Itâ€™s All in the Family at Onstage Systems

by FOH Staff
August 8, 2010
Regional Slants

Hyacinth and Chris Belcher of Dallas-based Onstage Systems

"Onstage Systems began in 1978 as Dallas Backup, Inc. Our parents, Charles and Vickie Belcher, started the company as a backline company," comments Hyacinth Belcher of Dallas-based Onstage Systems, a company she has run with her brother Chris for the last several years. "They tried everything they could think of to get us to see the light and not do it," she laughs, "but we love it; I can't imagine doing anything else."

by Steve LaCerra
August 8, 2010March 3, 2025
On the Digital Edge

One of the problems with digital audio is latency. Analog audio happens in real time, traveling down a wire from point A to point B at a speed of roughly 186,000 miles per second. That's pretty friggin fast, even if you're in a Lamborghini Countach.

by Steve LaCerra
August 8, 2010March 3, 2025
Theory and Practice

Gear failure is almost inevitable in this business. There are hundreds, if not thousands of components that make the production of a show happen. If something in that chain breaks, the whole show can go downhill. That is what makes a good troubleshooter priceless in this industry. Even more priceless is a person who can not only find the problem, but also figure it out before it is a problem on stage.

by Dan Daley
August 8, 2010March 3, 2025
The Biz

This is the final installment of FOH's summer business focus on Nashville as a touring hub, and we're starting where we began, at Soundcheck, because the story of that business is a worthwhile lesson in economics, strategy and humanity.

by Jamie Rio
August 8, 2010March 3, 2025
Sound Sanctuary

If you are a regular reader of this column, then you have already read some of my writings on Equalization, or, as I like to refer to it, "Frequency Manipulation." I never grow tired of this subject. Mainly because all the sound we hear is made up of a combination of frequencies, and the more control you have over those frequencies, the better you can make things sound. It is as simple as that.

“It’s Just Business”

by Baker Lee
August 8, 2010March 3, 2025
FOH at Large

Years ago, when I was getting out into the world, I belonged to a community of idealistic people that was sure to change the world. Armed with an inherent knowledge of our righteousness; driven by the words of Bob Dylan, the Beatles and other well-known mystics and fueled by psychotropic substances, we set out on a "Magical Mystery tour" of self discovery and change. We courted and joined with mystics from the East, we marched for civil rights, and we were elevated by Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech; we challenged fashion and were thus, fashionably challenged.