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Event Safety Alliance Moves Into Next Phase

ESA president Jim Digby

Event Safety Alliance Moves Into Next Phase

In what began as a conversation involving concerned live event professionals the month after the Indiana State Fair stage collapse in August 2011, the Event Safety Alliance (ESA) is expanding its influence over event safety in North America. As it celebrates its unofficial third year this month (it incorporated in February of 2012), the ESA has made solid progress in their quest to align the industry with best practices in live event safety guidelines. A four-day training session, a new strategic partnership, a new headquarters, and The Event Safety Guide are some of their recent accomplishments.

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Jim Van Winkle

The FCC’s Part 74 License

Jim Van Winkle, general manager of Professional Wireless Systems (PWS), wrote this article about navigating the new live event workflow. -ed.

Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it would soon be taking steps to “recognize the important social, cultural and economic benefits of low-power auxiliary station operations, including wireless microphones, by expanding license eligibility for qualifying users.”

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Asleep at the Wheel 2014 photo by George Petersen

Asleep at the Wheel

Without a doubt, Asleep at the Wheel founder/frontman Ray Benson is a national treasure. While other live music forms seem to espouse all the amenities of “modern production” — Pro Tools backing tracks, drum machines, loops, beatz, flashy lights, video playback, overblown sets, elaborate staging, pyro effects, legions of dancers, multiple costume changes and the must-have flashing strobes that blind the audience — Asleep at the Wheel just shows up and plays. And no “grueling” 20-stop tours, either: these guys (and gals) are on the road doing between 140 and 200 shows a year to packed houses and festivals, leaving audiences cheering for encore after encore.

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Figures from JBL’s VerTec Line Array Calculator II show the directivity of a single VTX VT25 cabinet at 200 Hz (low directivity)…

Deployment Techniques for Vertical Arrays, Part 1

From the summer festival setup on a Stageline SL100 mobile stage to shows at a “shed” amphitheater, to the largest arena productions, vertically arrayed speaker deployments increasingly rule the day in pro audio. Vertical arrays have advantages in deployment, sightlines, and dividing the audience into different coverage zones. Here in the pages of FRONT of HOUSE, I have talked about the physical principles of vertical arrays but not about their practical field deployment for the working technician. We will now remedy this situation, as this month’s tech feature is the first in a series that will detail some real-world idiosyncrasies involved in deploying vertical arrays and practical approaches that the system technician can apply to ensure even coverage throughout the audience area.

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DPA d:screet Necklace Microphone

DPA d:screet Necklace Microphone

Headworn and lavalier mics continue to gain popularity in applications that go well beyond the typical — i.e., a CEO giving a welcome address at an industrial or corporate presentation or freeing a minister from the pulpit mic for invocations using a wireless system. With the rise of quality in modern miniature capsules, some of these transducers are capable of delivering performance specs that meet or exceed those of a hardwired handheld. At the same time, capsules have gotten smaller, offering near-invisibility from just a few feet away.

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The SRM450v3 can double as a stage wedge

Mackie SRM450v3 and SRM1801 Powered Loudspeakers

I think it’s safe to say that the Mackie SRM450 qualifies as an industry standard. I certainly have encountered my share of them over the past 15 years and often still use some original 450’s that I got circa 1999. But Mackie’s latest revisions to this venerable speaker bring it more in line with modern diversified sound needs. Though at first glance the new 450 may look similar to the previous models, Mackie’s version 3 updates of the SRM450 contain many significant changes.

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Rehearsal setup aboard ship in the less-than-luxurious Kensington room.

Cruising with JT and the Gang

Preceding our European tour in the summer of 2009, with the lyrics of Huey “Piano” Smith’s “Sea Cruise” floating through our minds, the James Taylor crew boarded Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 for a transatlantic crossing. As romantic as this ocean voyage adventure seemed before we cast off in New York harbor, reality presented a rather different version of the story for those of us on the crew. For the majority of the time spent on this legendary luxury ocean liner, we were confined in a cramped salon on the lowest deck of the ship, setting up and working rehearsals with the band. Aside from the two shows James and the band performed on the final days of the voyage, the most memorable highlight of the cruise turned out to be a lengthy tour of the engine room given to us by the chief of engineering.

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IFPI’s report on the state of the digital music market can be downloaded from ifpi.org.

Streaming Concerts: Will This Time Be Different?

Even if you’re not Jimmy Iovine or Dr. Dre, chances are streamed music is becoming part of your life. Streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio and Pandora are becoming a critical part of music payouts, with a 51-percent increase in revenue from subscription services reported in 2013, through which revenues exceeded $1 billion for the first time, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported. About 28 million people around the world pay for access to them, up from eight million just three years earlier, according to The New York Times.

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Recording from FOH: Some Alternative Suggestions

Back in ye olden times, recording from front of house meant getting a stone slab, a hammer and a chisel. You’d lay the slab in front of the band and… Okay, never mind. These days, there are tons of options for recording a show from front of house, ranging from a direct Pro Tools DAW capture to adding an outboard recorder, such as a JoeCo BlackBox. Let’s take a look at a few alternatives. Note that we will not mention the word “splitter” anywhere in this article.

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One non-powered solution: For St. John the Evangelist Church in Frederick, MD, Audio Video Group installed a system based on Community ENTASYS columns, Lab.gruppen amps and a Biamp AudiaFLEX providing automatic mixing, speaker delay and system EQ.

Powered or Non-Powered?

Self-powered speakers have been around a lot longer than most people think. JBL was building self-powered studio monitors back in the 1960’s. In the early 1990’s, John Meyer (of Meyer Sound Laboratories) devoted his manufacturing, research and development solely to active (self-powered) speakers. As a matter of fact, Meyer once hired an ad agency to research how people felt about powered speakers for sound reinforcement. After a survey, they came back saying “nobody wanted them.” That said, Meyer released the MSL-4 in 1994. This was the first powered loudspeaker intended for concert touring. Meyer obviously made a success of it, and the company hasn’t looked back since.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Making the Case for Cases

Getting new gear is always an exciting proposition and — regardless of the equipment or its application — it’s always a thrill to open the box, take out the equipment, fire it up and make it work. Undoubtedly, in one way or another, this piece of gear will augment your audio system, upgrade your inventory and, all in all, be a great addition to your ever-expanding and always evolving business — whatever that might be. If your purchase is new and improved and gives you a more contemporary sound, look and feel, then the investment makes sense, as pro audio is a competitive market that constantly demands the new, improved and contemporary.

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