Last month’s InfoComm Show (see report) was a blast. Actually, anytime I’m surrounded with new technologies, new ideas and new gear is an uplifting experience for me, and this year’s expo did not disappoint. Hey, I’m not so far gone that I start drooling over 8-inch ceiling speakers, but there was a great assortment of cool new offerings for sound reinforcement pros. And at least in the milieu of live audio, gear makes the world go round.
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From June 8 through 14, 2013, more than 35,000 audio-visual professionals made the trek to Orlando for the annual InfoComm conference and expo. This year’s event had more than 900 exhibitors and an attendance increase of 2.5 percent over last year — definitely positive signs of overall health and good times ahead as the industry moves forward. All eyes (and ears) were on the three days of exhibits, although the audio demo rooms were also open the day before the exhibit hall debuted, giving showgoers an additional day to actually hear systems in a slightly more realistic environment. The show occupied a massive 470,000 net square feet of exhibit and expo space. And with more than 200 audio exhibitors present, we uncovered a wealth of new products of interest to sound reinforcement and audio installation professionals.
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Chances are, even if you are not a “Belieber,” as the hard core fans of 19-year-old Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber call themselves, you probably know someone who is. Bieber has become a true worldwide phenomenon since he burst on the scene in 2009. He has sold millions of albums and toured relentlessly since June 2010, first on the My World tour (U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia, Mexico and South America, through October 2011), and, since September 2012, on the Believe tour, which runs through November 2013 and will have hit old and new locales in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Central and South America, Asia and even a few dates in the Middle East and South Africa. There is no escape; surrender to the Bieb!
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There are few outdoor venues in the world as instantly recognizable and respected as the Hollywood Bowl, the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1922. With its iconic concentric ringed shell and dramatic Hollywood Hills backdrop, the country’s largest natural amphitheatre has been immortalized in dozens of films and television shows over the decades.
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The Detroit Electronic Music Festival began in 2000 and has been located in Hart Plaza in the center of downtown Detroit for 14 years. That first DEMF event was enormously successful and has since led to annual reprises, improving and expanding its scope. It became the Movement Electronic Music Festival in 2006. The Movement Electronic Music Festival has long been lauded by both fans and city officials, who have witnessed these events as a boon to the city, both in pride and financial returns, bringing in millions of dollars of local revenue to local businesses over the years.
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In many ways, the 2-inch (exit) compression driver forms the heart of the typical large-format sound reinforcement speaker. True, other versions of compression drivers — from half-inch to four-inch exit models — exist, but the 2-inch versions offer a combination of efficiency, power handling (band-limited, of course) and serious midrange punch that has made these such a popular component in high-output live sound systems for more than a half century.
To download a PDF of the July 2013 FOH Buyers Guide, CLICK HERE.
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In part one of this series on generators (FRONT of HOUSE, June 2013, page 50), we investigated some underlying details behind Ohm’s law, and that led to investigating when and why current flows in electrical circuits. We then investigated two key concepts in power distribution: bonding and grounding. We showed that bonding — not grounding — creates the primary low-impedance path for fault current in the circumstance where a ground-fault event occurs. In this second article on portable power distribution, we build on the concepts in part one and investigate generator grounding and bonding in light of the existing 2011 National Electrical Code (NEC).
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Last month, I wrote about working with James Taylor at a one-off outdoor event in Greenwich, CT. At this show, I was able to use my normal Avid VENUE console system with existing show files modified for this particular event. The PA system, the monitor system and the microphone complement were not our accustomed touring gear, but being able to initiate our work from a familiar console platform with saved individual song snapshots gave both me and monitor engineer Dave Staub an advantageous starting point. The Greenwich show and the two subsequent one-off shows in this short run went extremely well.
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You want to stay within the comfortably familiar confines of pro audio. Burrow into Gearslutz. Hang out in ProAudioSpace. But the reality is that you’re going to have to spend as much time on Amazon as on Sweetwater, and in Best Buy and the Apple Store as in GC Pro. It’s inevitable, because the confluence of pro and consumer is far from over. The live sound business is still somewhat protected from the economic tumult that the studio side of the industry has experienced — you still need racks and stacks to move the kind of air that live sound requires, not just near-field monitors and a laptop.
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Steve La Cerra’s “Theory and Practice” column picks up this month where last month’s column, “Tour Managing for Dummies,” left off (FRONT of HOUSE, June 2013, page 57). His introduction to the wonderful world of tour managing continues. —ed.
Rule 7: Take Care of Your Crew
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My first experience miking a piano was about two decades ago. The Sunday school teacher at my church decided she wanted her first and second graders to perform in the “big church.” So, five volunteers carried a vintage Kimball upright piano into the main sanctuary and placed it in front of the platform. I had one rehearsal with the teacher and her children’s choir. During that rehearsal, I simply opened the top of the Kimball and positioned a Shure SM57 microphone (on a mic stand) slightly inside the piano at the middle of the harp. To my surprise and joy, it sounded pretty authentic.
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Every time I answer the phone for an audio call, it’s another adventure in problem solving and — for the most part — I do enjoy the challenge of solving the logistical difficulties of any given event. The concert events in real theatres or sheds usually entail the standard fare of negotiating load in/load out times, labor calls, required gear, bus/truck parking and feeder and snake runs.
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