Audio engineers turn their hand to the rising demand for virtual experiences

CHANGING HATS

Following the ban on mass gatherings, sound engineers pivot their skillsets to cater for the growing demand for digital experiences for live music fans.

BEN HAMMOND, ROCK-TECH EVENTS

With live touring temporarily on hold, Rock-Tech Managing Director and freelance Sound Engineer, Ben Hammond has devoted his energy into introducing The Warehouse – a brand-new production and online events facility in York.

The 10m by 10m studio features adjoining audio and visual control rooms and was hand-built in association with Reel Recording Studio, offering full socially distant live online event production in a secure setting. “The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to diversify and accelerate our progression, creating a bespoke livestreaming studio space to cater for the growing demand for interactive experiences for music fans in lockdown,” Hammond informed TPi, speaking over Zoom. “Everything we’ve built is a permanent fixture, even when live touring returns.”

Located five minutes off the A1, The Warehouse is two hours from most major UK cities. “This enables us to keep our costs down. York is a nice tourist town, which also has its advantages, especially as a lot of up-andcoming performing artists and bands can no longer afford London prices.”

Rock-Tech Events initially invested in the space with a view to creating a recording studio with Dan Mizen of Reel Recording Studio. “As soon as we could become a ‘bubble’, we began building a studio from scratch,” Hammond reflected on the feat of engineering. “We ended up building a completely operational video control room upstairs, a dressing room, bathroom, kitchen, hung a huge lighting rig, video screen and spent a lot of time considering what the perfect space would be for visiting engineers, technicians and performing artists.”

Considering the growing demand for livestreaming spaces, and with a warehouse full of gear gathering dust, the collective decided to transform the 10m by 10m live space into a fully functional, multipurpose livestreaming studio. As a result, the studio can work as a live space for preproduction rehearsals, being used as a control room with a sound engineer.

For livestreams, attendees can take advantage of the studio audio kit – a vintage Rupert Neve console, as well as a separate video control room upstairs, complete with green screen backdrops and photoshoot apparatus. “We wanted to create a space as flexible as possible for the

modern musician with every service they could possibly need,” Hammond explained. “We’ve spent our entire lives on tour, or in recording studios, so we understand what our clientele needs and expect when they arrive at The Warehouse.”

Hammond praised his fellow colleagues in getting the project off the ground. “We have a great team of people who can see the bigger picture, and thankfully, we’re all in the same boat. Shout out to Russ Baldwin, who

has been my main guy with Rock-Tech and has been amazing throughout this learning process.”

Learning and adapting was indicative of the team’s approach to the task. “We’ve learned a lot,” Hammond stated, having tried his hand as a bricky, electrician, plumber, and roof builder for The Warehouse during the past seven months.

“From a mental health perspective, it’s kept us all sane because it’s given us a purpose and something to strive for. For the touring crew, you mourn the loss of your life because it completely changes with COVID-19. I don’t think many of us have spent this much time at home before.”

Recalling the abundance of touchless hand sanitiser stations, surgical gloves, face masks and antiseptic wipes, Hammond believed that the design of the space also meant that social distancing was comfortable. The audio is tied to one room, as are the SDI lines for the video screens, the PTZ cameras are remotely controlled from the video room. “The Warehouse has been designed to be as safe as possible,” Hammond said. “A band of up to six people can set up, do an eight-camera shoot with not a single person in the room with them if needs be.”

One of the first projects to take place in The Warehouse was a paidfor livestream with pop act, Lawson to promote their latest release in lockdown, as well as a collaboration with Hull-based singer Calum Scott, who performed a live gig on social media, reaching over 50,000 views at the time of writing – raising awareness for Suicide Awareness Week on 10 September, with proceeds donated to the mental health charity, MIND. “We’ve done a lot of work with local bands and it’s been nice to tie in the

studio, instead of a crowdfunder to raise money for recording. Artists are able to record their material in the studio, then go next door, do a livestream launch to promote it with online tickets sales, which not only pays for the studio time but generates money for the artists and their label,” Hammond said. “Livestreaming is a viable option for the short term, offering a ticket and premium viewer experience, but I can’t see it happening when live gigs return to the masses.”

From being fully booked all year with the likes of Skunk Anansie, Maisie Peters and Wet Wet Wet, juggling the complexities of being a touring freelancer and business owner, to seeing a year’s worth of work disappear over the course of a week in March was a difficult pill to swallow for Hammond. “I have stuff in the diary for April next year, but who knows if it will go ahead,” he shared. “I’ve had to adapt and diversify to survive. If I can somehow prepare and be ahead of the game, I’ll be ready for when live events return and still be able to pay my mortgage.”

Embodying the “buckle down to survive” mantra, Hammond looked to the uncertain future as a small, bespoke company with a small and faithful client base. He concluded: “I’m engaging in conversations with a number of production managers about using The Warehouse as a production space, taking tentative bookings for next year, while still offering a full in-house service package.” TPi Photos: Ben Hammond www.rock-tech.events www.reelrecordingstudio.com

GRAHAM KAY, XTRASONIC MEDIA

Making the most of lockdown, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls FOH Engineer, Graham Kay of Xtrasonic Media transforms an old truck into a fully-functional, broadcast-quality OB truck, ideal for livestreaming, mobile studio recording and broadcast applications.

“I think it’s more than 20 years old,” joked Kay, as he described how he purchased the vehicle several years ago, after it was sitting dormant in a field. “The setup in the van is really quite basic for both the audio and video, but this means it can be used for acts who might not have huge budgets.”

Throughout lockdown, Kay has used the van as both a recording studio and in his hometown of Durham as well as a livestreaming control hub in collaboration with team at Vans for Bands who have converted a work shed into temporary performance space. Kay admitted that having to think in both audio and video spheres when using the OB truck for livestreams has been a challenging experience.

“I’m a touring FOH Engineer first and foremost,” he stated, laughing how prior to putting together the van, he didn’t even know what an f-stop was on a camera. However, the ergonomic setup meant he could have both the audio console and video switcher right in front of him, with an extra pair of hands to balance light, if required.

The multipurpose OB Truck was built as a reasonably low-cost solution for content acquisition, allowing grassroots artists to use the space and make money at the end of it.“Over the past two years, I’ve been doing a lot of work with an indie label,” he explained. “Quite often they’ll do a stage takeover of a festival; we’ll come down in the truck with eight or nine bands on the stage, so we’ll multitrack, record, do a live truck video, which gives the label hours of content at a relatively low cost.”

On an average show day, Kay will embark on the journey from Durham, typically spending an entire day setting up with minimal personnel considering COVID-19 restrictions and tight budgets. “I come a day or two in advance, slowly setting up my workspace alone. After the job, I take it back home,” he explained, sharing news of an upcoming project with Leopard Rays. “I’ve got a few projects back home with the truck, recording for a few bands – technically using the truck as a recording control room, so you pull up somewhere, run the cables in and start tracking.”

For the audio side of the OB truck, Kay was quick to complement his trusty Behringer X32. “It’s certainly an older desk and although it would be nice to have a newer model, it has the advantage of having integration into a DAW. This has been invaluable, otherwise I would have had to bring in another control surface.”

The desk is limited to 32 channels – although there is a workaround to boost it to 48 – but for the acts that both Kay and VFB are looking at, that is a high enough channel count. “I run a rack with 48 channels of iso mic splitters in front of my digital stage rac so the truck is electrically isolated from the venue or location sound system, resulting in no hums or buzzes.”

And when it works, it works well. “I don’t really know anyone who has

got a set up like this,” Kay acknowledged. “The biggest thing the truck gives you is a space to use as the control room, which is beautifully designed acoustically and with the door shut, it’s pretty well soundproofed.”

The OB truck cameras comprise Sony PMW-EX1s, along with a Marshall CV502 units. Everything runs on Canford’s SDV range of HD-SDI cables from to a stage box where an eight channel SDI re-clocking unit boosts the video signals before firing them down an SDI multicore to the truck and to a Canford Musa video patch bay into a Blackmagic Design ATEM video switcher, featuring a bespoke control surface made by a small Danish firm called Skaarhoj. “It’s brilliant because it’s so compact, it can sit in front of the X32 so I’ve got both consoles in front of me,” Kay enthused. “The surface also gives me tactile buttons to do the switching in front of me, fader bar for transitions and trigger macros for opening and closing credits.”

While livestreaming seems to be the way of artists connecting with their audience in lockdown until the industry can “get back to normal”, Kay hoped that people will realise how “valuable” livestreaming is and begin to take it forward in the future. Interest in the truck has also now expanded beyond the realms of live music. “I’ve been hired to livestream a Remembrance Day service for a local council,” he concluded. “I’m also in discussions to livestream a Christmas lights switch-on along with other Christmas events for the same clients.” TPi Photos: Graham Kay www.xtrasonicmedia.co.uk

NICOLAS POITRENAUD, HERISSON.TV

After several months of lockdown, French Sound Engineer, Nicolas Poitrenaud of Herisson.tv dusted off his roadie uniform to embark on a unique broadcast project which saw Lebanese jazz trumpeter and pianist Ibrahim Maalouf bring together the ancient and the modern to deliver an innovative live performance in the age of COVID-19, with NEXO sound systems providing an immersive soundfield.

Staged in the historic Arena of Nîmes, Ibrahim Maalouf’s production used mobile NEXO sound systems to create an immersive soundfield in which to record a concert for multichannel replay in the future. Poitrenaud was approached by Oleo Films to assume the role of recording engineer.

“My first thought was simply to make an acoustic recording for the movie,” Poitrenaud explained, adding that after talking to Jean Lyonnet, Ibrahim Maalouf’s longtime touring Sound Engineer, he understood that the performers needed to feel the space and sensations of a live concert. “Samuel Thiebaut asked us to create an immersive soundfield, which we could record and use in multichannel installations at a future date.”

Poitrenaud was aware that many performing artists are unable to perform in such a big space without monitors. “We decided to bring in a PA for the event, so I contacted TEXEN to provide the equipment, and enlisted the help of NEXO and Bertrand Billon from the Engineering Support division,” he said. “We asked them for a versatile and powerful FOH live sound system, that could easily be moved and deployed, with a minimum footprint to maintain the aesthetics of the project.”

TEXEN deployed NEXO GEO M12 loudspeakers, positioning three modules on top of two MSUB18s to create a mobile FOH system consisting of groundstacks, mixed by a Yamaha CL5 digital FOH console – powered by NXAMPMk2 amplifiers equipped with Dante network cards. Poitrenaud also required a discrete and distributed monitor system for the choir and the brass band, and for this, TEXEN deployed NEXO ID24s on mic stands, installed in a circle surrounding the children’s choir.

“NEXO’s new point source P8 cabinets were used as wedges and FOH for the remote stage, while P12 models were the perfect powerful main wedge for the two main performers,” Poitrenaud enthused.

“NEXO offers a wide variety of sound equipment starting from mini powerful point sources to coaxial wedges and powerful line arrays that you can easily deploy. They have an interesting stacked solution in their new GEO M range, with integrated rigging and dedicated subwoofers that are fast to deploy and can move from one place to the other. Its integration within a Dante network makes it easy at the time we have to combine them with a Yamaha console.”

The immersive sound field was generated for the recording and post production elements of the production and not for the empty venue. “I needed individual sound objects that I could spatialise later, which was achieved by using close-up microphone recording,” Poitrenaud said,

explaining how he utilised the sound of the empty arena. “By default, an arena has its own acoustic signature which is immersive by itself. All I had to implement was a multichannel recording system.”

The decision was taken to occupy separate spaces inside the arena to capture a depth of audio assets, from the middle of the runway to the middle of the seats in the balconies, as far as the highest point of the arena, at 21m high. The primary performers – Maalouf on trumpet and François Delporte on guitar – joined forces with a choir composed of 100 children and 100 brass musicians. “The idea was to have the performers inside the historical place with fewer technical elements visible – with no stage, truss, light or visible speakers or microphone,” he said. “The space was naked.”

Reflecting on his first gig since the COVID-19 crisis erupted in the region, Poitrenaud said: “I’d describe my emotions as a mix of excitement and apprehension due to the ever-changing landscape of live events.”

To ensure the safety of the performing artists, management and the crew, temperature measurement, hydroalcoholic gel and face masks were ever present. The crew also adopted social distancing rules of 1.5m between performers, and catering was provided in individual food parcels, with regular disinfection of tables, chairs, toilets and all surfaces regularly.

Maalouf: The Concert, The Movie was released in November, broadcast on Qwest TV, to accompany the release of Ibrahim Maalouf’s new album. “I would really like to thank Bertrand Billon from NEXO, Julien Beffara and Thomas Goeuriot from TEXEN and Jean Lyonnet,” Poitrenaud concluded. “They were all deeply involved in the project.” TPi Photos: NEXO www.herisson.tv www.nexo-sa.com