________
Note: With its fireworks, concert performances, multiple venues, new and vintage military vehicles, thousands of soldiers participating along a parade route lined with spectators through Washington D.C. and the eyes of the world on a live broadcast, coordinating audio and video for the U.S. Army’s 250th Anniversary Celebration was an exceedingly complex task. Live audio production A1 David Friedman provided this report from his insider perspective.
By David Friedman
Months ago, during my downtime, with my feet up and sipping a nice glass of cabernet sauvignon, I received a request to mix the live production for the Army’s 250th B-Day Celebration in Washington, D.C. on June 14, 2025. At a moment in life when I thought things were nicely slowing down, it so happens that opportunities like this arise at the least-expected moment. As it turned out, it was one of the largest productions that I’ve had the good fortune to mix and one of the best of crews to collaborate with.
The purpose of this is to share some of the audio technology and considerations given for an event of this scale, in hopes of encouraging collaborative-learning among our audio brethren and for the benefit of anyone having a morbid curiosity in the field of audio.
The closest thing to this event I’ve had the opportunity to work as an audio systems tech was when Pope John Paul II held court in San Antonio in 1987. At that event, Mike Ponczek (aka “Funk”) was in the A1 hot seat. Funk put together a perfect mix for 350,000+ attendees and His Holiness that boasted seven audio speaker delay rings covering about a 3/4 square mile of humanity. Despite the Army’s 250 Celebration having only about 2/3 the attendance than were present at the Pope’s Papel Visit in 1987′ it had many similar aspects and Funk’s approach served as a perfect model for the Army’s 250th Parade & Celebration event.
PRODUCTION SHENANIGANS
Many teams came together for this production. The creative design was a fantastic concoction dreamt-up by our colleagues at Corporate Magic. Stephen Dahlem did the creative design and the story was a fact-based history lesson for all to share in. It was a fantastic tale of life, death and triumph of the good guys and real-life heroes. Just like a good Shakespeare tale, we laughed, we cried and the participants emoted for the onlookers. But, in this case, these were not mere actors… these were the men and women of the 250 year-old U.S. Army.
The nuts and bolts along with the heavy production lifting was accomplished by Live Events, who gathered an outstanding crew of audio engineers that tackled issue after issue, regardless of rain, shine, harsh elements, etc., with positive and thoughtful attitudes. The TV broadcast capabilities were provided by Zach Pittman and his broadcast team at CINE LIVE with special consideration given his team of EICs (Engineers-In-Charge] whom are outstanding.
LAYOUT
The overall layout was a space covering 106 acres around the Washington Monument; then about 1 mile of distance from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial across the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Accomplishing distribution of audio across this Woodstock-like field, Live Events designed 16 total hangs (12 cabinets deep) of d&b audiotechnik line arrays, having the usual stereo main hangs for the stage area; then, four line arrays (two per side as out-fills) to cover the parade route up and down Constitution Avenue, from 17th street to 15th street; then, a set of three delay rings composed of 10 more d&b line array hangs to cover the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool area, located on the far east side of 17th street. Most delay towers were equipped with a generator and a video board.
Single mode fiber was used, with tunnels dug under the street for physical routing, in order to route signals from the stage area (A2, Comm, & amp land) to front of house; then, from FOH to the first delay ring facing the Washington Memorial. Then, wireless transmitters were used to push the FOH audio mix to the second and third delay rings to cover the majority of acreage around the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The overall design, managed by an outstanding system engineer Jacob Flores, was conceived months prior to Casey Graham, Broadcast A1, Avi Brawer, Monitor Engineer, and myself as Live Production A1, being staffed. Consequently, as Casey, Avi and I initially gathered, we all agreed that the overall production would have the most flexibility if we followed two guiding principles:
(1) Having separate/independent full preamp control for the most important (and majority) of inputs on all audio consoles; and
(2) Separate clocking for the broadcast truck and the live event production.
INDEPENDENT PREAMP CONTROL
These two guiding principles required reworking some of the initial design and introducing 3-way and 2-way analog splits between some of the digital routes. The idea being, sharing preamps across consoles would be fine for something like a nightly recurring music tour or theatrical tour. However, when dealing with a one-off event of this complexity, we needed three sets of FOH and monitor consoles for the live production (due to multiple bands); plus, a Lawo console in the TV truck, so the independent preamp control provided the most flexibility for the various stakeholders.
This use of independent preamp control became particularly important when —during rehearsals — we’d have multiple concurrent sound checks in-flight. For example, one set of consoles would be setting preamps as they were setting-up mics and testing in-ear monitors for a band’s rehearsal, while at the same time, the TV broadcast truck might be setting preamps for other purposes — a sort of layered testing, wherein our hands would have been tied, due to dependencies, if we didn’t have separate/independent preamp control between the TV broadcast truck’s Lawo console, three FOH consoles, and three monitor consoles.
CLOCKING, EXPLAINED
For those working in the field of audio, clocking is a well-understood function within digital audio networks. For anyone not familiar with — nor usually concerned with — the technical plumbing that enables digital audio systems, I’ll mention what this oddity called: “clocking” is all about at a high level.
So… here’s the deal with clocking; and I’ll use an analogy to help illustrate the point.
Imagine there are two cars rolling down a highway. You set the cruise control in both cars to 55 miles per hour at the exact same time. Consequently, both cars are side-by-side rolling down the highway at the same rate. What occurs over time is that the two cars start to drift away from each other. One car may inch a little forward, while still traveling at 55 MPH, and at another point in time, the other car may lurch forward… and so it goes… the two cars traveling at about the same rate; but, little differences cause each car to move slightly forward or backwards relative to the other car.
In this case, the differences may be things like the fuel in one of the cars may have higher octane… or perhaps… one of the cars has better tires than the other car… perhaps a fuel injector gets a little clogged impeding the consist flow of fuel, maybe the headwind hitting the front of one car changes and is slightly stronger than the headwind hitting the front of the other car, maybe the road service under one of the cars is rougher than the other. There are multiple things that could impact the performance of each car; therefore, causing each to travel occasionally at a slightly minor, yet different, rate. We’d like to think both cars are traveling at 55 MPH; but, the reality is, they are both not traveling at EXACTLY the same rate (they’re close; but, not exact).
Now, let’s set aside the car analogy and talk about computers on a digital audio network. The computers are like the cars in the previous analogy. In this case, we have multiple computer devices that are encoding or transcoding analog audio into digital bits. The engines in these devices/computers have a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) that does the heavy lifting, just like a car’s engine, when it comes to the necessary number-crunching needed to accomplish the encoding/transcoding of analog audio to digital audio. We’d like to think that since the engines in these devices/computers get their electricity from the same 60Hz AC power source (in the US), that each device would run at the same rate. However, this is not the case. The computers operate at a similar rate; but, not exactly at the same rate.
So, just like the two cars going down the highway that sorta drift, the computers on a digital audio network also drift. In the case of the computers, it’s the DSPs that tend to drift. There are many reasons a DSP (computer engine) can drift, such as power fluctuating, increased heat or the varying load of processing resulting in the DSP running slower. Regardless of the reason, the drift between two computers results in bad juju. What occurs is what we call digital artifacting.
Perhaps the best way to think of digital artifacting is based on the 1980’s pop-culture character Max Headroom. You may recall Max Headroom as a wonky graphics image/character that often stuttered when speaking. The image would freeze-up and the sound would often cut-out, or seemingly stutter, mid-sentence. Although Max Headroom is a sort of extreme example (as was intended for effect), that’s what occurs when multiple computers encoding video or audio drift apart from each other. The video image gets blocky (not fully rendered); the video and audio become out of sync; and the audio often cuts out, stutters, or mutes.
So, the way to prevent the digital DSP drift is to create what’s called a clock; then, inject the clock into each computer’s DSP engine (there’s more technical and accurate ways to describe this; but, for illustration, you can think of it this way). In the case of the car analogy, it’d be like injecting a single large and very long rear-wheel axle across both cars to ensure the drive-wheels push both cars forward at the EXACT same rate… locking-in both sets of wheels prevents the possibility of the two cars drifting apart.
THE MASTER CLOCK SOLUTION
In the case of digital audio networks, we source a Master Clock from the most stable device on the network; then, all other audio devices (which are basically glorified computers) are Slaves to the Master (please excuse the Master/Slave terminology… but I struggle to find a better way to communicate the relationship between these two devices. In other words, we are sorta injecting a clock-beat into each DSP to ensure they run/process at the exact same rate — preventing any digital artifacting.
However, there’s a “hitch in the gittyup”… as they say in Texas. The hitch is, there are multiple productions, having their own infrastructures occurring at the same time. The most common are TV broadcast truck(s) infrastructures vs the live production infrastructures… and we often want complete control of our own domains. In other words, the TV broadcast trucks want to guarantee their success by using their own Master Clock; whereas, the live production infrastructure owners want to guarantee their own success by using their own Master Clock. Therein lies the problem… and for good reasons.
Decoupling the TV broadcast truck clocking from the live production clocking provides for greater flexibility between the two concurrent productions. This stuff may seem a complete bore and uninteresting. However, for those of us responsible for delivering high quality audio for TV broadcast and live production applications, this is a foundational building block upon which all digital things ride; so, we have to get it right.
The solution that enabled us to separate the clocking between the TV broadcast truck and the live production, was provided by the CINI LIVE TV production truck, a Lawo Power Core unit. This little gem is a sort of the Swiss Army Knife of tech tools… operating as an audio over IP gateway, routing engine, DSP processor and having 1,920 x 1,920 crosspoints. It’s a fantastic mash-up of technology and a sign of the times… a virtual tech crossroads bringing together analog audio, AES3, Dante, RAVENNA AES67 and SMPTE along with other bells and whistles.
The Lawo Power Core unit allowed us to run one Master Clock for the TV broadcast trucks; then, a separate Master Clock for the live production infrastructure. The unit then handled the transcoding between the two domains. This is a common solution. However, implementing it can often be hazardous.
A common issues on an event of this scale is that rental equipment is sourced from multiple vendors. Therefore, the configuration of 100+ devices arriving at the job site with old configurations lurk like time bombs on the digital audio network. A good system engineer can sniff-out the old configs on the rental gear and reset things so that every device takes its clock from the correct source. If not configured intentionally, some networks use protocols like using the device with the highest MAC address to determine what device oughta be the Master Clock. While sometimes helpful, it ain’t always the best results.
The point here is, it takes time to interrogate all the devices via tools like Dante Controller or other tools. There’s typically a shakedown period as new devices are booted-up and added to the digital audio network. So, hiccups — like devices that don’t initially lock to sync and other unexpected outcomes — are common as all these devices come together for the first time on a given digital audio network.
All of this to say, clocking for some is a little-known (nor cared about) thing; but, it is one of the foundational capabilities in today’s digerati and was a critical aspect of this production. Thanks to the thoughtful EICs in the CINE LIVE broadcast truck and Live Events audio crew’s ingenuity and combat audio tactics, the clocking was solid on this production.
I didn’t intend to go down the clocking rat hole this far; but, suppose it a fitting subject for today’s production professionals and those with an interest in TV broadcast or live audio production.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Much has changed in the way of technology since Funk mixed the Pope John Paul II Papel visit in 1987, yet the basics of gain structure, dynamics, and time-alignment remain the same. These days, we use digital tools and invest more time in networking, wireless technology, fiber, and clocking. Despite all the new toys, the foundation built by audio engineers like Funk and Doug Hall still stand the test of time and it is with gratitude we tip our hats to those that built the road we now trek upon.
——————
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Kudos to the following audio crew members (listed alphabetically)
– Andrew James Bongardt, A2 TV Broadcast
– Levi Bradford, QLab Playback
– Alden Lewis, Broadcast Audio Lead
– Carson Brannock, Delays P.A. System Engineer
– Avi Brawer, Monitor Engineer
– Chad Cain, Audio Crew Chief
– Richard Cole Fay, Truck Comms
– Jacob Flores, Systems Engineer
– David Friedman, A1 Live Production
– Fredy Monis George, Technical Director
– Casey Graham, A1 TV Broadcast
– Kean Grych, Delays P.A. System Engineer
– Ryan Holmberg, Millumin Playback
– Alex Kanakis, Zone 2 Monument Side PM
– Jacob Lewis, FOH Tech
– Ryan Mitchell, TV Broadcast EIC
– Michael Mooneyham, A2 & Systems Wizard
– Jeremiah Overbaugh, Project Manager
– Zach Pittman, CineLive Broadcast Truck Lead
– John Mark Pool, Network Engineer
– Travis Riddle, Delays P.A. Lead
– Canaan Santele, B-Unit EIC
