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Hometown Hero Finalists, FOH Magazine, 2014

2014 Hometown Hero Finalist Profiles

What makes a hometown hero? What does it take to be the best, without being the biggest? FRONT of HOUSE readers have spoken and here are this year’s six Parnelli Regional Audio honorees. They all answer the two questions, and while each has whittled their own path to this year’s winner’s circle, like a snowflake, no two are exactly alike. They do, however, share commonalities: Gear, sure, but it’s the people; savvy business sense to survive and thrive and a business that is getting harder to navigate every year; and an insatiable desire to please the client. FOH readers can now visit www.parnelliawards.com and  vote on which of the six should be named the Hometown Hero Sound Company of the Year.

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Lawo’s mc² 36 live audio console makes its U.S. debut at this month’s AES show.

Lawo mc² 36 Live Audio Console.

Products have a way of proceeding through development at their own pace. These sometimes take a bit longer to evolve as new concepts are prototyped, tested and matured, and additional functions and features are added and tweaked — well before reaching the beta or initial release phase. So it was with mc² 36 live audio console.

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Deployement Techniques for Vertical Arrays, part 2

Deployment Techniques for Vertical Arrays, Part 2

Vertically arrayed speaker deployments increasingly rule the day in pro audio. Such systems have advantages in deployment, sightlines, and dividing the audience into different coverage zones. This month’s tech feature is the second in a series that will detail real-world complexities involved in deploying vertical arrays and practical approaches that the system technician can apply to ensure even coverage throughout the audience area.

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The QXL-D system is offered in several versions including this “combo” style that includes an SM58 handheld and a beltpack/lavalier transmitter.

Shure QLX-D Digital Wireless System

The QLX-D is Shure’s latest addition to its growing line of digital wireless microphone systems and utilizes some of the technology developed for the company’s higher-end Axient products and ULX-D Series to good effect. Shure has successfully been able to package the QLX-D system in an economical version with user-friendly controls.

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The 15-inch P1500X and P1800SX 18-inch sub.

Cerwin-Vega P-Series Loudspeakers

Cerwin-Vega has introduced a new line of powered portable speakers for use in professional sound reinforcement. The P-Series consists of the full range P1000X, a bi-amped two-way speaker with a 10-inch woofer and a hemi-conical horn. The larger P1500X is a 15-inch version. The series also includes the P1800SX 18-inch subwoofer. All are covered by a three-year warranty — a nice touch.

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In 1958, the Cannon XLR made way for standardized connections for hardwired mics. Today the industry is primed for a single standard for miniature headworn/lavalier mic connectors.

Wireless Connectors: Where’s the Standard?

It sounds like the start of a joke, but the question “What connector do you use with a wireless mic?” is serious business indeed. There’s no connector between a handheld wireless mic and the receiver. However, as soon as you bring beltpack/bodypack transmitters in the equation, all bets are off. And while not obvious to the general audio community, people who regularly work with lavalier and headworn mics are well aware of the issue here.

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The SPL Issue: A Question of Volume

A Question of Volume

Dynamic changes are equally important to the live performance of a musical piece as the notes, rhythm and instrumental choices. Allow me to preface this expression of opinion by enumerating particular personality traits that have influenced me in making some decisions affecting the direction of my career as an audio engineer.

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Among VER’s many clients is Bassnectar, for whom the company supplied a 360° Meyer Sound LEO array (with ample LF, of course) for 17,000 fans at this 2013 New Year’s Eve arena show.

VER Adds Audio

In consolidating industries, a natural response is scaling up in order to bring more services and capabilities to the table. That’s certainly what we’re seeing with a recent raft of merger and acquisition activity, with Comcast’s purchase of Time-Warner Cable and AT&T’s move on DirecTV — just the biggest of what’s shaping up to be the busiest deal-making season since 2008, with a reported $2.2 trillion in deals done so far this year globally, a 67-percent increase from the same period last year.

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Remote Recording’s “Silver Studio” truck at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, pictured while recording Neil Young’s Prairie Wind.

NOT Recording from Front of House

So you’re loading into a small theater for a gig and a remote truck pulls into the loading area. You’re thinking, “Oh wow, So and So must be recording their show here tomorrow.” You start speaking with the guys from the remote recording company and find out they are there to record tonight’s show to multitrack. But management forgot to send you the memo. After you’re done swearing at the intern who didn’t pull you into the email trail, your blood pressure drops below 200 and you figure it’s time to get to work. So exactly what do you need to do?

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The choir at Destiny Christian Church, of Yuma, AZ, uses centered solo stage mics combined with a stereo pair of condenser mics (on high stands) to capture the tiered choir.

Techniques for Heavenly Choirs

As a worship sound pro, the top three questions asked of me are, first, How can I make my system sound better? Second, How can I make my worship band sound better? And third, How can I make my choir sound better? This month, my friends, we will investigate some suggestions on question three.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Hope

Reading the daily paper is not only dispiriting, but also seems to be an exercise in futility. Watching the news on television is arrantly dismal, and made worse due to the overwhelmingly insipid magazine-style reporting and filler commentary by a surfeit of the so-called experts. The news is depressing enough without a slew of vapid analysts trying to make sense of the rampant senselessness and lunacy of man’s inhumanity to man as well as logically trying to explain the inexplicable enigmas that plague us on a daily basis. The mysteries I refer to are oddities such as the story of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, the economy and, of course, our foreign policy, to name a few.

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