Download a PDF - FOH Online

Ad info: http//www.fohhotims.com
THE NEWS MAGAzINE FOR LIVE SOuND
SEPTEMBER 2007 Vol. 5 No. 12
Saluting the Man Who Wrote the Book
LAS VEGAS — Bob Heil’s resume is impressive: building one of the first crossovers out of
two transistors and two filters; a pioneer of the horn and the first to make them white — a look
which toured with The Who after he built the first quadraphonic mixer for them; and, of course,
he made Peter Frampton famous by making the modern Talk Box. Do you feel why he’s cool?
To honor all his work, Bob Heil will be receiving the Parnelli Award for Audio Innovator at the
Parnelli Awards November 16. For the complete story on Heil, including more of his innovative
work, turn to page 16.
But the honors aren’t over yet. Nominations for all the other Parnelli categories, including
Soundco of the Year, Monitor Mixer of the Year, FOH Mixer of the Year, Production Manager of the
Year, Tour Manager of the Year and more are being accepted online. Go to www.parnelliawards.
com/nominate to submit your favorites in all categories. And don’t forget to vote for your Hometown
Heroes at www.fohonline.com/hometown.
FCC Report States Prototype White Space Devices Not Ready for Prime Time
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology has released test results
evaluating the performance of proposed unlicensed devices that would operate in the “white
spaces” of the TV broadcast spectrum.
FCC experts tested two prototypes of proposed personal/portable consumer devices designed
to detect and avoid both active DTV channels and wireless microphone signals. According
to the test report, however, the prototype devices failed to consistently sense or detect the
presence of either DTV broadcasts or wireless microphones. Testing also
continued on page 9
NSCA and InfoComm to Consolidate
Trade Show, Other Events
FAIRFAX, VA — InfoComm International and NSCA have announced a cooperative
effort to consolidate their trade show events. As part of this consolidation, the 2008 NSCA
Systems Integration Expo now will become part of InfoComm’s annual tradeshow in Las
Vegas on June 18–20, 2008.
“InfoComm welcomes the opportunity
to host NSCA exhibitors and members
at InfoComm,” said Jay Armand,
president of InfoComm International.
“We have made plans with NSCA to
combine the best of the NSCA Systems
Integration Expo into our show starting
June 2008 in Las Vegas.” Jay Armand is
also president of Pennsylvania-based
Advanced AV.
“It’s exciting to finally be able to say yes
to the hundreds of shared exhibitors and
attendees of both trade shows who have
been asking for us to do this,” said Chuck
Wilson, executive director of NSCA. As part
of further event consolidation, InfoComm
will discontinue its Executive Business
Conference and become a primary spon-
sor of the 2008 NSCA Business Conference.
The 2007 NSCA Fall
continued on page 9
Sennheiser Posts Growth,
Changes Industry
Alliances
OLD LYME, CT — Sennheiser Electronic
GmbH & Co. KG is reporting an
18.7 percent increase in sales for the
2006 financial year, exceeding the 14.8
percent growth it enjoyed in 2005. The
company’s workforce also increased by
11 percent to 1,852 worldwide.
“We are hoping for continued growth
through our new companies in Russia
and India,” Volker Bartels, representative
for the executive team and president
of manufacturing and logistics adds,
speaking of 2007.
To help with its worldwide growth,
Sennheiser has created a new Global Relations
division. The division aims to provide
high-profile events, corporations,
artists, engineers and sound companies
with “unparalleled assistance” around
the globe.
Greg Beebe, who began his career
at Sennheiser Electronic Corporation
in 1992 as an application engineer, will
head the new division. Mick Whelan,
global support manager in the newly
created division,
continued on page 6
12
24
30
Bergen Achieves
Audio Balance
When the John Harms Center in Bergen,
N.J., closed in 2003, the community
reaction was swift. Residents who appreciated
live music and theatrical events
let their voices be heard, and a team of
activists came together and secured
public and private funds to create a center
serving a public to whom live events
still mattered. Once they had the center
though, they had to deal with the same
problems we all know — how to balance
equipment needs versus rider needs, and
how to make sound reinforcement work
in a building built like a speaker. To find
out how the Bergen P.A.C. dealt with all
of this, turn to page 28.
FOH Interview
Ryan Greene tells how he gets that
studio sound with the punk bands on
stage.
Product Gallery
Monitor consoles get the star treatment.
Regional Slants
We set the stage for Endeavor Audio &
Lighting Systems.

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

C o N t E N t s
What’s hot
What’s hot
FOH Interview
Feature
Punk music has a notoriously raw sound, but
there’s still room to put some studio polish on
the live mix, according to Ryan Greene.
Regional Slants
Endeavor Audio & Lighting Service, Inc.
established themselves in Pennsylvania
through hard work and treating others right.
FEEDBaCK
12
30
For the past 20 years, I’ve been around
and in the music biz and have been amazed
by the success of some artists. As a concert
photographer, I’ve seen many national “turds”
that have been polished by the magic of
great sound engineers. Your Editor’s Note
“Being Remembered,” motivated me to share
one unsung hero that has been mixing and
mastering national and local artists for over
20 years — he also toured as a bassist for 10
years.
His name is Curt Bennington, Owner of
CB Sound — he doesn’t know I am writing
Features
16 Parnelli 2007 Audio Innovator
Bob Heil started out working on pipe organs and
succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest pipe dreams.
24 Product Gallery
Monitor Consoles get their time in the spotlight
in this month’s installment.
26 Road Tests
The Roland Systems S-1608 Digital Snake System
joins the format wars at an affordable price. And
EAW’s SMAART v.6 shows off its intuitive side.
28 Installations
The bergenPAC in Bergen, N.J., was formed by
a committee of citizens who rallied around live
music and now find themselves dealing with
problems sound guys know all too well.
Columns
22 Anklebiters
Seek deep within yourself, Grasshopper, to find
the Zen you need to get through the f#$%* gig. . .
22 Sound Sanctuary
Outreach means different things to different
churches — but it could mean a second system
install for you.
to you. But, after reading your article, I must
write because he has helped so many in the
industry as a mentor and master genius and
mixing maniac that seems to make all genres
and level of talent sound good — this guy
knows his knobs.
Four years ago, I ran into Curt and was
amazed by how much better the artist (sorry
can’t name names) sounded when Curt
was given the control over the console. This
was not a one-time shot, either. Since then, I
have seen both national and local acts sound
amazing thanks to Curt. What blows me away
www.fohonline.com
SEPTEMBER
2007, Vol. 5.12
31 Vital Stats
Wireworks cofounder Jerry Krulewicz has
deep — and a little wacky — roots in the
live event industry.
31 The Bleeding Edge
Fiber optic cabling changed the telephone
industry in the ‘80s, and it’s looking like it
might just be able to change your touring
practices now.
32 Theory and Practice
It may be a dying art, but it can still come in
pretty useful: This month we walk you through
Soldering 101.
34 The Biz
You can get anything, anytime you want on the
Internet — but you can’t put the energy and
fidelity of a live experience through a wire.
36 FOH-At-Large
Where songwriters scramble to maintain their
share of royalties in a file-sharing world.
Departments
4 Editor’s Note
2 Feedback
6 News
10 International News
11 On the Move
11 New Gear
14 Showtime
Curt Bennington: Unsung Hero
is that many Nationals bring their own guys
in, and 90 percent of them don’t seem to
know what they are doing.
Anyway, Curt is a great story of a soundman
who needs to be recognized. He has
dedicated his life to making others sound
great. He has taught me much about the
music world — but more importantly, how
sound engineers shape our culture and the
music industry. Guys like Curt ARE the music
industry.
Cheers,
Dee Ann Deaton

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

Editor’s Note
SEPTEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
By BillEvans
Show What Ya Got,
It ’ s Our Birthday.
Well, almost. This issue marks the
end of five years of FOH. That’s
right, next month will open year
six. I am getting a little jump on things just
because, well, just because I feel like it.
Lots has changed in the last five years,
and lots more is going to change. Companies
have been bought and sold. Digital
technology has become the norm on
many stages instead of some kind of freak
occurrence. Most important, what you
need and expect from us has changed.
As we move out of toddlerhood and
into our second five years, big changes
are occurring. The magazine you read
and — I hope look forward to reading —
is not going anywhere; it is just expanding
its scope and reach. Most of this will
be happening in the electronic world, although
there will be lots of connection
between the Web and the printed page.
You can see some of this already on the
FOH-TV portion of the Web site, where
we include video companion pieces for
a couple of product reviews and production
profiles. In the past couple of weeks,
we have done a backstage tour with one
of the biggest shows in Vegas — all on
video — and spent some time with a
company in Reno that is REALLY going
digital by using Yamaha digital consoles,
but leaving the consoles backstage and
mixing using a wireless tablet PC.
Just as the skills you need for work
have changed, so have the skills we need
to bring you information in a compelling
format. I never expected to have to learn
to edit video, but it is something that I
do now. You probably never thought you
Lisa Marie HaLL
Alex “Sarge” Fletcher, H.A.S. Productions
would have to worry about sample rates,
word clock and digital jitter, but you do.
The biggest changes will be in what
we offer in the way of information. Very
soon, in addition to news and features,
you will see actual training opportunities
and even help in finding your next gig.
That’s enough hints for now. Don’t want
to give it all away, but keep your eyes
open and stay tuned to this bat channel.
It’s gonna get interesting.
To help us celebrate our five years, we
want to make a kind of reader-generated
birthday card. Here is the idea: send us a
picture of you or your crew reading FOH.
Outrageous situations are encouraged.
We will gather them all together in the
October issue, which is the official fiveyear
anniversary, and the issue that will
be distributed at AES.
Need an idea for the kind of shot we
want? Here is one that ran a few months
back. That’s Alex “Sarge” Fletcher of Vegas’
H.A.S. Productions on a trip to the
“Library.” (BTW, there is an actual “gentlemen’s
club” here in Vegas called the
Library. Never been there, but it does
make for a great alibi. “I was at the Library,
honey, I swear…)
Send those pics to pics@fohonline.com (and
keep the files under 3 meg total, or the system
will bounce you.)
Publisher
Terry Lowe
tlowe@fohonline.com
Editor
Bill Evans
bevans@fohonline.com
Managing Editor
Geri Jeter
gjeter@fohonline.com
Associate Editor
Breanne George
bg@fohonline.com
Technical Editor
Mark Amundson
mamundson@fohonline.com
Contributing Writers
Jerry Cobb, Brian Cassell,
Dan Daley, Jamie Rio,
Steve LaCerra, Nort Johnson,
David John Farinella,
Ted Leamy, Baker Lee,
Bryan Reesman, Tony Mah
Photographer
Steve Jennings
Art Director
Garret Petrov
gpetrov@fohonline.com
Production Manager
Linda Evans
levans@fohonline.com
Graphic Designers
Crystal Franklin
cfranklin@fohonline.com
David Alan
dalan@fohonline.com
Web Master
Josh Harris
jharris@fohonline.com
National Sales Manager
Dan Hernandez
dh@fohonline.com
National Advertising Director
Gregory Gallardo
gregg@fohonline.com
General Manager
William Hamilton Vanyo
wvanyo@fohonline.com
Business and
Advertising Office
6000 South Eastern Ave.
Suite 1 J
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Ph: 702.932.5585
Fax: 702.932.558
Toll Free: 800.252.2716
Circulation
Stark Services
P.O. Box 161 7
North Hollywood, CA 91615
Front Of House (ISSN 1549-831X) Volume 5 Number
12 is published monthly by Timeless Communications
Corp., 6000 South Eastern Ave., Suite 14J, Las Vegas, NV,
89119. Periodicals Postage Paid at Las Vegas, NV and
additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address
changes to Front Of House, P.O. Box 16147, North
Hollywood, CA 91615-6147. Front Of House is distributed
free to qualified individuals in the live sound
industry in the United States and Canada. Mailed in
Canada under Publications Mail Agreement Number
40033037, 1415 Janette Ave., Windsor, ON N8X 1Z1.
Overseas subscriptions are available and can be obtained
by calling 702.932.5585. Editorial submissions
are encouraged, but will not be returned. All Rights
Reserved. Duplication, transmission by any method
of this publication is strictly prohibited without the
permission of Front Of House.
Publishers of...

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
News
Barenaked Ladies FOH Console Not an Impulse Buy
TORONTO — Barenaked Ladies (BNL),
the Juno Award-winning alternative-rock
band, recently bought their own Soundcraft
Vi6 digital live sound console.
“After having rented a Soundcraft Vi6
for nearly 200 dates — including the popular
‘Ships & Dip’ cruise back in January, the
band simply liked the console enough to
buy it for themselves,” says BNL Production
Manager Dean Roney.
Robin Billinton, BNL’s front-of-house
engineer, adds that “sound quality, size,
reliability and affordability” were the chief
reasons behind the recent purchase. “We
have the standard 64-input/35-output
Vi6 configuration with Cat5 running to
the stage box,” he says. “Even on our first
dates with the rented system, the console
sounded great, was easy to use and took
up very little truck space compared to an
analog desk with processing racks, which
left much more room for lighting and
backline.”
The Soundcraft Vi6 system is designed
to include a compact control surface,
a local rack that houses the Score
Live processing engine and a stage box
that connects to the local rack via Cat5/7
Palooza Goes Pop
With the heat index near 100 degrees each day, this year’s Lollapalooza festival was
a scorching three-day event with artists, bands and music fans from across the world
converging on Chicago’s Grant Park. Iggy Pop used a Shure SM58 in his set, and it looks
like the fans enjoyed it…
cable. A fiber-optic interface also is available
as an option.
“We appreciate the fact that the Vi6
facilitates quick setups at festivals and corporate
shows; setting up front-of-house
requires only two people,” says Billinton.
Soundcraft’s optional DSP Package,
which adds Lexicon effects and BSS Audio
EQ, is designed to provide eight mono or
stereo effects units that may be patched to
aux bus outputs and then back into a channel
input or inserted into input or output
channels. All effects are controlled from
the desk’s Vistonics II graphical displays.
MANCHESTER, TN — This year’s Bonnaroo
Festival featured d&b audiotechnik’s new J-Series
system for the three-day festival in Tennessee.
Eighth Day Sound rigged the main stage
with J-Series, two columns per side, to cover
the wide spread of the audience area. Flown J-
SUBs were augmented by B2s “in infra mode,”
explained EDS’s Owen Orzack, “to extend the
low end range, as opposed to just increasing the
grunt.” Monitors were M2s with C4/B2 side fills
and drum monitors C7-SUBs and M2s; Q10s were
used for front fills. Delay clusters were dV-DOSC.
EDS’s 12 technicians also serviced audio
requirements for The Jazz, Press, Comedy and
Cinema tents, all with d&b systems.
On Friday night, fans were treated to headliners
Tool; on Saturday, Police topped the bill.
Bonnaroo signed off 2007 on Sunday with a
three-hour performance by Widespread Panic.
“Eighth Day Sound already supply all my touring
needs, and so coming to a festival serviced
by them was always going to be a visit with old
friends,” said Chris Rabold, who mixes FOH for
Widespread Panic.
Tool travels with EDS and d&b audiotechnik’s
new J-Series. FOH engineer Al “Nobby” Hopkinson
said, “I had a discussion with Colin Beveridge
at d&b USA before we came regarding the deep
low-end ability of flown subs. I’ve enjoyed experi-
continued from cover
will synchronize service and support across
borders.
Home-based in Washington, D.C., Kristy Jo
Winkler, artist relations manager in the U.S.A.
for the past five years, now takes responsibility
for the Americas and Canada. In the U.K.,
Mark Saunders, is now in charge of Europe, the
Middle East, Africa and India. Vince Tan, former
product manager and sales engineer for the
past eight years with Sennheiser Asia, takes responsibility
for Asia and Australia from his office
in Singapore. Team Assistant Maryam Larki-Bavi,
based at the Sennheiser headquarters
in Germany, will coordinate all of the division’s
internal logistics, including scheduling technical
support, communicating relationships
throughout the Sales and Marketing network,
maintaining support service data, and interacting
with clients or other stakeholders to assist
with problem resolution.
In America, Sennheiser USA has made an
agreement with House of Blues Entertainment
to add Sennheiser and Neumann wired
microphones and Sennheiser headphones in
House of Blues live music venues.
Sennheiser has upped its commitment
Barenaked Ladies FOH Engineer Robin Billinton with the
band’s newly purchased Soundcraft Vi6 console
Eighth Day Delivers Sound
for Bonnaroo’s Three Days
The Bonnaroo stage
menting with the J Sub-woofers myself while
we’ve been touring; they do move some air. I just
needed it proved to me that they could do the
same in a flown situation, which he did.”
A critical consideration for all three engineers
was to provide pleasurable dynamic variation
over the course of each performance. “Imaging
was just astounding,” said Rabold. “The thing with
my band is there’s a lot going on, a lot of energy
and a lot of movement. In terms of the musicians,
I need the ability to find room for all of them. I can
tell you this; J is not a system where I have to jam
people up the middle to get them there.“
According to Billboard magazine, Bonnaroo
is the top-grossing North American festival this
year, taking in $14.7 million and selling more
than 80,000 tickets for all three days.
Sennheiser Posts Growth, Changes Industry Alliances
by supplying the current venues with Evolution
Series wireless vocal microphones as
well as Evolution Wireless personal monitor
systems. Each House of Blues venue will be
outfitted with multiple e 901, e 902, e 904, e
905, e 906, e 908B, e 914, e 614, MD 421 II, MKH
60-P48 and MKH 70-P48 wired microphones
for amplified backline and acoustic instruments.
Wired vocal microphones will include
Sennheiser e 865 condensers, plus dynamic e
935 and e 945 models, as well as Neumann
KMS 104 and KMS 105 condenser mics and
two pairs of HD 280 PRO headphones.
Last, Sennheiser USA and Australian
Monitor have agreed to end their three-year
distribution agreement in North America
for Australian Monitor products. Beginning
September 1, distribution in the United States
will be continued by Starin Marketing Inc., a distributor
located in Chesterton, Ind. Chris Smith,
director of international sales for the brand. also
is interviewing to replace distribution in Latin
America, but no agreement is yet in place.
“We have enjoyed working with Australian
Monitor and wish them continued
success,” said David McNutt, industry team
leader for installed sound at Sennheiser.

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
News
Country Legends Share Rowdy Sound
WINSTON SALEM, NC — When Country
and Southern Rock artist Hank Williams Jr.
teamed up with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
band Lynyrd Skynyrd for the Rowdy Frynds
Tour playing arena venues, Special Event Services
was contracted to support the tour; a
sizeable collection of subwoofers from Worx-
Audio Technologies was with them to reinforce
the bottom end.
Special Event Services, which handles live
sound reinforcement, lighting and video for
tours, corporate industrials and a wide variety
of special events, acquired twelve WorxAudio
TrueLine TL.218SS sub bass enclosures to supplement
the subwoofers flown overhead dur-
ing the tour. According to Jason Farah, owner
and vice president of Special Event Services,
“For the Rowdy Frynds Tour, we were using six
TL.218SS subs per side — ground stacked —
to augment the flying rig. We knew we needed
more low end than our flying rig was able to
provide for this tour, and the WorxAudio subs
made the perfect complement.”
Farah made an emphatic point about
WorxAudio Technologies’ customer and technical
support services. “Hugh Sarvis and Norvin
Roessing are terrific people to deal with,”
said Farah. “They listen carefully to their clients
and go out of their way to make certain
their customers are happy. In terms of cus-
tomer and technical support, the company
has never let me down. This is an organization
that builds solid product and stands behind it
with responsive support, and that’s essential
in our business.”
Even though the Rowdy Frynds Tour has
finished, Lynyrd Skynyrd continues touring
with a schedule that takes them through the
end of the year. “You know we love playing
shows with Hank, but we still have a lot of
cities we weren’t able to visit, so we’re gonna
keep on rockin’,” lead singer Johnny Van Zant
said recently. Both Special Event Services
and the WorxAudio subwoofers remain on
tour with them.
The Special Event Services crew, left to right: Jon Kaylor,
Steve Cross, David Baker and Dave Cheek
Fiegle Answers to
“Sound Guy”
C H I C A G O —
Sensaphonics Hearing
Conservation Inc.,
a manufacturer of
custom-fit earphones
for personal monitoring,
has hired industry
veteran Thom Fiegle
as sound engineering
consultant. Fiegle’s primary
responsibility will Thom Fiegle
be to offer expert advice to artists and engineers
seeking to optimize their personal monitor experience.
The new service, dubbed “Ask The Sound
Guy,” is designed to augment Sensaphonics’ audiology
expertise with Fiegle’s long experience in
system design and live sound mixing.
“We are excited to add Thom Fiegle to our
staff,” said Michael Santucci, Sensaphonics
founder and president. “His years of hands-on
experience in both live mixing and product development
will be a huge help to our customers.
While we only manufacture custom earphones,
we’re also authorized dealers for Sennheiser,
Shure, Aviom and other products needed to
build a great personal monitor system. As more
artists adopt personal monitors, Sensaphonics
will be there to help them. Whether it’s by
phone, by e-mail or backstage consultation, all
they have to do is Ask The Sound Guy!”
A 1992 graduate of Elmhurst College with a
B.S. in music business, Fiegle’s career in pro audio
has included extensive hands-on experience in
mixing and systems design in the Chicago area.
For the past 12 years, he has worked with Shure
Inc., where his duties included technical support,
product management and technology management,
focusing primarily on personal monitor
systems. He is also partner and chief technician
for Reelsounds Studios of Skokie, Ill., and continues
to mix regularly in local nightclubs.
AES Fall Convention
Sets Live Sound Slate
NEW YORK — The 123rd AES convention,
which takes place Oct. 5–8 in New York City’s
Javits Center, features a full plate of live events
and tutorials.
“Live Sound Event Co-chairs John Kilgore
and Henry Cohen have prepared an outstanding
program,” comments Convention Chair
Jim Anderson. “The Live Sound schedule offers
not-to-be-missed presentations covering
many critical issues facing the industry today.”
For a full schedule of events, including
panels on House of Worship mixing and
acoustics, concert system design and a panel
update on the White Spaces issue, go to www.
fohonline.com/AESLiveAudioEvents.

ABILENE, TX — The Paramount Theatre
in downtown Abilene, Tex., a monument
to an earlier time of movie palaces
and vaudeville performances, now offers
a new sound-reinforcement system
highlighted by EAW KF730 compact
line arrays, as well as JF50S two-way
loudspeakers and SM200iH stage monitors
designed and installed by Gemini
Sound of Dallas.
HANOVER, NH — The Hopkins Center
for the Arts at Dartmouth College recently
upgraded the audio component of its
900-seat Spaulding Auditorium to include
a new Meyer Sound system based on the
M’elodie ultracompact high-power curvilinear
array loudspeaker.
When planning for the new M’elodie
system, the Hopkins Center’s production
management team, which includes Ayres,
Doug Phoenix and Jim Alberghini, had to
ensure that major acoustical treatments
remained intact in order to preserve the
room’s original aesthetics. “We couldn’t
change the look intended by the designer
or the expectations of those who paid for
the construction back in 1962,” says Ayres.
After testing various replacement systems,
Ayres and her team chose M’elodie, Meyer
Sound’s latest addition to the MILO family
of loudspeakers.
Rainbow Production Services of Hampstead,
N.H., supplied the Meyer Sound system.
“We prepped and aligned both systems
beforehand,” says system codesigner
Scott Tkachuk, Rainbow Production Services’
director of touring and events. “We then
played live and recorded music through
one system, took it down and did the same
with the other.”
The system configured by Tkachuk,
with assistance from Meyer Sound’s design
services department, incorporates left and
right arrays of seven M’elodie loudspeakers
each, plus three UPM-1P ultracompact
wide coverage loudspeakers filling in the
front-center and outside corners, and four
600-HP compact high-power subwoofers.
A Galileo loudspeaker management system
drives all components. The system was
aligned and optimized using a SIM3 audio
analyzer.
The Spaulding Auditorium’s 120 Hz bass
resonance posed a challenge for the system
design, but one that was readily overcome.
Love the mag, great job!
In the article written by Suzi Steffen “Envisioning
the Future” (Aug 07), Suzi mentioned
First Baptist in Eugene, Ore., as being the
first HOW in the world to integrate a Dolby
Lake processor. I actually placed one at Olive
Branch Community Church in Corona, Calif.,
in September of ‘06. Leon Pyatt, the technical
director there, loves it — as we all do.
Thanks!
Jeff Suchy
Apex Audio
The 1,199-seat theatre has a main
floor as well as lower, middle and upper
balconies. In formulating the design, the
Gemini system team collaborated with
key theatre personnel, including Executive
Director Betty Hukill, Artistic Director
Barry Smoot and Technical Director
Jennifer Lashley.
They decided to fly the line arrays
to the left and right of the stage, tucked
“We originally flew two 600-HP subwoofers
on each side with the arrays,” notes Tkachuk.
“But we found that, by putting one down
on the floor and feeding it from a separate
output of the Galileo, we could get the response
in the room flattened out.”
After only a few concerts with the
new system in place, accolades started
rolling in. “The biggest difference is that,
now, anywhere you sit in the house, you
get the same experience,” says Ayres. “No
matter where you are, words are clearly
articulated, and you hear a precise tonal
balance of instruments. You can tell if a
bass player is performing sloppily, because
you hear a distinct bass line, not
just a blob of low-end sound.”
For Ayres, the critical test came when
the acclaimed Dartmouth College Gospel
Choir, augmented by Chicago-based guest
musicians, appeared in concert. “It had
sounded good with the previous system,
but during the first concert on the new
system, everybody was just blown away,”
she recalls. “We had a brass section, a Hammond
B3 organ, a full rhythm section and
60 voices, all going at once. But you still
could pick out a clear bass line, the unique
timbre of the B3 and the sound of individual
voices. It was an amazing experience.
Photo Credit
In the July issue, we failed to
credit Todd Kaplan for the photos
of Celtic Woman in the Production
Profile, “Getting Good Tone
for Golden Voices.” We regret the
omission.
well up and out of the way. Each is comprised
of two SB730 flying subwoofers
that fit within the array structure, with
five KF730 full-range modules below, tapered
back into a J shape. The arrays are
supported by compact JF50S loudspeakers
on the stage that supply mid/high fill
to the first few seating rows, with four
EAW SM200iH wedges available for any
stage monitoring needs.
News
Gemini Sound Delivers New Sound to Old Theatre
Dartmouth on Target with
New Sound Install
Love the Mag, Love the Dolby
From left to right: Doug Phoenix, production manager,
and master technicians Dan Merlo, Kevin Malenda and
Ethan Williams
CORRECTIONS
continued from cover
showed that the prototype devices interfered
with digital cable TV channel reception
on three DTV receivers in a typical
home environment.
The tests were conducted as the FCC
prepares to issue regulations in October
that will govern whether unlicensed consumer
devices are permitted to operate in
the so-called “white spaces” between active
TV channels. Wireless microphones and
other wireless audio devices have used this
spectrum for more than 20 years.
The EAW KF730 Series line arrays shown with the Spanish-
Moorish architecture of the Paramount Theatre
White Space Devices Not Ready
continued from cover
Business Conference will be held, as scheduled,
from October 21–23 at the Paradise
Point Resort in San Diego, Calif.
Beyond InfoComm 08 and ISE, a new
event, NSCA TechWeek, sponsored by InfoComm,
will be launched next year. This
event will feature education programs from
NSCA University and the InfoComm Academy
and will include tabletop exhibits and
manufacturer training. NSCA TechWeek,
sponsored by InfoComm, will be an event
“The idea that big manufacturers can dump
millions of new gadgets onto the same frequencies
as wireless microphones without causing
devastating interference to sports, entertainment,
religious, news gathering and other live
productions is simply not supported by engineering
reality,” said Mark Brunner, senior director
of public and industry relations at Shure. “The
FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology deserves
tremendous credit for resisting pressure
to forego a hard look at claims that the new devices
won’t interfere and for resolving the issue
on sound and objective engineering analysis.”
NSCA and InfoComm to Consolidate
Trade Show Events
exclusive to the professional AV channel
and electronic systems professionals. This
trade-only conference will feature education,
certification programs and manufacturer
training.
The associations will remain separate
and do not expect that staffing will be impacted.
Nancy Emerson, president of NSCA,
stated that “NSCA and InfoComm have created
new opportunities for our members,
and both associations will be better positioned
to serve their membership.”
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com

10
International News
The 32 x 8 FiberPlex LightViper system lived in a flight case
under the monitor screen.
SAN CARLOS, FALKLAND ISLANDS — To capture
and link live pictures and sound last month
for the Remembrance Service commemorating
the 25th anniversary of the British/Argentin-
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
Digital Snake Invades the Falklands for Memorial
ian armed conflict, Britain’s BBC Television used
FiberPlex’s LightViper audio transport system
to build a location production room in a tractor
shed at San Carlos, Falkland Islands.
Live coverage from the Falkland’s service, attended
by veterans and currently serving British
soldiers, was sent via satellite and simultaneously
fed into live coverage of a corollary service taking
place at the Horse Guards venue in London’s
Whitehall (the governmental offices district).
For the BBC’s senior sound supervisor, Tim
Davies, there were a number of important considerations
since the crew would be working in
arduous conditions with limited electricity supply.
High on his list were equipment reliability
and reducing freight costs.
SEPTEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
As the hub for his signal chain, Davies
chose a FiberPlex LightViper, a lightweight fiber
optic digital audio snake system supplied
by U.K. pro audio supplier, Kelsey Acoustics.
The LightViper was configured as a 32 x 8 system,
enabling it to handle all the live and FX
mic feeds, sends and returns.
Davies explained, “We needed an easy system
to operate and wanted to save on rigging
and manpower, not to mention truck space and
reduce the amount of multicores we used.”
The BBC Outside Broadcasts team did use
dome multicores for signal distribution from the
LightViper system. Based in the farm’s tractor
shed at the top of a hill, the crew set up a communications
system with San Carlos Military
Cemetery, which was located 600 feet away.
From there, they ran the conventional multicore
audio snakes to the various points where the FX
mics were situated.
To put weight comparisons into perspective,
the two 900 foot reels of fiber optic cables
brought by the sound crew weighed approximately
50 pounds, including their transport reels.
The copper multicore snakes alone weighed a
quarter of a ton (500 pounds).
“There were enormous advantages in using
the LightViper fiber system; with the mic amps
being close to the mics there was no danger of
capacitance or loss of phantom power,” Davies
observed. The small stage box was easily concealed
and provided a split output with the fourcore
fiber cable carrying the sends and returns.
The audio feeds included speeches, a military
band and a choir.
Tim Davies continued, “We had 16 mics coming
up from the cemetery, and we returned a
personal monitor feed to the MD of the Royal
Marine Band — with a click track — so he could
play in time.” Davie’s crew also were taking a feed
from London to the P.A. system as the production
team cut between pictures of San Carlos Military
Cemetery in the Falklands to London footage
from the Horse Guards, mixing in stereo as the
main memorial went out live on the U.K.’s BBC
Two television station.
Dolby Lake Processors
Part of Japan’s First
Digital Audio Stadium
The design team (left to right): Ryuuji Kasuga, Nobuyuki
Takezaki, Panasonic System Solutions Marketing; Shiyogo
Hayashi, Bestec Audio; Yoshiteru Mimura, consultant; and
Masaki Hara, Bestec Audio
OSAKA, JAPAN — Nagai Stadium in Osaka
was upgraded with a fully digital audio network
and control system, including the installation of
seven Dolby Lake Processors for speaker optimization.
The project, under the auspices of consultant
Yoshiteru Mimura of Archito Co. Ltd., based
in Kyoto, with installation by Panasonic, provides
comprehensive control and EtherSound audio
distribution via a Gigabit network in a redundant
ring topology comprising 2.5 km of fiber.
The Dolby Lake Processors were chosen
for the noticeable improvement in audio quality
they provide over the previously installed
system, according to Mimura. “When passing
digital audio through the Dolby Lake Processor,
the jitter performance improved by a significant
amount, which has an important bearing on the
overall audio performance,” he said.
The Dolby Lake Processors, accessed from
a PC in the main control room and from a
wireless tablet that also acts as a secondary
controller, provide crossover and local delay
control for the zoned L-ACOUSTICS speakers
and Crown amplifiers distributed around the
stadium. “The Dolby Lake Processor provides
very useful filters, especially the Mesa EQ, to really
help in system tuning,” said Mimura.
The Dolby Lake Processors were provided
by Dolby Live Sound’s Japanese distributor,
Bestec Audio Inc. Originally completed in
1996, the 50,000-seat Nagai Stadium is home
to the Cerezo Osaka soccer club and hosted
the 2007 Athletics World Cup in August.

American Music & Sound appointed
Scott Messler to the role of national
sales manager for the Installed Products
division. He will be responsible for all
sales and front-line technical support
for the Stardraw product range within
the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, including
managing resellers and reps. In addition
to handling Stardraw, Messler also
will be responsible for Allen & Heath’s
Sound Management Series and NetCIRA
by Fostex. Messler comes to AM&S with
20 years practice in the installed audio
products industry.
Danley Sound
Labs has recruited
Joel Moak to
fill its newly created
national sales
manager position.
Moak will take on
many of the national
sales duties
that had previously
been distributed
among Danley’s ex-
Joel Moak
isting staff and will
travel extensively to demo the Danley line.
Moak has more than two decades in the live
sound industry and was founder of Worship
Systems International.
EAW has appointed
Kati Naish
to the position
of brand administrativecoordinator.
Naish will
be based in the
W o o d i n v i l l e ,
Wash., facility and
will handle a wide
range of responsibilities,
including
Kati Naish
overall administrative
support, meeting scheduling and
planning, marketing project logistics,
trade show and event planning, as well
as rep and distributor support.
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
On The Move New Gear
The NSCA has named Nancy Owen
as its new director of industry outreach.
Owen’s responsibilities include forging
relationships with the members of the
NSCA and expanding the NSCA’s media
relations program. Before arriving
at NSCA, Owen worked at CNN Headline
News in Atlanta as a television reporter,
freelance writer, publishing account representative
and as director of community
relations for a nonprofit.
Revolabs Inc.
has appointed
Donald A. Goguen
to the position of
senior sales engineer.
Goguen’s
background includes
work in the
planning, development
and transition
of engineering
services, staff
Donald A. Goguen
recruitment, audio/visual
systems design and installation,
audio and video production, as well
as live sound reinforcement, lighting and
recording services. In his new capacity,
Goguen will be focused on strengthening
the company’s sales programs and
customer service.
S e n n h e i s e r
Electronic Corporation
has promoted
Thom Salisbury
to western regional
sales manager,
professional products.
In his new
role, Salisbury will
be responsible for
all aspects of marketplacemanage-
Thom Salisbury
ment for all the
Sennheiser brands. Thom’s more than 25
years in audio includes experience as a
musician, recording engineer and sales
manager.
OVO Systems Lava Line Array
OVO Systems’ compact line array, the Lava, is a small vertical
array designed to have a combined output of 1200 Watts RMS. The
Lava System is composed of four mid-highs and one low cabinet.
Each of the four mid-highs uses two 6.5-inch woofers and a 2-inch
compression driver; the low contains two 12-inch woofers, as well
as housing a four-channel class H power amplifier. The amplifier
wattage is designed to work with all components in the system
and enables the user to easily control the frequency from 80 Hz to
250 Hz on the amplifier itself. The system also allows for 16 positions
of display angles for better dispersion of sound.
OVO Systems • 210.684.2600 • www.ovosystems.com
beyerdynamic IMS 900 Personal
Monitoring System
The beyerdynamic IMS 900 is a personal monitoring
system designed for professional touring, broadcast and
permanent installation. The IMS 900’s 16 preprogrammed
UHF frequencies are designed to provide easy setup
and quick sound check. The IMS system is made up of
two components: the SE 900 stereo transmitter and the
TE 900 stereo pocket receiver. The SE 900 transmitter is
designed to accommodate up to eight channels per frequency
range without interference. It is housed in a 9.5inch
metal case with a clear LC-display indicating group/
channel and includes LEDs for audio levels, combo inputs and headphone output with volume
control. The system comes equipped with a lock function. The pocket receiver is equipped with a
mono/stereo switch, volume and balance control as well as two RF signal antennas designed to
prevent signal dropouts. For added sound protection, the TE 900 comes equipped with a switchable
limiter that protects against loud noise bursts. Earphones are included with all transmitters.
beyerdynamic • 631.293.3200 • www.beyerdynamic.com
Electro-Voice REV Wireless System
Electro-Voice has released its new REV professional
wireless system, with an analog audio
path developed with Digital Audio Labs. REV-
Link PC software enables remote monitoring,
control and programming over a CAN bus connection
through an Electro-Voice UCC-1 converter or Electro-Voice Netmax N8000. Factory set
channel groups allow up to 16 systems to operate simultaneously in one frequency band. Programmable
in 25 kHz steps across 24 MHz operating bandwidth, there are over 950 possible
channels. EV’s Advanced ClearScan feature is designed to allow automatic group and channel
selection. REV offers two handheld options: a metal compact handle for Concert and Broadcast
and the Presentation Handheld for rental house and other applications. As well as offering four
capsule options, REV features Electro-Voice’s guitar optimization setting.
Electro-Voice • 800.392.3497 • www.electrovoice.com
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com

Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
Ryan Greene has been spending the
past 15 years or so working on his
studio tan, helping an assortment of
punk rock bands such as NOFX, Lagwagon,
No Use for a Name, and Me First and the
Gimme Gimmes record their best offerings.
Before that run of studio work, Greene
learned about audio by standing in front
of bands at the front of house position
with a mixing board under his hands. His
12
FOH Interview
Bringing in the Sound
By David JohnFarinella
first FOH gigs came in Los Angeles during
the ‘80s, and he worked with such bands as
Poison and Warrant, as well as a handful of
local bands at venues like The Troubadour,
The Roxy and The Whisky.
A couple of years ago, Greene moved
to Scottsdale, Ariz., and opened Crush Recording.
There, he continued to work with
dozens of rock bands willing to travel to
his studio. After one session, a band that
he worked with was about to hit the stage
SEPTEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
Ryan Greene polishes up live punk
and was looking for someone to mix a live
show. Greene jumped at the chance.
FOH: So, what brought you back to
FOH?
Ryan Greene: Yeah, it was the excitement
of doing it. It’s great to sit in a studio for 15
years and get used to this end of it, but there
is something exciting about doing front of
house that I missed. I did it and got rave reviews,
so I figured I’d keep on doing it.
It wasn’t the money?
(Laughs) No, I don’t even charge them.
I don’t charge any of the bands that I do in
town. I just go out to do it because it’s fun,
and it gets me out of the studio. There’s
something to be said about walking into
a club and doing it festival style with no
sound check. I have a whole system that
I use, so I don’t need the whole band to
play together. As I’m getting my kick drum
sound and the snare drum sound, I watch
my meters. I know I need the drums to hit
I just go out to do
it because it’s fun,
and it gets me out
of the studio.
at a certain level, my bass guitar should
be at another level and then as the band
starts to play, it’s balanced right out of the
gate. It’s a weird thing, but it works.
What were some of the lessons you
learned early in your FOH career?
Start off as quiet as possible. I was
taught to use the sound system as reinforcement
to what’s coming off the stage.
So, let’s say I was getting a kick drum sound,
and as soon as I was able to feel and hear it
through the front of house, that would be
as loud as I would go. Obviously, when you
start getting into the show, and people
start filling the room, you could start turning
up the volume a little bit, but at sound
check, I would always keep things as low
as possible. That’s why my mixes ended up
sounding more like a record.
You were doing FOH gigs and
working in a studio when you
started out. How did your FOH work
influence your studio work?
Just knowing frequencies and what
things should sound like were probably the
most beneficial parts of doing live sound. I
learned frequencies because I didn’t have
a choice. I had to know what frequency did
what, because if something fed back during
a show, I had to know where to go to
fix it. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to
guess, so if I got in the studio and heard
something that wasn’t pleasing to the ear, I
didn’t have to fish for it; I knew right where
to go to fix it.
There’s also that sense of urgency
during FOH gigs when a band is
coming out on stage, and you have
to be ready.
(Laughs) Yeah, you are doing it for the
moment. That’s the whole thing about
live. Whatever happens, it happens, and
you have to go for it. To this day, when I
do front of house, I’ll get a little nervous. I
don’t even know how bands do it, getting
in front of thousands of people and rock.
I’m behind the board, and it’s like I get little
butterflies, thinking, “Oh, my God, I hope
this sounds great.” I have about 30 seconds
to get my mix exactly where it should be,

Ryan Greene
I have about 30 seconds to get my mix exactly
where it should be, because people aren’t
paying money to hear a bad-sounding band.
because people aren’t paying money to
hear a bad-sounding band.
When you started to record bands in
the studio, did you have an ear for
how it would sound live?
Oh, absolutely. That’s the best thing
about it. If I bring out delays and reverbs,
I know exactly where to add the effects. I
know the tempos of the songs, so I already
have my delay times predetermined. When
it’s a ballad, I go to my ballad setting on
the delays and reverbs and have that all
set. I try to duplicate what we did on the
record, which is what I just did for Authority
Zero when they played out here at the
Marquee Theatre. I knew every song that
they did, so getting the reverbs and delays
exactly like we had it on the record was
a piece of cake. I remember back in the
day, going into band rehearsals, and a lot
of bands didn’t play with click tracks back
then, so I would have a stop watch and I
would time out the songs to get a rough
idea. They would be playing between 120
and 124 beats per minute, so I’d set my
delay times right in between, like at 122
or 123. At least that way I had an idea
about every song, where the tempos are,
where to set my delay time, where to set
my predelay echoes and reverbs. Again,
they come out of the gate. and it already
sounds like the record.
Do you bring anything from the
studio into the clubs?
Yeah, if I’m doing the headlining band,
then I’ll bring out my own gates, just so I
have them set and nobody messes with
them. My favorite unit for live gigs is a
Yamaha Rev 7. I won’t go to a show without
it. I have my drum verbs all loaded in
there. I’ve had this unit for 15 years now,
and it has all my drum rooms and gated
rooms for ballads. Also, for the punk rock
style, I have special gated verbs that I’ve
altered. So, I have all of my settings inside
this box, and it makes it really easy. A lot of
times for local shows, I don’t think a lot of
people pay attention to those details, and
I think that’s what I’m used to — where
everything is very detailed oriented. Most
clubs normally end up having some good
delays, so I don’t have to pull those in. I
might not use my drum reverbs on the
drums, but more for reinforcing the sound
a little bit, depending on how tight I have
the reverb time, how much predelay I
have or how much I’ve adjusted the early
reflections. You may not hear the reverb,
but it’s there. The bigger the better.
Do you bring out microphones?
I will typically use what the club has,
just to make it easier. The only thing I will
do is use a Sennheiser 441 on a guitar and
mix that in with a Shure SM57. If they have
a 409, then I would obviously love to use
that as well, but to me if I have a 441 mixed
with something else, it works perfect for
me. Guitars for me are one of the hardest
things to get right in a live mix. While I’m
doing records, the bottom end is always
the toughest thing to nail, but live guitars
are hard. Guitar players play with way too
much gain, and when you bring that up
through the P.A., which is already super
bright, it sounds like a razor. So, anything I
can do to trim that down a little bit.
Is there a Ryan Greene live sound
and a Ryan Greene studio sound?
That’s interesting. If I do a metal band,
they are going to sound like a metal band.
I’ll run volumes differently. If I’m mixing
a pop band, I wouldn’t mix as loud as if
I would mix a metal band. That part of it
is going to be different. The things that
people consistently ask about my live
mixes are how I get the drums to sound
like they were in the studio, and how I get
it to sound crystal clear. There’s never a
time that I mix front of house that it’s not
a super clear sound. So, bringing in the
Ryan Greene sound? I just do what I do.
I think everybody has a style in the way
that they do things, and I think that I have
one as well.
Ryan mixes for the band Vayden (pictured)
Ryan and some mixing friends (left to right): Jimmy O’Tell (Korn, Faith No More, Black Crowes); Bill Flores
(Black Eyed Peas, Eminem, Poison, James Brown); David Pigg (Guns And Roses, Black Sabbath, Social
Distortion); and Ryan Greene.
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com

Soundco
Concert Quality
Sound
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
ST
Venue
Peavey Plaza
Minneapolis, MN
Showtime
Minnesota Orchestra: Macy’s Day of Music
CREW
FOH Engineer: Jeff Taylor, Terry Tilley
MON Engineer: Ryan Guanzon
Systems Engineer: Jeff Taylor
Production Manager: Greg Eklund
System Tech: Andrew Loftus
GEAR
FOH
Console: Midas Siena
SOUNDCO
Light This
Productions
VENUE
Kean University Harwood Arena
Union, NJ
CREW
FOH Engineer: John Heinz, Clif Barkalow
MON Engineer: J. Bannan
Systems Engineer: John Heinz
System Tech: Chris Wojo
Speakers: Dynacord Cobra 4 (4 x near; 2 x far), PWH
subs x 16 (mains); Dynacord VL262 x 4 (front fill);
Dynacord Madras x 2 (side fill)
Amps: Dynacord Power H5000, LX2200, L2400
Processing: Dynacord DSP244 , Iris Net/RCM-26,
Klark Teknik Square ONE D, Klark Teknik Helix, TC
Electronic M-One
Mics: EV wired and wireless
MON
Console: Midas Venice
Speakers: EV QRx 112/75 bi-amp
Amps: Dynacord LX2200
Processing: Dynacord DSP244, Klark Teknik Square
ONE D
Kean University Gala
GEAR
FOH
Console: Yamaha PM3000A
Speakers: EAW KF850T, JBL VT4888, JBL SRX 728s
VENUE
Drake University
Des Moines, IA
CREW
FOH Engineer: Robb Moore and Phil Black
Systems Engineer: Chris Timmons
GEAR
FOH
ST
Amps: Crown I-Tech, QSC PowerLight
Processing: Crown I-Tech, dbx 480
Mics: AKG, Sennheiser, Shure
Power Distro: Lex Products
Rigging: CM Lodestar 1 ton
Breakout Assemblies: Whirlwind
Snake Assemblies: Whirlwind Concert 56
MON
Consoles: Ramsa WRS840
Speakers: JBL SRX 712M
Amps: Crown MacroTech, QSC PLX2
Processing: Klark Teknik DN360, Yamaha SPX series
Power Distro: Lex Products
ABC News Republican Debate
Soundco
Urban
Communications
ST
Console: Yamaha M7cl-48
Speakers: Meyer M1D Line Array
Processing: Meyer Galileo 616
Mics: AT ES993 Dual Element Podium Mics
Snake Assemblies: 48ch Transformer Iso Split
MON
Speakers: 12 Galaxy Audio 70V Chameleon
Amps: 12 RDL 20w 70v amps

ST
Venue
The Largo Cultural Center
Largo, FL
CREW
FOH Engineer/Tour Mgr: Dennis Wigman
MON Engineer: Gary Sastamoinen
Systems Engineer/Production Manager:
Rob Mondora
System Techs: Don Short, Scott Dempster
Soundco
SK Systems, Inc.
Metro NY Balloon Festival
Venue
Brookhaven Calabro Airport
Shirley, NY
CREW
FOH Engineer: Tom Heinisch
MON Engineer: Jamie Pollock
Systems Engineer: Ben Fisher
System Techs: Long Island Local 340 Stagehands
GEAR
FOH
Console: Mackie 1402, Midas Heritage 3000-48
Speakers: JBL VerTec 4888, 4880, VRX 932, 928
Country USA — Carrie Underwood,
ST Soundco
Alan Jackson, Montgomery Gentry, et al
Venue
Ford Festival Park
Oshkosh, WI
CREW
FOH Engineer: Tom Giatron and
guests
MON Engineer: Andre St. Pierre,
John Tellis and guests
Systems Engineer: Scott Sugden
Production Manager: Tom Bothof
System Techs: Scott Breise and
Jeff Melzer
Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels
GEAR
FOH
Console: Midas Verona 400
Speakers: Renkus-Heinz T-3, Renkus-Heinz
Celf 15-2 sub
Amps: Renkus-Heinz P3500
Processing: Behringer, Lexicon, Yamaha
Mics: AKG, Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, Shure
Snake Assemblies: Whirlwind
MON
Speakers: EAW JFX-560
Amps: Crown Macro-Tech 24x6
Processing: Rane
GEAR
FOH
Console: Midas Heritage 3000,
Yamaha PM5D
Speakers: 12 dV-DOSC, 16 dV-Sub,
24 Kudo, 8 MTD 108 , 24 SB218,
48 V-DOSC
Amps: Lab.gruppen fp6400 and
LA 48a
Processing: Dolby Lake and XTA
with Tablets
Mics: Audix, BSS DI, Sennheiser,
Radial DI, Shure
Power Distro: Motion Labs
Rigging: CM and L-ACOUSTICS
Snake Assemblies: 3 Ram-Tech 56
Channel
MON
Consoles: Yamaha PM5D, Yamaha
PM5000
Speakers: 8 ARCS flown with 4 SB
218 (sidefill), 20 L-ACOUSTICS 115
Hi-Q, 2 dV-Sub (drumfill)
Amps: Lab.gruppen fp6400 and
LA 48a
Processing: XTA DP448 and XTA
DP226 with Tablets
Power Distro: Motion Labs
Rigging: CM and L-ACOUSTICS
ST
Amps: Lab.gruppen
Processing: Behringer, BSS, Drawmer, Eventide,
TC Electronic, XTA, Yamaha
Mics: AKG, Audio-Technica, Beyer, EV, Sennheiser, Shure
Power Distro: SK Proprietary
Rigging: Stagemaker Compact 1 tons
Breakout Assemblies: SK Systems Proprietary
Snake Assemblies: Ramtech Custom
MON
Console: DiGiCo D5
Speakers: EAW KF-750, Futuresonics Generics, Sennheiser
IEM 300 G-2, SK Proprietary 12-2
Amps: Crown XTI-4000, Lab.gruppen fp10,000Q
Processing: Onboard DiGiCo D5
Clearwing
Productions
(Milwaukee)
We
Want You!
F O H w a n t s y o u r g i g
shots, horror stories and
r e s u m e h i g h l i g h t s ! G o t o
www.fohonline.com/submissions
to send us your Showtime
pics, Nightmare stories and In
The Trenches stats. Or e-mail
g j e t e r @ f o h o n l i n e . c o m
f o r m o r e i n f o . W e
c o v e r t h e i n d u s t r y
— and that means
you!
www.fohonline.com 2007 SEPTEMBER
Soundco
C.O.L.T. Sound &
Lighting
15
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com

From P.A.’s for The Who and The Dead to Talk Boxes for Joe Walsh and Peter
Frampton, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It Is All Based on a Love of Music,
A Passion for Electronics and Understanding the Difference
Between Hearing and Listening.
By Kevin M. Mitchell
No one seems more surprised
at Bob Heil’s success
than Bob Heil.
Wide-eyed, a face pre-amped with a perpetual
smile, the over-caffeinated Dr. Pepperswigging
Heil is that rare breed who is as liked
as much as he is admired. Peter Frampton
calls him one of the most sincere guys in the
business, and in a business that is often short
on sincerity, it is perhaps the highest compliment.
Despite his impressive list of achievements,
rather than developing a big ego, he
instead frequently sprinkles his sentences
with phrases like “…and nobody expected
this little freak from Marissa, Ill., to do that”
and “then there was this snot-nosed organ
player from Marissa following Pete Townshend
around,” etc.
A self-deprecating sense of humor aside,
Heil has been wildly successful in several careers,
and his achievements in pro sound are
astounding:
He built the first
electronic crossover in 1967,
using only a couple of little transistors
and two filters. He was a pioneer of the horn
(and the first to make them in white: “I got tired
of seeing green and gray speakers.”). He developed
the first modular console (the Mavis), the
first quadraphonic mixer and is the father of
the modern Talk Box, which friends Frampton
and Joe Walsh, and most recently Bon Jovi’s
Ritchie Sambora, used to great success.
In 1976, he wrote “the bible” of the business,
the Practical Guide for Concert Sound, Volume
Two, and dog-eared copies are still found
shoved in the back pockets of burgeoning
sound engineers everywhere.
Other firsts include being the first sound
company to be honored with an Audio Engineering
Society’s “Pioneer Award,” and the
first manufacturer to be in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
Heil, fond of wearing bright colors and
Converse shoes, does like to tell tales of his
experiences working with the Grateful Dead,
The Who, Walsh, Frampton, J. Geils, Jeff Beck
and scores of major touring acts from the
1960s and 1970s. He never got caught up in
the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle — he doesn’t drink or
take drugs, and his musical taste leans toward
his parent’s generation rather than his own.
16
SEPTEMBER 2007
www.fohonline.com
Despite all the tools available
to a pro audio professional, he still
relies solely on one: “A thing called my ear,”
he’ll tell you. “Hearing is a physical process.
Listening is a mental process! And there are
not many good listeners on the planet.”
Most important, Heil has returned to developing
products for the pro sound industry
and is not done innovating.
“Just look at this mic line he’s come up
with — he’s a supreme gadget freak like me
and always improving stuff,” laughs Frampton.
“I love sound. It’s so important to me, and
he’s always been on the forefront of trying to
improve it, like with his new mics. Every time
he comes up with a new model, he sends me
one to try, and they are fantastic.”
“I Learned to Listen”
In 1940, Heil was born in the coal mining
and farming community of Marissa, Ill.
(population: 2,000), which is 50 miles south of
St. Louis, Mo. His dad owned a clothing store
there and encouraged his son’s interest in
music. Heil began playing the sax and accordion,
but moved over to organ. By the time he
was 14, he was making good money at restaurants,
playing “the popular music of the
time, up to six or eight hours a day,” he tells.
Heil’s early mastery of the instrument was
discovered by one of the great players of all
time, Stan Kann, who during the 1950s held
court at the mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ at
St. Louis’ Fox Theater. Kann arranged
for the very young Heil to play there.
“When I started at the Fox at the age of
15, the organ hadn’t been serviced very well,
and I learned to voice and tune those pipes,”
Heil says. “That blessed Stan taught me to do
that, and it’s one of those thing you do, but
at the time you don’t realize how important
it will be. My God, it set the path to my entire
life — I learned to listen. Who the hell would
think that tuning these organs would be the
basis of my life? But it was.”
During this time, he also developed a love
for Ham radio and became an avid amateur
radio operator, designing and building transmitters,
amplifiers and antenna systems — all
of which would play a critical role in his journey
as a pro sound pioneer.
A man of many talents, he had many
choices. He was so in demand as a performer,
he could have well pursued that vocation and
been wildly successful; but the organ fan’s loss
is pro sound’s gain. After eight years of playing
six nights a week, he decided to open a
music retail operation in — of all places — his
hometown of Marissa.
In 1966, he opened up Ye Olde Music
Shop, even though “I never listened to rock ‘n’
roll. I barely knew who the Beatles were, and
I didn’t know a Fender guitar from a Gibson.”
But kids started dragging amps to him for fixin’,
and he would take them apart and not only
repair them, but make them better. “One kid

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

had a little amp called
a Fender, and shit — it
wasn’t anything more
than a modulator for a
ham radio, and I fixed it
in 15 minutes.”
His reputation as
“a guy who could fix
things” grew, and regional
bands including
R.E.O. Speedwagon
and Michael McDonald’s
early band, The Guild, started
calling on him.
Ye Olde Music Shop became
a dealership for Hammond
Organs, Fender, Martin, Gibson
and all the top-of-the-line
music instrument products,
but it was his pro audio lines
— McIntosh, JBL — where Heil
quickly established himself.
“Michael McDonald’s band was
really my guinea pig. I’d buy
all this McIntosh stuff
and use it on them when
they were trying to fiddle
around with their little
Shure Vocalmasters.”
He got a call one day
from Gordon Gow, president
of McIntosh, asking
why Heil ordered 50
of the 2100s amplifiers.
Then Heil bought half a
dozen 3500s, and “McIntosh
became really excited.”
Soon he was doing a
lot of the bigger live events for bands in
the area.
Heil is the first to admit that sheer luck
has figured into his audacious career more
than once; by happenstance, he was visiting
old friends at the Fox Theater when he
noticed its huge old speakers sitting out in
the alley. The theatre was replacing them
with smaller (and inferior) speakers. Being
nobody’s fool, Heil took the ones they
were throwing out. With those, he built an
The original speaker install at the Fox theatre in St.
Louis that started it all
Ye Olde Music Shop
became Heil Sound
The Bob Heil wall of sound in 1973
outstanding P.A.
“I Heard You Have a
Big P.A.”
But one of the
many challenges in the
mid- to late 1960s was
getting a console to
run the bigger systems.
Heil bought a Langevin
console, but even that
couldn’t handle the
input levels. By luck again, two
kids from nearby Southern Illinois
University who worked for
him had this friend who was
an engineering student. Heil
called on him, and he masterfully
rebuilt the console. The
19-year-old’s name was Tomlinson
Holman, who went on to
be corporate technical director
for George Lucas, running the
division that is both a reference
to Lucas’ first film and an
acronym: THX (Tomlinson
Holman Xperiment).
Peter Frampton was
playing with Humble Pie
in the late 1960s when
he first worked with Bob
Heil. “Back then, things
were mostly a regional
affair, and he was always
the guy that would help
us out. When we were
just starting to headline,
he would give us a super
deal and look after us.”
For most in the business today, it’s hard
to image those early days, but Frampton remembers
it being a time of great improvisation
— on and off the stage: “When I started
touring with Humble Pie, speakers didn’t
even have cases. And you’d just have two
crew members take the gear to the airport
and give it to the loading guy with an extra
$50 to load all this big heavy equipment —
it’s a wonder the plane didn’t go down!”
Talk Box: “Bob, how are we going to do this loud?”
The “Talk Box” goes back to the 1950s
when steel guitarist Alvino Rey experimented
with the idea of reproducing sound from
an amplifier and directing it into the mouth
of the performer. The performers
lips and vocal
cavities further modulate
the shape of the sound.
It showed up in a primitive
unit in Nashville in
the hands (and mouth) of
noted pedal steel player
Pete Drake.
Joe Walsh had gone
to Nashville to record
Barnstorm where he
crossed paths with Drake.
“Joe took this funnel with
an eight-inch tube and
said, “Bob, how are we going
to do this loud?” Heil
took him out to his plant
in Merissa, took a big JBL
driver the size of a paint
can, put tubing on it, and “Joe said ‘ummmm.’
I thought I could build one, and sell a
lot of them.”
Drake’s path would also cross with Peter
Frampton.
“I had done All Things Must Pass with
George Harrison and Pete Drake was on
Pete Frampton and the Talk Box
that session,” recalls Frampton. “He sat opposite
me and got out this tiny box — I
swear it was a little wooden box and had
this pipe. There was another one made by
Kustom, called ‘The Bag’
which looks sort of like a
Native American peace
pipe [laughs].” Alvin Lee
and Stevie Wonder came
out with songs using it,
but it wasn’t until Joe
Walsh’s Rocky Mountain
Way when Frampton was
especially taken by it. His
girlfriend got him one of
Heil’s and gave it to him as
a gift. Of the first Heil Talk
Boxes: “They were really
road-worthy. You could
run a truck over them. I
still have the original box
from the one I used on
Frampton Comes Alive.”
Fast forward to 1986
when Bon Jovi was looking for a hook for
the band’s premiere song, so Heil helped
them build a new voice box, which he hadn’t
done in ten years.
In 1988, he sold the rights to Dunlop as
“Jim Dunlop is a friend, and he still builds it
exactly the way I build it.”
“They were really road-worthy. You could run a truck over them. I still have the
original box from the one I used on Frampton Comes Alive.” — Peter Frampton
www.fohonline.com
The Fox Theater by then was also being
used as a rock ‘n’ roll venue, and in 1969 Heil
got a call from another friend there about
this band on tour, which was scheduled to
play that night, but had a problem. Their
sound guy and equipment were detained
the previous night in New Orleans because
the guy (“Bear”) wasn’t suppose
to leave California due to pending
drug charges. Heil was asked
if he could talk to one of the guys
in the band.
“Hey man, I heard you have a
big P.A.,” Heil heard Jerry Garcia
say. Heil had to list off the components
of his system, and Garcia
was duly impressed, ending the
conversation with a, “Well, get it
up here!” The Grateful Dead loved
the P.A. so much they took it on
the rest of the tour. Garcia later
suggested to Heil that maybe “Ye
Old Music Store” wasn’t the best
name for his company, and that
he should consider naming it “Heil
Sound” — which Heil did in 1973).
Meanwhile, back home, that
little Ye Olde Store in that little
town had become the largest
Sunn dealer in the country. Heil
started to offer some tips based
on his recent experience on what
a P.A. needed to be, and they told
him to design one for them. This
became the Sunn Coliseum, one
of the most popular and reliable
systems of its time.
Heil took the new P.A. on the
road and was in Chicago when he
got a call from a Sunn executive
who asked if he could get that big
P.A. of his to Boston for an English
band in trouble. “I told them
there’s no way I could get there
in a day, but they told me to ‘just’
rent a 707 and get it up there,” Heil
laughs. So he did, and he set it for
Commemorative
Classic
PR40
Handi Mic Pro Plus
“Hearing is a
physical process.
Listening is a
mental process!
And there are
not many good
listeners on the
planet.”
a sound check. It turned out to be The Who,
who were in a bind: They had just started
their first American tour in years, “The Who’s
Next” tour, and had suffered a couple of embarrassing
shows because they were using a
completely insufficient sound system.
The system blew The Who away, “and
the rest is history,” Heil says. “It really
changed live sound.” He wasn’t
done with working with The Who
— but first he had to make a detour
to Hope, Ark.
Paul Klipsch, one of America’s
most celebrated audio pioneers,
got wind of what Heil was doing
and flew up to see him in 1972
— he landed his private plane in a
cornfield near Heil’s plant. “All day
long, this 6-foot 6-inch guy was
looking over my 30,000-watt P.A.
system asking why I did this, why
I did that. Then he invited me back
to his plant in Hope.” For two days,
“He taught me about phasing, frequency
and response proximity
— all these wonderful things nobody
talks about because they are
afraid they don’t really understand
them.
“He was so gracious to me.
He really helped me take what I
learned and apply it to speakers.”
Heil would need all the information
and education he could
get.
“In 1973, Townshend called
me over to London, and he sat me
down in his studio. Quad sound was
all the rage, and he told me he was
thinking about this opera where he
would move Roger’s voice around
the hall…could I build him something
that could do that?” Heil told
Townshend he could build a live
quad sound system. Townshend
told him if he could build it, he
would write the opera for it.

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

Heil built, Townshend wrote Quadraphenia, and
that 300-pound board is currently in the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame.
Back in Business
Then, in the early 1980s, he “hung it up.”
Heil says, “It was a weird funky time. Bands were
breaking up, punk was coming into being…. so I
just closed the plant.” He opened up a successful
satellite TV dealership, and in 1989, was named
the number one dealership in the country out
of more than 6,000. Heil also became the guru
of the home theatre movement and was providing
high-end home theater systems — really
high end, as in the $100,000 to $200,000 range
that came complete with ticket booth for customers.
He just recently closed that portion of his
business — but not before providing more than
2,000 systems across the country.
He never stopped playing the organ, either,
and still records and performs (in fact, occasionally
Walsh will come with him and introduce
him to the silver set that tends to be attracted
to concerts featuring such great standards as
“Everything’s Coming up Roses,” “Misty” and “Yes
Sir, That’s My Baby”…likely an audience who has
no idea who he is).
But Walsh has done more than be a client and
friend to Heil. He has, in part, spurred Heil into returning
to pro sound by calling him up and asking
him, “Everything from toilet paper to skyscrapers
has had improvements made to it in the last 30
years — why are microphones still the same?”
Heil had been developing mics for ham radio
operators and broadcasters, but inspired by Walsh,
he has returned to making products for musicians.
But this time, he had a formidable partner in wife
Sarah — a woman from his hometown he met
again in the 1990s when she called him after hearing
him on a radio show. “She turned this mother
around — she kicked me in the ass, and I have
been inspired by her passion for life.”
So now, with a vengeance and then some, he
is back creating innovative new products. His PR
series, especially, has gained instant acclaim in the
live sound world, which doesn’t surprise Walsh.
“Hey, I have known for two years how great these
new microphones were — now the whole world
is finding out!” he says. Heil recently worked with
Walsh on a short tour, and at the same time, he’s
also working with ZZ Top, Velvet Revolver, American
Idol, Tool and others “all of whom are using
our microphones.”
For everything he’s done so far, and for what
he will contribute in the future, Heil will be honored
with a Parnelli on Nov. 16, 2007, in Orlando,
Fla., at the LDI show.
“I can’t tell you how blown away I am by this,”
says Heil about receiving a Parnelli. “To me, this
is a bigger deal than getting in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, because the Parnellis are voted on
by my peers. It is truly an honor.”
“Bob is one of the nicest guys in the business,
always has been,” says Frampton. “He’s the same
guy I’ve always known, and a guy who doesn’t
think of the money first. Yes, it’s a business, and
we all have a mortgage to pay, but he’s always
there to help you if he can.”
For more information on the Parnelli Awards, go to
www.parnelliawards.com.
Bob and his wife Sarah at the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame
“Paul Klipsch taught me
about phasing, frequency
and response proximity —
all these wonderful things
nobody talks about because
they are afraid they
don’t really understand
them.”
Bob at 18
Heil with Jeff Beck
Heil’s P.A. saved The Who’s Next Tour
Bob Heil with Joe Walsh
Jerry Garcia suggested the Heil Sound name
Peter Frampton (left) and Bob Heil
Pete Townshend wrote Quadraphenia
after Bob agreed to build a quad P.A.
Heil with Dolly Parton
Queen
Joe Walsh using Heil’s PR 20 and Talk Box.
Heil’s trademark Chuckie Ts — complete
with his own logo.

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

22
The Anklebiters
Pollyanna Has Nothing on These Guys
Brian: So here’s what I want to know:
You’re already all set up and you are in the
rehearsal, and everything goes downhill from
the word go. And none of it is your fault — it’s
the client. They are beyond unorganized. You
realize that you really don’t want to do the
show. It’s going to be a disaster, but you’re already
in too deep. What do you do?
Ken: As a person who loves to make
mountains out of molehills, this is a great question!
I think all sound
engineers are perfectionists
to a certain extent,
and nothing gets
the blood going like
someone on the gig
with too much ego
backed by too little experience. I used to really
enjoy verbally thrashing these people back
into submission with a little public humiliation.
But that was an error of youth.
The new Zen Ken will suggest things for issues
that can be corrected, and for those that
can’t, I now realize in two to six hours, I will
never have to deal with this person again!
Brian: That works great for a one-day gig. I
had a nightmare on a show where I was hired
as an engineer by another company that was
looking to get more work from the same venue.
While the future work won’t be with the
same event producers and performers, I had
to tread lightly so as to not turn off the venue
people. I had to keep my cool and explain to
the client why some things were the way they
were, and in the end, I left the venue without
chewing anyone’s head off.
Sound The Anklebiters
Sanctuary
Are you familiar with the term outreach?
If you work in the worship
business, especially the Christian
end of this business, you will recognize the
aforementioned term as a description of
reaching out into the local community, professing
and often demonstrating the teachings
of God. This outreach can take many
forms. The act of taking meals to elderly
folks or helping someone in the community
(regardless of their religious beliefs) with
the most basic
aspects of living
is a popular
charitable
act and sponsored
by many
churches.
At my home church, we go Christmas
caroling throughout the local neighborhood.
This has always been well received
over the years (as long as we restrict our
caroling to the holiday season). We also
put on an annual Halloween party for the
neighbors. I’m almost sure it is mandatory
for every Catholic church/school to have
at least one carnival each year. Then there
are the musical outreaches, where gospel
bands, singers, preachers and the like perform
in front of tens to tens of thousands
of believers and nonbelievers. These are
the outreaches I am most interested in and
will be discussing this month.
The Outreach In-Crowd SS
To begin with, whenever I am bidding
on a new sound system for a house of wor-
Sometimes that light
at the end of the tunnel
seems a long way off.
SEPTEMBER 2007
Ken: I’ve heard you’re the “Master of Your
Domain,” and the principle of patience says
that all bad things will end. Sometimes that
light at the end of the tunnel seems a long
way off. Sometimes it appears as just a sad
pinprick of hope. I think it’s how you handle
the adversity that will define you as a person.
When you find yourself in that Dr. Seussian
world where even logic is turned on a slant,
you can be the pin holding things together, or
you can be the prick! It
really is your choice.
Brian: I think I’d
rather be the former
than the latter, if given
that option.
It would seem to
me that I always strive to hold things together
on a show — doing what it takes to make
the show as successful as it can be through
the support I provide. And maybe sometimes
that means holding the hand of the client, as
you gently explain why a CD player wasn’t
part of the original price quote on their variety
show. All the while, the back of your mind
wants to go back to the office and tell the guy
who sold the job how it really is — and how
ignorant he is.
Ken: You know Brian, it seems that we only
recall the negatives when doing the post mortem
of a gig. And I know that it has to be done;
it’s part of the learning and correcting process.
But the mistakes or errors or whatever you
want to call them, while not fun in the moment,
are the most memorable part of a gig, whoever
was at fault. And I think, at least I hope, that no
ship, or even if I am looking at an upgrade,
I ask if this system will be permanently installed
or if any thought had been given to
using the system as an outreach tool. Most
of the time, I install permanent in-house
systems. This line of questioning does open
the door for considerations of a multipurpose
system, or possibly a separate system
dedicated to an outreach program, or just
the introduction of myself as a live sound
tech. At this point of my conversation, I can
pitch myself
as an outreachspecialist.
I let my
client know
that I have an
a b u n d a n c e
of sound gear and years of experience in
the field of live worship music. Now I have
opened an entirely new door for my cash
flow. If I happen to land the install job, it’s
a good bet that I will be in for all outreach
programs. If I don’t get the install, I still
have a shot at providing sound and tech
skills for those same programs.
In the more rare situations, I can provide
a sound system that can also double
as an outdoor rig. By the way, it has been
my experience that very often outreach
means outdoors.
Anyway, at a particular Christian event,
I used the church mains and subs for its
outdoor event. The mains and subs were
powered, so setup was a piece of cake. I
simply brought the rest of the gear (console,
outboard equipment, snake, mics,
It has been my experience
that very often outreach
means outdoors.
www.fohonline.com
O O O M M M M M
By BrianCassell & KenRengering
matter whose fault the mistake, if it didn’t hurt
people or damage gear, it will eventually be
fondly remembered! I think the same can be
said of people — no matter how hard they peg
the suczk meter, they can make the gig at least
memorable. Do I sound like I have inhaled too
much cable cleaner solvent?
Brian: You know, we do tend to highlight
the rough spots. But I think that’s human nature.
It’s just like the news: The most horrific
etc.). I didn’t have to deliver a bunch of
heavy boxes to the gig, and I gave the
church a reduced price for my services. It
worked out very well for both of us. As a
matter of fact, we are planning another
similar outreach for October.
Spreading the Good Sound SS
You will find that some houses of worship
want an installed sanctuary system
and also one dedicated to their outreach
program. What could be better than selling,
installing, running and maintaining
two systems rather than one? I guess three
would be the obvious answer, but that
seems very unlikely.
However, two systems are not that unusual,
and since you are not only a technician
but also a salesman, here is a perfect
opportunity for a larger sale. At the onset
of this article, I assumed that most of you
reading this not only do install work, but
also produce live sound. If that is not the
case, it still shouldn’t stop you from selling a
live sound system. Just find somebody else
to run it and accept a small commission for
setting up the sound guy with the gig.
As you read these articles my friends, I
don’t want you to think that it is all about
money with me. I will tell you, however,
that a big part of a satisfying job is the paycheck.
And as a man who has a good grasp
of the Bible, I can also tell you that money
is the second most referenced subject in
the book. However, no amount of cash can
compare to the sweet sound of a beautifully
installed or expertly erected system.
event of the day leads off the evening news.
Just the same, we gripe about the worst gigs
and let the others fall to the wayside of our
memory. Maybe we’d all be happier if we took
a more jovial view of the disasters that we
work through and enjoy the fun gigs that go
off without a hitch.
Got a question about your business for the Anklebiters?
E-mail anklebiters@fohonline.com.
Reach Out By JamieRio
Although the American dollar does hold a
close second place.
Oh boy, I really got off on a tangent
there. OK, back to our subject. Any house
of worship that is successful will naturally
want to expand, and this whole concept of
reaching out into the local community is the
most common evolution of this expansion.
All we really have to do as sound installers
and technicians is go with flow.
You probably should get some ammunition
for your next bid or meeting. If you
bring up the idea of a multipurpose system
that is very portable, have some brochures
on hand. Your client may not even know that
one system can work in their sanctuary and
also work at another location. I realize that
it is impractical to fly a group of boxes inside
and think that you can later take them
outside. There are, however, arrays available
that can be moved about on a small lift by
one person. You will have to do some homework
and see what is out there.
The important thing here is that you are
introducing your client to new possibilities.
The fact is, most of the outreach work I do
is with my own gear. But there are some
houses of worship with the budget and the
desire to have multiple systems. Of course,
I can always augment a church system if
needed, or subcontract if I am providing
for a show with more than 5,000 people,
but both of those scenarios are pretty rare. I
have created a comfortable niche, but I am
always open to outreaching myself.
Send a letter to the Jamie at jrio@fohonline.com.

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

24
Product Gallery
This may come off as heresy, but given my
druthers on a gig, I would spend 45 minutes
of a one-hour sound check getting
the monitor mix together, and then spend the
last 15 minutes dialing in the house. And many
good FOH/MON teams will tell you the same
thing. The house sound — unless everyone is
on personal monitors, and there are no acoustic
energy sources on stage — is very strongly
affected by the on-stage sound, and dialing in
Company
Company Web Site
Allen & Heath
www.AllenHeath.com
APBDynaSonics
www.apbdynasonics.com
Crest Audio
www.crestaudio.com
DigiDesign
www.digidesign.com
EAW
www.eaw.com
Mackie
www.mackie.com
Midas
www.midasconsoles.com
Soundcraft USA
www.soundcraft.com
Yamaha Commercial Audio
Systems, Inc.
www.yamahaca.com
Model Price Frame size Dimensions Inserts EQ
GL2800M $6,999 24 channel
Mix Wizard Monitor $2,399 12 Channel
ProRack Monitor $3,690 16 x 8 Stereo + 2 mono
XRM $2,900 20
DShow & DShow Profile
DShow -$74,995;
DShow Profile
- $59,985
56 Faders / 24 Faders
UMX.96 Digital Console $65,000 60 fader stacked 24
37.2” W x 25.6” D x 6.7” H;
weight - 63.8 lbs
20” W x 20.9” D x 7.7” H;
weight - 27 lbs
17.5” x 19” x 4.85”;
weight - 30 lbs
19” W x 4.5” H x 17.5” D;
weight - 30.5 lbs
Dshow: 78.3” x 35.5” x 13.7”;
DShow Profile: 45.3” x 31.1”
x 6.65”
69” x 40” x 19”; weight - 600
lbs (incl. case)
Onyx 3280 $4,899.99 32 x 8 x 2 60” x 30” x 10”; weight - 95 lbs
SEPTEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
Yes. Each mix is provided with an insert socket
for patching in an outboard signal processor. The
insert is postHPF and preEQ, prefader.
Yes. Each mix is provided with an insert socket
for patching in an outboard signal processor. The
insert is prefader.
Yes. All mono input channels, plus all 8 stereo
and 2 mono outputs. (Output solos are postinsert
point.)
Insert on all mono inputs and mix buses; 1/4”
1/4” TRS and XLR AES/EBU for analog and digital
outboard processing. 1 outboard plus 4 plug-in
insert points per input and output.
Balanced TRS send/return plus digital via EXP
chassis.
TRS inserts on all mic/line inputs, all aux send
masters, all subgroup & LR masters.
TT System 32 $12,999.99 64 x 8 x 3 (LCR) 42” x 25” x 11”; weight - 70 lbs Inserts for mix groups are via internal DSP.
Siena
Soundcraft MH3
$18,711 to
$40,780
$17,390,
$20,359,
$24,005,
$27,130, $31,245
Soundcraft Vi4 $75,000
Soundcraft Vi6 Approx. $94,000
Yamaha M7CL32, M7CL48 $19,999, $24,999
Yamaha PM1D Version 2 From $110,000
Yamaha PM5DV2,
PM5DV2RH
a house mix before the monitors are as tight as
they can be is usually a waste of time.
The importance of a great monitor mix
is not new. What is new is the plethora of approaches
and angles that can go into achieving
that. In the past few years, I have seen
— within a few weeks of each other — three
monitor consoles and corresponding engineers
for one four-piece band; a country act
that has the band on a digital console, but has
$49,800, $67,000
respectively
24, 32, 40, 48, 56 & 64 Inputs
24, 32, 40, 48, 56 mono + 4
stereo channels
24 input faders, switchable in
two fixed layers to access 48
points.
32 input faders, switchable in
two fixed layers to access 64
inputs
32 or 48 mono microphone/line
inputs, 4 stereo inputs, and 3
mini-YGDAI card slots (a total of
56 or 40 mixing channels
The base model DSP1D can
handle up to 48 channels,
expandable to 96 channels.
A total of 130 input connections,
simultaneous mixing of up to 64
inputs to stereo or LCR stereo,
and 24 mix buses.
Monitor Consoles
his own monitors mixed on a big ol’ Midas; systems
almost totally controlled from the stage
by the act; a guy with two big analog consoles
side-by-side mixing a show with more than a
dozen mixes and100 cues without any scenes
or recall, and who needed roller-skates to get
from one end of the paired consoles to the
other; and a guy known for how high-tech
he is having his monitors mixed on a Roland
board that was meant for home studios.
42.75” to 90.35” x 30.75” x
9.15”; weight - 42 to 90 lbs
11” x 32” x 55.8”, 66.2”,
76.6”, 87”, 97.4” resp.;
weight -
113 lbs, 176 lbs, 202 lbs, 227
lbs, 253 lbs respectively.
Control Surface: 1.07’ H
x 2.38’ D x 4.75’ W; weight
control surface, 140 lbs (local
rack, 55 lbs.; stagebox, 35 lbs.
Control Surface: 1.07’ H x 2.38’
D x 5.72’ W; weight: control
surface = 140 lbs (local rack,
55 lbs; stagebox, 35 lbs.
M7CL32: 41.7” x 27.6” x 11.3”;
weight - 93 lbs; M7CL48:
50.2: x 27.6” x 11.3”; weight
- 110 lbs
75” x 38.3” x 13.9”,
weight - 265 lbs
61.1” x 37.4” x 11.1”; weight:
PM5D - 216 lbs; FM5DRH
- 214 lbs
Yes. Switchable insert pts on each mic/line input
mix outputs. The mix insert jacks normalized &
unbalanced TRS w/send on tip & return on ring.
Yes. Prefade MIX L, R and C (mono) insert points
use balanced sends and returns on separate 1/4”
jacks on the rear panel.
Yes. 24 insert send/return pairs can be configured
(using available XLRformat I/O) and assigned to
any of the 48 inputs or 27 output channels.
Yes. 24 insert send/return pairs can be configured
(using available XLR format I/O) and assigned to
any of the 64 inputs or 35 output channels.
Yes. XLR, TRS balanced via card slots.
Yes, XLR or TRS connections using external card
slots.
PM5D: Yes. Separate send and return balanced
TRS phone connector; PM5DRH: Yes. XLR, TRS
balanced using card slots.
The offerings in this Product Gallery are
similarly broad in scope, ranging from inexpensive
boards with limited inputs and
only a few mixes up to full-blown digital
boards that can provide individual mixes
to an entire Broadway cast if need be. Take
a look at what’s available and remember
that no matter which end of the snake
you work, the guy on the other side is your
teammate, not the enemy.
4-band channel EQ with swept frequency mids. The EQ
is post-insert so that any inserted processing will be
affected by these controls.
A 4-band semiparametric EQ provides independent
control of four frequency bands. All bands can be
boosted or cut
by up to 15 dB.
4-band EQ with mid sweeps at 1-octave bandwidth,
plus variable high-pass filter with 20 Hz to 400 Hz
sweep range. EQ ON switch with LED.
4-band EQ w/ sweepable mids and 18 dB per-octave
high-pass filters on all inputs.
4-band fully parametric; digital or analog emulation
modes; separate HPF, plus plug-ins; 24 - 1/3 octave EQs
available for output equalization.
4-band parametric EQ + HPF and LPF on each input;
4-band parametric EQ + LPF, HPF and RTA 31-band EQ
on each output.
4-band, semiparametric (British style) EQs w/bypass.
12 k high shelf, 80 Hz low shelf, mid-high & mid-low,
2-octave wide parametric. 100Hz HPF.
4-band parametric on all mic/line inputs. 3-band
parametric with 2 notch filters for all aux, subgroup &
master outs.
Midas 4-band swept EQ with bypass; precise control of
input frequency response. Swept HPF for exceptional
control of low-frequency content.
4-band with shelving sweep high- and low-frequency
sections and fully parametric high-mid and low-mid
bands. Sweepable high-pass filter.
4-band fully parametric EQ with shelf mode on HF/LF,
plus both high- and low-pass filters.
4-band fully parametric EQ with shelf mode on HF/LF,
plus both high- and low-pass filters.
Virtual effect and EQ rack: up to 4 simultaneous
multi-effect processors; up to 8 simultaneous 31-band
graphic Eqs.
Input: HPF+ 4-band PEQ; Output: 6-band PEQ.
4-band parametric EQ, stereo and mix outs have
8-band parametric EQ, 12 insertable 31-band graphic
equalizers.

DigiDesign DShow
Metering Features Automation Power
12 LED bar output meter displays the signal at the mix output XLR.
4 LED channel meter displays the prefader signal level.
3 color LED, quasi-peak response. PFL, signal & peak LEDs
6-segment metering on all input channels; 10 x 2 segment metering
on all 8 stereo output channels.
24, 32, 40 and 48 channel frame sizes; 16 mixes globally assigned as mono or stereo with level and pan; builtin
mic splitter with ground lift switching; engineer’s IEM and wedge monitors with faders, meters, inserts and
XLR; mix AFL assignable to either wedge or IEM monitor; talkback with independent selection to all mixes and
external output.
16 mono inputs; 12 mix outputs (mono or stereo pairs); W3 preamp; built-in mic splitter with ground lift
switch; sends 14 switched pre/post fader; sends 512 post-fade (internal jumpers set prefade) 60mm output
faders; mono or stereo AFL; engineer’s stereo monitor and headphone out; 1/4” and mini-jack headphone
socket; 19” rack-mountable or desktop configuration.
16 input channels with built-in passive splitter system with Pin 1 lift switch. 8 stereo outputs, each with a
stereo line input fader (16 line inputs total for mixer linking or for FX returns). Two additional mono outpts.
Rotatable connector assembly for rack mount or tabletop operation.
www.fohonline.com
No
No
External RPS11. Built-in dual supply
combiner for additional power supply
as a backup.
45 W max. External input for
optional MPS12 backup supply.
No Under 150 watts. Field replacable.
Stereo LEDs; master and solo bus; peak metering on all inputs 12 mono mix outputs or 6 stereo mix outputs; solo bus link so multiple units can be linked. No No backup capability.
Multisegment 3-color LED on inputs and outputs; peak, RMS &
peak/RMS ballistics; multiple clip points per path; user-defined
threshold for indication.
LED ladder on each input, expanded LED ladder bank switchable,
and on-screen metering.
4-segment metering for all mic/line inputs, stereo line inputs and
subgroup masters. 12 segment LR & solo metering.
15-segment LED on V-Pots in meter mode.
24-segment LED solo & master.
Clear & comprehensive metering so that you can see all the head
room. 16-segment output meters that show each of the 18 master
mix and solo busses.
All input strips have 12-segment LED bar-graphs next to their faders.
Group/aux outs have similar meters, while L, C and R outputs
are 24-segment.
Internal 20-segment LED bargraphs plus
9-segment gain reduction meters for all inputs and outputs. Peak
hold variable from 0–2 sec.
Internal 20-segment LED bargraphs plus
9-segment gain reduction meters for all inputs and outputs. Peak
hold variable from 0–2 sec.
Touchscreen LCD, two LED levels, Yamaha Centralogic interface
Color LCD, independent LED
Color LCD, independent LED level metering.
Ian Newton, ME, at Yamaha PM1D —
The Police Reunion Tour
Midas Siena
TDM plug-in compatibility; direct connection to Pro Tools HD and LE systems; PQ personal monitoring system
with remote controllers; ANet interface for compatibility with Aviom; stand-alone software for offline editing
of show files; scalable I/O, mix engines and work surfaces; exportable HTML system & show file description
document; software portability between all work surfaces.
48 mic channels (expandable to 96) plus 8 stereo line in with gate/exp, compressor/limiter, delay and EQ. 24
aux/groups with RTA31 delay and limiting. LCR or IEM plus wedge monitoring. 16 x 8 matrix, 16 VCA, 12 x 3
loudspeaker processing. Integration of EAW Smaart analysis platform.
Onyx mic preamps. 8 stereo-pairable aux sends w/ pre/post select per-channel. 4 mute groups. Sub groupaux
Master fader flip. PFL/AFL metering with mode switching logic. 2-bus matrix out. Direct outs on DB25
connectors. Per-channel 48V phantom, mic/line, 100 Hz high-pass, and polarity switches. 8 stereo line inputs
w/4-band EQ & aux sends. Dedicated mono out.
24 mic/line + 8 line only inputs on console. 32 additional mic/line inputs and 31 returns (aux, subgroup & LCR
master via digital snake using Cat5E cable). 12 stereo pairable aux sends. 4 onboard digital FX busses. 99-scene
snapshot memory. 24 x 24 ADAT Optical I/O. 8 bus matrix outputs. 31-band graphic EQ on LCR masters. PFL/AFL
solo function. Integral LCD touch screen.
Accurate 4-band EQ, 100 mm monorail faders & intuitive layout. With the Solo Tracking System (STS) features,
there is wired/wireless control of the Klark Teknik Helix digital EQ systems.
Analog; can run monitors, FOH, or combo of both; 12 monitor busses (12 mono, or 8 mono + 2 stereo for IEMs)
in mons mode, or 8 group busses + 12 aux busses in FOH mode; swap mode allows fader control of aux outputs
in mons mode; Integral 12 x 4 matrix, expandable up to 12 x 8; 3-band EQ on FX Returns 18, switchable to
group or aux outputs; LCR panning on inputs; 8 VCA groups and 8 Mute groups.
Can run monitors, FOH, or combination of both; Vistonics II touchscreen user interface; Soundcraft FaderGlow
fader function display; onboard Lexicon effects and BSS Audio graphic EQs; compact footprint; motorized
faders; up to 24x16 matrix; direct outs possible on all channels; Harman HiQnet compatible, plus optional
CobraNet and Aviom integration.
Can run monitors, FOH, or combination of both; Vistonics II touchscreen user interface; Soundcraft FaderGlow
fader function display; onboard Lexicon effects and BSS Audio graphic EQs; compact footprint; motorized faders;
up to 32 x 16 matrix; direct outs on all channels; Harman HiQnet compatible, plus optional CobraNet and
Aviom integration.
48 or 32 mono microphone/line inputs, 4 stereo inputs, and 3 mini-YGDAI card slots (a total of 56 or 40 mixing
channels).; 16 mix buses, LCR bus, 8 matrix channels, and 8 DCAs assignable to 16 omni outputs.; Virtual effect
and EQ rack: up to 4 simultaneous multi-effect processors; up to 8 simultaneous 31-band graphic EQs, USB port
for storage and recall of a range of data.
Most outputs offered on a digital console by any manufacturer; as many as 1,000 scenes; automatic gain
adjustment for systems with shared inputs; add-on effects include a studio-grade compressor, a vintage EQ,
and an effector that offers tape compression modeling derived from open-deck recording.
Built-in on-board effects, including REVX, compressors; 8 internal SPX2000 effects processors; LOAD LOCK
function, output isolation; mono and stereo input channel setups can be “moved” to any other channel in one
operation; equipped with 31, 5.1 and 6.1 surround modes; four rear-panel mini-YGDAI expansion slots.
999 snapshot capacity; propagate settings;
absolute and relative edit mode;
preview mode; input libraries; history
files. user-defined events list.
Yes. Standalone program for offline
programming and remote control. 299
snapshots per file, stored in flash, hard
drive and USB.
N/A
Yes. Free TT Control software (PC only)
using standard USB connection.
Free Show Command w/Solo Tracking
System (STS) gives remote wired/wireless
tablet control, similar to the Midas
Legend & Heritage.
Yes. Automation can store and recall
128 snapshot settings of input and FX
return mute status and VCA assignments,
plus offers MIDI control.
Yes. Snapshot automation.
Yes. Snapshot automation.
M7CL editor, USB port console control
via Ethernet, 301 scene memory,
motorized faders.
Yes. Yamaha Studio Manager, 1000
recallable scene memories, motorized
faders.
PM5D Editor; total recall of up to 500
scenes; flexible recall SAFE function,
100 mm motorized faders, rotary
control.
Left to right: Rob Hodgkinson, monitor engineer, and Gert
Sanner, FOH engineer, with the Soundcraft Vi6
Fully redundant hot swappable
power supplies: DShow - 280 W;
DShow Profile - 160 W.
1000 W, 90246 VAC, 4763 Hz dual
redundant.
105 W Internal / Optional redundant
power supply.
150 W internal only.
(200 W per) Two internal auto-voltage,
current sharing & auto-changeover
PSUs for redundancy (except 240
model). All models have external connector
for optional V190 linear PSU.
Mains power: 300 W (24 ch), 600 W
max. Internal power supply can be
optionally linked to an external PSU.
Control surface, 155 W; local rack,
140 W; stagebox, 140 W. Fully redundant
PSU option available.
Control surface, 155 W; local rack,
140 W; stagebox, 140 W. Fully redundant
PSU option available.
Dual power modes: use the built-in
power supply or add an external
PW800 W power supply unit
(optional) for fail-safe dual-supply
operation.
PW1D 1000 watts. Yes, redundant
power supply.
PM5DV2: PW800 W-480 W;
PM5DV2-RH: PW800 W-600W.
2007 SEPTEMBER
25

26
Road Test
By MarkAmundson
The sixth version of System Measurement
Audio Analysis Real-Time (SMAART) is the
charm for EAW, a division of Loud Technologies.
Having enjoyed SMAART Live 5.0 for a
while, bringing in version 6 begs the question,
“Why upgrade?” Well the answer is that
SMAART v.6 is a complete house cleaning of
the SMAART software, with patches and expansions
shaken out and put together correctly
and efficiently. The kludging is gone
— the new SMAART looks clean, familiar and
professional looking, as it means business to
those who use it.
The Gear
TP
My first impression of the new SMAART
software is that the new graphical user interface
is now more intuitive. SMAART v.6 offers
much less hacking around and gets right
down to making and taking measurements.
Gone are the colored memory save buttons;
they are replaced by a small pop-up window
to save or retrieve plot files from your memory.
And once up and running, the amount
of CPU resources seemed vastly diminished
compared to SMAART Live 5.0. My poor Dell
Inspiron used to pour out CPU heat from a
busy fan, but now the fan is mostly off, and
things process without noticeable delay.
SMAART Version 6
Roland Systems S-1608 Digital Snake System
By BillEvans
We have said it often enough that
it is likely sounding like a broken
record (remember those? They
sound a lot different than a skipping CD),
but the world is getting increasingly digital,
and live event audio is no exception. First,
digital processing moved from the studio
to the stage. Then it was consoles. The only
reason someone is not hawking a digital
loudspeaker is ‘cuz until we all have directinject
jacks that go straight into the cerebral
cortex, the laws of physics dictate that you
have to actually move air to create sound.
The latest part of the signal chain to get the
ol’ ones-and-zeroes treatment is the venerable
snake.
The Gear
TP
We have reviewed a couple of different
digital snakes in FOH. In fact, this is the second
one from the Roland Systems Group.
While we love the idea of a digital snake,
right now the whole product category is a
little scary — especially for those with limited
budgets. The format wars are still raging,
and most of the systems are too big and
too expensive for smaller providers. This is
all part of why we took a serious look at
the S-1608 Digital Snake System when we
first saw it at NSCA earlier this year. It is still
not cheap, but it is on the affordable end
of this kind of gear. And the modular “buy
16x8 channels at a time” approach made
it something even some anklebiters could
consider. Another big plus is the fact that
you can split the stage box multiple times
for recording or monitoring feeds using a
standard off-the-shelf Ethernet switch.
Inside SMAART v.6 are the three great
applications we have come to count on:
Spectrum Analysis, Transfer Analysis and Impulse
Response Analysis. Still present are the
single- or split-pane plot areas, mic and line
amplitude graphs, choices for averages and
weighting and all the I/O buttons for delay
time and generator amplitudes.
The SMAART v.6 window is done mostly
in gray scale, with the plot traces and bar
graphs showing the majority of color. I believe
this works better in the real gigging
conditions of dark indoor venues. While
I cheat by using my SMAART I/O box, the
software recognized the I/O hardware and
nicely placed my phantom power and loopback
buttons on the screen along with the
gain-setting features for mic and line XLR
inputs. No more hunting for the SMAART I/O
window like in SMAART Live 5.0.
The Gig
TP
In the shop testing, where I do the majority
of my SMAART usage, I immediately loved the
complete and concise manual that is offered
with the software. Everything is downloadable
once the license is purchased, but having
a high-speed Internet connection is mandatory
if you do not have hours of dial-up time
The S-1608 Digital Snake System consists
of three parts (four if you count the
actual EtherCon–terminated SC-W100S
cable): the S-1608 stage box with 16 ins and
8 outs; the S-0816 FOH box with 16 outs and
8 ins; and the S-4000R remote controller for
tweaking the mic pre’s in the stage box.
Construction is very solid with beefy metal
for both input and output boxes (and rack
mountable). All ins and outs are balanced
XLR. Sampling and bit rate are 24 bit and 96
Mhz. Added bonus — the jack on the stage
box lights up when it gets a signal. It may
not sound like much, but it saved us some
time on the gig. Speaking of which…
The Gig
TP
I was scheduled to do a fund-raiser for a
large Catholic high school in Los Angeles —
a big party for 1,200 paying guests with two
bands and a DJ. Jamie Rio and I have done
this gig for the past three years. It looked
like it would be a cake gig — same kind
of bands as before, same DJ, same football
field venue. All looked good. Until Jamie got
another gig offer, and we mutually agreed
that he would bring in the big gear, and I
would drive in from Vegas with my Midas
Venice 320 in the back of the PT Cruiser
and do the gig with a tech who Jamie and
I have known for a long time. It ended up
being a tough night. New DJ who had no
idea how to give us an appropriate signal,
new organizing committee that wanted us
to — among other things — move the FOH
position after it was set up, blown horns
on one side of the system, band arrived an
hour late and demanded stuff that was not
SEPTEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
to spare. Heading immediately
to the spectrum
analysis, I found all my
usual friendly features
like color spectrographs,
RTA bar graphs and
ways to smooth up the
responses.
Going to the killer
application of transfer
analysis, I set up the RTA mic four meters
in front of a stack of subs and tops, and
wired in a send “y” of what is going to my
amplifier rack to drive the speakers. By setting
the delay time correctly, I got useful
amplitude, phase and coherence plots to What it is: System Analysis Software
confirm the effectiveness of the speaker Who it’s for: Everyone
processor settings. As expected, coher- How much: EAW SMAART v.6 $795;
ence suffers at the crossover points and SMAART v.5 owners can upgrade for $400,
wavelengths of concrete floor bounce. But and SMAART What it v.4 is: owners System can Analysis upgrade Software for
I loved the more meaningful coherence $500. Who it’s for: Everyone
indications as feedback for correct delays Pros: Pros: Ease of Ease use, of better use, better CPU utilization, CPU utiliza-
and acoustic anomalies.
very flexible tion, very flexible.
In summary, if you have not invested in Cons: Cons: Nada Nada
SMAART software, now is the time to get a Web site: How www.eaw.com
Much: EAW SMAART v.6 $795;
clean, finely tuned copy you can call your SMAART v.5 owners can upgrade for
own. If upgrading, it is still worthwhile, with $400, and SMAART v.4 owners can
a few added automatic routines and easier to upgrade for $500.
use interfaces.
Web site: www.eaw.com
on the input list or stage plot they had provided
just two days before the show. And
that’s not to mention the plethora of problems
related to alcohol consumption common
on this kind of gig.
The one thing that was no problem at
all was the snake. I — on purpose — threw
the manual away as soon as I opened the
box, which I did on-site at the gig. (It’s a
snake. If you need a manual, then it’s not
useful). Stage box went on stage, FOH box
next to the console. Our only issue was that
we did not have enough short XLR cables
to go from the box to the console and
ended up using 20-footers in what looked
like a snake pit hidden under the table. Remote
plugged in, and the whole thing lit up.
Speaking of lighting up, that feature on the
stage box rocks. In the heat of a very rushed
changeover (remember the band that was
an hour late?), it told us right away that we
had a bad cable and saved us a few precious
minutes of troubleshooting.
The remote is simple. Just dial up the
channel, unlock it and adjust gain, engage
the pad or turn phantom power on or off.
Lock the channel and move on. The pre’s are
transparent, the system is dead quiet and
there is none of the digital “zippering” you
get when adjusting gain on some digital
gear. You can even store presets of the gain
settings, which we would have done if the
band had shown up on time! We actually ran
a traditional snake as a backup, but never
touched it — until I had to reel it up at two
in the morning. Which really brought home
what I like about audio over Cat5.
What it is: Digital snake system with remote
control preamps.
Who it’s for: Sound providers who are tired
of lugging tons of copper, but have limited
budgets.
Pros: Quiet. Well-built. Exceptionally easy to use.
Cons: None really. Just remember to bring a
bunch of shortie XLRs…
How Much: $2,995 includes S-1608 stage
unit, S-0816 FOH unit, S-4000R controller, and
SC-W100S 100 meters of Cat5e cable.
Web site: www.rssamerica.com

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

The community’s response to the
closing of the John Harms Center
in 2003 was swift and not positive.
In fact, citizens from around northern
New Jersey joined to let the powersthat-be
know that they wanted a local
regional arts center to serve the cultural
needs of the area.
Frank Huttle III and a team of local
activists heard the call, and they collaborated
with private donors, foundations
and local government to raise $6 million
to reopen the facility as the Bergen Performing
Arts Center (bergenPAC) in fall
2004. “What’s special about the Bergen
Performing Arts Center is that it’s independent
and not-for-profit, but it’s really
owned by everyone in northern New
Jersey,” Huttle reports. “We reopened
this 1,300 seat theatre with little public
assistance. The community really
wanted it, and we are the cultural hub
of both arts and education in the north
New Jersey region.”
The theatre originally opened in
1926 as a movie-vaudeville house. Over
the years, it has been renovated to be a
movie house, concert hall and now a performing
arts center.
Of course, being in such close proximity
to New York City means that the
bergenPAC management team has to
make sure that the facility’s acoustics
and technology are of high enough
quality to attract national headliners.
So, in the mid-90s a pair of renovations
were undertaken to improve the sound
of the hall. The facility continues to go
28
Installations
Going to NEW JERSEY, Just for the VIBE
By DavidJohnFarinella
BergenPAC’s improved
acoustics attract national
headliners.
BergenPAC’s Beyond Dance program onstage
through sonic tweaking and equipment
upgrades to make sure it stays on pace
with its local competition.
State of the Industry INST
That said, bergenPAC Executive Director
David Rodriguez, points out that
staying ahead of the curve is not their
first concern. “More than anything we’re
conscious not of state of the art, but state
of the industry. If it doesn’t show up on
enough artist riders, the amount of time
“We argue strongly that the house itself is
as much a part of the performance as the
piano.” — David Rodriguez
that it takes to convince an artist that a
new technology makes sense from a live
sound perspective doesn’t justify the additional
cost,” he explains.
So, the facility has just upgraded its
FOH consoles from a Yamaha PM4000
to a Yamaha PM5D. “Before people embraced
the digital format, the capital
expenditure versus the value of renting
on a per show basis just wasn’t there,”
Rodriguez says. “What we want to make
sure is that the venue is sound, the
acoustics are what are needed for that
particular event, and we will augment
our inventory as the market demands
reach that threshold.”
Rodriquez is looking to bring in a
line array system to replace the existing
Meyer Sound Lab assortment of cabinets
that works as the facility’s P.A. Currently,
six MSL-4s serve as the facility’s
main speakers, four 650-P carry the bottom
end and six UPA-1Cs are used for
balcony fills, along with 11 EAW JF80s
that are being used as front fill speakers
and under the balcony.
SEPTEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
The interior of the John Harms Center.
As far as outboard gear located at
FOH, Rodriguez reports the facility offers
pieces from Klark Teknik, Urei, dbx, Lexicon
and Yamaha, but he’s most proud of
the pieces from local audio company
Pendulum Audio, including a Quartet,
ES-8 and OCL-2.
At the monitor position, the facility is
installing another PM5D to go along with
six Meyer Sound Lab UM1-P stage monitors
and a pair of MSL-4 side fills. Outboard
gear includes EQs by Klark Teknik,
Meyer Sound Lab and dbx, with a Valley
Gatex four-channel gate.
More than Gear INST
Above and beyond gear, Rodriguez
has spent some time working on the
physical acoustics of the building, especially
considering audio was not a major
concern when the house was built
in the ‘20s. He laughs while agreeing,
and then points out, “If anything, we’re
more concerned about it now because
the old vaudeville houses were really
built like speakers. There are different
acoustical needs for amplified sound
versus acoustic sound.”
In the late ‘90s, a series of acoustic
improvements were made to the theatre,
including the installation of acoustical
panels to the rear of the theatre to reduce
slap back reverb. The other thing
that was done was the restoration of the
front of the balcony and the original artistic
friezes. “We extended the balcony
by four rows using structural concrete,
and the friezes create a diffusing, reflective
surface.” The sides of the building
also were treated with acoustic panels
that can be added or subtracted, depending
on the style of the show. Most
recently, the facility has turned to New
York-based Fisher Dachs Associates for
acoustic consulting.
In addition to the venue’s history
and improved acoustics, many artists
have made the journey to Englewood
because of the opportunity to record
their performances for DVD and live
CD releases. In fact, one of the reasons
Rodriguez is investigating a line array
is because the speakers will be off the
stage. “As we do more and more video
broadcasts, there’s a desire from a lot of
directors to not see those stacks on either
side of the stage,” he reports. “So,
the more you can fly and maintain the
credibility of sound, the better.”
To ensure an audio track full of integrity
and ambiance, a 64-channel audio
split is sent to nearby Bennett Studios
via fiber optic cables that were connected
when the facility reopened in 2004.
Certainly, the vast assortment of recording
gear at Bennett is crucial, but musicians
come to bergenPAC for the vibe. So,
to capture that, six Neumann U87s have
been hung around the room. “Part of the
value of being in this hall is to have those
audience mics,” Rodriguez states. “If they
aren’t there, and you’re going direct into
a board, you might as well be in a recording
studio. We argue strongly that the
house itself is as much a part of the performance
as the piano. You miss out on
an awful lot by not taking advantage of
that chamber.”
continued on page 32

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

There comes a point, it seems, when the
thought of another club date in a town
just south of nowhere is less than attractive.
When Jason Oakey and Chris Menichetti
hit that point, they decided to get
off the road and start their own audio and
lighting company.
Thus, in 2005, Endeavor Audio & Lighting
Services Inc. was born, and the duo
found themselves with a desire to up the
professional audio production ante in
northeast Pennsylvania. “I had some experience
on the road and have some live
sound education. I was tired of doing the
club thing, and I was getting older,” the
company’s Chief Operating Officer Jason
Oakey reports. “We both worked for another
production company, and we wanted
to take everything to the next level and
be a corporate audio provider.”
Oakey reports that in just two years, the
company has grown substantially. “When
we started the business, we hoped to have
a 20 or 30 percent increase every year,” he
says. “Last year we were up 120 percent, and
this year we’re up 40 percent over where we
were last year.”
The Oakey and Menichetti recipe for
success boils down to a couple of things,
including buying good gear, working hard
and being good neighbors with their local
sound company brethren.
Follow the Money TP
The duo’s first step toward success
came after they were approved for a
$500,000 bank loan. “That’s not easy to
get from a bank,” Oakey says with a bit of
a laugh, “especially when you have to educate
them on live pro audio. We decided
that we were only going to get one shot at
this, and we decided that we didn’t want
to spend any more time in the clubs, so we
didn’t buy club stuff.”
Once they got the funding, the two
purchased three Midas consoles (Heritage
3000, Siena 480 and Venice 320), 12 boxes of
JBL VerTec 4888s with SRX 728s and Crown
I-Tech amps. To supply monitor world, Elec-
30
Regional Slants
The Golden Audio Rule
Endeavor Audio & Lighting Systems gets to market by treating others right By David JohnFarinella
Left to right: Jason Oakey and Chris Menichetti of Endeavor Audio with Thomas Martinez, Steve Miller
Band System Tech.
tro-Voice QRX112s, QRX115s and QRX118s
— all bi-amped with Crown XS series amps
with Helix master and slaves for EQ — were
bought. “We try to make sure we have everything
set up the right way,” Oakey reports.
“We have it all through the RS232, so that
when you hit the PFL button, your graph automatically
comes up on the master unit for
the Helix, which is just beautiful when you’re
running monitors. We just did the Indigo
Girls two weeks ago, and their engineer really
appreciated that feature.”
At the beginning, Oakey concedes that
there were times when they wondered if
they made the correct gear choices. “We
spent all that money on the 3000, and it sat
for such a long time and didn’t get used. We
were the only ones within 100 miles with a
Heritage, and for us to try to rent it out for
$600 or $1,000 for three days — people
“We want to make sure that we control the
growth, although from a small business point
of view, it’s hard to say no to a client.”
— Jason Oakey
looked at us and scoffed. But, now that board
is either being rented, or it’s on our own productions
every weekend. People from Philadelphia
are driving to pick it up. That makes
us feel better.”
Competition vs. Comraderie TP
The two also opted to make friends with
the local and national competition. “The local
providers all used to be fierce competitors,”
he says. “When we started out, we decided
that instead of doing that, we would
make relationships with all our competitors.
Now we cross-rent back and forth. If they’ve
got a job and are overbooked, they aren’t
afraid to call us because we have that kind
of reputation with them that we’re not going
out and hunt their accounts. We’re going
to help them maintain their accounts to try
and sustain a level of market in our area so
that everyone can make a living wage.”
That attitude stretches beyond the company’s
local boundaries. For instance, Oakey
says a sound company in upstate New York
called and asked if Endeavor would help on a
gig serving a Christian conference. “It ended
up that we provided 80 percent of the gear
for the job,” he reports, “but it was their job,
so we didn’t wear our Endeavor shirts, and
SEPTEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
An EALS setup in Broome County Arena, Binghamton, N.Y., for recording artists Lone Star
I didn’t schmooze the promoter
and give him my card. They really
appreciated that; we saw that it
was their job and they hired us.”
When it comes to larger competition,
Oakey takes the same
approach. “We’ve made good
friends with Maryland Sound
and with some other companies
down in Philadelphia, but as far as
Clair Bros. — I don’t know if they
know we even exist, and they
probably wouldn’t care if we did. I
have contacted them to tell them
that if they have something that’s
too small, to let us know and I’d
help them out. There wasn’t any response,
and that’s okay. I understand their position.”
The Endeavor team has not been sitting
around waiting for others to provide
them work, though. In fact, on any given
week, the team will throw up a stick P.A.
for a 30-person meeting, or they’ll string
up the VerTecs for a show at the Mountain
Laurel Center for the Performing Arts in
Bushkill, Penn., where they are the sound
provider at the 10,000-seat venue. The
company also has provided services for a
handful of the local colleges and universities.
In addition, during the last campaign
season, they worked for the Bob Casey for
Senate campaign, including press events
and the Election Night Celebration.
On the musical side of things, Endeavor
has worked with a number of touring
bands that came through town. In the last
year alone, the list includes Ringo Starr
and the All Star Band, the Goo Goo Dolls,
AFI and Lonestar. The company also provided
sound services for a private party
where Neil Sedaka performed.
A New Attitude TP
The key to fitting in, Oakey believes, is
a combination of being both relaxed and
professional. “We do business in a very laid
back, professional way. You give everyone
the respect that they deserve, and you talk
to them in the right way. Normally, all our
productions come off perfectly, and everybody
is all on the same page because
communication has been the key since
the beginning.”
Oakey reports that the company is hoping
to bring on a larger staff, but right now
it’s up to him and Menichetti to mix events.
There are five local engineers and dozens
of stagehands they can tap for any show.
Production on the streets of Allentown, Penn., for a corporate client with
“Bjourn Again” a national touring Abba tribute act
“We can get our rig up in an arena and running
in about 90 minutes with stagehands,”
Oakey says. “That normally makes our promoters
up here pretty happy.”
As far as lighting, the two did go out
and purchase 120 PAR 64s that are in a
double hung truss, Leprecon MX series
dimmers and LP-X48 lighting control and
James Thomas Moles. Recently, the two
have turned to local lighting designer
Craig Friedman for assistance on any job
that requires something special.
Oakey admits that he and his partner
have changed their approach a bit over
the past couple of years. “Our game plan
was huge in the beginning, just out of ignorance
of what the market would bear.
The cool thing was that we weren’t jaded.
We knew that some stuff would work and
that some stuff wouldn’t work. We knew
that what we would like to get for production
was probably not what we were
going to get for production in most cases,
especially in a market that’s just used to a
lower level of audio production.”
At the same time, Oakey is looking
forward to the future. “We want to keep
growing,” he says. “There have been large
steps of growth, but we’re afraid of getting
ahead of ourselves. We want to make sure
that we control the growth, although from
a small business point of view it’s hard
to say no to a client. So, you get into that
question, ‘How many jobs can you really
do in one day?’ But I’d love to buy another
30-box rig of VerTec and have a couple
of digital consoles. That would be great. I
think the best part would be having a crew
to go out and do what I do.”
Know a regional soundco that deserves some
props? E-mail regionalslants@fohonline.com.

Jerry Krulewicz, president of Wireworks
Richard Chilvers, sales manager for Wireworks
A Wireworks Digi8 setup
By SteveLaCerra
Back in the early 1990s when Alesis introduced
the first ADAT machines, I wonder if
their development engineers envisioned
how important those tiny optical ports on the
rear panel would become to the pro audio world.
The ADAT optical I/O has not only been adopted
by countless other companies as a means of
multichannel digital audio transport, but has
paved the way for more comprehensive forms
of fiber optic transmission of digital audio.
There are several distinct advantages to
You’ll never have a
ground loop problem
when using a fiber
optic cable.
transmitting digital audio via fiber, the most obvious
being that multiple channels are carried
over a single cable and connector. In the case
of ADAT optical, that’s eight channels of 16-bit
audio at a sample rate of 44.1 or 48 kHz, or four
channels at twice the sample rate. Fiber optic
cable is lightweight and (as your telephone
provider can attest) has the ability to maintain
high audio quality over very long distances.
You’ll never have a ground loop problem when
using a fiber optic cable because there is no
“hard” connection to ground. Fiber is easy to
pull through walls or ceilings and requires less
effort than copper to bury beneath or fly above
an audience. EMI and RFI do not pose issues to
fiber optic audio connections, and — though it
may not yet be a skill most audio techs possess
Who: Jerry Krulewicz, president and cofounder
of Wireworks Corporation.
What: A manufacturer of audio and audio/video
cabling systems for the professional audio,
broadcast and live performance industries.
Where: Hillside, N.J.
When: Founded in 1974
Full-time employees: 30
Number of products in catalog: 4,000+
Clients include: A diverse clientele, including
more than 500 Broadway productions,
theatres, stadiums and sports arenas, all the
major TV networks and several themed entertainment
venues. Wireworks also has built
road systems for touring live music of all types
— from rock to classical. The company recently
did a complex custom cabling system for
The Kronos Quartet to simplify their setup.
Recent projects of note: Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City,
— it’s way easier to splice a damaged fiber optic
line than it is to repair a piece of 40-channel
multipair. It’s also easier and cheaper to run a
redundant fiber line than it would be to run a
redundant copper multipair snake.
Touring at Light Speed TBE
As with just about everything else that has
been developed for studio use, fiber optic technology
has been modified and adapted for use
in live sound reinforcement. These days, mixing
consoles intended for live sound routinely include
ADAT optical interfaces or provide facility
for some sort of expansion card with ADAT I/O.
However, ADAT I/O is just the tip of the iceberg.
For example, take a look at the LightViper
series of digital fiber optic audio products
from Fiberplex. Their VIS-1832 is a 32 x 8 analog
stage box with onboard Neutrik Combo connectors
and preamps for each input, phantom
power and 24-bit/96 kHz A/D. Output from the
VIS-1832 connects via a single fiber pair (approximately
1/4-inch thick) to a VIM-1832, which
serves as a breakout box at the console end
of the system. A 300-foot-long reel of cable
weighs between 5 and 6 pounds. No backache
there. Fiberplex manufactures a mini-YGDAI
interface called the VIM-MY32 for use with
Yamaha PM5D, M7CL, DM2000 and DM1000
digital mixing consoles that allows the desks to
connect directly to a LightViper optical snake
without additional cables or electronics. Slick.
(Yamaha offers its own MY16AT and MY8AT expansion
cards for these desks, featuring 16 and
8 channels of ADAT I/O respectively.)
Also very slick is the Aphex Model 828
Anaconda, a 64-channel, bidirectional digital
www.fohonline.com
Victory Gardens at the Biograph Theater in
Chicago, and Broadway productions including
Wicked, The Producers, Monty Python’s Spamalot,
Hairspray, Avenue Q, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,
Movin’ Out, The Color Purple, The Drowsy
Chaperone and many more.
Politically incorrect first gig: “I was hired to
run the stage at the Flagship Dinner Theater
and Supper Club in New Jersey in the late
1960s. This included setting up all the sound
and lights and hiring all the staff. The theatre’s
premier show starred Jackie Mason in a musical
comedy review called, It Happened in the
Gay ‘90s.”
“The worst concert I was ever sent to was…
a benefit concert at the Met in New York City.
The audience was full of lighting, sound and
theatre designers and technicians and everything
went wrong. Everyone sat with their
head in their hands. I’m sure half the audience
wanted to run backstage to help, but no one
moved!”
Couldn’t they find something better to
do, you know, in the back seat? “My most
Vital Stats
Wireworks
snake. Designed as an easy and cost-effective
way to connect Aphex 1788A remotecontrolled
mic preamps to any digital recording
system, the Anaconda is comprised of two
identical interface units on either end of a
high-speed fiber run. Each Anaconda interface
has eight ADAT optical I/Os, ultraprecise
internal word clock and RJ-45 connectors
for Ethernet control and metering of Aphex
1788A preamps. Redundancy features include
two fiber transceivers and two internal power
supplies, all with automatic failure switching.
[Check out the Road Test of RSG’s latest digital
snake offering on page 26-Ed.]
Bright Lights, Big Sound TBE
Several manufacturers of digital consoles
are providing optional fiber connections between
their stage boxes and “local” (i.e., frontof-house)
racks. In the case of the Soundcraft
Vi4 and Vi6, an optional run of fiber allows the
stage box to be placed as far as 1.5 kilometers
from the local rack. DiGiCo’s D5 Live 56 comes
with a remote stage DiGiRack containing 56
A/D and eight D/A converters connected to
the console via optical fiber. They also provide
150 meters of fiber cable with the system, so
the amount of copper cable in the system is
basically reduced to the length of cable between
the mic and the stage box. An ADAT
I/O card is available as an option. Digidesign’s
VENUE digital mixing system accommodates
the company’s DSI card, adding eight channels
of digital input to the VENUE Stage Rack,
either as four AES/EBU pairs on individual
XLRs or as a single ADAT optical interface.
The DSO card provides eight channels of digi-
By KevinM.Mitchell
embarrassing moment was when I worked
at a drive-in movie theater and was showing
a movie that was missing the last roll! All
the cars started honking, and people started
storming the projection booth. I had to lock
myself inside!”
Proudest achievement: “When Wireworks
reached its 30th anniversary.”
People might be surprised to know: The
average American hears or sees something
over a Wireworks cable every day.
Degrees of separation: Cofounders Jerry
Krulewicz and Larry Williams both have
worked in the technical entertainment
industry for most of their professional careers.
Combined, they have worked on venues
and productions throughout nearly
200 U.S. cities and have worked with the
likes of Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein,
Hal Prince, Tharon Musser, Paul Simon and
Glenn Close.
Motto/Favorite Quote: “Wire — it just
works.”
The Bleeding Edge
Hearing the Light
tal output for the VENUE Stage Rack as four
AES/EBU pairs on individual XLRs, as well as
an ADAT optical interface — all of which are
active at the same time.
Whirlwind’s E Snake is built upon the company’s
E Snake Frame (ESF) and E Snake 2 (ES2)
master units, which may be connected via fiber
optic or Ethernet cable. Each master unit
is a hardware frame that can be loaded with
8-channel input and output cards. Since an
ESF can hold up to four input and four output
cards, the frame is able to simultaneously route
32 inputs and 32 outputs. An ES2 features an
integrated power supply and supports any
two cards for a total of 16 channels. A variety
of analog and digital I/O cards are available, including
the MLI (eight analog mic/line inputs),
TRMI (eight transformer-isolated mic inputs
with Lundahl transformers) and MLO (eight
analog outputs). Since the mic/line input cards
use Phoenix connectors, Whirlwind offers the
ES2J Termination Kit, providing 16 punchouts
for mounting of Neutrik D male or female XLR
connectors that can be wired to mate with the
I/O cards. E Snake may be connected directly
to Yamaha PM5D and M7CL consoles, providing
control over E Snake mic pres from the
Yamaha control surface. The entire E Snake
system is expandable via Gigabit Ethernet.
One more thing: In addition to the technical
advantages fiber provides over copper,
your accountant will love the reduction of
weight on the truck.
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is out on tour this summer
mixing front-of-house for Blue Öyster Cult. He can
be reached via e-mail at Woody@fohonline.com.
2007 SEPTEMBER
31

Soldering 101
Yes, I am an old fart. Even though I am
46 years young, my old fartiness shows
when I lust to visit stores like Radio Shack
or Fry’s Electronics. But once inside the store, I
gravitate to the electronic components and
tools instead of the consumer electronics that
everyone else heads for.
This is because I grew up being a “solder
jockey” and enjoyed the smell of smoking solder
rosin as I constructed Heath-Kits, Archer-
Kits, Craig Anderton’s Do-It-Yourself (DIY) guitar
effects pedals, repaired audio gear and built
patch cables. Unfortunately, our baby boom
generation has not transferred the joys of DIY
electronics projects to the current youth, and
soldering skills have virtually vanished from
practice. Coming from the electronics industry,
it was common that all engineers, technicians
and assemblers read the MIL-STD-2000 practices
for soldered electronic assemblies and
passed the yearly certification exams. Even this
level of soldering competence has gone the
way of the telegraph.
So, to assist in bringing new hands into the
live sound production industry, having reasonable
hand soldering skills is a must-have when
in the real world. I cannot expect beautifully
shiny reflowed solder joints from newbies, but
at least I can provide a few tips and techniques
to get this Soldering 101 class started.
Tools tP
It is fairly common in many install front of
house locations to have a cheap pencil soldering
iron in a tool drawer or hanging from a nail
in the wall for last-second quick repairs on cabling.
I spent most of my youth using these 15watt
pencil-type soldering irons, the ones that
feature a two-minute warm-up time and tips
that corrode to nubs after heavy usage. Thankfully,
I have avoided the sin of using 100-watt
solder guns that are best used for repairing
stained glass lampshades. But if you really want
to solder well, invest in a solder station with a
thermostatically controlled tip temperature
element. Yes, it will cost you $50 or more for
such a station, but the joys of having the right
amount of solder-melting heat for making perfect
solder joints is worth it in the long run. And
while I keep a new-fangled battery-powered
solder iron in my live sound tackle box, its measly
six watts of power is not enough heat for
large wires or Speakon contacts.
But a soldering iron is just one of the tools
needed for good soldering practices. Things
like high-quality screwdrivers, needle-nose
pliers, diagonal cutter pliers and no-nick wire
strippers are also needed for electronic soldering
repairs. If possible, bring an experienced
electronics assembler with you when shopping
for hand tools — the small micro tools are
32
Theory and Practice
Figure 1.
1. Solder almost fills the
cup and follows the contour
of the cup entry.
2. Wetting between lead
or wire is visible
3. Any solder on the
outside surface of the
solder cup in the form
of a thin film.
A. Acceptable (minimum) B. Not Acceptable (insufficient)
the ones to use, not the larger general purpose
tools available in home improvement stores.
And, unless you have mastered wire stripping
using the two pliers method, invest in a quality
wire stripper. One type of wire stripper is a
multisize slotted “pull-apart” style that is great
for larger wires (#12 to #20 AWG). But the best
wire stripper is the new wire-size-independent
(self-adjusting) end-pull strippers with two sets
of teeth (grip and strip). Consult the Techni-tool
catalog (www.techni-tool.com) for a plethora
of electronics hand tools.
Solder tP
For electronic soldering, a spool of 60/40
tin/lead wire solder with rosin core is the best
material. And before the “antilead Nazis” come
to banish leaded solders, I recommend that
you purchase a couple of one-pound spools of
thin diameter 60/40 rosin core wire solder. Otherwise
leaded solders will go the way of Freon
in the foolish belief that we need to expunge
all slightly hazardous materials from common
usage. If you ever want to get me ranting, just
bring up the subject of banning Freon-TF from
electronics assembly usage. In the future, most
solders will be 100% tin and will require higher
soldering temperatures to reflow connections
(solder joints). Higher soldering temperatures
risk melting other materials like circuit boards,
plastics and the occasional finger that were not
planned to melt under typical couple-second
reflow time periods.
If you have the luxury of setting a soldering
iron tip temperature, choose 650 degrees Fahrenheit
for use with 60/40 solders. Do not use
solder without a rosin core (R or RMA) flux, as
the flux in the core is needed to deoxidize the
metals to be joined together. The rosin core flux
does this quickly to ensure the solder wicks to
both surfaces to be joined. Acid-core fluxes are
not for electronics work, but for joining copper
plumbing pipes with a butane torch.
Soldering Technique tP
The first thing they teach you in soldering
school is that good solder joints start with
good mechanical connections prior to reflowing
solder over the connection. Having men-
Going to NEW JERSEY, Just for the VIBE
continued from page 28
Video is also sent to Bennett Studios
via the fiber optic cables, and Rodriguez
reports that one of the next steps of the
ongoing renovation is the installation of
more cables to transmit video. That improvement
is important since a number
of A&E By Request programs have been
filmed at the venue.
The venue’s booming popularity
among patrons and artists proves to Huttle
and Rodriguez that its Englewood location
and proximity to New York City has
become a benefit. “We’re surrounded by
the arts population,” Huttle says. “It’s not
like we’re in the middle of Pennsylvania
where, if we want to get a major act, we
have to fly everyone in to nowhere, and
the next closest place they have to go to
is 500 miles away. Of course there is competition
with New York City venues, but
we view it as an asset, and it’s been paying
off, because since we’ve opened, our
ticket sales have been higher than anything
the John Harms ever did.”
1. Insufficient solder
used or insufficient
wetting
SEPTEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
C. Acceptable (maximum)
tioned that proverb, I know I willingly have violated
it countless times, based on experience
or expediency. However, if a good mechanical
connection can be done via crimping or wrapping
wire around a solder tab or post, then
take the time to do so. A good example of an
exception is Figure 1, where a solder cup of an
XLR connector has a wire placed into the cup,
but before reflow, there is no mechanical strain
relief at the connection. Thus, you are violating
the rule that solder must not be the sole strain
relief device for the connection. In the XLR/wire
case, the connector chuck further back on the
cable makes the mechanical strain relief.
“Tinning” is a preprocess of making solder
connections where both surfaces to be joined
are “tinned” by reflowing a small amount of
solder from your spool onto each surface. For
solid or stranded wires, you should prebend
any stripped wire ends before tinning to remove
fraying strands and take the close-tofinal
shape of the soldered connection. After
tinning, the wire will be stiffer with the extra
solder on the surfaces, and bending may be
much more difficult. The process of tinning
does two things: first, it allows the rosin flux
to clean the metal surface and prove to the
assembler that the metal will adhere to the
solder. Second, tinning is done just seconds
before the final solder reflow, and the tinning
heat applied preheats the surfaces for a quick
last reflow connection.
Solder connections need to be heated
within a few seconds for small electronic items
like small wires and components. The risk of
spending tens of seconds with the iron touching
both surfaces is that the heat will begin
to transfer away from the connection and
start melting things that should not be melting.
Larger solder connections require either
thermostatically controlled soldering irons or
slightly larger soldering irons (40 to 50 watts)
to quickly apply massive heat, reflow the solder
and promptly remove the iron.
Another solder school rule is that the soldering
iron is to be used to heat both joined surfaces
and placed at the intersection of both surfaces.
Again, I have violated this rule countless times,
but the rationale is important. The idea behind
By MarkAmundson
1. Solder overfills cup but
does not overflow on
the sides of the cup
2. Wetting between
lead or wire and cup is
visible
1. Excessive Solder
2. Solder had flowed on to
the sides of cup
D. Not Acceptable (excessive)
this rule is that the joined surfaces will do the
melting of the solder, not the tip of the soldering
iron. Per the rule, the solder is to melt via touching
the joined surfaces and not necessarily on
the tip of the iron. Ideally, the wire solder is to
be fed into the trio of the joined surfaces and
iron tip after a second or two of heating time. To
ensure this happens quickly, the soldering iron
tip also must be freshly tinned so that a small
amount of molten solder on the iron’s tip is the
heat transfer conveyance. The wrong way is to
premelt a bunch of wire solder on the iron’s tip
and then stick it onto the joined surfaces.
The right amount of solder to make a solder
joint connection is measured by visual feedback.
The joint should have concave rounded
surfaces (fillets) between the surfaces to be
joined. Too much solder will have blobs or balls
of solder and is a symptom of being too rushed
and feeding too much solder wire into the surfaces.
Too little solder is also a problem as the
surfaces do not have enough solder to grab
the connection mechanically or electrically. Too
little heat or too much heat can affect soldering
as well. Crinkly or cracked solder joints are
a sign of too little reflow heat or movement of
the surfaces to be joined (steady hands needed).
Excessive heat will spill solder away from
the joint and obey the laws of gravity. Correct
amounts of heat will make the molten solder
grab onto the surfaces (surface tension). Figure
1 also shows pictorially the too-little, just-right,
too-much solder examples.
Summary tP
This 101 mini-soldering school course just
covers the basics. Hopefully, we will bring a Soldering
102 article forward and discuss/depict a
few more common soldering encounters in the
live sound environment. The best soldering is
done back at the shop and not performed under
the time pressure of the show at the venue.
So when it comes to cables and wiring, keep
a spare cable of every type used and do your
cable repairs on your schedule. And remember
“soldering” and “sodomy” are two completely
different things.
You can e-mail Mark at marka@fohonline.com.
You’ve got to get out there and run the show, not just
work the show. And lend some common sense to the idiots
you work with along the way. Don’t be afraid to put your
foot down when you see something going on that’s stupid,
inefficient or unsafe. Whether you realize it or not, your
reputation can be affected by the other production companies on the
show with you. If someone were to get hurt on one of my shows because
of something the lighting company did, it’s still going to get around town
that someone got hurt on MY gig. No matter what, we’ve always got to
work safe and make sure those around us are doing the same.
— Brian Cassell

A Night Honoring the Industry’s Finest
Companies & Practitioners
When: November 16, 2007 • 7pm
Where: The Peabody Orlando Hotel • Orlando, FL
NOW ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS
IN ALL CATEGORIES
Lighting Designer of the Year • Set/Scenic Designer of the year
Lighting company of the Year • Staging Company of the Year
Set Construction Company of the Year • Video Rental Company of the Year
Rigging Company of the Year • Regional Lighting Company of the Year
Pyro Company of the Year • FOH Mixer of the Year • Video Director of the Year
Monitor Mixer of the Year • Sound Company of the Year • Sound Designer of the Year
Regional Sound Company of the Year • Production Manager of the Year
Tour Manager of the Year • Coach Company of the Year
Trucking Company of the Year • Freight Forwarding Company of the Year
Participating Sponsors
www.parnelliawards.com/nominate
Bob Heil
Audio Innovator
Award
Named after Rick “Parnelli” O’Brian, an
extraordinary production manager and human
being, the awards are given to those who, like
O’Brian, exemplify the “FOUR H’s.”
GOLD SPONSORS
Gerry Stickells
Parnelli Lifetime
Achievement
Award

Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com
The Long Tail
By now most people are familiar with the
concept of “the long tail” — Wired magazine
editor Chris Anderson’s digital-era
economics theory that businesses with significant
distribution capability — like online businesses
— can sell a greater number of items at
small volumes than of popular items at large
volumes. Anderson argues — and not many
people have argued back — that products that
are in low demand or have low sales volume
can collectively make up a market share that
rivals or exceeds that of the relatively few current
bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or
distribution channel is large enough.
34
The Biz
Online, of course, distribution channels are
potentially infinite. But what about on stage?
Anderson, via his blog (www.longtail.com), has
applied his theory (which, ironically, has turned
into a kind of blockbuster itself) to live music.
And he makes a cogent argument.
“Music as a digital product enjoys near-zero
costs of production and distribution — classic
abundance economics,” Anderson writes.
“When costs are near zero, you might as well
make the price zero, too, something thousands
of bands have figured out. Meanwhile, the one
thing that you can’t digitize and distribute with
full fidelity is a live show. That’s scarcity econom-
SEPTEMBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
ics. No wonder the average price for a ticket was
$61 last year, up 8 percent in an era when digital
products are commodities…. No surprise that
bands are increasingly giving away their recorded
music as marketing for their concerts, which
offer something no MP3 can match.”
Just as Web sites like MP3.com and Napster
proliferated in the 1990s, the live music industry
is spawning its own versions of online access
to music. However, the critical difference is that
these sites, like SonicLiving.com and TourFilter.
com, are like Pollstar for the masses — input
your favorites, and the sites will notify you when
they’ll be coming to your town, as well as provid-
By DanDaley
ing collaborative filtering features also found on
music download sites, along the lines of “if you
liked this band, you’ll also probably like….”
Get Ready to Rumble BIZ
This bodes well for the music touring business,
and it augurs best from the bottom up.
With collaborative filtering, you don’t have to be
a tribute band to fill in the gaps between headliner
visits — club patrons seem happy enough
to try out acts that these Web sites tell them are
close in genre and type.
This is fueling what New York magazine in
May described as a slugfest between show promoters
and a bevy of new rock clubs in the city
that are spending large sums on sound systems,
lights and staging. Andrew Rasiej, founder of Irving
Plaza, one of the bastions of the last generation
of Manhattan clubs along with CBGB’s,
the Bottom Line, the Cat Club, the Mud Club, the
Wetlands — all gone — commented in the article
that “There’s a full-scale concert promoter
war going on.”
What’s also going on is that corporatization
is at work here. Instead of simply bannering
the clubs, the multinationals own them this
time around. Live Nation, the Clear Channel
spin-off, owns the Roseland Ballroom and the
Fillmore New York (actually the old Irving Plaza
rebranded and refurbished), as well as the 600seat
Blender Theater on East 23rd Street and
the Luna Lounge in suddenly-you-can’t-findparking
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. If the Fillmore
name is familiar, so are Bowery Ballroom and
Mercury Lounge, more once-grungy/hip names
that have been resurrected as brands as the live
music industry begins to look and smell more
and more like the record business once did. Not
to be outdone in Manhattan’s rock race, competitor
AEG Live recently inked a deal to co-promote
shows at the HighLine in the far West Side,
which is coincidentally owned by the owners of
B.B King Blues Club chain and the Blue Note.
Live Performance as King BIZ
Live Nation and AEG competing in 600-seaters?
This could turn the long tail on its head: while
long-toothers the Rolling Stones and Barbra Streisand
booked a collective $247 million in total
revenues last year, according to Pollstar, they’re
selling fewer and fewer albums. ABC News reports
that of the Stones’ $150.6 million, $136.5
million came from concert tickets; for Streisand,
the disparity was even bigger: her records sold a
total of $4 million — that’s dollars, not units.
It’s possible that live performances will become
the benchmark of success, rather than
record sales, and this could happen sooner than
later, given the corporate heavyweights getting
into the business down to a very granular level.
Now, combine this with the growing “on demand”
phenomenon in entertainment content.
Consumers are no longer willing to wait to get
the movies, shows and music they want. There’s
no reason to think they’ll continue to wait until
days after a show to buy a CD — they’ll want it
then and there at the show. This turns the venue
into more than a teaser for a recording — it
transforms it into the retail outlet.
The implications are considerable, especially
for vertically capable technology developers.
Imagine outfitting the performer, the venue and
the merchandising in the form of on-demand
post-show products. Suddenly, the consolidation
of the last decade takes on new meaning. If
the live performance venue becomes the new
center of the entertainment content universe,
the fulcrum of the long tail is going to shift. Get
ready to work the front end.

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/ Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
You don’t need to steal a copy of
www.fohonline.com
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
Get your own Subscription!
It’s FREE
Just go to
www.fohonline.com/subscribe
to start your own personal subscription
Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/
www.fohonline.com
ADVERTISER’S INDEX
COMPANY PG# PH URL
Adamson 8 905.982.0520 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-130
AES 12 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-157
A-Line Acoustics 6 814.663.0600 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-100
Aphex 29 818.767.2929 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-146
BBE Sound 9, 11, 13 714.897.6766 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-148
Crown International 3 574.294.8000 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-102
DiGiCo C4 877.292.1623 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-105
ET Live 34 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-156
Heil Sound 11 618.257.3000 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-158
JBL Professional 7 818.894.8850 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-110
Lab Gruppen C1 818.665.4900 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-119
Martin Audio 10 519.747.5853 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-111
Meyer Sound C2 510 486.1166 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-112
OVO/Mega Systems 13 210.684.2600 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-154
Peavey 17 877.732.8391 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-144
QSC 23 800.854.4079 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-115
Rane 27 425.355.6000 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-116
Renkus-Heinz 21 949.588.9997 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-117
Shure 5 800.257.4873 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-140
TMB 15 818.899.8818 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-120
Ultimate Ears 14 800.589.6531 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-155
Westone Music Products 4 719.540.9333 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-121
Yamaha
Commercial Audio
1, C3 714.522.9011 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-123
Yamaha Corp of America 19 714.522.9011 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-123
MARKET PLACE
AudioEast 35 866.274.4590 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-124
Consolidated Audio 35 973.831.7500 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-149
dblittle.com 35 423.892.1837 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-126
Hi-Tech Audio 35 650.742.9166 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-127
New York Case Co 35 800.645.1707 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-128
Sound Productions 35 800.203.5611 http://foh.hotims.com/12796-129
EMPLOYMENT
For Advertising
Information Call
Dan Hernandez at
818.435.2285
Month 2005
35

FOH-At-Large
Is There Integrity
at the Mall?
The band was Korn, and the record label
decided to hold a press conference on
Military Island, which is a tiny triangle
of real estate in the middle of Times Square.
Someone in marketing had the brilliant idea
of creating a corn field, for obvious reasons I
suppose, complete with bales of hay. All was
going well until the mounted police arrived
and couldn’t keep their horses from snacking
on the aforementioned bales of hay. Not
a disaster by any means, but I’m sure that
the label’s marketing department did not
intend to have the New York mounted police
and their hungry horses in the cornfield
with Korn as they held a press conference
in Manhattan. And so it goes with the best
laid plans.…
A clever, successful marketing and advertising
campaign is paramount to the
public acceptance of any given product.
A good ad is akin to the hook of a good
song, which sticks in your head even if you
hate the song or what it may represent. In
the music business, a good record can sell
a band and vice versa. Some artists I have
worked with have become successful due
to enormous airplay of their records, though
oddly enough, they were not a big draw at
the concert or club box office. Some bands,
like Dispatch, have a high profile on the
Internet and can sell out Madison Square
Garden, yet remain virtually unknown to
the general music-consuming public. The
Internet has affected the world of marketing
on such a grand scale that everyone, especially
the music business, has scrambled
to maintain their share of royalties in a filesharing
world.
Cutting into Profits FAL
In the past, other than potential record
sales, a record label or publishing house
didn’t make money from an artist’s live performance.
In a move to change this scenario,
there are certain deals currently in the works
that could enable a record label or concert
producer to exploit each live performance;
however, nothing has been agreed upon. For
the moment, the publishers and record companies
still need to rely upon CD sales, downloads
and airplay to make their profits.
COMING NEXT
MONTH...
AES Preview
If we can get gear
makers to throw off the
shackles of embargoed
news stories, we’ll let you
know what you may be
seeing at the show.
Theory and Practice
There is a difference
between the two. Yes,
you gotta know how and
why stuff works. But the
theory can get quickly
ditched in the heat of
battle.
“He told me that he recognized the melody,
but didn’t know the song itself, therefore…
‘Who cares?’”
In an attempt to generate additional income,
publishers and labels have explored
new territory to generate cash flow, including
the sale of ring tones. However, the most prominent
trend in recent years is the recycling of
old tunes or older artists in product advertisements.
Ironically, most of these ads only use the
hook of any given song to promote their product,
even though the original message of the
song may be the total antithesis of the product
being sold. For example, Office Depot is using
the old Bachman Turner Overdrive hit “Taking
Care of Business” to sell office supplies. The
original lyric is basically an antiestablishment,
antiwork anthem, but this hasn’t deterred the
marketing geniuses from co-opting the catchy
hook and using it for their own ends.
In the 1990s, Bill Clinton was promoting his
Americorp idea, and at one of the ceremonies
in Central Park, I was approached by one of
his staff and instructed to play John Lennon’s
“Imagine.” I got what they were trying to say,
but other than the word “Imagine,” I think they
were off message, so to speak. Volvo is exploiting
“Catch the Wind” by Donovan, another
icon of the Hippie generation, and Subaru has
used both Sheryl Crow’s “Everyday Is a Winding
Road” and Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind” to sell
cars. Recently, I heard a Lipton Tea commercial,
which used The Doobie Brothers vocal scat
from their song “Jesus Is Just Alright.”
I thought this odd, but when I pointed it
out to my 15-year-old son, he told me that he
recognized the melody, but didn’t know the
song itself, therefore —“Who cares?”
Well, I guess he’s right, and he, along with
all of his generation, won’t care until years
from now, when he hears a once-meaningful
song that defined his youth being parlayed
into a hook to sell doughnuts, sneakers or
some other nonrelated product. Remember
www.fohonline.com
Nike and the Beatles’ “Revolution”? Sacrilege!
Ronald Reagan wanted to use “Born in the
U.S.A.” as an American anthem until either
Bruce nixed it or someone told the president
what the song was about. Either way, if you
would like to see more tunes that have been
used (some more appropriately than others)
to sell everything from cars to yogurt, go to:
http://rockmaven.com/commercials.htm. For
a real bit of amusement, look up the original
lyrics to each song and see how (if at all) it
might relate to said product.
This is nothing new. John Mellencamp realized
he wasn’t about to get radio play and
sold Chevrolet a song for its latest campaign,
“This Is Our Country.” Apparently, the old
Bob Seeger campaign with “Like a Rock” was
dated, and a new retro image was needed to
sell Chevy trucks. Mellencamp’s song melds
Springsteen’s anthemic “Born in the U.S.A.”
with Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”
and gives us a clean, non-communistic approach
to selling the patriotic Chevy truck. OK,
I get it. Mellencamp, along with thousands of
other musicians, want and need to work and
will play the game to stay in it. I can’t fault it,
but my idealistic side says it would be nice to
have something to believe in.
Artists from Clyde McPhatter to the Rolling
Stones have had their songs associated with
some commercial product and, in the words
of my son, “Who cares?” Well, I guess I do since
I found such rebellious meaning in many of
those songs. I mean, what if they try to sell
Axe deodorant with “Smells Like Teen Spirit”?
Or maybe try marrying Outkast’s “So Fresh
So Clean” with adult diapers. Point is, I guess
it doesn’t really matter because people have
short-term memories and can’t remember
what the songs are about anyway. Either that,
or nobody has any real convictions, politically
By BakerLee
or socially. Nevertheless, the big marketing
train keeps on rolling, and if we are to make a
living, then we best get on board.
Yes, but… FAL
In the past few years, I have been doing
more large-scale mall events with major name
artists, as well as providing systems for such esteemed
advertising clients as Donny Deutsch
and McCann Erickson. The advertising agencies
host a small concert in their offices, which
is presented by various publishing houses with
the hope of selling their writer’s songs for commercial
use. Usually a small system will suffice
in the office spaces, but for the mall events,
some real production is required.
The premise of these mall events is that
the marketing folks are concerned with selling
products that are tied in with the band,
while the record company and the band are
marrying their fate with the sponsor so that
they can sell their unique “message,” plus a
few million records to the masses.
To the marketing people, these mall
events are never really about the band’s music,
but rather the visibility of a product. The
mall people don’t really care about the music
either, as their main focus is to get as many
people as possible flocking to the mall and
into the stores. Therefore, the bands tend to
get the grand audio shaft because nobody
cares enough to take the time to recognize
that when you put on an event that will draw
2,000–5,000 screaming kids, it is called a concert.
Concert production is required, and that’s
when we, as audio providers, step forward.
Recently S.I.R. was called upon to do three
or four mall dates with the Plain White T’s, a
band that reached number one on the Billboard
charts two dates into their mall tour. When I first
got the call from the marketing company, they
were asking for a 48-channel board. It seems that
someone in charge read the rider and realized
that their Mackie 24-channel board would not
suffice. Of course, this request aroused my curiosity,
and with a little bit of sleuthing, I learned
that the marketing company was planning on
doing the show with a couple of speakers on
stands and their Mackie 24-channel board. In
the end, even though they hated the price tag,
they and the band were thrilled that we brought
a PM5D, a Midas Heritage, a split snake, G2 personal
monitor system, 12 AM wedges and a
small EAW 850 rig.
The marketing company provided stage
and lights, but as with most of these mall shows,
I also made sure that we had concert barricade
and a real labor crew. Sure, there was a bit of haggling
over the unexpected cost but, in the end,
if the right choices are made then everyone, including
the band, the marketing company, the
mall and the 5,000 screaming kids will be happier
for it. Happy people are apt to spend more
money and tend to associate cheerful thoughts
with said event. If the band has a superior performance,
and the audience’s listening pleasure
is enhanced, then these satisfied people will
open their wallets. This translates into more records
sold, higher profits for the mall stores and
more subliminal bliss associated with whatever
products are being marketed. Subsequently, a
few years from now, after the band has peaked,
they may get really lucky and have their image
and song attached to a television marketing
campaign — all because we, as providers of
sound and production, brought the right gear.
¡Viva la revolución!

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/

Ad info: http://foh.hotims.com/