CLEVELAND, OH — The 24th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony honored Jeff Beck, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Bobby Womack, Run DMC and Metallica, among others, and Firehouse Productions, Red Hook, N.Y., made sure the Public Auditorium was well-stocked with gear.
Firehouse provided a VerTec line array system with Crown I-Tech HD power amplification for live sound reinforcement. More than 50 Audio-Technica mics were used at the event as well.
The 2009 ceremony, which was broadcast live on the Fuse network, featured performances by several of the inductees, which also included “Queen of Rockabilly” Wanda Jackson, and instrumentalists/sidemen Bill Black, DJ Fontana and Spooner Oldham.
Presenters for the event included Jimmy Page, Ron Wood, Flea and Smokey Robinson. Other big names included the roster of mixing engineers on hand: Tony Blanc, Dan Gerhard, ‘Big Mick’ Hughes (Metallica) and Greg Bess (Jeff Beck).
Firehouse deployed a PA system that consisted of 16 VerTec VT4889 large-format line array elements and 12 VT4880A arrayable subwoofers per side, with five additional VT4889s comprising a center cluster.
The crew also set up an additional eight VT4887 compact line array elements per side for off-stage coverage, four VT4887s for front fill and four floor-located VT4880 subwoofers.
Firehouse’s Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers powered the system, which also relied on Crown and JBL’s new V4 DSP presets, developed for use with Crown’s LevelMAX™ multi-stage limiting in the HD amps.
This year’s ceremony marked the 12th consecutive year where Audio-Technica microphones had a big presence at the event. Audio-Technica’s Artist Elite® 5000 Series UHF Wireless System was used with the AEW-T5400 handheld microphone/transmitter for frontline vocals on performances by Little Anthony, Wanda Jackson and Bobby Womack. Metallica used A-T AE5400 cardioid condenser microphones for their vocals. A combination of wireless AEW-T5400s and wired AE5400s was used for vocals in the show’s finale, which featured Metallica and Jeff Beck, along with Jimmy Page, Ron Wood, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, in a jam of the Yardbirds’ take on the blues classic “Train Kept A-Rollin.’“
The backline mic complement of A-T wired microphones included AE2500 dual-element cardioid instrument microphone for kick drum and guitar cabinets; ATM450 cardioid condenser instrument microphone for piano; AE5100 cardioid condenser instrument microphone for hi-hat and audience; ATM350 cardioid condenser clip-on microphone for toms, horns and strings; ATM250 hypercardioid dynamic instrument microphone for toms; AT4047/SV cardioid condenser microphone for guitar cabinets; AT4050 multi-pattern condenser microphone for overheads; ATM25 hypercardioid dynamic instrument microphone for toms; and AT4055 handheld cardioid condenser microphone for horns.
The technical staff for the induction ceremony was made up of professional audio industry veterans. Mitch Maketansky returned as audio coordinator this year, organizing and assigning all the inputs and microphones for the event. Frenchtown, N.J.-based remote recording specialists Music Mix Mobile, the company responsible for both recording the program and mixing the live feed for broadcast, used its M3 remote truck with Jay Vicari as music and broadcast mixer, mixing the event’s audio onsite. Al Centrella was the production mixer, Tony Blanc was Front-of-House (FOH) engineer and Tom Holmes was the Monitor mixer. Joel Singer served as audio engineer-in-charge (EIC) and pro tools engineer.
“I continue to choose Audio-Technica wired and wireless microphones for high-profile broadcast events because of their fidelity, overall reliability and consistency from microphone to microphone,” Vicari said. “When dealing with a complex production such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions, things can get pretty hectic, but being able to depend on A-T’s sound quality makes my life a lot easier.”
According to Mark Dittmar of Firehouse Productions, the Public Auditorium posed some rigging challenges. “We had to do a large number of spanner trusses to support the PA system and cabling in this venue,” he said. “As with all TV shows, designing a PA that will cover the whole room, deliver superb sound quality and not show up in any of the camera shots is a major challenge.”
With this in mind, Dittmar noted that VerTec was well-suited to the event. “The light weight of the VerTec line arrays and the ability to tightly wrap the PA and aim it down at extreme angles is very useful in designing and installing the system,” he said. “The fact that it sounds great makes its use a no-brainer.
“VerTec has been our speaker of choice for all TV and special events over the past eight years,” Dittmar added. “It is light and very flexible in its rigging options. The sound quality has always made our clients and engineers very happy. From VH-1 Storytellers with only eight VerTec loudspeakers to Live Earth at Giants Stadium with more than 200, VerTec has been with us the whole way.”
The new Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers feature a DSP engine co-developed with BSS Audio called OmniDriveHD. The processing engine features Linear Phase FIR filters.
“This was our first major live sound event utilizing I-Tech HD,” Dittmar said. “There is a big increase in power output of the amplifiers, and coupled with the new V4 DSP presets we had approximately 6dB more volume than we had before. Ultimately, the I-Tech HD gives us more power and clarity than we thought possible. The new limiters on I-Tech HD are excellent as well. They are far more efficient than anything else we have seen.”
For more information, please visit www.firehouseproductions.com , www.jblpro.com , www.crownaudio.com and www.audio-technica.com.
