audio Techs: BILL FLUGAN, KENNETH MCDOWALL, MATT WOBST
Lighting Director: NATHAN ALVES
Light Tech: BILLY WILLINGHAM, JOSH FENN,
ROBERT COLVIN, MICHAEL STEHR, CHAS ALBEA,
ERICH HUDGENS
Videographer: JEFF JOHNSON,
Video Director: BOB HARTNETT
Video: DANNY WHETSTONE, JOHN BONNIN,
CHRIS CAMPBELL, MARK INSCOE, LONNIE
STONER, JEFF GAINER,
RUSSELL WINGFIELD
Merchandise: JIM CARSON
Bus Drivers: MIKE CAREY, DALE LEE,
JAY ZAVISIN, JON LOUGHLIN, MIKE MEDFORD,
DANA HEIDEMANN
Truck Drivers: DAN FISHER, MIKE DASILVA,
ROBIN GOODWIN, JEFF WEIMER, THERESA
QUINONES, MICHELLE MORROW, TOM COUCH,
DANNY JOE KILE, KEITH SCHIDLER, BILL MAHONEY, MARIA MAHONEY, MIKE WALTZ
14
Tour Guide Journal
KEITH URBAN
pictured left (L to R)
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL A BECK
Head Carpenter Bernard Slatton, Set Carpenter Mike Anderson,
Stage Manager Dave Carney, Rigger Aaron Draude, Head Rigger
Sonny Oyler
Production Manager Mark Miles
Audio: Audio Tech Joe Keiser, Monitors Jason Spense, FOH Steve
Law, Audio Tech Bill Flugan, Audio Tech Matt Wobst, Audio Tech
Ken McDowell
pictured left: (L to R)
front Crew Chief Mark Inscoe, FOH
Camera Lonnie Stoner, Camera/LED
Tech Chris Campbell
back Director Bob Hartnett, LED Tech
Jeff Gainer, Libra Camera John Bonnih,
Camera/LED Tech Mark Woody, Chief
Engineer Denny Whetstone
Merchandise Jim Carson
Tour Guide Journal
15
INDUSTRY Profilec
ROBBIE GREENBERG
AN INTERVIEW
by
MICHAEL A. BECK
SEE WHAT HARD WORK AND A SMILE CAN DO?
As you traverse the landscape of this industry, you may come across a person like Robbie
Greenberg once in 20 years. She is kind and caring while at the same time having the ability
to be edgy and irreverent. Her friendship is the coin of the realm. If Robbie gets angry at
you she will let you know about it and you have no misunderstanding of what just happened,
yet you will walk away thinking only that you don’t want to let her down again. In short,
she is the kind of person who can tell you to go to hell in a way that will make you look
forward to the trip. She is a priceless addition to any crew she is on as her work ethic and
the product of that ethic is without question and simply unsurpassed!
It has been the pleasure of this writer to count Robbie Greenberg as very close friend for
twenty years and the prospect of getting paid to sit down and chat with this gem is like getting paid to taste whipped cream.
Join us.
Tour Guide Journal: Let’s start at the beginning.
What attracted you to the lighting business?
Robbie Greenburg: See, here’s where I’m going
to sound like a knuckle head.
TGJ: If so, it’ll be the first time anyone has
ever seen that side of you.
RG: Originally, it was a way to
get out of the house at night
and do the things that teenage
kids want to do without their
parents finding out under the
guise of going to build scenery
for the high school theatre. We
had a great theatre in my high
school and a friend of mine
and would go at night and bang
scenery together for the high
school plays. We had a proper
theatre, not a gymnasium.
Of Course it
Rocks!
it’s
TGJ: So did this give you a direction to follow as a career?
Superior
RG: Once I started doing it I
fell in love with it and I never
looked back.
MANUFACTURER OF
QUALITY COACHES
TGJ: Where did you go to college?
312 Babb Drive,
Lebanon, TN. 37087
615-466-2000
www.superiorcoach.com
RG: I got a B. A. in Electrical
Engineering from the University
of Vermont.
TGJ: Was that to prep you for
this career?
RG: I thought of that. But I also
had in the back of my mind,
“I’ll never make a living at this,
18
Tour Guide Journal
so maybe I should start taking my career seriously. So what if I become an engineer?” But
then I looked around at the other people in
the classes I was taking and realized that they
weren’t a very fun-loving bunch of people. So
I started asking myself if I really wanted to
spend my whole career with people like this
who can’t seem to smile. And then I got this
offer with [I. A. T. S. I.] local 11 in Boston to
come in and start building this show that was
going to Broadway. I took it and quit school.
TGJ: What was the show?
RG: It was a show Bob Fosse was directing
called The Big Deal.
TGJ: When was this in Boston?
RG: 1985.
TGJ: But by the sound of it, you are heading
for a career as a set carpenter. How did lighting happen?
RG: That happened in high school. I noticed
that the lighting kids got to walk around on the
catwalk, they got to play with the patch bays;
they had all the cool stuff. So I started hanging
around with them.
TGJ: Okay, let’s get back to Boston.
RG: That was a pretty difficult place to work
back then for a woman and I started thinking
that there was no way I was going to be able
to make a living at this. I even contemplated
going back to school.
TGJ: What made you stick it out?
RG: The fact that I loved what I was doing and
I didn’t want to let the situation bate me into
quitting and deter me from doing what I really
wanted to do. As I was faced with contemplating
what else would I want to do for a living, that
was really all I could come up with. I just kept
getting sucked into it. It’s the career equivalent of
being too stupid to come in out of the rain.
TGJ: There’s that and the old saying that says the
devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.
RG: Well I just have never in my life imagined
myself doing anything else. No matter how down
I would get with what I was doing or how tough
it was, I couldn’t see anything out there that
could attract me away from it. No matter how
bummed out I would get or how bad I felt about
the job I was doing at any given time in my
career, this just never ceased to fascinate me. It’s
the only thing I ever wanted to do.
TGJ: I know what your living condition was then
because I was there with you. But describe it for
our readers.
RG: It was horrible. It was a daily struggle just to
make enough money to pay your rent. You know,
you’re living in one of the most expensive cities
in the country and you’re not making any money.
There were only so many games in town that
you could play in, and most of those never paid
enough that you could ever afford to not be hustling for work 24 hours a day. I would take any
job at all. A job that was a four hour call that you
would only stand to make $25.00, I would take
it. During the winter when work was slow, I was
taking home $240.00 a week before taxes when I
was working for BN Productions.
TGJ: There is a lot of talk about young people
coming into the business with a sense of entitlement declaring that they deserve this and they
deserve that. Do you see that?
RG: Sure do.
TGJ: What do have to say to them?
RG: I was always taught by my immigrant
grandparents that this world owes you nothing.
The fact that you are standing there with your
hand out doesn’t mean that someone has to put
anything in it. So you have to earn whatever
you want. I don’t go for that sense of entitlement, no matter who you are, how old you
are, or what industry you work in. You have to
get out there and work for whatever you want.
The fact that you pushed a box from point A to
point B doesn’t entitle you to a show run. That
isn’t something that just lives in our industry, it’s
across the board. You have to earn your way and
keep earning it every day. You have to be as good
today as you were yesterday. The other thing I
continued on page 41
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Tour Guide Journal
19
20
Tour Guide Journal
Tour Guide Journal
21
TOBY KEITH
LIGHT, LIGHT AND MORE LIGHT!
b y MICHAEL A. BECK
24
Tour Guide Journal
T
he recently finished Toby Keith Summer Tour looked
more like a 1988 hair band show than a country show.
It played with an immense lighting rig designed by Seth
Jackson, who is called by many the most underrated designer working today, and operated by Sammy “Bones” Connell
whose sense of timing at a console is unbelievable.
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL A BECK
“I take great pride
in my timing,”
Bones explained.
“Working from a
go-button on the
consoles we have
today limits you from
being able to pound it out
on two separate consoles like
we used to do in the old days. I like to
accent everything that happened in the
music. If FOH engineer Dirk Durham
has a part of the music up above the
mix, then it’s because he wants it to
stand out. If he wants it to stand out, I
want it to be seen.”
However despite the
size of the show, the
approach to the production and the production
design is as straightforward and to the point
as is the music of its
star. “We gave Toby the
option of having the big
lighting look, a big video
look or both. He chose
the lighting look,” Bones
told us, “so we used a lot
Sammy Bones
more lights then we
would have otherwise.”
The design was
a marriage of the
highly active “flash
and trash” execution of
Bones, who comes from a high
speed rock ‘n roll background and the
elegant design eye of Seth Jackson who
has worked for such artists as Barry
Manilow. One wouldn’t normally put
these two in the same room, but the
marriage worked like a charm as the
two never miss a chance to speak highly
of one another.
The light rig was made up
of a wide variety of different fixtures including Cyber
Lights that came out of the
inventory of EWC Lighting,
a lighting company owned
by Bones. However, the centerpiece of the rig was the
way the Syncrolite units in
the system worked with the
new VariLite 3500 Wash,
which debuted on this tour.
The audio portion of the
show was as smooth and well executed
as was the lighting. The challenge is just
riding herd over the 54 inputs and six
stereo sends. There were 11 people on
stage including Toby. The slow talking
and easy going Durham explained,
“The show moves so fast, I just have to
stay on top of it and hit all of the lead
rides and make sure that Toby is up
above of everything.”
Tour Guide Journal
25
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL A BECK
The only real challenge Durham
seemed to have was in keeping it all
well layered. “With a horn section and
a steel guitar and fiddle and all of that,
if someone’s playing, they need to be
heard.”
It is important to mention that the coverage of the sound was absolutely brilliant. The sound of the show was the
same anywhere in the venue as it was
next to the console. Durham was quick
to give credit to his system engineer.
“You can thank Russell Fischer for that.
He takes a lot of pride in the coverage
of the system. That takes a big load off
of my back.”
fact that it wasn’t the predominant
visual aspect of the show made the perfect accent to a well-balanced look and,
therefore, had a much greater effect.
Because of the major presence that
Ford has in the career of Toby Keith,
there was equal presence of Ford in the
show as well. There was a brief video
When asked what challenge he experienced coming in on this tour, he had to
think long before answering. “It really
was a smooth ride. This core team
has been together for so long that they
really have it down. They know what
they are doing and didn’t need much
interjection from me. It left me a lot of
time to do my job which is advancing
the next shows.”
Among the many aspects of this show
that one wouldn’t normally expect to
see on a typical country show such as
a horn section and a big huge lighting
system, is pyro. This show had a surprisingly large amount of pyro presence
in it.
TOBY KEITH
Indeed the only thing that wasn’t
largely prominent was video. In a world
where the ubiquitous high profile video
system seems to be reducing lighting to
little more than an ancillary aspect of
the show, this show was just the opposite. There was a circular video center
of the upstage array, but that was it.
26
It was an element of the show as
opposed to the main attraction. The
There didn’t really seem to be much
that got in the way of a smooth day on
this tour. It seemed to just roll along
with the same easy-going style as does
the “Boss Man” himself. Well-traveled
and gentle spirited production manager
Mickey Mulcahy was the new kid on
this tour with this being his first run
with Toby.
Mulcahy left no room for doubt regarding his desire to stay on with this show.
“I’m going to stay on this gig as long as
they’ll have me.”
Everyone on this tour seems to have the
same sentiment.
that played on a white drape that hid
the stage at the opening of the show
featuring Toby, Larry the Cable Guy
and the ever present Ford Truck. There
was also the front grill of a truck that
was the centerpiece of the set and the
show’s trucks were heavily decked out
with Ford imagery.
There was one interesting side story
that must be mentioned. There was
a person on the tour named Dennis
Fielding who was hanging close to guitar tech Sammy Bones (not to be confused with LD Eddy Bones). During a
conversation with Sammy and Dennis,
it came to light that Fielding wasn’t
TOBY KEITH
actually on the tour.
Dennis Fielding
He had driven to
Atlanta at his own
expense to be able to
stand next to Sammy
and improve his
chops as a backline
tech. Fielding had
toured a good bit
back in the eighties
as a sound guy and
did some backline
work. But when his child was born, he
came off the road to be an attentive
father.
“Now that my child is 14, I am able
to get back in it because I hate being
away from it,” explained Fielding. “It’s
important to me that I learn as much as
I can and make myself as employable
as possible. So I don’t mind doing stuff
like this if it’s going to get me a little
farther down the road.”
In a world where the old dogs of the
road are complaining bitterly about the
sagging work ethic of many of the new
people coming into the business, and
more money is being demanded for less
work, guys like Dennis Fielding should
not go unnoticed.
There is one interesting side note
— Bones asked that we mention his
clothing line, which can be seen at
bonesclothes.com. c
Tour Guide Journal
27
BAND
Boss Man: Toby Keith
Band Leader/Bass: Chuck Goff
Band: Rich Eckhardt, Joey Floyd, Rex Mauney,
Dave McAfee, Josh Bertrand, Roman Dudok,
Willie Roy, Carl Murr, Mica Roberts
28
MEET THE CREW
TOBY KEITH
CREW
Tour Guide Journal
Tour Manager: David Milam
Personal Asst: Mitch Deneui
Production Manager: Mickey Mulcahy
Stage Manager: Tim Rogers
Boy Wonder: Chandler Merritt
Production Asst: Kirby Middleton
Tour Security Director: Jason Harrison
Merchandise: Billy Ray Eden, Yancy Johnson
Lighting Director: Eddie “Bones” Connell
FOH Engineer: Dirk Durham
Doug Page Set Carpenter
Set Carpenter: Jamison Hyatt
Pyro: Allen Grant, Scott Allen
Tour Rigger: Lance Stoner
Guitar Tech : Frank Bokesch
Sound Image Crew Leader: Russell Fischer
SI/Monitor Engineer: Earl Neal
SI/Sound Tech: JD Register
SI/Sound Tech: Ian Maurer
Bandit/Crew Leader: Chuck Hastings
Bandit/Lighting tech: Mark Donahue
Bandit Lighting: Erich Hudgens, Sam Harden
Syncrolites: Anthony Dorman
IMAG Video: Kevin Daniels, Anthony Hollingsworth, Lee Garland, Andrew Humphries,
Kyle Brinkman
Bad Ass Trucker: Robert Law
Bus Drivers: Chris Troup, John Jones, Jon
Kendall, Johnny Barnhart, Van Youngblood
Hightopps Catering: Jimmy Bell, Robert Bell
Girl Wonder Megan Smith
VENDORS
Lighting: Bandit
Sound: Sound Image
Video: I-Mag
Catering: Hightop Catering
Trucking: Stage Call
Bus: Music City Coach
pictured above (L to R, top to bottom)
Tony Doorman (Syncro tech) Mark Donahue, Eddie
“Bones” Connell - LD, Sam Harden , Chuck Hastings
- Crew Chief, Erich Hudgens
Ian Maurer- Audio Tech, JD Register - Audio Tech,
Russell Fischer - Crew Chief, Dirk Durham - FOH Engineer, Earl Neal - Monitor Engineer
Video Crew: Lee Garland, Kyle Brinkman, Kevin
Daniels, Anthony Hollingsworth
Doug Page - Set Carpenter, Tim Rgers - Stage
Manager, Jamison (Porkchop) Hyatt - Set Carpenter, Mickey Mulcahy - Production Manager.
Lance Stoner - Rigger
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Tour Guide Journal
29
VARI*LITE IS PAYING ATTENTION
b y MICHAEL A. BECK
Have you noticed that there are a lot of
Vari*Lite fixtures showing up everywhere
lately? The 3000 series has climbed to the
top of the hill with a sense of absolute
authority. As the automated lighting industry keeps improving what it can do with
light and efficiency, the words of
those who say that we’ve seen
all that the technology can do
rings more and more hollow.
There was a time when people were
saying that with the advent of moving light the par and leko are finished.
But they’re still hanging in there and
being improved on. Indeed, pan and
tilt can only pan and tilt. But there is a
lot more to this technology. It must be
remembered that the intelligent lighting
industry is only 26 years old. And with
the way the rate of technological development is growing at a hyper-exponential rate, to say that anything has gone
as far as it can is on the far side of
shortsighted.
Tour Guide Feature
VARI*LITEc
While at the recent WFX (Worship Facilities
Conference and Expo) in Atlanta TGJ was
able to chat with Vari*Lite product manager George
Masek. “As we have grown through the very short
life time of automated lighting we have reached a
number of plateaus,” Masek explained. “How
do we get a smoother movement? How do
we get a brighter light? How do we get
stronger color? And as we reached one
plateau, we sought out the next one.”
30
30
Cost, weight, reliability, noise, and
maintenance are big issues that
are being faced. As these issues are
addressed, other matters fall into
line. Again Masek explained, “The
VL-500 was obviously patterned
after the VL-5. We were able to get
a much tighter tolerances for the
dichroics than we could ever have
gotten on the VL5 while keeping the
cost down. So my thinking is if we
can give you more even and closely
matching colors from fixture to fixture at the same cost then we have
made a strong improvement.”
When asked what’s next, Masek said, “I think certainly that
the green initiatives that we’re seeing in Europe are going
to play heavily into our minds as we work to make our
products more efficient and effective.” He
went on to add, “If you ask automotive manufacturers what’s new in the
future, they can look inward to see.
Automated lighting manufacturers
have to look outward. Everything we
do is tied to lamp manufacturers. I
think that they way they deal with the
green initiative is going to gage what the
next product is that they hand us. Once
we receive that, we can then branch out
from there.
Vari*Lite has, as have all companies,
made good and bad decisions along the
way. However, the company that was one
of the first out of the gate with the technology that currently defines the way we
light a stage (as well as many other areas
of life) is not only still there, but it is
on the top looking down at all the rest
from a long distance.
VL3000
There is another issue to consider. On
this year’s Justin Timberlake tour, one of
the few aspects of the show that was actually impressive was the use of VL-4’s. These
lighting are older than many of the people now coming into the industry and
they are still out there hauling the mail
with outstanding punch. This proved
that nothing tells the story like time.
The minds of Vari*Lite have learned
from the mistakes that all businesses
in every industry make and they have
built on the success that they have
achieved. George Masek and his team
are not just listening to the dealers
who sell the gear, but they are listening
to the designers who create magic with
it and the technicians who have to keep
it running. They’re paying attention to
preachers who want to deliver a sermon
on Sunday without having to speak over
the fans of the lights above them and
Broadway performers who want to
deliver a soft love scene in silence.
This company is paying attention to
the people who count. It is the considered
opinion of this writer that we as an industry
should pay attention to Vari*Lite. c
VL3500
It is said that 90% of all technology that
will exist 20 years from now has not been imagined yet. So
where is automated lighting going? Let’s look at the 3000
series. Here are some facts lifted right from the company’s
website.
Tour Guide Journal
While issues like color and brightness and are definitely on
the list of things designers want to see, there are other matters that are figuring largely into the R&D process.
Tour Guide Journal
31
SYNCROLITE, THE SKY IS THE LIMIT
You can’t look in any direction these days
without seeing a show with a compliment of
Syncrolites in it. Any one of the products put
out by Syncrolites can add amazing power
to even the most complex show. That’s why
designers like Roy Bennett use them.
“I love those things,” said Bennett.
“They’re big, bright and reliable.
I love what they can do and the
new ones coming out have effects
engines that I can’t wait to use.”
are lights that are meant to illuminate set and scenery and
architecture. That requires a flat field of light and rich,
smooth color.
In getting to the end of this R&D tunnel, a number of challenges had to be surmounted. The first was that you have to
be able to spread the light out to cover the target in a way
that a camera won’t pick up any field variation in the event
the instrument is being used on a film or video shoot. Once
that has been dealt with, you then have to do the same
thing with the color. Flat field is everything.
What Roy was talking about are the Series 3 units that
have just been released. At the heart of all of the Syncrolite
products is the OmniColor™ system. In the story written
in TGJ about this system a year ago, we spoke extensively
on it.
Giza, Egypt. photo credit: Nick Jones
In addressing the issue of flat light, the ingenious solution was to create a film that could offer smooth diffusion
across the aperture of the instrument. This film is made
up of several discs that are comprised of concentric circles
just like the lens of a Fresnel stage light. As the light hits
the film, it spills from one circle into another and as it
does, (delete ‘it’) the light is diffused into one smooth output.
Once that was done it was discovered that altering the size
of the “discs” in the film could alter the beam spread. So
by putting several different sizes of diffusion on a scroll
and shifting from one size to the next, the beam spread
can be altered real time.
Tour Guide Feature
SYNCROLITEc
Next issue is color. In a world where designers are
demanding color mixing as opposed to color scrolling,
the mandate for color mixing was taken on at Syncrolite
as well. Once again, the diffusion film is the hero. By
introducing color into the field of light, the diffusion film
spreads it evenly across the field. Let’s say green was partially introduced into the field. The diffusion would pick up
the green that it is seeing and transmit it across the frame
of diffusion. The farther into the field the green comes, the
more saturated the green output becomes.
32
Giza, Egypt. photo credit: Nick Jones
Color mixing is the oldest news in the industry until you
start talking about 10k Xenon lights that can turn anything
you put in front into untraceable history instantly. When
dealing with lights this size, it’s important to discuss a
number of issues. These aren’t just big search lights. They
So now let’s put the green color on one side of the frame
and blue on the other. Now you’re mixing green and blue
evenly across the field.
The OmniColor-D system is available as a CYM subtractive
or hybrid CYM-RGB additive/subtractive color set for our
D-Series three-scroller units. Coupled with our VFL(TMCONTINUED ON
page 43
10,000W XENON • 500,000 LUMENS
CYM/RGB dichroic color via Syncrolite OmniColor™
Syncrolite VFL™ lens and FX engines
Tight beam laser effects to searchlight full flat field —
color scrolling wash in a heartbeat
540 pan - 250 tilt
High speed douser • High speed beam drive
Compact lamphead — 110kg/outboard ballast racks
Worldwide patents pending
world leader in automated xenon lighting systems
syncrolite.com • 214.350.7696
Tour Guide Journal
33
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34
Tour Guide Journal
VENUESc
RESCH CENTER
Celebrates Five Years
This year, the Resch Center is celebrating its 5th year of hosting entertainment
in Northeast W isconsin. The Resch Center
opened its doors in September 2002 and
has been on a ver y good run since.
PMI is the management company for the
Resch Center and also runs, Brown County
Veterans Memorial Arena, Shopko Hall,
Meyer Theatre in downtown Green Bay, the
Leach Amphitheater in Oshkosh, and owns
the Green Bay Gamblers, which is a Junior
hockey team. PMI is set up the same as the
Green Bay Packers in that they are a nonstock, for Profit Corporation and report to a
board of directors who are a group of local
businessmen. Tour Guide Journal spoke with
the very likeable President and CEO of PMI,
Ken Wachter.
“The last 5 years has gone by very fast,”
Wachter said laughing. “It has been a tremendous amount of fun, not only for me
but for all of our staff. I think if you ask our
general public we’ve had a tremendous, not
only number of events, but a great mix of
events.” This mix of events include; Ringling
Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus,
Champions On Ice, WWE, World’s Toughest
Rodeo, Harlem Globetrotters, UWGB
Phoenix Men’s Basketball, WIAA State Girls
Volleyball Championship, Milwaukee Bucks,
Sesame Street, Metallica, James Taylor, and
much, much more.
The Resch Center is the newest facility
within the Brown County Veterans Memorial
Complex, seating over 10,000 people. It
joins ShopKo Hall, which is a 48,000 square
foot expo hall and the 15 year old 6,000
seat Brown County Arena. “This gives us
lots of flexibility with what we can do,”
said Wachter. The Resch Center, being the
marquee building, is estimated to host nearly
1.2 million people per year and has already
had record crowds for Elton John, Shania
Twain, Tim McGraw, Rod Stewart, John
Mellencamp, Aerosmith, Cher, Toby Keith,
Kenny Chesney Josh Groban in addition to
those listed above. “It is no wonder that the
public is excited about this building.”
The venue is equipped with 4 loading docks
and has serviced shows with as many as 22
trucks without a problem. “ It’s easy access
in and out,’ said Wachter. “Tour Manager
for Sara Evans told me how much he like
the building, which of course made me feel
good.”
The Resch Center utilized the same sound
engineers as Staple Center in LA and Philips
Arena in Atlanta. The building is one level,
which helps with sound as well as sight lines
because you don’t have people up so high.
A county owned facility, the Resch Center is
unique in the way it was financed. “In our
market the Visitor Convention Bureau budget was based upon two percent room tax,”
Wachter told TGJ. “The Visitor Convention
Bureau gave up their room tax so the convention center and the Resch Center could be
built. In turn, PMI agreed to fund the Visitor
Convention Bureau on a yearly basis so they
could still market the area.” PMI also pays
the county $160,000 annually which goes
into a capital maintenance fund.
Time Warner Cable Theatre
at the Resch Center
Open in the fall of 2004, Time Warner
Cable Theatre at the Resch Center is yet
another offering PMI can promote to the
entertainment industry. Following the same
ideas of the Pond in Anaheim, Conseco
Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and the Honda
Center, the Resch Center can be modified for
use as an intimate theatre.
A curtain hangs from the ceiling to the floor
on a rigging grid that runs across the entire
arena. To further give you a theatre feel
carpet is laid and a chandelier is hung. The
theatre configuration seats between 3,500
and 5,000. This was accomplished at a cost
of about a quarter of a million dollars.
continued on page 40
36
Tour Guide Journal
5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OFFER
pmiwi.com
$1,000 OFF
EXPIRES 05/31/08
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Concert Rent at the Resch Center
Green Bay, Wisconsin
BOOKING: Ken Wachter - 920.405.1239
Coupon must be presented at settlement. May not be reproduced. Void if
transferred to any person, rm or group prior to redemption. You may pay
any sales tax. Any other use constitutes fraud.
Expiration date: 05/31/08.
LIMIT ONE COUPON PER CONCERT.
The Resch Center is a PMI Managed Facility
resch center
Tour Guide Journal
�
ticketstaronline.com
37
Turner Madden, Jane Kleinberger
and Gary Brosius on the the
“Whose Ticket Is It Anyway?” Panel
John Siehl (Nutter Center) and Jeff
Bowen (Sears Center) discussing the
controversy of 3rd party ticket sales
Tom Richter (Swiftel Center), Tom Albert (FELD Ent.), Charles
Reed (FELD), Cindy Schonholtz (Animal Welfare Council), Patti
Strand (National Animal Interest Alliance) discussing how to
deal with animal rights activists in venues
iAAM hosted it’s own
version of The View
iAAMiA
2007
Art Fahey & Sporty
Jeralds at the Opening
Night Reception
iAAM hosted it’s own
version of The View
Tom Albert (FELD
Ent.) giving opening
remarks for the PETA
panel session
38
Tour Guide Journal
iAAMiAAMiAAM
FELD Ent. hosted an ice cream
social between panel sessions
Charles Reed, Cindy Schonholtz, Patti
Strand and Tom Richter on the “Lions and
Tigers and PETA, Oh My!” Panel Session
Interactive Scoreboard inside the Bobcats
Arena provided by Daktronics
iAAMiAAMiAAM
iAAMiAAMiAAMiAAMiAAMiAAM
A
cVENUES
iAAM’s 18th Annual Arena Management Conference
Charlotte, NC | September 15-18, 2007
Venue professionals from all across North America
met in Charlotte, NC September 15-18, 2007 for the
International Association of Arena Managers (IAAM)’s
18th Annual Arena Management Conference (AMC).
The host hotel was the Hilton Charlotte Center City
and all panels and events occurred in the meeting
rooms within the hotel.
The Charlotte Bobcats Arena hosted the opening night
reception and allowed conference attendees to tour
the two-year-old facility. Those who took the tour
were in awe of the technology put into the building.
The primary focus was on the incredible scoreboard
built by Daktronics. Not only does the LED screen
allow the arena to broadcast crystal-clear videos and
scores to its audience, but it also features a three-dimensional backlit cityscape of Charlotte that changes
the skyline between night, day, seasons, and holidays.
A large focus of the AMC was how the arenas can
reach out to their younger patrons. The opening keynote speaker was Kwain Bryant, founder of Empowerment Change in Charlotte, NC. Bryant gave a “knowledge is power” presentation, which provided a better
understanding of young people today. He included a
lesson on the slang that today’s youth are using so
the adults don’t feel like they are in a foreign country
when their arenas are filled with teenagers. After his
lesson, he hosted a panel session of high school and
college students. This allowed arena managers to ask
questions directly to the students and find out how
much is too much for a concert ticket, how often they
consider going to live events, and what they love and
loathe about arenas.
The daily panel sessions offered attendees the opportunity to discuss controversial issues, express concerns, and share ideas for the future of the industry.
Sessions included topics such as dealing with animals
in venues and facing animal rights groups, challenges
independent promoters face, the controversy of third
party ticket sales, and artist/agent, agent/promoter
relationships. There was even a session titled “The
View… from the Venues” where women (and a
special male guest) sat in comfortable seats and
discussed challenges they have faced while working
in their venue. While all the panel sessions covered
serious issues in the industry, attendees made a point
to enjoy the conference with laughter and hilarious
stories.
Sponsors this year were 360 Architecture, ABI, Access
Pass & Design, American Seating Company, Athletica,
Caddy Products, Centerplate, Charlotte Bobcats Arena,
Charlotte Regional Visitor’s Authority, Clarin, ComcastSpectacor, Contemporary Services, Connor Sport
Court International, Cy Young Industries, Daktronics,
Delaware North, FELD Entertainment, FREEMAN, Front
Row Marketing Services, Global Spectrum, Greensboro Coliseum Complex, IMG, Irwin Seating, JTECH
Communications, Johnson and Wales University, Landmark Event Staffing Services, Levy Restaurants, Live
Nation-Motor Sports, Millikin Hospitality Carpet, MTS
Seating, New Era Tickets, Nutter Center, Pepsi, N.W.
Gets & Associates, Odell Associates, Ovations Food
Services, Paciolan, Pritchard Sports Group, Robbins
Sports Surfaces, Show Pros Entertainment Services,
Spalding, StageRight Corporation, Staging Concepts,
Ticketmaster, Tickets.com, TicketsWest, VenuWorks,
White Stallion Productions, WJHW, and X-P Events.
Next year’s AMC will be September 13-16, 2007 in
Kansas City, MO.
FOR MORE INFO:
GET ON THE WEB
| iaam.org
Tour Guide Journal
39
MA Lighting continued from p. 7
every location in the hall, thanks to the connection of the consoles via the fibre optic
network. Replacements weren’t necessary
because the grandMAs were mobile integrated into the system at the primary positions.
For the fair 120 tons of equipment were
installed into the hall roof. Amongst others
there were Vari*Lites VL3500 spot, VL3000
spot, VL5 arc and VL5 tungsten as well as
scores of ETC CE Source Four PAR. Nearly
1,600 metres of truss and 6,000 metres of
steel and aluminium pipes formed an extensive rig. The strictly structured trusses served
as suspension for a half transparent metal
ceiling. All spots were symmetrically placed
in openings in that ceiling and by this nearly
invisible.
An absolute eye-catcher was the so named
“car-walk”, a 50 metres long and twelve
metres wide street which consisted of Barco
Mistrips. At the front end it ran into an
Elementlabs Stealth curtain which had a
Hibino Cromatec HD LED-wall installed
above. Furthermore there was a stage implemented into the booth design for the world
premiere of the concept car F700 which was
interactively presented by a moderator.
TLD Planungsgruppe GmbH was responsible for the planning of the Mercedes-Benz
and Maybach booth. Alexander Orkisch
was project manager. Construction management light was done by Sebastian Ströher
and Christoph Rupieper. Claudia Furrer was
responsible for the mounted and emergency
lighting. As programmer and operator worked
Dietmar Rauh and Lars Wulff. Richard Profe
developed the concept and the lighting design.
Udo Kraemer was technical manager. S+L
Leonberg delivered the lighting equipment.
c
Resch Center continued from p. 36
“We’ve had good success with the theatre,”
Wachter admits. “We book between six
and eight show a year and some family
shows. We just had Sara Evans and Josh
Turner and a bout three days before that we
had the rock show Three Days Grace and
Breaking Benjamin. Dolly Parton was our
first show in the theatre configuration.”
In the last five years the Resch Center has
been very successful in bringing in a variety
of shows from sports, family shows, rock
and country shows. The future looks bright
for the Resch Center. In addition to hosting Cirque de Soleil, Sugarland, Martina
McBride, and Brad Paisley, they also hosted
Walking With Dinosaurs, which also happens to be an upcoming cover feature in
TGJ.
To rent the facility (Booking), call
920.405.1142, [email protected] c
40
Tour Guide Journal
Robbie Greenberg continued from p. 19
was taught was to evolve or die. Learn something everyday.
TGJ: I remember telling you over and over that
you would be great on the road and then one
day Boston had run it’s course. The next thing
I knew, you were touring out of Dallas. How
did that happen?
RG: I got a job working for Samuelsons. I went
out on the road for Barbara Mandrell. I had
always wanted to work for Vari*Lite, but at
the time, they were hiring people from within
the manufacturing or engineering areas of the
company to go out on the road. I was neither.
I happened to be working for Samuelsons at
Reunion Arena and during the load-out I met
the personnel guy for Vari*Lite who asked me
to call him. I did and they offered me a job
right then and there.
TGJ: What tour was that?
RG: That was Prince. That was really getting
thrown into the deep end. Back then the company didn’t have a training program. Like I
said, everyone who was on the road for them
came from their engineering or manufacturing
departments. They had first hand experience
building these things. But for me it was on the
job training. Wow! I made every mistake you
could make. A lot of stuff that you filed away
under ‘DON’T DO THAT AGAIN!’
TGJ: How long were you with Vari*Lite?
RG: I think it was about 12 years.
TGJ: Who were some of the acts you were out
with during that time?
RG: Let’s see, there was Prince, The Rolling
Stones, The Who, Genesis, ZZ Top, INXS,
Dianna Ross, Paula Abdul, The Grateful Dead
and a lot of TV stuff and little one-off ’s.
TGJ: You did all this time with Vari*Lite. What
happened to make you leave?
RG: I had wanted to get off the road in 1998
and they very kindly put me in the R&D
department in Dallas doing software testing.
The company had recently gone public and
things were changing both in the company
and in the industry as a whole. As a result,
they were scaling back and they cut my position in the software department. They offered
me a job in Los Angeles to be the technical
service manager there. After a little over a
year of that, I realized that was not for me. I
just couldn’t take the negativity of knowing
that every phone call I was going to get was
a problem. I was starting to burn out with
empathy overload. So I figured it was time to
go back out on the freelance path, as scary as
that sounded, and take my chances of trying to
drum up work and hope for the best.
rebirth. It was a wonderful time to be there.
TGJ: What was the greatest lesson you learned.
RG: I got to travel all over the world and I
learned that people are people wherever you
go in the world. Cultural differences aside,
everyone pretty much the same. But the most
important lesson of all is that a smile will gets
you everywhere.
Certainly Robbie’s smile does. c
TGJ: How tough was that?
RG: I moved to Vegas and, no pun intended, it
was a roll of the dice. I knew a lot of people
who were coming through town and one person knew another person who knew another
person and things picked up. As it turned out,
there was a real need for automation techs.
TGJ: When was this?
RG: 2000. I did my last tour that year for
Candice Brightman. I was the lighting director
for The Other Ones, which was The Grateful
Dead without Jerry Garcia. Then I came back
to Vegas full-time and started drumming up
work around town and it all sort of took the
corporate path. I was the luckiest person in the
world. I met the top people in Vegas and very
quickly and it just snow balled from there.
TGJ: What’s your favorite memory of the road.
RG: Oh God, I knew this was coming. One
really great memory I have is of being in
Europe when the Berlin Wall was coming
down and the Eastern Bloc was crumbling.
Being in those countries and getting to talk to
the people or at least pantomime with them
and seeing their exuberance over the fact that
world was changing was amazing. I remember
thinking how lucky I was to be there at that
moment in time and see it all happen. It was
incredible to actually grab a hammer and
take a chunk out of the Berlin Wall. There
was such a sense of newness and elation and
Tour Guide Journal
41
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Tour Guide Journal
�������������������:
Syncrolite continued from p. 32
superscript) film lenses, these systems provide
seamless dichroic color cross- fading and
unprecedented flat fields. DichroFilm filters do
not burn or deform like standard absorptive
gels and feature a scratch-resistant protective
laminate. All the advantages of dichroic color
mixing in a long-lasting, unbreakable thin film.
The last step was to create a film that would
not disintegrate when it gets hit with the fore
mentioned 10k Xenon output.
But wait, there’s more!
Custom scrolls can be made with any combination of colors and effects, though the use of
some effects reduces the total available frame
count due to material thickness. Generally
speaking, a scroll can accommodate 8 to 10
frames of effects (gobos and VFL lenses) or
approximately 12 colors. As these are custom applications, you are advised to contact
Syncrolite to discuss options.
Available custom colors include any color of
Rosco SuperGel (pending availability) and will
include a limited number of dichroic filters in
the latter part of this year. Full additive and
subtractive Syncrolite OmniColor™ color mixing sets will also be available.
Available effects include Syncrolite FP™ Gobos
and Syncrolite VFL™ film lenses. Standard
available lens values are 5°, 10°, 20°, and 30°.
Other lens values as well as anamorphic lenses,
such as 60° x 10° and 75° x 35° are also available with sufficient advance notice.
There are too many features to this equipment
to be fully discussed in this article. Please feel
free to visit the Syncrolite website (www.syncrolite.com) and see for yourself.
This system is so new that new ways to apply
it are being discovered every time it is fired
up. However, one thing is very clear with
Syncrolite products—when you are dealing
with lights that can be used for everything from
theatre shows to lighting the Great Pyramids,
the sky is clearly the limit. c
Tour Guide Journal
43
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Tour Guide Journal
Accurate Staging......................................43
All Access Limo........................................29
Arie Crown Theater................................39
Artisan Transport......................................9
Celebrity Coach........................................7
Chauvet...................................................11
Clay Paky...................................................3
Coachworks...........................................43
Complete Logistics..................................43
Creative Stage Lighting...........................36
Cube Passes.............................................19
D & S Classic Coach.................................34
Dewitt Stern Group.................................19
Entertainment Coaches of America....IBC
Florida Coach......................................IBC
G-Lites................................................21
Global Aviation.......................................44
In Tune Rentals.......................................29
Jumbocruiser......................................29
Maximum Limousine..............................41
Metropolitan Hotel.................................34
Meyer Sound..........................................20
Motor Coach Industries (MCI).............IFC
Music City Coach....................................10
Nitetrain Coach.........................................9
On Tour Software.....................................2
Powersource Transportation......................5
Precise Corporate Staging.......................41
Prevost.........................................BC
Pyritz Pyro...............................................43
Pyrotek................................................35
Resch Center............................................37
Roadhouse Coach...................................40
Roadshow........................................40
Robe.............................................23
Robert Mangum Trucking......................40
Roberts Brothers Coach..........................22
Sedan on Demand...................................16
Sound Image...........................................34
Soundcheck.............................................17
Stage & Effects...........................................9
Stage Call................................................19
Star Gift Alliance..............................16, 40
Strictly FX.................................................9
Superior Coach.......................................18
Syncrolite.........................................33
Taylor Tours............................................29
Tour Supply.............................................44
Tyler Truss Systems.................................15
UpLight Technologies.............................19
Vari*lite............................................31
Ziggy’s Custom Coaches...........................2
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