Most of ATK AudioTek's 46-person crew are veterans of the Super Bowl extravaganza. But they still take nothing for granted. Arriving three weeks before the Feb. 4 showdown between the Colts and the Bears at Miami's Pro Player Stadium, Scott Harmala, ATK's CTO and vice president of engineering, saw that this year's version was going to have a few unique challenges of its own.
Read More »
Crown Audio Xti4000
By Mark Amundson
Put yourself into Crown Audio's product managers' shoes: You have the renowned touring audio power amplifier line called the I-Tech, and you have the task to create a smaller mass music market version that sells for a competitive price but still has the features and power ratings this market wants. In this pursuit, I believe Crown has succeeded very well with the XTi line of amplifiers.
Read More »For the last few months or so, I have been writing to you about installing worship sound systems, dealing with the various personalities and hierarchy of church politics and government and getting paid for your efforts. However, in the last month I have been asked to improve the acoustics of two very different worship spaces. The first one is at a Christian camp in the San Bernardino Mountains of California known as Camp Cedar Crest. This camp has a large central auditorium that is used for a variety of worship music and speaking events. The second is located in the basement of a small church in Newport Beach, Calif. that is currently being used for storage. The church would like to turn the space into a youth area where programmed and live music could be played. The fact of the matter is I very rarely get a call to treat the acoustics of a room, and to have two calls in one month is really a phenomenon. I have no difficulty walking into a room and hearing that the acoustics suck. Or entering a sanctuary that has just heavenly acoustics. The challenge is to get from suck to heaven. Obviously I am willing to have a go at it.
Read More »Every so often, you hear of acquaintances getting swindled on a rental, or outright burglarized at the shop, or (more often) from the truck or trailer carrying sound reinforcement gear. Before you are the next one suffering such an incident, take reasonable steps to thwart attempts of thievery.
The Pro Thief
No matter what you may do, a real professional group of thieves will not be deterred by just about anything you do to protect your gear. And when I say professional, I am thinking of persons that plan the theft in detail, know what they are after, and have a ready buyer of the goods that will not care if all the gear serial numbers are broadcast amongst the soundcos. In this scenario, the gear will likely be headed out of the country on very fast transportation.
Read More »Imagine a typical Thursday night on the Las Vegas Strip. Forty hotels, each with one or two multimillion- dollar theatrical productions running during prime time. More than 250 channels of wireless in operation. And at a key moment in any of the shows a "toxic burst" creates a deafening noise glob throughout the P.A. system, or perhaps worse, produces the deafening silence of a drop-out.
This is the nightmare scenario that a number of interested parties in the RF wireless game have put to the FCC and certain members of Congress, in an effort to stave off the almost-certain chaos of conflicting wireless devices operating in the what the FCC calls the "white space" opened up by the legislated switch to digital television in 2009 that will open vast parts of that spectrum to a variety of unregulated applications.
Read More »Ricci Dustin
Head Audio Engineer
Harrah's Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV
FOH audio engineer
Clients:
Wayne Newton, Rita Rudner, Clint Homes, Forever Plaid
Quote:
I'm just here for the irony and the dancing!
Personal Info:
30 years of live FOH engineering 6-7 nights a week with very little time off ever. More than 20,000 hours of live FOH mixing.
Read More »
OLD LYME, CT — Sennheiser has engineered a new microphone head for its RF wireless microphone, the SKM 5200. The MD 5235 mic head is a rugged dynamic capsule designed to cut through high on-stage levels. The new mic head can be used with all handheld transmitters of Sennheiser's 5000 Series – the SKM 5000, SKM 5000 N and the latest model, SKM 5200.
Read More »
SAN JUAN, PR — CBS, as in Caribbean Broadcast Supply, recently installed a new Martin Audio system at the Magna Aula ("Big Hall" in Latin) Performing Arts Center at the University of Puerto Rico's Rio Piedras campus in San Juan. The university had originally envisioned a modest audio and lighting system but CBS founder Freddie Rojas and his audio engineer/installer sons, Freddie Jr. and Alex, had already created sound systems for performing arts centers in Santurce and Caguas, used by musical groups and artists from all over the world. They counseled the University to go for something more comprehensive.
Read More »
SPOKANE, WA — The Spokane Opera House (Spokane, Wash) has remained in use since its Expo '74 debut, and through the years, the 2,700-seat venue hosted the Spokane Symphony subscription series, as well as events ranging from pop and country concerts to ballet, civic celebrations and, yes, even the occasional opera, but in the spring of 2006, the publicly owned venue was rechristened INB Performing Arts Center to reflect its corporate sponsorship from Inland Northwest Bank, and along with the name change, the venue was treated to extensive interior renovations, including a new system of 18 self-powered Meyer Sound loudspeakers.
Read More »
NASHVILLE, TN — Alison Krauss and Union Station have played a major role in keeping the bluegrass on its upward trajectory with a string of albums and tour dates, a schedule that includes QSC and SE Systems to provide audio support.
Read More »NILES, IL — Shure has announced that it will again donate $50,000 this year to four organizations as part of the Shure Listen Safe program. The four organizations are Columbia College, an undergraduate and graduate college in downtown Chicago; Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers (H.E.A.R.), a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the real dangers of repeated exposure to excessive noise levels; The House Ear Institute (HEI), a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to advancing hearing science through research and education to improve the quality of life; and the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) Scholarship Foundation, which was begun in 2003 to provide scholarship awards to graduate students focusing on applied/practical studies in hearing loss prevention/hearing conservation at regionally accredited institutions.
Read More »
ATLANTA, GA — The Midas XL8 digital live performance system has been mixing sound for Sister Act, The Musical, the new show by Alan Menken. After completing a run at the Pasadena Playhouse, the show moved to The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta for a six-week stint, accompanied by FOH Engineer Pierre Dupree and an XL8 deployed by Sound Associates, Inc., whose Carl Casella and Domonic Sack completed sound design for the show.
Read More »