In 1997, I was employed as chief sound engineer aboard the world-famous RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner. I was having a great run, and things were going smoothly. Then, as we came through the Panama Canal and stopped in Acapulco, I contracted conjunctivitis, commonly known as pink eye, in both eyes.
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It seems a fitting way to begin a new year. More than five years ago, as the very first issue of FOH was just starting to take form, I met and spent the day hanging with John Cooper at the Forum in Los Angeles where he was getting ready for his first L.A. show with Bruce Springsteen. The re-sult of that afternoon was the very first FOH Interview ever.
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UMass’s Lipke Auditorium Needed a System That Was Not Too Small, But Not Too Big.
Over the past couple of years, the audio/visual team at the University of Massachusetts in Boston has been captaining updates of the school’s audi-toriums. First came the ballroom in the school’s Campus Center where a brand new $1 million audio system was installed. Then, in 2007,the Lipke Auditorium was finished; next will be Snowden Auditorium.
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Calvin L. Williams
Owner
Audio Visual One Presentations
Michigan Center, MI
517.748.9300
www.av1presentations.com
[email protected]
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The idiomatic phrase “This is not Madison Square Garden,” when directed at an audio company, sends a universal meaning that is not bound by either state lines or time zones. While I am certain that the names of other major event institutions have been employed in the same allegorical fashion as Madison Square Garden, it appears that evoking the image of this iconic venue epitomizes all that is grand and glamorous in the concert world. Though I am New York-based and have often worked at “The Garden,” I have also done shows in almost every state and have traveled ex-tensively around the globe. Regardless of where I go, the aforementioned axiom keeps popping up.
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What’s on the Bleeding Edge Today Could Be in Your Rack Next Year
If you’ve ever had the chance to watch the original Star Trek series (by original, I mean the show ca. 1966 with Shatner, Nimoy et al.), it’s aston-ishing to observe how many technological prophecies were written into those scripts. Handheld communicators, miniature cartridges containing computer data, keyboards and touch screens for computer interfaces, talking computers that display photos and even a cloaking device are all Star Trek fantasies that have manifested in our world as common devices like cell phones, floppy disks (later, thumb drives) and everyday computers. Now, if I could only figure out teletransportation…. Keep in mind that these devices were dreamt up during a time when a CPU with around 64 ki-lobytes of memory employed vacuum tubes and took up more space than your living room.
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A good friend of mine — not in this business — has recently started a new line of work that requires a high level of organization. This guy is smart and talented and — like me — less than organized.
Read More »In early November, a few days after Local One of the technical and stagehand union IATSE had gone out on strike against Broadway shows, I was standing at the FOH position in the Hilton Theatre on West 43rd Street, a half block from Times Square. The Hilton is home to the musical version of Mel Brook’s film, Young Frankenstein, and was one of the few shows still running, as the Hilton Theatre’s union contract had been established separately from most of the others.
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Brian: It seems like only yesterday we were ringing in 2007, and here it is 2008 already. And the New Year brings a couple of cold, slow months in the event business. All the holiday shows have come and gone, and yes, they all paid in cash, but I still have to keep the heat on until business picks up when the snow melts. Maybe you’ve got it easy out there in Vegas, but what can I do to keep the money flowing?
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BUSINESS
What: Hear Technologies
What it does: Manufacturer of professional audio equipment for recording, TV, video postproduction and live sound.
Where: Huntsville, Ala.
When: Founded in 2001.
Read More »Audio gates are what I call an accessory, and pretty far down the list of new gear purchase priorities. But if everything further up the list is okay, then procuring a few gates to insert on percussion and other noisy/buzzy sources is a good thing. This column will address a little history of “noise gates,” how they work, key features to look for when shopping for gates and typical applications.
Read More »Along with my writing efforts for FOH, I work with a variety of houses of worship. I guess that is more than obvious, since I am the guy who writes Sound Sanctuary. Well, I also own and operate a secular (nonreligious) regional sound company that designs and installs residential and commercial sound systems.
Generally speaking, I will hire anywhere from one to six techs for my secular or worship gigs. They are actually independent contractors. But rather than get into the legal qualifications of my employees, I will tell you what I need in terms of technical skill and physical attributes. Qualifying as a Rio Deluxe (my company) tech is pretty easy. You need to understand live audio setup (lift speakers and plug in the right wires), signal flow, EQ, compression, etc., and be strong enough to handle the big stuff, but smart enough to position the small stuff. Shower regularly and wear the company shirt. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
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