New York Philharmonic in Central Park
AES – The Live Show
There are a lot of pro audio-oriented tradeshows, with some events cropping up somewhere almost every month throughout the year. In fact, this month, we’re privy to several such conclaves — PLASA in London, Oct. 6-9, and AES in New York, Oct. 17-20. Problem is, despite the size and relatively robust health of the sound reinforcement industry, there still is no tradeshow specifically catering to the live audio community.
Read More »SoundGirls.org Supports, Inspires Pro Audio Women
They make up 49.7 percent of the earth’s population. Among U.S. doctors, their ratio is 31 percent. They even account for 19 percent of the elected officials in Congress. But the percentage of live sound engineers who are women is closer to the 5 percent mark.
Two members of this rarified group, Karrie Keyes and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato, were panelists for the “Women of Professional Concert Sound” seminar at AES 2012 in San Francisco, hosted by the recording industry group, Women’s Audio Mission (WAM, womensaudiomission.org). The panel was moderated by WAM founder Terri Winston and also included Claudia Engelhart, Deanne Franklin and Jeri Palumbo.
Read More »Michael Buble “To Be Loved” Tour
The artist wants a dinner club sound and vibe — nothing too surprising about that, except for the fact that the artist is on a world tour playing packed hockey arenas.
Read More »George Travis, Winner of the 2013 Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award
George Travis knows who the real boss is.
“You end up being part of this little touring group that can be a tight, dysfunctional family that shares one goal: putting on a good show,” he says. “We have to remember that when the music starts, we have 8,000 to 80,000 bosses who are the audience. The biggest excitement in this business is when the concert starts. Then you have your immediate reward… or you can also have your immediate judgment!”
Read More »2013 Hometown Hero Regional Sound Honorees
This year’s lot of regional winners is a good mix of those companies across North America that are serving their communities and beyond. It’s one thing to be a guy with some gear that fits in a pickup and is stored in a garage, and it’s another to be a huge national company with loads of resources at your fingertips — that’s how we imagine it, anyway! But it’s those in the “middle” who can (and have the nerve to) invest in the gear to keep their company relevant and also surround themselves with an exceptionally talented crew.Anybody in this category is a hero in our book. The people and companies that follow got an extra nod of approval from FRONT of HOUSE readers — including many of their peers.
Read More »DSP Amplifiers
Amplifiers keep getting smarter, offering more features and improved connectivity, while at the same time becoming more compact, energy efficient and more reliable than their predecessors. We decided to take a look at the top-of-the-line offerings in designs offering onboard DSP and found a bountiful harvest. It should be noted that some companies offer powering packages designed for specific loudspeakers, but here, we’re spotlighting general-purpose amps that can be used with a wide variety of models and applications. All prices are MSRP list and URL’s are provided for more information.
Read More »Portable AC Power Distribution, Part 1
Over this past summer in FRONT of HOUSE, we embarked on a three-part series that touched on some aspects of electrical power distribution in the context of portable generators. Those articles covered a broad range of generator topics, from the important distinctions between bonding and grounding to the upcoming code changes for small generators. In light of the positive reception for that series, we undertake a series on portable power distribution (a.k.a., AC distro) downstream of the generators.
Read More »Understanding Audio Networks
The world of audio data networking is often clouded by conflicting information and opinions by proponents of proprietary systems, who often feel their approach is the best for all users. And from that viewpoint, finding clear unbiased information can be difficult, or simply so filled with jargon and deep technical details that readers may be left somewhat bewildered.
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