TORONTO, CANADA — In the few months since it opened with Wagner's complete Ring Cycle, Toronto, Canada's new CDN$181 million Four Seasons Centre has added more than 150 Meyer Sound loudspeakers, though their presence isn't apparent; all are concealed from sight, either around the proscenium or embedded in the hall's walls and ceilings.
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HERCULES, CA — Currently with Pro Media/UltraSound in Hercules, Calif, Derrick Featherstone has spent well over a decade working with alt-rock band Primus as both their tour manager and FOH engineer. Though they're noted "analog die-hards," Featherstone and the band recently made the decision to swap out their aging analog equipment for a new digital system and chose Digidesign's VENUE live sound environment to handle FOH duties for the band's U.S. and Canada tour.
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Read More »I hate bad service. No, I mean REALLY hate it. There is little that makes me angrier than paying for goods or services only to be abused or ignored by the person doling out said good or service.
I have had a few radically differing service experiences lately — none really connected to our industry, but I still think they make an important point.
First, I had a major appliance just stop working. It was, of course, a couple of months out of the warranty period. I called the repair line for the brand, and we made an appointment for the next day with a three hour window. I made arrangements to work from home for the morning and set up a couple of meetings for the afternoon. About 20 minutes before the end of that window, I got a call from the tech saying he was a little behind but would be there shortly. He finally arrived almost five hours after the agreed-upon time window. Then he ran a few tests and told me that the repair cost was roughly double the cost of a similar brand new unit. Then he "did me a favor" and did not charge me for the service call that he was five hours late for.
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What:
Design and manufacture innovative, cutting edge audio technologies and professional audio products.
Where:
Waterford, Michigan (just north of Detroit).
When:
Founded in 1989
Fulltime employees:
About 15
From Its Start as a High School Obsession 20 Years Ago, Pacific West Sound Has Remained Passionate About Audio
[Starting this month, we put a new twist on Regional Slants. This piece will now focus on a different regional soundco every month, giving you an idea of what it's like for the mid-level crew. They'll share their stories, their hard-won wisdom and their plans for the future. Know a regional soundco who's a Hometown Hero we should focus on? Send us a line at [email protected]. And never fear, we have a new home all lined up for the frustrations and rants that used to fill this space — stay tuned for news on that. �ed.]
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Oakland's Paramount Theatre is a cultural hub for the city, with all sorts of musical and comedy tours hitting the stage as well as local civic events, graduations and the Oakland Speakers' Series. Every so often theatre management shows a vintage film, which returns the venue to its original movie house glory.
The theatre, which seats around 3,000, opened in 1931 with the express goal of showing the major motion pictures of the day. The art deco style that was hip 76 years ago is still eye-catching, and the venue boasts a handful of unique charms.
Read More »For the past few weeks, I have been playing with an incredibly sophisticated wireless system, the RF performance of which has been impeccable. Unlike most of the wireless units I have dealt with in the past, this system packs four receivers into a single rack space and has the capacity for another two receivers, allowing a total of six in one rack space. Each receiver has its own audio output on a rear-panel connector for routing to individual mixer channels. The front panel doesn't look all that sexy, so initial impressions say "installation market," but a closer look reveals that intelligent design for the install market easily trickles into the touring sound market (and vice versa).
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It amazes me how many accountants and personal secretaries are placed in a position to oversee the success of extremely high profile events. I also find it stupefying that some executive, somewhere, makes plans to have an obscenely extravagant event to tout some fabulous product or charity, hires some incredibly famous star as a host and then tops it off by employing an even more extraordinary celestial body as the evening's entertainment. This same executive then goes out and books a venue based upon it's trendy status without giving a second thought in regard to how the event will be staged or managed and then, because the event is so important to the success of his company, he makes sure that guest list reads like a Who's Who of the New York City society page.
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There is something to be said for the idea of family. When the band Sister Hazel and their management, Sixthman decided to have a convention for the band and do it on a cruise ship, they called on the services of a company and crew they had used before, Atlanta Sound and Lights and head crew dude Sean Henry. Now, six years later, that little convention idea has grown into the Rock Boat — more than 20 bands, 2000+ fans and one big boat. Oh, and 11 sound guys. You read that right. Eleven guys to cover six stages and shows that start by noon and go until very late every night, with acts ranging from unknown songwriters (Honor by August won a BMI competition for their slot) to budding rock stars (Atlanta's Five Star Iris and Austin's Wideawake stood out) to established acts including Collective Soul, Better Than Ezra, Cowboy Mouth and "hosts" Sister Hazel.
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An outdoor amphitheatre whose origins date back to 1935. A big-city government that, appropriately, isn't keen on wasting the taxpayers' money. A venue that needs to suit the definition of diversity: from an international blues festival to the symphony; from Aretha Franklin to the Dalai Lama.
Oh yeah — it's also real windy.
It's Chicago's famed Petrillo, located in Grant Park, and home to the Chicago Blues Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival, Taste of Chicago, Viva Chicago, Celtic Festival and World Music Festival — all of which were attended by a combined total of more than one million people last year. Located right off the harshness that can be Lake Michigan, it is within a proverbial stone's throw from homes, making noise pollution a real issue as well. Yet a new install by Chicago Sound using SLS line arrays left everyone happy.
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I recently helped out a friend of mine doing FOH and tour manager duties for two weeks on a U.S. promotional tour. This was a van and trailer tour, which I found refreshing and intimate for a change. We were scheduled at a state fair, and I was saddled with only one crew guy. We pulled up to a 60-foot by 40-foot stage with a decent roof that seemed to have some "water puddle" issues. I climbed up on the deck and was overseen by a gentlemen sitting in monitor world; let's call him Chester. I introduced myself as Tommy with the band Hedley, and asked if there were stagehands. Chester said something akin to, "Don't know, don't care and unless I have heard of you, I really can't be bothered."
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