NEW YORK — More than 300,000 people gathered around the skating rink, waiting for the switch to be pulled to turn on the Rockefeller Christmas Tree's lights, and the event was televised nationally on NBC with celebrities and politicians, using a sizable Yamaha and NEXO-based audio system.
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COTO DE CAZA, CA — Corporate Image Audio (CIA), Inc, of Coto de Caza, Calif, used a Soundcraft Vi6 digital live sound console to mix Les Brown and his Band of Renown and a television production for CBS 2 (KCBS-TV) in Palm Desert. The Vi6 was the first made available in the U.S. for purchase. They also plan to use it with the upcoming Rotary International 2007 Assembly in San Diego and the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
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REDDITCH, ENGLAND — SSE Audio Group has one of its four new Soundcraft Vi6 digital consoles out on tour with rock band Thunder, selling out all the dates on its UK tour of academies and civic halls.
Read More »LAS VEGAS — The 28,000-member student body of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas eagerly awaited the opening of its new Moyer Student Union this fall. The new 135,000 square foot facility is bigger and better than the previous and rather small student union of the past. The new building includes a dining court, TV lounge, office space and rooms for studying and socializing, as well as a 300-seat movie theater, with Community's I/O5 and Solutions loudspeakers used throughout.
Read More »Dear Anklebiters, I have a mixer with a global on/off switch for phantom power. If I am using just one or two mics that need power, will it hurt anything else to leave it on?
Charles Cox Moapa, Nevada
Paul: Condenser microphones require a polarizing voltage and power for their built-in amplifiers. Sometimes provision is made to supply this voltage directly through the microphone cable. The procedure is called phantom powering, and the most common phantom supply voltage available in mixing consoles is 48 VDC, although 24V supplies are widely used. Most phantom powered mics can operate on a wide range of supply voltages, from as little as 1.5 volts or 9 volts up to 50 volts.
Read More »OK, here it comes again. As we approach the end of the year, I find myself with a tendency to get Serious. Sorry, it's a character defect that I continue to work on, to little avail.
While I want to review the year and take some time to reflect and be grateful, it is an insanely busy time of the year. Here at Timeless World Headquarters, we are up to three monthly magazines (FOH, PLSN and Stage Directions) plus the annual Event Production Directory. (By the way, that little reference guide that so many of us turn to in time of need is finally going electronic as well as print. That's good news — especially for those of you who spend significant time on the road — but it is a hellacious amount of work to get it into the new format.) Plus, I have a couple of side projects (including trying to front a large band again — just how stupid am I?) that make time even tighter.
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Call me archaic, but I actually find the English language to be a great way to express ones thoughts, regardless of intent or purpose. From relaying simple instructions in concise terms to loquaciously waxing poetic, the English language, when used properly, is capable of conveying thought and feeling with nuance and elegance. This does not mean that we need to roll our "R's" or speak in Shakespearean English, but as intelligent people we must find a middle ground between "Wherefore art thou?" and "Where you at?" Starting with the president of the United States on down, spoken English has become a lost art or, at the very least, simply modified to the lowest common denominator.
Read More »There are some things in the music business that never change. For instance, record labels will always want to repackage a band's old material. History has shown that "Greatest Hits" packages are an easy (and cheap) way to do this. After all, the biggest expense of a new release — studio time — is minimal for a re-package. Ditto for the concept of a live recording. The band is performing anyway, and by the time they've played their 25th show, they're pretty well rehearsed, so the label decides it's time to record a concert for release on CD in stereo and on DVD in 5.1 — and that's where life on the road gets complicated.
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Bob Forbes is taking the opportunity to breathe. As the president of SPL Systems (www.splsystems.net), a regional sound company who strikes while the proverbial fair and festival iron is hot, Forbes has recently finished a five-month-long run of festivals around the company's Chicopee, Mass. headquarters.
This past summer, the SPL crew worked at 17 fairs in the southeast Massachusetts and northern New York state region that included the Barnstable County Fair in East Faimouth, Mass., Ulster County Fair in New Paltz, N.Y. and the Duchess County Fair in Rhinebeck, N.Y., as well as the Eastern States Exposition ("The Big E") and the Big Y Balloon and Music Festival in West Springfield, Mass.
Read More »'Twas the night before Christmas; the deadline was tight.
The tempers were flaring; there was no end in sight.
The ground plans were hung on the walls without care,
While hundreds of box truss were flown in the air.
The Clients were nestled all snug in their beds
While us in production were banging our heads.
The script had revisions; the computer had crashed.
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On a perfect Las Vegas evening, a recordbreaking audience gathered in a Venetian Hotel Ballroom to pay tribute to the very best of the year in our annual "Oscars of the Live Event Industry" affair.
"When you think about it, it's against our very nature to attend an event like this," observed master of ceremonies and president of Timeless Communications Terry Lowe during the ceremony's opening moments. "We tend to be the kind that shuns the spotlight. We'd rather be pointing it. We'd rather EQ than speak into a mic."
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Chris Raboid and Brad Blettenberg are a good team. Covering FOH and MON plus production for Southern rock jam band Widespread Panic, they have become "part of the family" with a band known for going through sound guys with almost Prince-like regularity — Chris has helmed FOH for five years, and Brad has been camped out at the side of the stage for a decade. FOH caught up with the daring duo on the band's Halloween show in Las Vegas (you can't tell, but the singer is wearing a chicken suit in the pics) and got a glimpse of a crew that has both the chops and the balls to hang with a band that regularly takes things to the edge of the musical abyss without ever falling over. And this band that has never had a radio hit was touring with one of the most cutting-edge and best-sounding systems we have heard in a long time. Here's how they do it.
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