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Poor Man’s Power Distribution

Mark Amundson had a gift for making technical details understandable to newbies without ever making the vets feel like they were being talked down to. His untimely death has left us with two holes to fill —one in our hearts, as we lost not only a writer but a dear friend, and another in the pages of FOH. Mark knew as well as anyone in this business that the show must go on, and we are just beginning the process of trying to find someone both willing and able to fill Mark’s very large shoes. For the next few issues, in a sort of tribute, we will re-run some of Mark’s own favorite columns. This one first appeared in FOH, Nov. 2007—ed.

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A Well-Fed Crew is a Happy Crew

While cold jelly and custard may be every nineteenth century orphan’s dream of escape from gruel, this verse is precisely the reason hospitality riders were written into contracts. Being on the road itself is a grueling affair, and for the most part, there is not a large variety of highway food to choose from as the bus travels from town to town. Even airports, while offering a bit more variety in their dining experience, can only provide a limited fare.

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Suck It Up…

When was a teenager I lived just a few blocks from the local elementary school and we used to go over there on weekends, hop the fence and play basketball. We went there for a few reasons, It was close. It was a “real” court and much better than someone’s driveway and 8-foot hoops made us feel like NBA stars even though we all pretty much sucked.

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Robert Collins

Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton

It could be argued that FOH mixer Robert Collins has seen some of the greatest live rock ‘n’ roll shows ever. Actually, that would be a short debate, since Collins has stood in front of a laundry list of legends over the past number of decades, including this past summer’s run of 14 shows in the States with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood.

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QSC K Series

I have a great deal of respect for the QSC name. After all, they have been building rock solid amplifiers and gear for decades. The high quality of their products has made them one of the icons of the sound biz. That said, whenever I review equipment from the big boys I tend to put that gear under a microscope. So, now that you know where I am coming from with regards to this review, let’s go.

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Kaltman Creations IW1800

Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere for the last year or so, chances are you’ve at least heard about and probably have been impacted in some way by the changing regulatory landscape for wireless mics and monitoring systems.

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Hometown Heroes 2009

The votes were tallied, and some were close, some not so much … but the readers of FOH have chosen the best regional pro audio companies in North America. There are new faces and repeat “offenders.” One has been at it a little more then three years, another is celebrating a 30th anniversary. All have a passion for audio, an inimitable story, and a dedication to their clients so powerful that their peers — including competitors — were compelled to take time to nominate them and vote for them as best in their region.

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Five Countries in South America over Three Weeks…How Hard Could That Be?

I’m a 20+ year employee of Clair Global working for a popular Cuban born Miami resident and her 15 piece band as A2. (I’ll leave out her name to avoid litigation, but you can probably guess). We brought some gear with us (Board groups, etc), and got some locally (stacks and racks). We also carried a 45k.v.a. Transformer to interface with local 220 volt power (mostly generators).

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Turn It Down

An Alternate Look at the Sensaphonics 3D Active Ambient PM System

In the December 2007 issue of FOH magazine, Bill Evans presented a review of the Sensaphonics 3D Active Ambient Personal Monitor System (www.sensaphonics.com). For the complete nuts and bolts of the system you can refer to that review, but this month in On the Digital Edge we’re going to revisit Sensaphonics’ technology from a slightly different perspective. 

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The Live Sound Coda for “This is It”

When Bill Sheppell flew home to Ohio in mid-June, he was looking for a little R&R before undertaking what was to have been the gig of the year, if not the decade, as FOH mixer for Michael Jackson’s 50-night This Is It stand at London’s O2 arena, likely to be followed up by a world tour with the same massive stage and troupe.

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