PSNE August 2015 Digital

Racks and racquets August 2015

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A matchless Dante installation for Sound Technology and RG Jones P52

P20

P36

P46

RECORD THIS!

ROCK THIS!

WRECK THIS!

A SHINY NEW STUDIO IN THE WEST MIDLANDS

WERCHTER GOES ALL DIGITAL WITH DIGICO

HOW MIC MAKERS STOP BANDS KILLING THEIR KIT

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Welcome

PSNEUROPE Editor Dave Robinson drobinson@nbmedia.com

Account manager Rian Zoll-Khan rzoll-khan@nbmedia.com

Deputy editor Jon Chapple jchapple@nbmedia.com

Commercial director Darrell Carter dcarter@nbmedia.com

Managing editor Jo Ruddock jruddock@nbmedia.com

Head of design Jat Garcha jgarcha@nbmedia.com

Advertising manager Ryan O’Donnell rodonnell@nbmedia.com

Production executive Jason Dowie jdowie@nbmedia.com

Contributors: Kevin Hilton, David Davies, Erica Basnicki, Phil Ward, Dave Wiggins, Mike Hillier, Marc Maes, Mark Hallinger, Gideon Gottfried, Simon Duff

PSNEurope NewBay Media, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18–26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN Editorial: +44 20 7354 6002 Sales: +44 20 7354 6000 Press releases to: ukpressreleases@nbmedia.com Circulation and subscription: Refunds on cancelled subscriptions will only be provided at the publisher’s discretion, unless specifically guaranteed within the terms of the subscription offer. NewBay Media may pass suitable reader addresses to other relevant suppliers. If you do not wish to receive sales information from other companies, please write to Circulations and Subscriptions, NewBay Media, Curwood CMS Ltd, The Barn, Abbey Mews, Robertsbridge TN32 5AD

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Cover image: Centre Court by Tim Speight

P3 AUGUST 2015

DAVE ROBINSON Editor

@PSNEurope

A

weird little reality check for me this month. You’ll have noted our splendid Wimbledon – sorry, All England Lawn Tennis Club – cover.

(We wanted to run the story before The Championships, but, as is so often the case, approvals wouldn’t be given until all the grunting and swearing – the tennis, in other words – was done.)

Simon Duff duly headed off to south-west London to report on the sizeable installation, a big deal for RG Jones and an even bigger one for Harman kit supplier Ian Cullen and Sound Technology. But when Simon filed his copy, I thought there was something amiss. A CobraNet system, installed in 2011, being updated by a Dante in 2015? Surely, that first site-wide network was installed way ahead of that? I mean, why would you install CobraNet in 2011 when there were other choices available?

And then the reality check. Of course, there weren’t other choices. EtherSound had fizzled out, AVB was still a nice idea without proper implementation (insert your own thoughts on that here…), Optocore was not thought to be the right tool, perhaps, and Dante was yet to make the massive strides we’ve seen of late.

So, CobraNet was still the only real viable solution, I suppose.

How far we seem to have come in just a few years then, eh? And that’s demonstrated elsewhere in this issue: DiGiCo consoles all over Werchter (p36); Paul Hurt turning up to record a gig with a van (p58); White Light dealing with audio as well as, well, light (p42); Avid intiating a total change in its strategy for rolling out Pro Tools and its sister systems (p28); Bose pushing into the touring market (p18). It’s all kicking off, as they say.

Two last things: Gideon Gottfried’s Ash interview on p40 presents a colourful and entertaining take on soundchecks, and my trip to Italy revealed something about expensive high-end monitoring and ancient mono radios…

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P4 AUGUST 2015

Contents

In this issue...

P32 LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY? CHARTING THE FUTURE OF PRO AUDIO IN THE UK

P6 ‘DAM BUSTERS CAN IBC 2015 TOP LAST YEAR’S SHOW? THIS LOT HOPE SO

P40 GIRL FROM… PENRYN ASH’S RICK MCMURRAY CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF HIS NEW A&H QU-PAC

Studio 20 24

P28 AVID WATCHING THE BIG BEAST REAWAKENS

Broadcast 28 30

Business 8 10 12 14 18 32

Pro Sound Awards 2015 latest Vocal channel: Erica Basnicki and David Wiggins Movers and shakers PSNTraining The strategic position: Akira Mochimura, Bose Feature: Focus on the UK

Creative Design Studios: We’re stoked PSNEurope, MidiWare and Genelec’s Italian job

Avid goes back to basics Clear-Com dons its whites for BSB Awards

Live 36 40 42

Rock Werchter’s digital switchover Ash Qu-Pacs out the Scala White Light’s white noise

Installation

Technology

52 54

6 16 44 46

Back pages

Show preview: IBC New products Feature: In the trenches with Dante users Feature: ‘Dirty’ mics

57 58

RG Jones makes a racquet TiMax faces the critics

Hither & dither Backtalk: Paul Hurt, LX3 Live Recording

www.psneurope.com

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Show preview

AUGUST 2015

Netherlands

It’s show time!

Sod Last Night of the Proms, September means one thing and one thing only: we’re all going to…

I

BC, the world’s largest broadcast media trade show, returns to the inimitable RAI Amsterdam convention centre next month, with organisers once again preparing for another record-breaking event following a 2014 show which pulled in 55,092 attendees from more than 170 countries.

New for 2015 is the newly constructed Amtrium building, which promises be “a stunning addition” to the convention’s 14 existing halls; IBC Launch Pad, located near Hall 14 and reserved for first-time IBC exhibitors who “will be shining a spotlight on the mega-trend toward IP-based infrastructure and software tools which are transforming the industry”; expanded Future Zone, IBC Big Screen Experience and IBC Conference programmes; and the deployment of ‘Touch & Connect’ technology, described as “a valuable networking tool which will be free to all visitors, enabling them to instantly acquire and exchange contact information and exclusive content”.

The PSNEurope team, as is our wont, will be reporting on all the big stories from the event as they happen, but until then – with thanks to Mark Hallinger and The IBC Daily team –

CALL NOW FOR NEW 2015 KIT PRICING

Be proud of your sound

Wireless Microphones

Wireless IEM

RF over Fibre

here’s everything we know at press time…

Azden’s SGM-250P shotgun microphone will be on show on stand 8.E81. The SGM-250P (above right) is a shorter, eight-inch version of Azden’s established SGM-250 mic and runs on phantom power only. The New Jersey-based company says it features high-quality sound and a feature set for audio professionals in the TV, film and video production industries.

The new Fieldbox range of small-format I/O units (above) brings the features of Calrec’s Hydra2 stagebox to OB situations and areas in which rack space is at a premium. These 1U half-rack units are well suited for work in environments in which I/O must be spread over a large area, such as a golf course. Fieldboxes can be located and distributed exactly where they are needed using just two high-capacity network cables for full redundancy To add more distribution flexibility to a Hydra2 network, Calrec has also developed the H2Hub switch point. Using the same compact form factor as the Fieldbox, the H2Hub

Wireless microphones and IEM with the widest tuning range in the industry

wireless sound solutions visit: www.raycom.co.uk email: sales@raycom.co.uk call: 01789 777040

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P7 AUGUST 2015

provides a hub or switch point for a Hydra2 network. A single connection from the router can then be switched via the H2Hub to multiple I/O units, or to multiple H2Hubs if further I/O distribution is required.

Three new products for the management of live microphones in unscripted talking situations will be unveiled by Dan Dugan Sound Design: the Dugan Model M, Dugan Model N and Dugan Model K. The new Dugan Models M and N are automatic microphone mixers, designed to work in conjunction with standard audio mixing consoles. The Dugan Model M (bottom, opposite page) has MADI I/O, both optical and copper, and the Model N has Dante I/O, primary and secondary. Both models provide 32 channels of Dugan automixing at 96K or 64 channels at 48K, and are PoE capable.

On show by Digigram are several products that address IP audio and video contribution and distribution applications.

Digigram was among the first members of the RAVENNA consortium launched by ALC NetworX in 2010, and the company has since enhanced all its AoIP products with RAVENNA/AES67 connectivity. At IBC 2015, Digigram is showcasing the benefits that RAVENNA/AES67 connectivity brings to the IQOYA range of AoIP codecs, which allow users to get audio programmes directly from an in-studio RAVENNA or AES67 network and subsequently encode and stream them over IP to transmitter sites via a WAN in compliance with EBU ACIP. Several pro-audio manufacturers are using the big stand located at the entrance of Hall 8 for product launches.

Companies represented on the stand of HHB and post specialist Scrub include Roland, TC Electronic, Dynaudio Professional and Mogami. HHB says IBC 2015 represents this is its biggest-ever showing of professional broadcast audio product debuts.

Key coexhibitor Roland is highlighting the M-5000, the new digital mixing console built on a high-resolution open architecture with 128 freely definable audio paths, expandable protocols, multiformat I/O options and more.

The latest loudness metering and correction technologies in hardware and software for acquisition, production and transmission are on display from loudness vendor TC Electronic.

New product launches from Røde Microphones and other launches are also being shown, and HHB staff

are on hand to discuss developments in loudness, AoIP, Atmos, Mogami pro-audio cables, digital consoles, MADI, microphones, loudspeakers, Avid Pro Tools and more.

Lawo will showcase its mc²56 performance console.

According to the company, the compact, flexible console has plenty of power with context-sensitive pop-up windows and intuitive touch-screen operation for ease-of-use. For seamless integration with production environments the desk natively supports various control protocols, now including RAP (Ross Audio Protocol), which allows it to be managed from Ross video production switchers.

Lawo is also showing the mc²36, its RAVENNA-based allin-one mixing desk (below left), and will launch the mc² I/O, a cost-efficient and compact stagebox product that expands the connectivity of the mc² console family. Connected via Cat5 or fibre, the ruggedised 5RU stagebox provides 32 Lawo-grade mic/line inputs, 32 line outputs, eight digital AES3 inputs, eight digital AES3 outputs, eight GPIO, three RAVENNA ports and a MADI (SFP) port.

On the Linear Acoustic stand will be the AERO.10 DTV audio processor. Linear says the AERO.10 has been designed for any cost-sensitive application that requires uncompromising audio processing features like loudness control and logging.

“Linear Acoustic Intelligent Dynamics with Advanced ITU (AI) Limiter enables a simple loudness target to be set, and the AERO.10 does the rest to assure compliance and quality,” says Chris Shaw, VP of global sales.

The AERO.10 (top) is a fully featured audio processor supporting up to 10 channels of PCM audio via AES, SDI or stereo analogue I/O. It comes equipped with a processing engine identical to those in Linear’s established AERO.100, 1000 and 2000 products. Tools such as AEROMAX loudness and dynamics control, UPMAX II automatic upmixing and downmixing algorithms and ITU- and EBU-compliant loudness metering and logging are included. Downloadable 7.5 day rolling and event-based logs include multiple ITU-R BS.1770-3 loudness measurements, as well as true peak values.

The AVX wireless microphone system for video cameras is new for Sennheiser.

The compact AVX receiver unit plugs directly into the XLR of a camera, where it automatically pairs with the microphone and switches on when the camera does.

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The system automatically adjusts the correct audio levels between transmitter and receiver and transmits using a specially protected link in the licencefree 1.9GHz range. Sennheiser says he system has been designed so that setting up and recording high-quality audio for video is fast, convenient and stress-free.

Sound Devices’ 688 12-track portable mixer/recorder with the new SL-6 powering and wireless system will be on show at IBC. Sound Devices claims that by pairing these products together, users may significantly streamline and de-clutter any audio bag, creating the ability to control and monitor an entire audio system in one wireless location.

The 688 is the newest member of the 6 Series family of mixer/recorders and incorporates a multi-channel mixer, recorder and MixAssist auto-mixing technology Several Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup products are being shown for the first time in Europe. Stagetec is showcasing its Platinum series with the mid-sized CRESCENDO console and the larger AURUS unit, both of which have the latest grey design with wood finish on their palm rests. CRESCENDO Platinum now also works with firmware release 4.0 and the Isostem upmix algorithm, which is being premiered internationally at IBC. Beside its Oratis communication unit, Delec will demonstrate its unito series with the latest addition, unito NIO. These format converters are used to encode and decode audio signals to and from Dante. All unito devices provide Dante primary and secondary ports for redundant network integration. They can be used either as standalone general-purpose signal converters or in conjunction with an Oratis communication unit.

Salzbrenner is debuting a new version of its digital mixing console POLARIS evolution. This 1.5 release will be equipped with both new and “familiar but refined” features for an even faster workflow, such as a meter bridge via tablet and the 3D audio integration concept, which will make its international debut.

The new flagship RIVAGE PM10 mixing console will be the subject of one-to-one demonstrations by Yamaha technical staff.

Also being demoed will be the established CL and QL ranges of digital consoles, both of which feature many broadcast-friendly features. These include 5.1 surround panning, surround monitoring, mix minus and frame delay.

Yamaha’s new TF range of digital consoles will also be on show. Complementing these are the new RMio64D Dante/ MADI converter and the RSio64-D Dante/Mini-YGDAI interface. The RMio64-D seamlessly converts between Dante and MADI formats, and vice versa. Its built-in sample rate converters ensure that users can connect it and forget about it without having to worry about noise, dropouts or any other word clock issues.

The 2015 International Broadcasting Convention takes place at the Amsterdam RAI on 10–15 September. www.ibc.org

P8 AUGUST 2015

Pro Sound Awards

The drinks are on Martin Audio!

The speaker company will return to its ‘second home’ in September as the awards’ drinks reception partner

Host Phil Ward with Andre Jacquemin, PSA 2014

M

artin Audio has reaffirmed its support for Pro Sound Awards with the announcement that it will once again reprise its role as the drinks reception sponsor for this year’s event.

The 2015 Pro Sound Awards will be the British loudspeaker manufacturer’s third, having also sponsored the drinks reception in both 2014 and at the inaugural event in 2013.

“We’re always keen to support and recognise the industry, and, with the awards taking place once again in the Ministry of Sound – our second home – it’s a perfect tie-up,” says James King, Martin Audio’s marketing director.

Recognising outstanding achievement in professional audio, PSNEurope’s Pro Sound Awards return to the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London for the third time on Thursday 24 September.

The shortlist of finalists for each category have been presented to our 50-strong panel of judges from across the spectrum of the pro-audio industry, who will now choose the winners of each Pro Sound Award (with the exception of the grand prix and lifetime achievement gongs, chosen by the Pro Sound Awards team, and the rising star award, chosen by our sister title, Audio Media International).

A range of sponsorship opportunities – from headline sponsor to category, photobooth, red-carpet and afterparty sponsorship – are available; contact PSNEurope ad manager Ryan O’Donnell (rodonnell@nbmedia.com) or account manager Rian Zoll-Khan (rzoll-khan@nbmedia.com) for more details.

For ticket information, email Georgia Blake at gblake@nbmedia.com. www.prosoundawards.com www.martin-audio.com Tickets are available now for £49, which includes drinks reception, food, the awards and the afterparty.

And a splendid social occasion!

More information at www.prosoundawards.com

2015 engineer of the year finalist Wes Maebe, PSA 2014

THE FINALISTS Live/touring sound Engineer of the year • Davide Lombardi (Kate Bush Before the Dawn) • Michael Brennan (Faith No More, Primal Scream) • Tom McShane (The Defiled’s Ice Cold Gig) • Martin Walker (Judas Priest) Best tour/production sound • SSE/L-Acoustics for Clapham Calling Festival 2014 • Powersoft for Caparezza’s 2015 tour • Flare Audio for Node live at the RCM • Meyer Sound for Ed Sheeran’s x Tour (2014–15) Best theatre sound • Mick Potter for Miss Saigon • Laurence Owen for Golem • Gareth Owen for Memphis • Guido Olischlager for 14–18

studio sound (sponsored by

Best temporary installation project • Tannoy for The Wind Tunnel Project • Two Big Ears for Björk’s Songlines at the Museum of Modern Art New York • Merging Technologies for the Imperial War Museum London’s WWI galleries • SNK Studios for Talking Statues Team of the year • Polar Audio/Renkus-Heinz for Reading University • Sports Technology/d&b audiotechnik for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Glasgow • NoiseBoys/JBL/VDC Trading for Leicester Cathedral • Genelec/Jutel for Restaurant Nallikari

broadcast sound )

Engineer of the year • Wes Maebe • Alexis Smith • Matt Wiggins • Dan Cox Best studio • Parr Street Studios • Strongroom • The Church • The Pool Best sound in post-production • The Eichmann Show • Poldark • Sherlock • Whiplash

Best facility • Technicolor Sound Services • Warner Bros De Lane Lea • CTV OB11 • Jungle Studios Broadcast event of the year • EastEnders Live Week (BBC S&PP) • Winston Churchill’s State Funeral – 50 Years On (BBC S&PP) • Volvo Ocean Race (Sunset+Vine) • FIFA World Cup (HBS) Team of the year • ENO Screen for Pirates of Penzance • Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup POLARIS evolution development team • BBC S&PP for Strictly Come Dancing • Riedel/BBC for the Scottish independence referendum

installed sound Best permanent installation project • Marquee AV/Bose for The Forum, Kentish Town • SSE/L-Acoustics for the Hammersmith Apollo • NoiseBoys for Leicester Cathedral • Autograph Sales & Installations for the Barbican Centre

www.prosoundawards.com

marketing initiative of the year • • • •

Roland OHRCA launch Sennheiser for D1 and Only Martin Audio CDD launch Powersoft’s 20th anniversary

P10 AUGUST 2015

Vocal channel

A storied life

A

ERICA BASNICKI is a writer and sound designer

s the saying goes, everybody has a story. It’s what I like most about writing about the pro-audio world: stories of gigs, adventures, mishaps and moments of glory.

Occasionally I get to share a few as part of a feature or an interview, but the best ones are most often just stored in my memory.

It’s a fact of life that not everyone’s story is told and far fewer than that are ever preserved. I suspect most people are modest and don’t think theirs is a tale worth telling, despite the fact it most likely is.

Having worked in this business for a mere three years, I know I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the vast repository of anecdotes from the trenches of live audio. What I don’t understand is why – to the best of my knowledge – they haven’t been collected.

Sure, there are a few ‘road diaries’ out there. Individual articles, mostly; some published in this very magazine. But where

are the anthologies? Where is the live sound equivalent to Howard Massey’s Behind the Glass? As far as I’m aware, any book dedicated to live audio is purely a technical one.

Yet there are hundreds of books dedicated to unveiling the magic and mystery behind the world’s greatest recorded music.

There was once a time when a gig could only be a fleeting moment in our lives, but that time didn’t last. As soon as portable tape recorders hit the market, a booming bootleg movement began. Anybody could go to the shop and buy the album. But a quality clandestine recording of an exceptional performance? Priceless.

Today there’s little need for bootleggers as live capture services are increasingly employed to provide fans with a highquality recording of the gig they just went to minutes after the lights come up.

A live music event is no more fleeting

than the recorded album. More importantly, a brilliant gig can be infinitely more magical.

So is it really so difficult to believe that there is an audience out there waiting to digest the making of an artist’s live performance? Or live vicariously though its touring crew?

I suppose I’m selfish; I personally want to hear more stories (and perhaps do a little vicarious living). And of course, I want more people to take an interest in sound, and have it given the respect it deserves.

I also think that there are legends of live sound who deserve a book just as much as studio producers and engineers. I want to see the men and women of our industry recognised for what they do: make magic happen.

Very few people are going to go out of their way to learn about this industry for the sake of it. But they’ll watch the tour video and listen to the gig… why not let them hear your story as well?

It’s all good… mostly

I

DAVE WIGGINS is a freelance marketeer and pro-audio pundit

n a previous episode I made an oblique reference to how, these days, “… everything works”. I was referring to the coincident facts that: a) All professional audio gear now actually does what it says on the tin, and b) Broadly speaking, it’s now possible to create simple and reliable connections between various items of equipment as necessary. Both of these are very different to days of yore, but the refinements in all sorts of pro-audio gear actually affect those who work with it in different ways.

From a sound engineer’s viewpoint, it’s great. A well-known FOH personality remarked to me recently how his job had changed in the last 10–15 years – where previously he had been able to specify pretty much exactly what he wanted in terms of control gear and loudspeaker systems, his view now is that he is there to make whatever he is given work as well as possible. That’s only a technical reality because, in his words, “There’s no shit out here any more, Wiggy!”

This new uniformity means that choices

can be made on the basis of personal preference rather than operational capability, rather like choosing between a BMW and a Mercedes, perhaps – they’re both great, it just depends what you like. As the functionality of the major items (loudspeaker systems and mixing consoles) continues to develop, their ability to do exactly what a given engineer wants expands while the actual operational differences become smaller.

For many equipment suppliers however, all this makes life much more difficult.

Most reputable manufacturers and designers started out with an original idea which manifested itself in products whose real-world performance was a big factor in purchasing decisions.

It was so easy in the old days: EV for heavy metal, Meyer for theatre, EAW for almost everyone else and Turbosound for Pink Floyd. An XL3 at both ends of the snake. And that’s the job done.

In 2015, that ability to dominate – or even enter – most markets on the basis of a smart idea has greatly diminished. It’s a

www.psneurope.com/business

curious paradox whereby decades of audio innovation has created an environment where you need more than creative thinking or a genuine paradigm shift to drive product sales.

(Interestingly, it’s different in theatrical audio mixing, where DiGiCo’s dominance is largely based on delivering a very specific user experience that is unique to them, tailored exactly to the needs of specialist operators.)

In the loudspeaker world, for example, I can name at least three reputable loudspeaker manufacturers whose premium products certainly equal or exceed the market leaders in terms of pure audio performance. Despite the undoubted quality of these systems and much effort on the part of the manufacturers, they remain quite unable to achieve any significant market penetration, and that’s a pity.

Perhaps the development curve has finally crossed that of performance requirement, which presumably was the idea all along…

P12 AUGUST 2015

Movers and shakers

Green light for Fairlight expansion Incoming business development managers join new channel partner Synthax

F

ollowing the launch of a raft of new products and a much-publicised new focus on live sound, Fairlight has reviewed its market strategy with a number of new appointments and channel partners.

Representing the company in Europe (including the UK) and North America are two new business development managers, Inder Biant (pictured) and Taylor Latour, respectively, while new distributors have been appointed for the British Isles and the Asia–Pacific region.

Eighteen Sound has appointed Jeffrey Cox as director of sales for North America. Cox has been managing marketing and business development for the Italian company since late 2013. www.eighteensound.it

Ian Colville has joined Flare Audio as its head of pro technical.

Colville joins Flare from Capital Sound, where he spent eight and a half years as technical manager and systems designer. www.flareaudio.com

Synthax Audio has become a channel partner for the UK and Republic of Ireland. Its managing director, Martin Warr, says: “There are obvious synergies with our existing product portfolio, including RME and Ferrofish, but we are particularly excited about the possibilities our distinctive style of customer care will bring to the large established customer base, as well as new clients in the future.”

SRSG will represent India, CDA.Pro Audio Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam and SSL Asia Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Integrated Systems Events has announced that Ollie French (right), from Future Automation, and Lang AG’s Tobias Lang (left) have joined its nine-person board of directors as of 1 July. www.iseurope.org

Stephan Kurzawski, senior VP of Messe Frankfurt, has assumed responsibility for the ‘entertainment, media and creation’ division overseeing the restructuring of Prolight + Sound. www.prolight-sound.com/2016

Scrub, the UK’s leading supplier of Pro Tools, has appointed Stephen Jones sales administrator. He comments: “[I] t’s great to be a part of Soho’s vibrant audio post community.” www.hhb.co.uk

Sound Devices has appointed Jennifer Conlin (pictured) director of marketing communications.

Paul Isaacs becomes director of product management and Ed Capp VP of sales/marketing. www.sounddevices.com

www.psneurope.com/business

DEALER NETWORK Following its recent announcement of Pro Audio Systems as a main dealer, EM Acoustics has appointed Manchester-based Audio Alliance, bringing the total number of EM Acoustics UK main dealers to 10. The new partnership has “got off to a flying start”, says the company with, Audio Alliance already having sold a number of HALO elements and EMS21, EMS122 and EMS81x cabinets. www.emacoustics.co.uk www.audioalliance.com Funky Junk is the new sole UK agent for Pulse Techniques’ range of US-made Pultec valve and solid-state equalisers. The new and refurbished gear specialist will carry demo stock of full- and mid-range Pultec units at introductory prices to allow engineers, producers and musicians to test them at its showrooms or in their own studios. www.pulsetechniques.com www.proaudioeurope.com Polar Audio has been appointed a UK distributor for Revolabs. “Revolabs has very successfully addressed the market’s demands for well-designed wireless microphones,” says Stuart Leader, Polar Audio’s head of installation, “and its unified communications products meet the essential needs of modern conferencinglife across all sectors. This obviously enhances and expands the options available to us on the design and installation side of the business and we look forward to taking advantage of the opportunities it presents.” www.revolabs.com www.polaraudio.co.uk

P14 AUGUST 2015

Prism Sound’s Mic to Monitor tour returns to UK and US

BY JON CHAPPLE

Prism Sound will this autumn launch a new series of its free Mic to Monitor educational seminars and workshops. The Mic to Monitor events will take place in cities throughout the United Kingdom and United States.

Targeted at professionals, hobbyists and music production students, Mic to Monitor aims to “dispel the many myths surrounding the recording process”, answering questions such as “What makes great gear great?,” “What does it take to become a successful and in-demand audio engineer?”, “How do recording professionals tackle different aspects of their productions?” and “How is a hit sound achieved?”.

Each seminar will feature presentations from recording professionals, who will answer audience questions on recording techniques. There will also be the opportunity to demo and win recording equipment.

Graham Boswell, Prism Sound’s sales director (pictured), says: “We introduced Mic to Monitor seminars as a vehicle for recording professionals to

share their knowledge and experience with the next generation of audio engineers. The music-recording industry is constantly evolving and there are always new tricks and techniques to be learned, even by people who are already making a successful living in this field.

“We are delighted that Mic to Monitor has become such a successful brand, and this latest tour will bring the event to an even wider audience across two continents.”

Mic to Monitor 2015 kicks off in the US, with the first event on 12 September at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, in conjunction with the AES. The tour comes to the UK in October, with events planned at Huddersfield University on the 1st, Birmingham Conservatoire on the 6th, the University of Westminster on the 8th, the University of the West of England in Bristol on the 13th, Leeds Beckett University on the 15th, SSR Manchester on the 22nd, LIPA in Liverpool on the 27th and Southampton Solent University on the 29th. www.prismsound.com

Big Mick Hughes on mixing Metallica

BY JON CHAPPLE Meyer Sound has uploaded to its Thinking Sound YouTube channel an interview with Metallica FOH ‘Big’ Mick Hughes from his recent Mixing Workshop webinars, which took place on 1 and 2 July.

Hughes, who has mixed over 1,500 Metallica shows, speaks on his role as a front-of-house engineer, his love of low end and his experiences with Meyer Sound’s LEO linear large-scale sound reinforcement system and 1100-LFC low-frequency control element.

“I’m a bit of a bass monster, and I can honestly say that I’ve never heard a sub like 1100-LFC, ever,” he says in the clip, available to view at www.psneurope.com/ video-big-mick-hughes-on-mixing-metallica. “It does it all. The spectrum is there. It’s like having a blank canvas now – where before you could only paint on half of it, and now you can paint on the whole thing.” www.meyersound.com

HowToAV.tv, ‘neutral, impartial’ educational resource by CIE-Group, launches

BY JON CHAPPLE June saw the launch of HowToAV.tv, a free online resource by AV/PA distributor CIE-Group, at the FLUX LDN ‘innovation lounge’ in Whitechapel, east London.

A free YouTube channel, HowToAV.tv features short, informative, unbiased videos which offer users instant access to solutions to common technical issues, installation advice and technology tutorials a user-friendly style free from sales-based product demonstrations and brand promotion.

The channel launched with 50 videos, although plans are in place to add another 100 or so before 2016.

“We’ll be inviting experts from a wide range of sectors to advise and present even more subjects and reporting from some of the best industry training seminars,” says Edwards (pictured, third from left with

11 August IABM: Virtual Classroom – Understanding File Formats Online www.dbaudio.com

19 August Adlib: Soundcraft Vi training Potters Bar, UK www.adlib.co.uk

20 August LMC Audio Systems: Shure Wireless Mastered – Corporate Events Birmingham, UK www.shure-academy.co.uk

8 September AMX France: Installation Nanterre, France www.amx.com/training other HowToAV presenters), “and, most importantly, we’ll be inviting our viewers to tell us what they need to know and then providing answers in future videocasts.”

Without the backing of manufacturers, how does CIE-Group plan to monetise the service? “Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, we’re not!” Edwards tells PSNEurope, “and it is this avoidance of monetisation that is key to ensuring that the channel stays honest and non-biased. The message we’re promoting from CIE’s point of view is simply that if you’re looking for AV answers, we can help.” www.howtoav.tv

www.psneurope.com/training

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P16 AUGUST 2015

New products

CROOKWOOD SOUNDBUCKET

QSC

SPA SERIES What is it?

A Bluetooth-enabled ‘prosumer’ portable speaker designed to “pro-audio standards”, with a hi-fi-style big woofer and small tweeter and a pure analogue path.

Details: Crookwood ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for the SoundBucket last month, raising £18,257.

And another thing…

A pro version, which uses the same speaker but lacks Bluetooth connectivity and is supplied with a pro-audio interface cable and external 24V DC @ 3A power supply, is available for personal studio, DJ and presentation use. www.soundbuckets.com What is it?

A “a powerful yet affordable amplifier series to meet audio amplification needs in boardrooms, conference rooms and other corporate spaces where multiple speakers are in use”.

Details: SPA amplifiers feature 2 x 60W or 4 x 60W per channel into 8Ω and 4Ω outputs and bridgeable channels to provide 120W into 70V or 100V load, eliminating the need for additional amplifiers.

And another thing…

The SPA series’ half-rack size allows for flexible mounting options in corporate environments. www.qsc.com

ARATECHLABS

DANGEROUS MUSIC

PROQLOUD

What is it?

Version 2.0 of Arachtechlabs’ Arapolarmic software, adding support for Android and additional iOS devices, a new user interface and support for 15 new microphone models.

What is it?

New two- and eight-channel DACs by Edmeston, New York-based Dangerous Music.

What is it?

A web-based service designed to make website construction and business management easy for freelancers and studios in the pro-audio, broadcast and production industries.

ARAPOLARMIC

Details: Arapolarmic is a software program for tablets and mobile devices which uses ‘augmented reality’ to monitor the directivity of microphones.

And another thing…

Arapolarmic 2.1 will follow v2.0, featuring mics from new manufacturers – Neumann and Sennheiser – and around 35 new microphones from Audix, beyerdynamic and Audio-Technica.. www.aratechlabs.com

CONVERT-2 AND CONVERT-8

Details: The one-space rack units support all standard sample rates up to 192k, with inputs for AES, SPDIF, ADAT, Optical SPDIF (Toslink), and USB. And another thing…

“Finally, a converter that puts clarity in the bottom end,” Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis engineer Todd Whitelock says of the CONVERT series. “It [provides] the clearest, widest, most detailed stereo field I’ve ever mixed in.” www.dangerousmusic.com

www.psneurope.com

PROQLOUD

Details: The drag-and-drop website builder is aimed at studio owners, sound engineers, record producers, session musicians, location sound recordists, editors and cameramen.

And another thing… proQloud was set up by a group of Welsh audio professionals who say they “struggled to create a convincing online presence for their studio”. www.proqloud.com

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Introducing the SSM micro bodypack transmitter.

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P18 AUGUST 2015

The strategic position

Mama Group chose RoomMatch for the Kentish Town Forum

Game, set and Match

Phil Ward talks to general manager Akira Mochimura about Bose Professional’s assault on the summits of live sound

D

eveloped for what is referred to as the fixed installation market, Bose Professional’s RoomMatch and PowerMatch series are part of something new: the blurring of distinctions between ‘fixed’ – permanently installed, basically – and ‘touring’ sound reinforcement. The higher specifications demanded by venues of every type today are creating an entertainment technology landscape in which, put simply, it looks like the rental company has left the PA behind after the gig.

There are even those – Bose’s Akira Mochimura among them – who believe that the optimal installation loudspeaker also represents the best that touring can get, if it meets all the requirements of consistency and trustworthiness longed for by the live community. RoomMatch, as the name suggests, posits the notion that fixed installation speakers need to be as adaptive to their surroundings as anything more portable and, once they are, are a priori suited to a life on the road. So in the end the only distinction is, literally: some stay put; some get shifted.

The other obfuscation is that prestigious venues of the ‘bow tie’ fraternity like a bit of very high end these days, as long as it’s tucked as far away as acoustically possible from the suspicious minds of the organic classes. These places are the natural hunting ground of the finest brands in the business, especially if those brands were borne of rock ’n’ roll and have something to prove beyond a business

haircut. But they’re also perfect for Bose, especially in Europe where heritage has a longer beard.

Perfect, that is, if it weren’t for the fact that those other brands got there first. “Almost everybody we demo RoomMatch to, and PowerMatch, recognises the technical advantages they provide,” Mochimaru says. “We have no difficulty in convincing people of their performance potential. But when it comes to switching from one brand to another, we find that they already have a product that they feel comfortable with. They’ll have been using it for many years, and will have almost no issues with it. At first sight, it seems like there’s no reason to change.

“Having said that, some people are investigating the technical advantages of RoomMatch in more detail, and are finding some things that nobody else can offer: for example, the consistent tonality within the coverage, enabled by such precise coverage control. The Boston Opera House really appreciates this feature – they heard about RoomMatch and the production manager came to Bose. What impressed him most was the level of configurability that other line arrays just can’t achieve, and since he was quite close to closing a deal on a different system, he organised a kind of shoot-out at the Opera: over several months, he trialled first one system, then the other, inviting all his production colleagues and contacts from as far afield as Broadway. He also hired an acoustic consultant, in the interests of objectivity.

www.psneurope.com/business

We have no difficulty in convincing people of [roommatch/powermatch’s] potential. But when it comes to switching from one brand to another, we find that they already have a product they feel comfortable with

Akira Mochimura, BOSE

P19 AUGUST 2015

You’ll find RoomMatch in the Boston Opera House, too

Bose Professional’s RoomMatch and PowerMatch series are part of something new: the blurring of distinctions between ‘fixed’ and ‘touring’ sound reinforcement “He used the other system for three months, on real shows, and then asked us to install RoomMatch, which he used for another three months – asking the same people, and the same consultant, to make their appraisals. As a result of all this, I’m very pleased to say, Boston Opera House is now using RoomMatch.

Looking back, it was a very clever way of eliminating any resistance from visiting productions before actually installing the system permanently, especially considering that very few Broadway producers and engineers have heard of Bose in this context.”

It’s been a long time coming. Mochimaru has been discussing high-end sound reinforcement with colleagues for nearly 20 years, and it’s 30 years since Bose first proposed Modeler, its acoustic modelling software package. Of course, the company has been busy establishing a commanding consumer empire, while at the same time siphoning a lot its electroacoustic expertise into well-meaning educational and joint-development spin-offs. The fruition of complete, branded products for the open professional market has had to wait until Mochimaru was able to find a window of opportunity to project-manage his way onto this playing field but, with the stars aligning as stars do, live sound has ripened perfectly in the meantime to welcome him.

“We’re inviting many high-end system integrators, audio consultants and FOH engineers to our headquarters here in Framingham, Massachusetts,” Mochimaru continues, “because the only way to really convince people is with a full demo and a face-toface conversation. We’ve been very proactive in that direction. Last year, for example, I think we invited a minimum of six large groups from around the world, on different occasions. They came from Germany, France, Japan, US… you name it. We’re doing it country by country; I don’t think it’s appropriate to mix groups together when they’re spending two or three days at the HQ, visiting Boston Opera and enjoying the whole experience.“ One such beneficiary of this hospitality was Archie McIntosh, Mama Group’s property director, responsible for The Forum in London’s Kentish Town, among other venues. As mid-range rock ’n’

… and the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel

roll credentials go, they don’t come much more impeccable than this. Bose Professional’s team in the UK was instrumental in wooing McIntosh to one of these Boston beanos and, whatever his bar bill, it was worth every cent: RoomMatch is now permanently installed at The Forum.

“We’re also leveraging the people who are advocating us, whose influence really matters,” adds Mochimaru. “Archie was neutral when he came, but after two days he was completely convinced and very comfortable about spreading the word. The

www.psneurope.com/business

other main target is live performance events where we can showcase the products: the US rock band Foreigner was using our L1 system for acoustic gigs, so we invited and ‘demoed’ the FOH team. They then used RoomMatch for two nights at a 1,000-seater in Atlantic City, even though RoomMatch is not designed for rock touring, and were very happy.”

So be careful if you accept an invitation from Bose to Boston. You might just have to let that perfectly good house system go. pro.bose.com

P20 AUGUST 2015

Studio

An analogue Audient ASP4816 desk is at ‘The Heart’ of CDS’s enviable studio set-up

United Kingdom

Prior conviction In the quiet Worcestershire village of Stoke Prior, two mad scientists are hard at work on a cure for the dreaded Londonitis, writes Jon Chapple

I

n potentially the biggest thing to happen to the village of Stoke Prior in Worcestershire since the birth of Zoë off Hollyoaks, this summer sees the grand opening of an ambitious new recording and mixing complex hailed by its backers as “potentially one of the few quarter-million-pound studios still in existence”.

“It’s actually underneath one of our offices,” explains Creative Design Studio’s studio manager, Tom Moore, who has been appointed to run the facility by directors Rob Linforth and Nick Buxton. “We had a dead space under one of our main design offices and we thought it would be a great place to convert and use.”

Entrepreneurs Linforth and Buxton are also directors of the similarly named Commercial Design Solutions – also abbreviated, rather confusingly, as CDS – which specialises in commercial design (hence “our main design offices”) build, refurbishments, fit-outs and maintenance for offices, bars, clubs, retail and restaurants. “[The studio] is on an industrial estate,” continues Moore, “but we [Commercial Design Solutions] own the building so ultimately we envisage CDS being a 24-hour business. With our parking gates and large doors, artists’ gear will be safe and secure – and there will be no one to tell us to turn it down at three in the morning!”

“The ethos behind CDS, for me at least, is to break away [from] ‘Londonitis’,” adds resident producer/ engineer James Delin, a veteran indie record producer

and the owner of Bewdley-based recording, production and events agency Angel Recordings. “The idea that everything worth doing in the music business has to be done in London is, frankly, old hat. We are well and truly positioning ourselves at the forefront of a new movement in recording and music. Birmingham has some of the best credentials in the world – and this is our patch.”

With well-established names such as the Oxygen Rooms, Arkham and the Miloco-backed Summerfield less than 30 miles away in Birmingham and the Session Rooms, Vale Studios and Blacktree near Worcester, is there much of a demand for a new recording studio in Stoke Prior (roughly equidistant between the two cities)? “Well, yeah!” says Delin. “I think there’s demand everywhere for new recording studios. There are new recording studios popping up every time some punk gets a new MacBook and a copy of Traktor or Live… in their bedrooms! There’s your demand.”

Does that translate into keeping a brand-new bricksand-mortar studio in business? “We’re not initially going to attract those guys [the MacBook punks], but we’re not really competing with them either,” Delin comments. “[But] those guys eventually get to a stage where they realise they simply cannot make their stuff sound as good as a full recording studio. I know because I was one of those punks once.”

In such a competitive marketplace, both Moore and Delin recognise the importance of differentiating CDS

www.psneurope.com/studio

We went all-out to ensure the equipment would attract all gearheads within a 50,000-mile radius

james delin, cds

from the competition. “The way we’re going to do things will set us apart, for sure,” comments Moore. “With us being 24 hours, [with] luxury gear, a dedicated engineer and eventually bringing a concierge service online, we have gone to great efforts to not only differentiate ourselves but to offer both high-quality core services and extra services.”

The video/film editing and photography services the

P22 AUGUST 2015

Studio

The Goldmachine: The studio’s Avalon VT-737sp channel strip, for “added ‘wow’”

studio eventually plans to offer should also go some way to help – although at this point it’s secondary to its function as a recording and mixing facility. “We will be able to incorporate the video aspect with audio recording as an added extra,” Moore explains. “It is an important revenue stream and will serve as a marketing tool as well. The photography will come online within the next 12 months and will be another important revenue stream, but ultimately there’s no rush with the visual side of things – we want to get it right, and so long as the recording is going well we’re happy to take our time.”

When asked about his choice of audio gear, Delin jokes that he “pretty much just forced my list of preferred gear onto the directors and Tom”, although Moore elaborates: “That’s not quite true. We’d had a number of quotes for equipment and, to be honest, it got to the point where I realised I was just looking at letters and numbers. It might as well have been Dutch! Hence why James then got involved.”

Delin divides CDS’s equipment into four categories he dubs ‘The Heart’, ‘The Soul’, ‘The Brains’ and ‘The Backbone’. The Heart comprises a 16-channel Audient ASP4816 console, Universal Audio Apollo 16 interface, PMC twotwo.6 active monitors and beyerdynamic DT 150 studio headphones with an ART HeadAmp6PRO, while The Soul is mics and pres – standouts include a Neumann U87, Røde K2, Electro-Voice RE-20, Shure

SM57 and SM58 and an Avalon VT-737sp mic pre Delin calls “the Goldmachine” – and The Brains an eclectic mix of software, plug-ins, a Mac Pro and an enviable selection of analogue Universal Audio limiting/levelling amplifiers, preamps, EQs and compressors (including a classic UA Fairlight 670).

The Backbone is mostly backline, as well as mic stands and Mogami cabling throughout. “The backline sparkles, too,” Delin comments, “with a DW [drum] kit with top-of-the-range Sabian cymbals, an Ashdown bass amp and a custom guitar amp head by TLC. We went all-out to ensure the equipment would attract all gearheads within a 50,000-mile radius.”

What Delin brings in pro-audio passion and music industry connections, Moore matches in business savvy. “I’ve not had much experience in the music industry,” he explains, “however, I have been into music from an early age, so this opportunity was too good to miss. I met the directors in 2008, when I was asked to help run their new nightclub in Birmingham for a couple of months until they could find a permanent manager. However, over time, we developed a very good working relationship, and a couple of months turned into several years. The directors sold the club in 2014 and asked me to get involved in CDS.” He also reveals that Linforth and Buxton aren’t planning to stop at a mere recording studio: “I think what really attracted me to the company was its ambition. The directors not only wanted to open a studio but also have the vision to start a record label and doing national tours. It’s exciting to be involved in something of this magnitude from the ground up.”

Until the launch of CDS Recordings/CDS Tours, however, Delin is content in his new role. “It’s within walking distance of a pub, and a sandwich lady comes round. I couldn’t be happier,” he concludes.

“There are so many residential studios in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes that’s nice, but here there’s a real buzz of activity. I find it an incredibly creative place.” www.creativedesignstudios.co.uk

Neumann U87 and Røde K2 (and the flag of Limbourg)

www.psneurope.com/studio

P24 AUGUST 2015

Studio

Italy

MidiWare and whereabouts

PSNEurope toured Italy with Genelec distributor MidiWare earlier this year.

In the first of two instalments, Dave Robinson talks to Francesco Borsotti and his team about problems and solutions in the world of monitoring

W

e are very proud because Genelec is a big brand. They are much bigger than us.”

MidiWare’s Francesco Borsotti is a straight-talking man. And he’s obviously pleased with his company’s recent distribution deal with Finland’s finest.

“One of the strong points of Genelec is they don’t break, they are so reliable… so we have to find a way to sell customers something new!” he laughs.

MidiWare, based on the north-west outskirts of Rome, will celebrate 30 years in business next May. The company began as the very first Italian distributor of sequencing software such as C-Lab (remember that?), Opcode (ditto!) and Steinberg. Previously, Borsotti had worked as a musician, session player and Yamaha DX7 programmer of some repute.

“When programmes like Cubase developed audio functions, we started looking around for some audio lines to add to our portfolio – and we started distributing microphones and speakers, like Earthworks and KRK,” explains Borsotti “We added more and more, and now we represent lines including SSL and Microtech Gefell, and in the MI division we do Moog, RME, Arturia, Novation and many others.”

Genelec is the latest, and a highly significant, addition to the Midiware portfolio. When Gibson took back the distribution of KRK monitors over 18 months ago, Borsotti’s company had a hole to fill. Genelec was a perfect fit.

PSNEurope has spent much of the last day-and-ahalf with MidiWare’s managing director Borsotti, Gino De Dominicis of the new MidiWare Pro Division, team member Fausto Demetrio, and Genelec’s international marketing director Lars-Olof Janflod. In that time, there have been visits to leading Rome studio Forward (think AIR or Angel as a comparison), along with producer/ mixer Fabrizio ‘Simoncia’ Simoncioni’s Garage Studio (see PSNEurope January 2014) and bass player/ producer Ronny Aglietti’s RonnyStudio, both near Arezzo in Tuscany. While the second and third facilities were designed by the young and talented Donato Masci of Studio Sound Service, the common link between all three studios is the monitor brand.

Now Janflod, De Dominicis and PSNEurope are on the road again, with Borsotti at the wheel, navigating the notorious autostrade traffic. Time to reflect on what’s been seen, the Italian studio scene in general and the

MidiWare pros! L–R: Fausto Demetrio, Francesco Borsotti and Gino De Dominicis

Gino De Dominicis demos AutoCal at Forward Studios

requirements of Genelec customers.

PSNEurope (PSN): Is there is a big expectation from Italian customers with a brand such as Genelec?

Francesco Borsotti (FB): It’s been pretty easy to take on Genelec. The new generation of monitors are great

www.psneurope.com/studio

and it’s a good reason to take them to old customers and show them how great the new generation is: the Auto Calibration, the SAM (Smart Active Monitoring) applications and so on.

PSN: It’s strange – you want them to be the brand you can trust, but you don’t want them to last forever!

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P26 AUGUST 2015

Studio

FB: That’s why I was so pleased about the new products coming through because we can say, it’s time to change. We have a plan to push SAM, with the 83XX series – that’s 8351, 8320 and 8330 at the moment. but also new amplifiers. It’s a totally new system but with much better performance, including the AutoCal. PSNE: At the famous Forward Studios, Gino, you demonstrated, for the first time, the AutoCal system with the 8351As in an unfinished pre-production room to three inhouse engineers. Did they like what they saw and heard?

Gino De Dominicis (GD): They were very happy with it, and what we did with the room. I know the [untidy] ‘signature’ of the man who will work there. I know my chickens, as we say in Italy!

FB: The first time [the Forward engineers] saw autocalibration, they were very sceptical. Very sceptical. And yesterday, they were very happy.

GD: Few people know about the basics of acoustics.

They expect from AutoCal a sort of miracle that can fix all the problems – and also their problems. So, you have to explain how sounds travel into the room. And then, you show the AutoCal. And once they understand the

MidiWare supplied the 8351As for producer/bass player Ronny Aglietti’s studio

basics, they get it. I’m very focused on explaining this stuff. You can’t expect a miracle because a room must be treated, BUT you can have help by using this system.

PSN: It’s all about getting a better sound in limited circumstances?

FB: It can’t be perfect. You’re not gonna solve your problems, just because it says ‘Genelec’. But, it is going to help a lot. The top professional guys, they know that monitors are tools for mixing – and the tools must be precise. And with Genelec, you know

Reference check (an ASIDE) Forward main room with 1036A monitors and Uher radio on the meterbridge

that the tool is going to be precise as it can be. That’s what we try to explain. One thing that Simoncia at the Garage told us, is that he could also mix with other monitors, but it was easier to get the perfect mix [with the Genelecs] because he doesn’t have to use a lot of energy understanding [how the room works].

PSN: Educating the marketplace is key for MidiWare then?

GD: Fausto and I travel around the country, including to the audio schools to introduce our solutions and show pupils the best way.

FB: We need people to know about what they are using... so they can make their own informed decisions.

For the last seven years, MidiWare has been involved in three different projects, sponsored by the European Community, about music education and interaction between teachers and schools. We hope to confirm a fourth project soon GD: It’s about solutions, not just gear.

Building for the future

PSN: At Forward we saw the main rooms with the big Genelec 1036As, the only pair in Italy. But the main engineer: he was using the Uher radio, powered by a Bryston amp, to check his mixes.

That’s like plugging a nuclear power station into your cooker, surely? [Laughter] But that’s his reference.

There’s something sweet about that. In the same way that Simoncia was using a Tivoli radio the same way.

Lars Olof Janflod (LJ): I think it’s a matter of having

properly calibrated speakers in a room: you don’t need that radio and so on. Through the years, you hear these stories about ‘taking the tape out to the car’ to play it there and check it. But I don’t know…

Gino De Dominicis: That’s why people used the Yamaha NS10s.

LJ: It’s built on some kind of insecurity as well.

PSN: There’s another article there…

LJ: There’s definitely another article there!

www.psneurope.com/studio

PSN: How can big studios such as Forward still survive today in Italy?

FB: Massimo [Scaparo, the studio owner] says he tries to strike a balance between quality and price.

GD: We have smaller studios than that one, which still work, because clients like the atmosphere there.

FB: But most of the big facilities have closed down.

PSN: So where are you finding Genelec speakers are being used?

FB: What we’ve seen in 30 years of technology is kids using our technology and growing their bedroom studios, and getting better. And now they are building their personal studios, and that’s where we can really do a good job: giving them solutions, and offering professional sound. If they are investing between 30 and 50 thousand euros you get real results – and we are there to help. Integrating the digital environment with the analogue: it’s a perfect combination, getting the best out of two worlds. And Genelec is going in the same direction: the best results from an analogue speaker but with digital technology. www.midiware.com www.genelec.com

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P28 AUGUST 2015

Broadcast

Pro Tools and S6 controller in situ at Final Cut, a post house in London

World

Avid looks to steady the ship Everywhere Once almost ubiquitous in broadcast centres and post houses, Avid seemed to lose its way commercially and technologically. But the big beast is making a comeback, as Kevin Hilton reports

C

ompany fortunes fluctuate, profits rise and fall, products and brands become market leaders. But competition is always there, with other companies planning how to take a slice of the pie. Avid Technologies has been through all of this in the last 10 to 15 years, which have seen it dominate broadcast and post-production technology with its non-linear audio and video editing systems, only to have Apple and Adobe undermine that success with more keenly priced, technologically attractive offerings.

Avid has worked hard in the last few years to redress this situation, starting from the top and working down. Chief executive Gary Greenfield was replaced in February 2013 by Louis Hernandez Jnr, an Avid board member since 2008 and founder of Open Solutions, an “open technology provider”.

Despite new product releases and strengthening the audio division through the acquisition of Euphonix, Greenfield presided over a rocky period for the media conglomerate, with a plummeting share price, reductions in staffing levels and a loss of customer confidence.

The stock value continues to fluctuate, which Tony Callini, Avid’s senior vice-president of finance, attributed to the $125million convertible debt offering made to finance the recent acquisition of 3D graphics developer Orad. He added that the share price is “still about 75 per cent higher than a year ago” but

that “equity-linked financing can put pressure on a company’s stock”.

Avid’s profile at the recent NAB and Prolight + Sound exhibitions also gave the impression that the once dominating force in digital audio and video technology might at last be steadying itself. Tim Carroll, vicepresident of worldwide audio, attributes this to the influence of Hernandez, who he says has instigated a “unified vision, which was missing under the previous leadership”.

This could be seen as unfair to Greenfield, who oversaw consolidation, particularly in rebranding Pro Tools and creating Avid Audio by renaming the Digidesign DAW/audio control surface subsidiary, acquired in 1995. What Hernandez has brought, as both the market and Carroll acknowledge, is a more integrated portfolio of products and technologies. A shift away from the MI market was signalled by the sale of M-Audio to InMusic. “In some respects we’ve moved away from that to see what to focus on,” Carroll says. “We’re now refocussing on what is important.”

Part of this extends to greater inter-connectivity and operability with other brands and systems, a change in image from the days when Avid was a proprietary island unto itself. The core of this new approach is Avid Everywhere, introduced at NAB 2013.

Hernandez appeared at the same year’s IBC to present the concept, along with the new S6 mixing console.

The description of Everywhere was mired in so much

www.psneurope.com/broadcast

Avid everywhere is a huge responsibility for us because entire livelihoods rely on pro tools and other systems working every day and working right

TIm Carroll, Avid

marketing-speak that journalists began exchanging looks and muttering that this could be another example of style over substance.

While not addressing that issue directly, Carroll comments that he has had one-on-one discussions with its users to explain Avid Everywhere and that it has “resonated” with them. “You can see the light bulb come on when they first hear about it,” he says. “But we have been cautious because so many people are relying on these solutions. It’s a huge responsibility for us because entire livelihoods rely on Pro Tools and other systems working every day and working right.”

Since being unveiled two years ago Avid Everywhere is being rolled out internationally on an ongoing basis.

It is based on the Avid MediaCentral Platform, an open, scalable core that works in conjunction with the Artist

P29 AUGUST 2015

Tim Carroll: “We’re now refocussing on what is important”

Suite of products (including Pro Tools and Sibelius), plus the Media and Storage Suites. “It’s an ecosystem that is open to everyone,” Carroll explains. “Before this we weren’t fully open but now that’s what we’re trying

to be because people want streamlined offerings.”

Carroll admits that this is a “large endeavour” even with just Avid’s own products. “The central media platform can include Media Composer, Pro Tools and Sibelius,” he says. “This is the first time we’ve had a common platform for our products. Once a user is in the ecosystem they can use third-party products and other plug-ins without worrying about incompatibility, because it’s a backbone.”

Audio has been a major part of Avid’s business since it bought Digidesign, and Carroll points out that this division is important to the company’s continuing development: “The S6 was [a result] of direct feedback from our customer, and a lot of that also fed into our platform. For pro customers the S6 is a huge thing.

When we acquired Euphonix people were envisioning what we could do. We had ICON and started looking at the next thing in terms of consoles. People ask why

Carroll says this is no longer limited to Pro Tools and will allow Avid mixing desks to work with other applications, including Logic.

Pro Tools itself continues to evolve. Carroll sees version 9 as the starting point in the DAW’s latest development, which has gone both entry-level with Pro Tools First and higher-end through v12. Carroll observes that following the various features of 9, 10 and 11, Pro Tools 12 left some users somewhat confused: “They didn’t understand what it is about, but it’s a change in the model. A lot of work [was done] in the background to get 12 ready and there are going to be rolling updates, instead of delivering features as a huge release.”

From once being very self-contained, Avid is now, in Carroll’s words, “trying to bring on as many industry partners” as it can: “Before, we were married to AVB, but now we’re working with Dante because we

it has taken so long, but work and systems grow and change over time.”

A component of Avid Everywhere is the EuCon high-speed Ethernet protocol, which was developed

by Euphonix to allow a hardware control surface to directly communicate with software applications.

recognise that people use other systems.”

The share price may still be less than stable but Avid appears to be concentrating on changing how it develops products and engages with the market. Which seems to be making an impression. www.avid.com

IT meet A-T Introducing network Microphones with direct Dante™ Protocol Operating over a simple Ethernet connection, Audio-Technica’s new Network Microphones put you in control. The programmable user switch lets you trigger a video camera’s pan/tilt, a room’s lighting preset or any other function of a compatible Danteenabled device. Each mic comes equipped with a Red/Green LED to keep you informed of local mute status and other processes. And, of course, you still get the clear, articulate sound you expect from A-T. So plug it in, and introduce your network to its new best friend.

www.audio-technica.com

www.psneurope.com/broadcast

P30 AUGUST 2015

Broadcast

United Kingdom

Knock-out comms!

The Cross British Sports Book Awards were televised for the first time this year. Playing an important role in the event was a Clear-Com FreeSpeak II system, writes Erica Basnicki

I

t was over a dozen years ago when the first British Sports Book Awards (then known as the National Sporting Club Book Awards) were first awarded.

The importance of the annual celebration took on an added dimension this year as highlights of the event were broadcast on Sky Sports. For the first time in the awards’ history, television viewers were introduced to outstanding sports writing across all disciplines. Taking home this year’s Cross Sports Book of the Year awards was Proud: My Autobiography by Gareth Thomas.

London-based technical production specialist Eclipse Presentations was responsible for live audio at the gala, held at the Nursery End Pavilion of Lord’s Cricket Ground.

With more than 25 years in the business, the company has built a number of relationships with venues across London as their preferred event supplier, including Lord’s Cricket Ground, Wembley Stadium and St Martin-in-theFields, among others. Alongside venue partnerships, Eclipse provides technical event production for clients across the UK and continental Europe.

This year’s event was “quite a challenge, because it’s ramping up in its size and how visible it is,” explains Eclipse’s Rhys Williams.

Directing the televised event was Mark Wooderson from Dublin-based production company Another Avenue. The British Sports Book Awards (BSBA) were an opportunity for him to test drive a Clear-Com FreeSpeak II system; a rare treat in his line of work.

“What actually happens to us nearly all the time is that you’re inheriting other people’s old comms systems. It’s almost as if it’s an after thought, and yet it’s the most important thing to get right,” explains Wooderson.

“You cannot make a TV show without clear communication. If you leave five cameramen alone you will get three medium close-ups of someone standing on a stage, and it will be the same person even if there are seven people on the stage. They naturally gravitate to that shot. So if your comms go down you don’t have a show. It’s is absolutely the mission critical thing. If I lose the comms I lose the camera. If I lose the camera and I’ve got the comms I can talk to the cameraman and we’ll get it back.”

FreeSpeak II was announced at IBC 2014. The enhanced DECT-based offering operates in multiple licence-free DECT bands (1.897–1.933GHz) and offers several improvements on it’s predecessor, among them improved roaming capability for reliable wireless connections, a greater number of wireless beltpack

Fighting talk at the Sports Book Awards! (Photo: Getty Images)

users and sharper input filters to keep unwanted noise out.

“It’s easier now to separate from close-by frequencies.

LTE is everywhere and those frequencies are right at the edge both below and above the DECT frequency space,” explains Clear-Com applications engineer Nils Lichtenfeld.

For the BSBA, Lichtenfeld deployed five aerials connected to the bay station via a single splitter to minimise cabling requirements. The coverage was more than enough for Wooderson’s needs: “What the FreeSpeak II does is it gives me wireless, which is what I want, and it gives it to me in a configurable package that’s robust. We’re not going a kilometre today, but if we were I know we could because it’s expandable. That’s what’s sexy about this product. It’s an enabling product.

We can do things using this that we couldn’t do before.”

“It was definitely important for us to be able to communicate amongst ourselves in the room but also with the camera team to make sure that what we were doing was allowing them to get what they needed,” adds Williams.

The live audio was realised using Sennheiser G3

www.psneurope.com/broadcast

wireless microphones and Audio-Technica lectern mics routed through a Yamaha LS9 console out to a d&b speaker system made up of E8 and E9 boxes.

“Thankfully for us the event was recorded,” notes Williams, “so the main challenge was making sure that the systems we put in to provide the live sound for the event didn’t interfere with the quality that’s required for the camera crew. So we brought in a nice bit of kit: a Klark Teknik DN1248 audio splitter. I’ve used them quite a few times before and they’re probably my favourite audio splitter on the market at the moment. They’re really well built, really reliable and they’ve got all the settings to make sure that you’re audio is being nicely separated out without compromising any signal quality.

We stuck that in the line with all our input which allowed us to completely split everything off and give a pure feed to the camera crew of all the in-room sound so they could get a really high quality recording.”

To view the Cross British Sports Book Awards highlight reel visit https://youtu.be/UmCo82-a5-0. www.clearcom.com www.anotheravenue.com www.eclipse-presentations.co.uk

P32 AUGUST 2015

Feature: Business in Britain

Funky Junk are able to test the gear they distribute in a real-world set-up at Snap!

Focus: UK

The UK’s audio industry has a strong and prominent legacy, but where does it currently stand? Mike Hillier sidles up next to it and leans in

R

ecent years have brought numerous challenges to the British pro-audio industry.

The banking crisis and resulting global recession hit all sectors of the economy, and subsequent austerity measures have cut into arts budgets heavily throughout Europe. These came alongside several shifts in the global consumption of music. According to research by PwC, download revenue is expected to surpass physical revenue for the first time this year, while revenue from streaming services is expected to surpass both by 2017.

Total revenue from recorded music has been dropping, and is expected to continue to do so at least until 2019, but it isn’t all doom and gloom: live music is going through a resurgence and, according to PwC again, is expected to continue growing at a faster rate than the decline in recorded music at least until 2019.

This will offer new opportunities for the UK’s audio professionals and companies which service the live industry, such as DiGiCo, whose MD James Gordon has experienced this change in the industry up close. “The move from artist revenue coming from live performance against recorded media has meant large investment into live sound technology and new equipment into live sound. Twenty years ago touring was viewed as something artists had to do when they wanted to promote a new album; now it’s the main focus for most acts. This has meant the industry has grown up and we

have grown up with it.”

Growing up is something that many of the companies involved in the industry have had to do, with the movement from analogue to digital being a key part of that. Graham Paddon, managing director of Amber Sound, sees a “continuing trend towards digital products” from the companies he distributes.

Gordon goes on to explain that the underlying confidence of the economy as a whole plays a strong part in the success or not of the industry. “I think we do see some impact from the consumer market, especially on the ranges that cross over into the prosumer sector or are closely related. Although there might not be a direct link between the professional and consumer markets, they are aligned with the underlying confidence in a country. That confidence is very important when businesses are looking to make investment into new equipment or expansion. These geographical investment trends can be seen where growth occurs in new market sectors and amongst emerging economies.”

While recorded music may now make for a smaller slice of the revenue, the costs associated with it have also fallen, home studios are now ubiquitous and everyone can catch the recording buzz. This has had a detrimental effect on larger studios, with several historic studios, such as Olympic and Sarm (formerly Island Studios), closing their doors. In their place, however, many small facilities are opening up and

www.psneurope.com/business

We live in a great time to make and consume music

Tobin Jones, Park Studios operating with considerably lower overheads. Tobin Jones, studio manager at Park Studios in Wembley, is embracing this freedom: “I feel music [without the business] is in a great place! We live in a great time to make and consume music. There has never been a time

P33 AUGUST 2015

Finding new talent and harnessing it is something all businesses in our industry are faced with. The trouble is itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also the easiest to put off until tomorrow

James Gordon, DiGiCo when so much music has been available to everyone. As a musician you can make music with very little cost and distribute it to who ever wants to listen without having to be involved with the music industry at all. I think its quite liberating creatively.â&#x20AC;?

The growth of home and project studios has created a wealth of opportunities for audio equipment companies.

As both a retailer and distributor Keith Malin, MD of KMR, has witnessed this growth ďŹ rsthand: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The number of brands is huge and growing. Every week it seems thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a new entry to the market. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s generally all good stuff too, but it does confuse the customer. They want to check out a dozen different items now, whereas before

it was two or three. Keeping pace and keeping in stock with everything is tough.â&#x20AC;? Among these new brands Malin highlights a new Russian made microphone brand, Soyuz, that has recently launched with a bottlestyle large-diaphragm tube condenser microphone, the SU-017, and a small diaphragm condenser, the SU-011; a new American tube DI box from Tonecraft, designed

by Jon Erickson, who has previously worked with A-Designs; and a new British loudspeaker range from SP Acoustics.

In particular, Mark Thompson, MD of north Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Funky Junk, has noticed that while much of the processing can now be done in software, equipment that moves audio into and out of the system remains necessary whatever size your studio. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We sell an awful lot of microphones and monitors,â&#x20AC;? says Thomson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Outboard and consoles are becoming less in demand as more and more clients mix in the box.â&#x20AC;?

Mark also believes that the UK, and the EU in general, has a distinct advantage when it comes to audio equipment manufacturing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Location is very important.

We encourage UK manufacturers wherever we can and have a policy of promoting the best European made gear for several reasons. Firstly, we ďŹ nd that

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www.psneurope.com/business

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a decent product offering with a good, well-organised team then you should be doing OK right now

Howard Jones, Source Distribution much of the equipment currently being designed and manufactured in Europe is of a far higher build quality than comparable equipment coming from the US. Secondly, we feel strongly that a healthy European manufacturing industry is crucial for a healthy European recording industry, as it is less prone to distortions from parallel imports, currency ďŹ&#x201A;uctuations and marketing hypeâ&#x20AC;?.

Malin too agrees on the importance of focussing on UK-based manufacturers, such as SP Acoustics: â&#x20AC;&#x153;UK-based manufacturing is key for us. Not only is manufacturing a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;good thingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for a country to be involved and invested in, for a retailer we know weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re protected

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P34 AUGUST 2015

Feature:Business in Britain

on price. The US retailers can always sell US brands, which still dominate in our end of the industry, cheaper than we can, so it’s nice to have it the other way round.

Selling UK brands into the US feels especially satisfying given that it’s been coming in the other way round for decades.”

Luca Barassi outside our (arguably) most famous musical asset

Location or dislocation?

However, not all distributors take the same approach.

Howard Jones, director of distributed brands at Source Distribution, doesn’t see the location of any of the brands distributed by Source as being of particular importance.

“Funnily enough, we don’t represent any UK brands at all – not by design, it’s just happened that way. All of our partners are from the US, Europe and Australia – such as PreSonus or Røde – but really it’s the quality of the product and the people behind it that’s important, rather than the company’s physical location.”

Being based in London has never been cheap, but the city has historic roots closely connected with the UK’s audio industry, and despite the cost that heritage is still seen as important today when it comes to deciding where to locate. George Foulgham, head of factual audio at Molinare Studios in Soho, London, which recently acquired post facility Hackenbacker, thinks that being based in London gives his facilities an advantage.

“Location is important and remains so. Being based in Soho can be expensive, but it’s the hub of film and TV post-production. Clients like the close proximity of all aspects of post-production, and Soho offers that. From entertainment, hospitality, creative expertise, Soho has it all.”

Tobin Jones at The Park sees the advantage of being based in a city with such a strong musical heritage, but casts a cautious note. “Being in London definitely affects our business as it is a major hub for musicians from across the world. But with the rising cost of living in London I’m not sure how much longer this might be the case”.

Funky Junk, a distributor and retailer, even goes so far as to have its own award-winning studio Snap! in Finsbury Park, north London. “We put equipment through a very rigorous set of tests in our workshops – we have three of the best techs in the country on staff – and as well as checking spec on our Audio Precision and Neutrik test sets, we examine the build quality, ease of servicing and performance”, says Thompson. “We then put the gear through its paces in a professional session at Snap!, where we discover how the gear performs in a proper professional session. Very few new products pass both tests and those that do – like the Pulse Techniques Pultec EQs we’ve just taken on – have a stamp of quality and reliability.”

Keith Malin recognises London’s importance as a major hub for the audio industry, but believes that as a retailer and distributor, KMR need not necessarily be in London. “About 20 per cent of our business is now international, though mainly in Europe. We have people

Selling UK brands into the US feels especially satisfying given that it’s been coming in the other way round for decades

Keith Malin, KMR from all over Europe visit our store because it’s so well stocked with goodies! It’s nice to be in London because that’s still where most the action is, but really, we could be anywhere!”

Employment importance One of the big challenges facing the UK audio industry is one of employment. Another recent PwC report noted that “entertainment and media companies can no longer rely on their industry’s ‘cool’ employer brand to win over and keep the talent they need”. At DiGiCo, James Gordon is very much aware of this challenge.

“Well, we are getting old, and getting new talent is always a challenge. We are lucky across the group to have keen and passionate staff that are motivated by what we do. Finding new talent and harnessing it is something all businesses in our industry are faced with. The trouble is it’s also the easiest to put off until tomorrow”.

The PwC report goes on to warn that the audio industry, and the entertainment industry at large, too often bases recruitment and promotion decisions on “similarity attraction among the existing workforce, [which] has resulted in a tendency to fill vacant posts

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either from within or from employee’s personal networks”.

With a strong education sector, the UK can and should be looking to fill those roles with new talent.

Abbey Road Studios has recently launched a new education facility, the Abbey Road Institute. Luca Barassi, managing director of the institute, believes that the new campus will “offer a programme that differs from comparable ones in the way in which it combines performance, music theory knowledge and sound engineering skills. One could say that as a vocational course, the advanced diploma in music production and sound engineering is preparing students for the reality of the job market, placing less emphasis on purely academic concepts.”

Abbey Road, of course, has played a huge part in the history of the UK audio industry, and now, branching into the education sector, that history can be further instilled in the students. “The programme investigates music production from a global perspective. It is nevertheless important to point out that in the case of Abbey Road history, ‘British’ has in many instances meant ‘global’.

The techniques and technology that emerged from the studios have been adopted throughout the world and the curriculum places particular emphasis on this, ie when solutions for isolated challenges eventually translated into standards”.

The UK audio industry has come through many challenges, and there are plenty more ahead. But thanks to the country’s strong heritage and an education sector planning for the next generation, there is plenty to be encouraged by.

Howard Jones reminds us that “if you’ve got a decent product offering with a good, well-organised team, you should be doing OK right now”.

139

TH

AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK J ACOB J AVITS C ENTER CONFERENCE: OCT 29 – NOV 1, 2015 EXHIBITS: OCT 30 – NOV 1, 2015

If It’s About LIVE SOUND, It’s At AES139!

LIVE SOUND EXPO comes to New York City this fall at the 139th AES Convention.

Whether you are in the hot seat as FOH engineer mixing to a crowd of thousands, in an intimate local club mixing your favorite band, or handling the audio for a house-of-worship facility, the upcoming AES139 Convention in New York City is your one source for all things audio.

With three days of exhibits, the Live Sound Track, and the Live Sound Expo, plus four days of workshops, technical papers and program content tailored to the current audio and communications landscape, once again, the AES Convention will be THE audio event of the year and cannot be missed.

Our Live Sound Expo at the 139th Convention offers expert advice for the broad spectrum of live sound engineers (some 25% of Convention attendees) with an emphasis on the practical, bringing professionals with decades of experience to the stage to inspire and educate attendees.

AES139 Live Sound Expo itinerary and areas of focus: , Friday, October 30 – Broadway/Theater , Saturday, October 31 – Worship & Install , Sunday, November 1 – Touring Admission to the Live Sound Expo is included with your FREE Exhibits-Plus advance registration.

The Live Sound Expo sponsors are:

For AES sponsor opportunities contact Graham Kirk: graham.kirk@aes.org

If It’s About AUDIO, It’s At AES! For more information visit our website at:

www.aesconvention.com/139

P36 AUGUST 2015

Live

Chicago hardcore act Rise Against were on the 2015 line-up (Photo: Rob Walbers)

Belgium

Rock Werchter:

Programme reprogrammed!

It was an all-digital line-up on the console front at this year’s Rock Werchter in Belgium, and Adamson has something to celebrate too. Marc Maes was there for the soundcheck

T

he Rock Werchter festival (25–28 June), attracted some 88,000 festivalgoers per day to its site 30km outside Brussels. This year marked the 41th edition and offered 79 bands and artists (including seven Belgian bands) on the three stages (Main, KluBC and The Barn).

The festival was brought forward to fit in Foo Fighter’s tour schedule – then of course, 10 days ahead of the show, Dave Grohl broke his leg during a show in Sweden, resulting in the Foos cancelling dates worldwide.

“It was an eventful week at the Rock Werchter office,” says the show’s press office. “Phone calls were made and e-mails were sent out trying to find a great alternative. Faith No More and Royal Blood graciously saved the day by marking their calendar on Thursday 25 June, which meant a double dose of rock was added to the bill. Faith No More was in popular demand by the festival audience.”

Traditionally, the Rock Werchter festival offers a wealth of top notch headliners, such as the aforementioned Faith No More and Chemical Brothers (celebrating their eighth stint on the Werchter billing) on Thursday and on Magnus at KluBC and Pharell Williams on the Main stage on Friday. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Lenny Kravitz and The Prodigy headlined on Saturday and Muse closed the festival on Sunday.

Throughout the years, the festival organiser has continued to invest in the audience’s comfort and safety. Already pioneering in sustainable energy and

Let’s say that working in the digital domain requires some extra effort in advance, but saves on time with band change-overs – the 10 extra minutes we spend on configuration makes life much easier

Dave Bigg, DiGiCo environment friendly material, this year Rock Werchter featured completely overhauled sanitary facilities (!) – but what of the audio kit?

In the early days of the festival, EML used a Yamaha PM 3000/Ramsa combination. From 1996 onwards, a Midas XL4 on FOH served with an XL3 desk for monitors; that was replaced by a Midas Heritage 3000 in 1999. And then…

“After more than 30 years of using analogue house consoles we have made the decision to offer a digital solution for the house desks for both the FOH and monitor position,” announced rental giant EML/PRG in the technical specs prior to the event. “For the first time in the Werchter festival history, all of the bands performing on the Main, Barn and KluBC stages will be mixed on digital consoles.”

www.psneurope.com/live

“The idea actually came from the Montreux Jazz festival,” explains Patrick ‘Duim’ Demoustier, audio designer for the Werchter festival. “A few years ago they decided to make the switch to digital consoles… I thought this had to be possible here as well. For some years now, we’ve come to the conclusion that analogue mixing was a dead-end street.”

The switch had also been advocated by Walther D’Haese, EML/PRG product manager. Demoustier adds that the upgrade decision was catalysed by the fact that most of EML/PRG’s analogue festival consoles (see above) are some two decades old, requiring a lot of maintenance, with spare parts and servicing in increasingly in short supply.

Being early and dedicated DiGiCo users for over a decade, EML/PRG’s choice of digital console brand was an easy one. “Not only because all our engineers are very familiar with the interface, but because DiGiCo have proven to be a widely accepted digital desk, used by many bands on tour,” says EML/PRG engineer, Tom Vuerstaek. For those unfamiliar with the DiGiCo range, an off-line preparation booth was available on the festival site, allowing every system tech to create or adapt his existing sessions on both FOH and monitor desks. “We also guaranteed the presence of a DiGiCo expert to assist the engineers in preparing the sessions or any other DiGiCo-related questions,” says Vuerstaek.

For each of the three festival stages EML/PRG provided a configuration consisting of a DiGiCo SD7 96kHz at FOH and an SD10 96kHz for monitors, running

P37 AUGUST 2015

Adamson Energia system on the Main stage (Photos: Watchkraft/Peter Fizgal)

an Optocore network ot the DiGiRacks.

In the backstage area, EML/PRG, in close collaboration with DiGiCo and distributor Amptec set up a training and preparation booth for engineers, particularly those who are strangers to DiGiCo. [Can that be, in this day and age?! – Ed] DiGiCo’s Dave Bigg, on site to help out, realised that some of the people attending the ‘prep’ sessions had

Inside The Barn, a new stage for this year

not been in front of digital consoles before. “The idea is to build quick sessions for them to get ready for the change-over and get ready to go on stage,” says Bigg.

“They won’t have the stress of having to configure it all, because that’s what we do in advance. And when band engineers walk up to the FOH console, their session will be there,” he adds.

Bigg teamed up with Vuerstaek and Amptec’s special

EML/PRG main man Demoustier: “After so many years, there’s no more Midas”

projects and events manager David Liebens – the former to facilitate contacts between the band’s mixing engineers and the technical team in the booth. “Most of the bands sent in their sessions in advance – they were translated into the set-up and the software. The idea is to work as transparently as possible. Let’s say that working in the digital domain requires some extra effort in advance, but saves on time with band change-overs –

SUMMA. THE WORLD AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL. Inspired by the simplicity and intuitiveness of tablet technology, Summa is designed for a broad range of operator levels, with an easy-to-use touchscreen interface which uses established finger gestures to navigate the system.

Designed for live broadcast applications, with a focus on instinctive operation, Summa simplifies even complex workflow tasks with common procedures that are just a touch away.

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Leading-edge Bluefin2 DSP and the same high-performance Hydra2 router technology featured on the Apollo and Artemis consoles means Summa is fully integrated with the wider broadcast community. Lean, refined and simple – more reasons why the world’s most successful broadcasters rely on Calrec.

2

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P38 AUGUST 2015

Live

Three stages, three Live is Life trucks Nine years after Live is Life made their ďŹ rst live recording at Rock Werchter, the company rolled out three mobile recording trucks for the festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 41st edition.

The Live 2 mobile truck, equipped with a DiGiCo Soundtracs DS00 49-fader, 160-channel desk was used for the Main stage recording, with sound engineer Peter Philips at the helm.

The KluB-C stage bands are recorded by system tech Jan Lembrechts in the Live 4 vehicle with a DiGiCo SD 10 console. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Live 5 is our newest truck, and still in full development,â&#x20AC;? explains Gert Coremans, founder and owner of Live is Life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And here we have a Lawo mc²66 desk â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a huge console with 56 faders. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a bonus for live recordings because of the direct access to make adjustments. Compared to the DiGiCo consoles we have, the Lawo offers more possibilities in the MADI inputs and outputs. So we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need an extra matrix to handle the signals and have more ďŹ&#x201A;exibility. The biggest challenge is the fact that more and more bands bring in their own system to the stage â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ďŹ&#x201A;exibility here is essential. When two or three top acts arrive with their own kit at 9am for soundcheck, swift connectivity is crucial. And the mc²66 offers the perfect solution.â&#x20AC;?

The Live 5 truck will be completed, with new racks, new cabling and furniture, in April of next year. At Werchter, the new car is recording the Barn stage with sound engineer Werner Pensaert, using Genelec 8250 monitors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Although I could have done processing, EQ and compression directly in the DS00 mixer, I preferred to the 10 extra minutes we spend on conďŹ guration makes life much easierâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;?

Many bands take their own control packages around the festival circuit, and the Werchter Main stage was no exception. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But as you get to the [smaller] Barn and Klub-C stages, nearly all bands make use of the house system,â&#x20AC;? comments Bigg. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Prior to the festival, we did

Peter Philips: brings his own rack (Photo: Marc Maes)

Gert Coremans in the Live 5 truck (Photo: Marc Maes)

bring my own outboard gear,â&#x20AC;? says Peter Philips in Live 2, working with Main stage bands. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I took speciďŹ c outboard like a Thermionic Phoenix compressor and Cranesong IBIS EQ on the master buss, API 2500 on the drum buss, a UBK Fatso for the bass insert and an Alan Smart C2 compressor on the keyboard bus,â&#x20AC;? he explains, â&#x20AC;&#x153;And a Dave Hill Titan compressor plus a Neve 9098 EQ on the lead vocal chain. The main reason for bringing in my own rack is to work more efficiently with equipment thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on every bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dedicated user list. This allows me to rapidly change the sound colour, when the mix is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;too darkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, or too compressed or dynamic, without having to dig my way into the console.â&#x20AC;?

When bands decide to use the festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital in-house system, with a DiGiCo SD10 on monitors and a SD7 as FOH console, Live Is Life engineers establish a direct link,

analogue or digital MADI from the guest desk. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Each stage is provided with two sets of 48 Lundahl LL1527 transformers each connected to a 56-channel DiGiRack or 56-channel Lawo DALLIS racks for mic inputs, making our system fully independent from the festivalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main sound reinforcement system,â&#x20AC;? underlines Coremans.

Live Is Lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s audio ďŹ les are used with Outside Broadcastâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image footage; the Rock Werchter TOC production office then forwards the content to TV stations and radio. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They decide whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s being recorded or not, but every show is mixed and multi-tracked. Sometimes a band wants to get video footage of their Werchter concert, and then we provide the multitrack of the show on a disk,â&#x20AC;? concludes Coremans. www.liveislife.be

a thorough check to see if everything was conďŹ gured correctly. We took copies of all the sessions so we know that when people create a session it matches the right conďŹ guration. Literally, it should be load in, save it and go!â&#x20AC;?

Diepenbeek-based Amptec took on DiGiCo dealership for Belgium and Luxembourg 18 months ago. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This

Werchter digital project is very important for us,â&#x20AC;? comments Liebens. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In addition to EML/PRGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s six own DiGiCo consoles, we have supplied the two preparation desks in the backstage and, as a distributor, provided the know-how for the users. For DiGiCo, product support is key.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;This project is proof of DiGiCoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s client service,â&#x20AC;?

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DiGiCo SD10 at monitor position in The Barn (Photo: Watchkraft/Peter Fizgal)

echoes Demoustier. “It’s one of the few companies in the industry where ‘people business’ comes first. The backstage support is invaluable and a great service to the bands. If this works out well, we want to do the same at the Pukkelpop festival.”

For the first time as well, the complete main stage’s audio configuration is digitally networked via Dante – data and audio are transmitted via Cat-5 cables.

Demoustier says this system, including a back-up, offers more possibilities: “We use one single network for the transmission of both audio and data, resulting in more control options and configuration settings: each amplifier is monitored and controlled individually,” he explains. “In the past, these options were confined per amp-rack. The Adamson package, in combination with Lab. gruppen/Lake is in our opinion, the best possible combination.”

This year’s Main stage was completely amplified by the newest Adamson Energia series, with 48 E15 as main hangs and 24 more E15 as outfill hangs.

E12 cabinets (eight stacks of three each) served as frontfill. As for the low end, Demoustier opted for 24 E219 sub hangs and 40 E219 subs groundstacked. The

Main stage system was powered by 50 Lab.gruppen PLM 20K44 amps with four Lake LM-series LM44 digital audio processors.

“In 2001 we first attended the Werchter festival with EML’s investment in Adamson Y18 speakers,” says Didier Dal Fitto, co-founder and director of Adamson distributor DV2 in France. “So we’re celebrating 15 years of Adamson at the festival right now. We’ve celebrated it with collector T-shirts, made for the occasion… For us and Adamson, Rock Werchter, together with the Vieilles Charues festival [in Finisterre, France] are the festivals with the biggest roll-out of Adamson gear in Europe. For us, it’s interesting to keep pace with the use of Adamson products – and festivals are the ideal environment.

“As for brand notoriety – the Werchter festival is great. You get the chance to meet many sound engineers – it’s great to learn how they work with our systems.

This allows us to mould everything in a post-festival debriefing and to make our speakers and Lab.gruppen amps work even better,” concludes Dal Fitto. www.amptec.be www.digico.biz www.dv2.fr

The prep team (L–R): David Liebens, Amptec; Patrick Demoustier, EML/PRG; Dave Bigg, DiGiCo; and Tom Vuerstaek, EML/PRG (Photo: Watchkraft/Peter Fizgal)

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P40 AUGUST 2015

Live

United Kingdom

Handy tool beside the stool Rick McMurray, drummer for veteran Northern Irish punk favourites Ash, is all a-quiver with his Qu Pac digital mixer, ďŹ nds Gideon Gottfried

B

aguetteâ&#x20AC;Ś Spaghettiâ&#x20AC;Ś Ham. Tim Wheeler, vocalist of Irish rock band Ash, is going through a list of different foodstuffs during a soundcheck at the Scala in the heart of London. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 5pm on Thursday 11 June, and three hours until stage time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Canard Ă lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;orange. Why

do people say â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;duck Ă lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;orangeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; when they could just go full French?â&#x20AC;? Wheeler asks.

It is a philosophical question, but thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no time to contemplate it, as Ash rummer Rick McMurray and sound engineer Alan â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Hagosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Haggarty wait backstage to talk about a new piece of equipment theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve started to

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use for live mixing: the Allen & Heath Qu-Pac. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great, because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basically replacing three pieces of equipment: a Mackie desk, an HD24 recorder and a compressor for Timâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vocals,â&#x20AC;? McMurray explains.

McMurray uses the rack device to mix nine inputs and four backing tracks tracks to Wheelerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and his own set of in-ears â&#x20AC;&#x201C; bassist Mark Hamilton still prefers good old wedges. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He likes to feel the air moving,â&#x20AC;? says McMurray. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m the opposite. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve gone just in-ears in combination with the Porter & Davies BC2 stool that provides the low end for me. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s better than having a wedge blasting at me upfront.â&#x20AC;? [Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s note: the BC2 is a drummerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aid which turns the bass drum signal into a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;thumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; which can be felt through the stool.]

The Qu-Pac also runs backing tracks, which make up about 70 per cent of Ashâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entire set. It ďŹ ts well with the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diverse output, recreating keyboards and the electronic parts live, as well as the strings that can be heard on Ashâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sixth studio album Kablammo!, recorded in the renowned Britannia Row Studios. The Qu-Pac can be controlled using an iPad app â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a feature McMurray plans to take advantage of in future. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At the moment [the Qu-Pac is] still mounted in our old rack. I hate the look of having this huge tower of stuff beside the drum kit,â&#x20AC;? he says.

While the band use most of the Qu-Pacâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inputs, there are a whole lot of outputs that are left unused.

And each output has a graphic equaliser on it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m really tempted to start running the wedges off it as well,â&#x20AC;? says Haggarty. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You could turn up at a festival and just plug it straight in, you probably wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even have to soundcheck any more.â&#x20AC;? The Qu-Pac also supports 18-channel recording, so the band could record every show of the tour and release a live album at the end.

According to McMurray, the one let-down is the fact that you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t input song titles, just numbers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So Hagos has to shuffle numbers around when we shuffle the set-list around. But I understand theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking into it.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll hopefully be a software update soon,â&#x20AC;? he adds.

The digital mixer on stage is in contrast to what Haggarty faces at front of house. The gig at Scala has the engineer working on an analogue desk for the ďŹ rst time in what seems like forever. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interesting going back to analogue. I was always an analogue guy, but now, going back to it, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m realising that the EQ on the digital desks is a lot more precise. Also thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a [Soundcraft] MH3 and the bands donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cross over as

P41 AUGUST 2015

Rick McMurray is very much ‘hands on’ with his new plaything

It’s basically replacing three pieces of equipment: a Mackie desk, an HD24 recorder and a vocal compressor

Rick McMurray, Ash

much as on a digital desk.”

The Turbosound rig in the venue wouldn’t be Haggarty’s first choice either. “I’m a line array convert.

It is definitely the way forward,” he says. “I worked with a lot of the old point-source stuff in biggish rooms, and it just spreads everywhere. The line array, which kind of focuses the sound in the area you want it, is much

clearer. So you don’t have to go for the big American sound all the time, you know: big bass drum and big vocals. You can actually have your bass guitar in the mix.”

McMurray adds: “Over the years it has turned into a common thing for engineers we work with to always focus on the vocals. People want to hear the words and

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sing along with the songs. We’re a guitar band but it’s still quite pop and very melodic. You need to get those melodies over the level of the on-stage sound, which is pretty hard.

“We used to be a lot worse. I remember at the first shows we did the sound engineers were actually taking Mark’s volume knob off the amp, to make it look like it was on eight when it was really on four.”

It’s time for McMurray and his Ash bandmates to meet a few fans before the gig. Onstage, Wheeler has switched from foods to geography, Canadian prairie provinces, specifically. “Alberta… Manitoba…

Saskatchewan.” It’s going to be a great show. www.allen-heath.com www.ash-official.com

P42 AUGUST 2015

Live

United Kingdom

White noise Six months on from the creation of its dedicated audio division, White Light is embracing its new role offering a complete product package, finds Jon Chapple

T

he world of business is full of companies that started life as one thing and mutated into another: [The] Gap began as a record store that also sold jeans, the East India Company survives as a purveyor of fancy teas and jams and, closer to home, Celestion – nowadays solely a manufacturer of loudspeaker components – was once known for its PA systems and hi-fi speakers (enclosures and all).

While audio is new territory for White Light – a veteran entertainment lighting specialist which launched its new audio division in February – its new head of audio, Lee Dennison, is quick to point out that the company’s transformation isn’t as extreme as that of, say, ex-galoshes manufacturer Nokia: “White Light has always delivered audio to the events industry,” he explains, “but this has been on a more simplified level and generally involved sub-contracting out for larger, more complicated events.

With the company’s direction becoming more focussed on becoming [a] complete production solution specialist, the decision was made to invest in both audio equipment and personnel in order to bolster our offerings to clients.”

In a recent press release, Dennison, formerly of Delta Sound and Sound by Design, hailed “an outstanding launch” and described the response to the new division as “phenomenal”. “[W]hat we’ve noticed is that customers who came to us previously for our many other services are now drawing on our audio expertise,” he tells PSNEurope. “There was also a sense of ‘about time!’ from some customers as many used to go elsewhere for audio, so the fact that they can receive all of their production solutions solely from one company has been greatly welcomed.”

Offering sales, installation and events services (“the

There was a sense of ‘about time!’ from some customers, as many used to go elsewhere for audio

lee dennison, white light

Studio15 incorporates production suites, a green room and a 1,300ft rehearsal space

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P43 White Light supplied audio and lighting for Against Captain’s Orders at Alice’s Adventures Underground, Waterloo, London…

fact that […] we own our audio equipment [means we] can supply it for events [and] install it for projects as well as sell it to our customers,” Dennison explains), the new team has taken advantage of Wimbledon-based White Light’s preexisting relationships to hit the ground running: Notable projects far include supplying audio, lighting and rigging for London Fashion Week AW15 in February and a permanent EM Acoustics/Sennheiser install at one of the UK’s largest theme parks, Thorpe Park, in May. “Many of London’s key event venues have long relied on White Light as a trusted supplier of lighting,” says Dennison, “so they are delighted to now be able to turn to the company as a trusted supplier of audio as well, whether this is separately or as a complete production package.”

Its strong start as a dedicated pro-audio supplier would not have been possible without robust support from manufacturers, as Dennison acknowledges: “I had already formed relationships with [a lot of the manufacturers] from my previous employment, and they saw this as a really exciting opportunity to work with a well-established company in building up its audio offering.” For sales and installations, the company is a dealer for EM Acoustics, Full Fat Audio, Shure, Sennheiser and Yamaha (“with even

more manufacturers joining this list in the coming year”), while hire stock also adds Clear-Com communications equipment to kit from the above manufacturers courtesy of £300,000 worth of investment in early 2015.

That £300k will be joined by another £100,000 for equipment and infrastructure for the Rugby World Cup in September and October, with which White Light will have a “large involvement”, says Dennison. It also recently announced its appointment as production service partner for Central Hall Westminster – central London’s biggest conference venue – and plans to install “a full Dante network throughout the facility [which will provide] audio support to the main conference spaces”.

White Light’s other big news of 2015 is the launch of Studio15, a new studio facility at its Wimbledon headquarters. “Studio15 is an amazing space and has so many potential offerings for so many different clients,” explains Dennison. “From sales demos to teaching sessions, off-site rehearsals to pre- and-post production, we can literally accommodate it all.” Offering a similar service to London Speaker Hire’s LSH Spaces rehearsal/ production complex in east London, Studio15 includes production suites, a green room and a 120sqm (1,300ft)

AUGUST 2015

rehearsal space with a Dante-networked backbone.

Where Studio15 does diverge from LSH Spaces, however, is in its educational offering, regularly hosting training seminars and workshops by White Light’s manufacturer partners. “We recently had an audio networking day supported by Yamaha, Audinate and Focusrite,” Dennison says, “[which was] a free-of-charge session to the industry which looked at networking and the equipment that goes with it. We also have a Sennheiser [training] day in July and plenty more manufacturers and suppliers gearing up for more sessions later in the year.”

Is pro-audio/AV training a big deal for the new-look White Light? Dennison thinks so: “Teaching and training the next generation who’ll work in this industry is very important to us. There is no point in winning the work and then having no one to deliver it! I have been involved with teaching for some time, now so I think it’s really important to emphasise to the next generation of engineers the technology, the politics and the amazing times they could have working in [pro audio].

“We also have vast experience of dealing with educational establishments, particularly when it comes to installations. There are too many installations out there that have been specified and installed by the wrong people, resulting in the wrong equipment being used and the wrong practices being offered. At White Light, we are looking to offer a fully personalised solution experience for teaching and training facilities, one which can fulfil [our customers’] briefs and requirements.”

As White Light Ltd celebrates its 45th year of trading, its new head of audio is looking to the future: “We have already delivered some amazing events, sales and installations in only six months of official trading. There’s a very exciting future ahead for the audio team here at White Light and we want as many potential clients as possible to be a part of it.” www.whitelight.ltd.uk

… and the Meet the Future conference in Central Hall Westminster

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P44 AUGUST 2015

Feature: Networking

Divine inspiration The developer of the Dante media networking technology, Audinate, has consistently emphasised the technology’s ease of integration into leading audio products – but what is the view ‘on the ground’ among manufacturers themselves? David Davies speaks to representatives of Bose, Harman Professional, SSL and Stagetec to discuss the process of delivering Dante operability

W

ith more than 225 licensees at recent count, and the extent of incorporation into leading pro-audio devices underlined by the recent RH Consulting Rise of Audio Networking report, Dante’s status as the most rapidly growing-in-popularity professional media networking technology is beyond question. But although there have been a great many articles contextualising Dante in the wider landscape of audio networking, the thoughts of individual manufacturers regarding their experiences of implementing Dante have been more seldom heard – until now.

In this article, representatives of four licensees of the technology – Bose, Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup, Harman’s Soundcraft and Solid State Logic – recall their roadmaps towards Dante adoption and discuss the practical challenges and benefits of implementation. The results go some way to explaining why Dante has been on such a rapid upward trajectory these past few years – and also confirm the remarkable vitality of the pro-audio community as it seeks to bring all manner of innovative devices into the networked world.

Trevor Donarski, product line manager for software, Bose Corporation “For us as a manufacturer, a large part of why we wanted to go to Dante was the number of other companies supporting it. The fact that there was a great ecosystem of compliant products was a very important element. Being able to come to our customers with a total networking solution was also crucial, and it was clear that Dante had the key pieces in place: the virtual soundcard, the discovery, the automatic clock negotiation, the controller API and so on. All the groundwork was there for us to be able to interact with and talk to other manufacturers’ devices.

“From the beginning of 2014, we’ve added Dante compatibility to our ControlSpace fixed-analogue processors and PowerMatch amplifiers.

“The support we have received from Audinate throughout the development of these products has been phenomenal. It has been very much a collaborative experience and, when we have required it, Audinate has been poised to provide guidance and assistance.

“The number of requests for and enquires about Dante-enabled Bose products is definitely picking up

speed. There will be more Dante-compatible products for us in due course, but in the meantime I think that educating the industry is the key step now. When people see how easy it is to get a Dante network up-andrunning, they often say something to the effect of ‘I really did not realise it was that easy’.”

Mark Lownds, general manager, Stagetec Mediagroup Australia “Stagetec was an early adopter of Dante, commencing its association with products including the Delec NAM (Network Amplifier Module), which was developed in 2012 to deliver compact Dante decoding with integrated power amplification for easy monitoring of audio signals from Dante networks.

“In the context of a growing awareness of audio-overIP, there were several specific factors that prompted us to look at Dante – not least the fact that it offered time alignment of audio. It was really important that we able to manage and monitor audio as part of a clocked system.

“It has also become clear to us that one of the great strengths of Dante is that it is owned by one company rather than being developed by a consortium. This means that the responsibility to maintain the interoperability side of things comes from Audinate only, and I believe this contributes to what can be a pretty quick timescale from idea to productisation.

“In 2015 we have more than ten products with Dante support. In terms of future developments, I would like Audinate to make it easier to scale across network subnets, and expect that AES67 – which a great many people are excited about – will help to further expand interest in Dante.”

Andy Brown, product manager, Soundcraft Vi series “We started to become aware of Dante in a big way five or six

years ago as the discussion around audio-over-IP began to take shape. Our thought was – and remains – that it is best to support as many technologies as possible, and over time it became apparent that Dante was growing dramatically in popularity and was something we needed to be working with as a vendor.

“During 2012 and 2013, we worked on the introduction of Dante cards for Soundcraft’s Vi and Si series. By the end of this process, it was clear that the adoption of Dante across the industry had developed to such an extent that we could build it into our Vi3000 console as standard.

“When we first started working on the implementation of Dante with our product range, we decided that the most appropriate approach was to utilise the Dante Brooklyn II module – an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution that allows Dante networking to be integrated into new and existing products. The well-established nature of this product meant that the implementation was really not that stressful – and where there were issues, the Audinate team was on hand to help us resolve them.

“I don’t think Dante is ‘approaching’ a tipping point; it is already there. In particular, I see great potential for Dante as a recording solution, We have also seen customers

P45 AUGUST 2015

Andy Brown

utilise Dante to link multiple Vi3000s together, rather than MADI. Awareness of Dante is increasing all the time, and it is evident that offering Dante operability is a big plus point in the market now.”

Tom Knowles, product manager, broadcast systems, Solid State Logic “With Dante, it became evident that there was an application for the technology to deliver audio-over-IP in broadcast environments. So in 2013 we developed and launched the MADI Dante Bridge to enable SSL digital broadcast consoles, or any other standard MADI device,

Mark Lownds

to connect to Dante networks with full redundancy maintained.

“This was the first in a continuing series of Danterelated products – the most recent of which are two remote controlled SSL Super Analogue mic pre stageboxes, SB 8.8 and SB i16.

“Whereas with some other solutions it seems as if the amount of marketing has exceeded the number of functional devices out there, Dante has an ecosystem of compliant devices and can be widely deployed right now.“In broadcast, we are already seeing people deploying Dante networks to achieve low latency and

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Tom Knowles

Trevor Donarski

high channel counts around a facility; it is this kind of application where the MADI Bridge has achieved traction.

Looking ahead, I think we will also begin to see more use of Dante in other areas of install and for live sound. Dante’s compatibility with the new AES67 interoperability standard should also add further value to the technology.” www.audinate.com www.bose.com www.solid-state-logic.com www.soundcraft.com www.stagetec.com

P46 AUGUST 2015

Feature: ‘Dirty’ mics

Enter Shikari’s Rou Reynolds: shouty shouty! (Photo: Jordan Hughes)

Spit and polish Phil Ward discovers who’s putting the mic into microorganisms – and a new meaning for head-worn

M

icrophone hygiene is not to be sniffed at.

Given their proximity to the lungs, lunges and larynxes of the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall’s Mentho-Lyptus of Fame, it’s easy to see how the daily regime of the touring sound engineer requires a good supply of healthy capsules.

Then there are the bruising encounters that microphones have with drum kits, backline and all acts generally festooned with self-destruct buttons.

There are the pouring pores of stage performers, profuse in the stuff that makes up the other 99 per cent of genius. And there are the rigours of location recording as productions go further and further off piste and the sound guys start to warrant nicknames like Bear ‘Speaker’ Grylls and Jacques a-Cousteau.

One way or another, the humble mic has had to toughen up.

I wanna hold your handheld There have been some campaigns to highlight the health issues of exchanging bodily ferro-fluids. Some of them promote the purchase, rather than the hire, of microphones in the musical community but, as we shall see, in the professional world the money does not habitually go where the mouth is.

In the first place, the routine abuse of microphones on stage is part of rock ’n’ roll folklore. Not to be outdone by the antics of Townshend- and Hendrix-inspired guitar recyclers, nor the rapid deconstruction of drum sets demonstrated by disciples of Keith Moon, rock singers have a small but catapult-like contribution to make: just picture The Who at Woodstock, with Daltrey swinging his mic round by the cable like a cowboy with a lasso. And in case you thought this sort of thing went out with predecimal currency and the space hopper, note our photo of The Blackout’s Gavin Butler this year, doing a Daltrey.

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The more it changes…

Butler is using an Audio-Technica AE6100 hypercardioid dynamic, for singing as well as swinging, from the Artist Elite range. His FOH engineer Ben Hammond is sympathetic. “The Blackout’s AE6100 vocal mics had the hardest time on the road,” he says of the last tour. “Gavin and Sean [Smith] would be constantly launching the mics by their cables, swinging them all over the stage, lassoing things. We had to have really rugged mics for them and we’d have to tape the cables up around the bodies of the mics. They’d also bend the odd grille – which I’d just unscrew and replace – but we could tour for a year and never actually break one of those mics. And not only avoid breaking one: have them still sound like new at the end of the tour.”

Tom Harrold, Audio-Technica’s EMEA marketing manager, reveals the secret. “Robustness and longevity are really key when it comes to Audio-Technica’s live-

P47 AUGUST 2015

oriented Artist Elite and Artist Series mics,” he says. “It’s all well and good designing great sounding live vocal mics, drum mics and the like, but if things are constantly breaking on the road they’re no use to anyone. We take our responsibilities very seriously and it’s incredibly important that sound engineers and artists alike can trust the Audio-Technica mics they tour with. To that end, we tend to over-engineer things like vocal and drum mics, which are either thrown around or hit with sticks during a tour.

The mics feature all-metal construction and significant internal shockmounting to minimise handling noise and damage: the back-cavity assembly of the AE6100 ‘floats’ inside the handle shell, for example.

“In addition,” says Harrold, “the Artist Elite mics have incredibly hardwearing grilles: the outer hardened steel mesh is lined with fine steel mesh and then a layer of open-cell foam to protect the element.” This ensures it remains free from what might Harrold politely calls “mouth moisture” and, “maintains clarity and sonic performance on even long tours”.

Signal-to-nose ratio FOH mainstay Jon Burton is no stranger to these challenges. In fact, he’s coped with one of the most legendary mic manglers of all time. “The first

microphone destroyer I had the pleasure to work with was the great John Otway,” he recounts. “He had a couple of bizarre hits in the late ’70s with sidekick Wild Willy Barrett, and when I had him as a tour support he turned up with a milk crate full of battered SM58s. He would trawl through them until he found the best one. If one was OK, but dented, he was really good at knocking the dents out – with the leg of a mic stand. The reason for the broken mics was primarily a song in the set called Headbutts, where John would headbutt the mic in a simple but effective part of the show. Endlessly amusing and unpredictable, he could go through several mics in a gig. Luckily, he brought his own.

“For another act I work with we have a selection of custom-sprayed mics. We thought it looked good, but primarily it was to locate them on stage. Before doing that, we would have to work out where the singer had put down the radio mic by listening to the spill. By spraying them day-glo colours, the previously dark grey microphones are a lot easier to spot on a black stage only illuminated by near-blinding strobes. My favourite was the day-glo orange version – or maybe green camouflage...”

FOH engineer Jim Warren has already described in the pages of PSNEurope how one of his clients in particular – Nine Inch Nails’ demure frontman Trent

The Blackout live in Birmingham: Gavin Butler with A-T’s Artist Elite AE6100 hyper-cardioid in orbit…

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P48 AUGUST 2015

Feature: ‘Dirty’ mics River DPA, Mountain HIgh

Lavalier taped to cheek for musical Crazy For You, Tecklenburg, Germany: here, sweat, make-up and hairspray are an issue

Sennheiser’s Sebastian Schmitz

Reznor – was in the habit of ‘testing’ the breaking point of the mic inventory with some rigour. At London’s Astoria venue some years ago, he revealed that “quite a lot of death and destruction goes on” as the techs go “into battle” with the band using waterproofing, glue and tape at every step. While Reznor tested to see if a Shure Beta 58 could resist getting “baseballbatted” on stage – it can, apparently – the drum kit represents a similar war zone: “We had to place the kick drum mic, an AT2500J, inside the kick drum,” he explained, essentially keeping it out if harm’s way, adding: “I just did a few of my little tricks, like having an omnidirectional lavalier mic that goes in the middle of the kit. It picks up a little of everything, and you can do all sorts of tricks.”

Sebastian Schmitz, product manager at Sennheiser, regularly measures the limits. “We have very strict mechanical requirements when developing these mics,” he says. “They have to withstand a drop from 2.5m on a steel boom down to a steel plate, which is one of our standard quality tests. Of course, sweat and humidity resistance of the capsule, grill and handle are

David Harcombe has been described as an ‘extreme sound recordist’, and it’s a growing profession. As you might expect, his work frequently turns up on The Discovery Channel: the locations have included Ghana and Siberia. He has actually worked with Bear Grylls, too, and for a recent project he road-tested – or perhaps we should say reservoir-tested – DPA’s new Heavy Duty 4061 lavalier microphone. Strapped to him in waterproof packing, he literally strode into a West London water reserve while filming the test for London-based production company Nicely Wrapped Films.

After a few seconds of bubbly distortion, Harcombe emerged very wet but, crucially, with an entirely unfettered wireless audio feed – giving a whole new meaning to ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ signal in the process.

“As you can see,” he says in the short film, “the transmitter in the aqua-pack is still completely dry and you can still hear me perfectly well – and I got utterly soaked! Looks like that worked, and looks like I’ll be using these on the next job…”

The d:screet Heavy Duty 4061 Omni Microphone is described as DPA’s ‘toughest’, if not the smallest, featuring stainless steel housing, heavy-duty cable relief and a 2.2mm-thick cable. The omnidirectional pattern also helps in sticky situations, where the source might be less than direct. In the theatre, of course, DPA mics get stuck in wherein gels fear to tread: on actors’ cheeks, necks and other discreet locations for vocal pickup. At UK distributor Sound Network, marketing manager Caleb Hill is well aware of all the potential “mic-mares”, as he calls them.

“Oh, there are many,” he says. “Paloma Faith used a d:facto vocal microphone at this year’s Brit Awards, while singing under torrential ‘rain’. We gave them two, just in case, but it worked fine. She actually owns one, but we find that the ‘special’ ones that the artists have actually bought tend to stay in the dressing room! It increases rental stock, I’d say, because the artist will specify their favourite on the rider, having bought one, then they regard it as personal property

The DPA Heavy Duty 4061 Omni

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Caleb Hill, Sound Network

and not for stage use. They certainly don’t remove it from the rider just because they own one.”

“All DPA microphones are designed to be tough and durable,” confirms Ole Moesmann, R&D manager for DPA Microphones in Denmark. “In the case of the d:facto Vocal Microphone, we’ve paid particular attention to ensuring that the mic can be easily cleaned. The modular design makes it easy to take it apart so that the grid and internal foam can be washed and dried, using ordinary water. This prevents it from becoming smelly. How often you need to do this depends on who’s using the mic… whether they smoke, for example.

“It’s more likely to be a requirement for rental companies than individual users. We recognised that cleaning was important, so we made sure it would be easy at the design stage. All DPA mics with a grid can be cleaned – this goes for the body-worn microphones as well. You simply take the grid off and any sweat or theatrical make-up can be washed away.

For the small mics we recommend distilled water.”

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P50 AUGUST 2015

Feature: ‘Dirty’ mics

CARDIOID ARREST

“Mics are used for all kinds of purposes on tour,” reveals Steev A. Toth, seasoned tour manager and FOH engineer, currently criss-crossing Europe with Josh Homme’s Eagles of Death Metal. He says this with a knowing grin, before listing the most demanding end user on his CV. “Huey Morgan of Fun Lovin’ Criminals needs a continual rotation of mics – usually the Crown models with the built-in feedback protection system – because of the effects of sweat and moisture. Every few songs you’d swap, get the mic on a fan or towel, and carry on. It wasn’t the audience, or room humidity… it was him. It’s the vocal technique that’s always the problem.”

There’s another kind of feedback, too, it turns out… “A little bit more to drink than usual, and the beverage ends up in the microphone as well.

Usually a large cup full of tequila or margarita, halfswallowed immediately before the next line of the song. As an engineer you go, right… a little bit more liquid in the mouth than I anticipated, but we’ll deal with it. Some vocalists are spitters, basically.”

remains of lipstick, for example…”

On the subject of lavalier mics, Schmitz says: “If they are taped to the cheek or forehead as in the theatre, sweat, make-up and hairspray are an issue. We’ve taken huge efforts to give the best performance in these conditions. For example, a special protective membrane is applied to the MKE 2 Gold and MKE 1 to prevent sweat entering the mic enclosure. As an additional measure we offer a make-up protection device that seals the mic while make-up or hairspray is applied. Of course, it has to be removed before the show. To remind the crew of this, the colour is signal red!

The next important point is the robustness of the cable, he says. “Here we do extensive quality tests to find the best cable for this application. The connections from cable to microphone capsule and plug are crucial, so we don’t use off-the-shelf components. We design our own solutions, giving much better results.”

Raise your hand if you’re Shure In honour of Messrs Otway and Daltrey – the Shure 565SD dynamic is heralded, in some quarters, as ‘the Woodstock microphone’ after all – we really should ask the makers of this battered brand what makes them so reliable. Tuomo Tolonen is manager, pro audio group, at Shure Distrubution UK: “Shure’s meticulous attention to durability can be traced back to World War II when Shure Brothers Incorporated became one of the prime suppliers of military microphones,” he explains. “For Mr Shure, this was a formidable responsibility. The safety of military personnel depended upon the proper operation of acoustical devices that bore the name of Shure. Needless to say, with the stakes so high, every component great and small became subject to strict quality regulation.”

When World War II ended, Shure decided to maintain military specifications. The higher quality specs resulted in lower scrap rates during manufacturing, fewer repairs and improved product reliability, according to Tolonen. Today, Shure has turned a passion for reliable audio into a science,” he adds. “Every product is subjected to a stress-test gauntlet. Essentially, we

tested as well.”

He also makes a revealing distinction. “Dynamic mics are very robust against humidity, while condenser microphones might get more Mics for La Traviata at Masada could only be set up when temperatures had dropped to something bearable! noisy than normal if exposed to humidity.

To prevent this effect in our flagship stage microphone, the e965, we placed the impedance converter directly at the backplates of both capsule sides, feeding a very robust low-impedance signal from the capsule down to the main electronics in the handle.” Furthermore, both capsule sides are placed in a sealing brass housing to prevent humidity exposure.

“With all our stage microphones, the grille can be removed and the foam inlet can be exchanged – which might be necessary from time to time to remove

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night moves

You can do all the testing and – if you must – ‘ruggedising’ of microphones you like, but sometimes, common sense prevails. At the annual opera performed at Masada, 300m below sea level on the flood plain beside the Dead Sea, Israel, the best way to ensure that the microphones aren’t baked by the soaring daytime temperatures (up to 50°C) is, well, not to take the risk in the first place. Hence, at last year’s flamboyant setting of Verdi’s La Traviata, Sennheiser’s Guillaume Ehret, working alongside leading local hire company Kilim and FOH engineer (and sound designer) Yuval Silberstein (above) , waited until early evening before setting up the 70 digital Sennheiser and Neumann digital microphones (see picture, bottom). Then again, the opera didn’t begin till 9pm, when the climate could be tolerated by human beings! test until something breaks, make any necessary improvements and then we keep going until it can’t be fixed anymore. Once we’re done, we can be confident the product is ready for what the world can throw at it.

“The level of testing is very comprehensive, and involves a brutal quality testing procedure including extreme heat, freezing, synthetic sweat, and, of course, the famous drop test.”

It’s not just the ubiquitous SM58 either; all Shure products are put through a strict and thorough regime, says Tolonen. “In fact, the standard is so high that our condenser mics are just as durable.”

It might be deliberate, it might be accidental; it might be natural, it might be quite the opposite: the things that microphones have to withstand represent the slings and arrows, quite literally, of outrageous fortune. They could cost that, too, if it wasn’t for the Teflon toughness of the industry’s leading models.

Combined with a bit of gaffer tape and a towel, of course.

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P52 AUGUST 2015

Installation

The AELTC – that’s Wimbledon to us mortals

United Kingdom

Forty love The All England Lawn Tennis Club (Championships) Limited – that’s ‘Wimbledon’ to you and me – has upgraded with 40 Dante-ready BSS processors and Crown amplifiers, all supplied by Sound Technology. Simon Duff has a ball

R

G Jones has been providing audio facilities for The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) Championships, the home of Wimbledon, for 30 years. The 2015 remit covers a lot more than it did in 1985: alongside the PA set-ups on all 19 grass courts (loudspeakers include Martin Audio, Bose, JBL, Tannoy and TOA), RG is responsible for a range of intercom systems, radio microphones, a site-wide paging system used for emergency messaging, spectator control and the technology for the inevitable announcements about the weather. The rental and installation company – HQed in Wimbledon, too, of course – also provides extensive broadcast feeds, including umpire microphones, commentary box kit and many corporate presentation elements. The total microphone channel input count runs into the hundreds.

During The Championships fortnight, RG Jones had a team of nine working full-time onsite, headed up by Jon Berry, RG Jones’ installation department’s head of sales and operation alongside Tim Speight, project manager, and Jamie Short, project engineer.

A CobraNet site-wide network was installed at AELTC in 2011 as extra courts were added at the club, expanding the existing Soundweb London open-

architecture network with BSS BLU-800 Soundweb London devices. The system could manage some 256 channels of digital audio; four years later and channel-count demand has grown, requiring a fresh approach and a new linking network.

The existing BSS network has now been upgraded with BSS BLU-806 Dante compatible processors.

It is a big upgrade, in the region of 40 new BSS processors. Fifteen BLU-806 are spread across the PA rack locations, each with a BLU-Link ring within each rack room. These rings connect between six and 12 BLU-160 network signal processors in each rack, together with newly added Crown DCi-N (DriveCore Install) amplifiers, also hooked into the BLU-Link ring.

What was a essentially a CobraNet main network linking four BLU-Link ring is now a Dante main ring linking five BLU-Link rings.

Work to move to a new digital audio linking network started during discussions with the AELTC IT department before the 2014 Championships. Jon Berry and his team felt the time was right for a move to Dante, having worked with it for a number of years, including installation site work at the London 2012 Olympics. Berry adds: “When we were looking at the potential expansion of PA rack rooms at the AELTC we needed to increase the channel count linking them.

www.psneurope.com/installation

From our perspective we have always had to maintain real-time audio. We don’t want the umpire to speak and for there to be a delay to the various listeners

Jon Berry, RG Jones With the limitation in CobraNet of eight channels in a bundle, the time was right for Dante.”

Latency improvement is another factor in the decision. Berry says: “From our perspective we have always had to maintain real-time audio. It is a high priority for us. We don’t want the umpire to speak and for there to be a delay to the various listeners. Set up correctly, Dante can have a latency of less than 150 microseconds. Looking forward to 2016, Dante will allow a digital signal direct from court side.”

Berry is highly complementary about the BSS BLU806 processing. “It is a known, trusted audio platform.

We are very happy with the BSS DSP chips inside it. From a programming point of view, we are very

P53 AUGUST 2015

Centre Court jesters: (L–R) Tim Speight, RG Jones project manager; Jon Berry, RG Jones’ installation department’s head of sales; Jamie Short, project engineer

Jamie Short and one of the four PA racks with BSS BLU-806 Dante processors

comfortable with the workflow and the intuitive way in which we programme it up and it now adds that flexibility of the Dante which is what we require.”

In additional installation work the existing amplifiers are being retired and replaced with the new highly energy efficient Crown DCi-N (Drive Core Install) amplifiers. They are networked versions of DCi (DCi-N) using BSS BLU-Link to connect to the Soundweb system.

“They are much more efficient digital amps with built in monitoring, and extensive processing facilities,” comments Berry. “They are ‘power factorcorrected’, with a selectable power-save auto-standby mode, used outside The Championships, where the amplifier will power down after 30 minutes of no input signal and then consume less than one watt.”

In total, across three of the four rack rooms, some 28 DCi-N amps have been installed, alongside 24 DCi2/300 and 4 DCi-2/600 units.

www.psneurope.com/installation

Ian Cullen, marketing director at Sound Technology, adds: “Thanks to the team at RG Jones, one of the world’s most iconic sporting venues now boasts an exemplary implementation of Harman’s latest BSS and Crown integrated audio system. Trusted relationships, co-operation from all parties throughout the process, and a brilliant technical solution have resulted in the very successful delivery of a significant upgrade for the client.”

Berry agrees: “This kind of development and evolution, taking new technologies into such a prestigious venue will only work if you have got a good relationship with manufacturers and suppliers and with the client to take these bold steps.” www.wimbledon.org www.rgjones.co.uk www.soundtech.co.uk www.bssaudio.co.uk www.crownaudio.com

P54 AUGUST 2015

Installation

Camille Bracher, Marcelino Sambé and Sander Blommaert perform Woolf Works at the Royal Opera House (Photo: Tristram Kenton/ROH)

United Kingdom

Woolf Works, but does Sonicscapes?

Outstanding support from TiMax for artistic events at two London institutions – though critics doubt the concept behind one of them.

Dave Robinson wolf-whistles from the audience

W

oolf Works, Wayne McGregor’s first full-length ballet for the Royal Ballet, performed at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House earlier this year, was met by critics and audiences with high acclaim. (“Exhilarating and ravishingly expressive,” said The Guardian, which awarded it five stars.)

A more recent event, Soundscapes, at the National Gallery, London, exhibiting through August until 6 September, has not been so well received. (“Feeble, wrong-headed and unambitious” – The Guardian again.)

Whatever the media reaction, Out Board’s TiMax was deployed with success for both.

McGregor’s ballet triptych was based on the writing of Virginia Woolf, as viewed through her three major novels: Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves.

The original score by Max Richter was realised for the stage by sound designer Chris Ekers, who successfully brought together a truly complex sound production, incorporating music from a live orchestra, electronic music and sound effects, in an environment typically neither set up for nor suited to amplification.

Ekers comments: “It was evident from the way Max had scored each segment that amplification would be necessary. To allow full creative control, a TiMax SoundHub delay matrix was always going to be a part of my specification, and as things quickly developed it became clear TiMax was the only device able to handle all the elements the production demanded.”

Ekers explains how it simplified things: “TiMax enabled us to very quickly create one interface, from one computer, to control every single loudspeaker without having to go to the desk to attend to each box individually – we just didn’t have that time in the day, plus we’d have been in the sound operator’s way.”

Robin Whittaker from Out Board was on site during rehearsal to help fast-track the TiMax programming in

the tight timescales available.

The show’s second segment, based on the novel Orlando, was scored to utilise a lot of electronic ‘techno’ music. Ekers needed to create energy in the room without it being an overly loud ‘banging club’ level for the audience.

An additional loudspeaker system was positioned upstage, with the techno parts’ low end provided by two sub-bass cabinets positioned onstage inside the proscenium and facing each other, due to the issue of space. These subs were located upstage of the orchestra by about 3.5m but downstage of the main techno speaker system by about 20m, so the timing relationship between them all was critical. “I had to take a risk, explains Ekers, “but it paid off.”

When the techno elements were running, TiMax matrixed it so all audio was delayed back to the onstage system, which then seamlessly segued with the amplified orchestral moments from the live orchestra in the pit. As Ekers points out: “Switching between delay set-ups, when you’ve got a signal path playing electronic music that’s heavily delayed back on to the stage, and then going into a system where you’ve got an acoustic source from the pit – to seamlessly go back and forth – TiMax is really the only device that can do that.”

The upstage loudspeaker system was also used in the third segment, based on The Waves. The positioning of the audio source so far away at the back of the stage made the flow of the sound of waves through the auditorium all the more realistic and effective.

Ekers says: “Both Wayne [McGregor] and Max [Richter] were really pleased with the outcome. They both wanted to embrace as much technology as they could – and having TiMax in place to render and manage what they were trying to achieve, to present it at its absolute best, was very pleasing to them.

www.psneurope.com/installation

We are all over the moon with the high praise the performances and production has received.”

Reactions to Soundscapes at the National Gallery have been less than praiseworthy (“the worst idea the National Gallery has had in years,” wrote one naysayer). Soundscapes showcases the musical interpretation by contemporary composers and artists of six individual artworks of their choice from the gallery. Jon Sheldon, the NG’s senior AV engineer, specified three TiMax SoundHub units to complement the distributed Bowers & Wilkins loudspeaker systems.

Two of the exhibits fully exploit TiMax 3D audio capabilities to support their sonic interpretation of the artists’ chosen artworks: Nico Muhly, who created 20-track output to eight channels plus sub featuring, among other things, more than 40 gently floating viola gambas; and the 38-track soundtrack of Jamie XX, which has its own TiMax SoundHub-S48 for playback and 3D audio spatialisation across 18 channels plus two subs. The Jamie XX system incorporates a surround zone to deliver a full immersive mix at back of room as well as ‘layered’ speakers which gradually fragment the music as the viewer approaches the Pointillist painting at the front of the room.

While some critics have not been impressed, Out Board’s Dave Haydon is philosophical: “We’re happy to be involved with experimental projects that cause controversy. A lot of things we do with TiMax are bleeding edge and pushing the envelope.

“I think it’s to the National Gallery’s credit to try something outside their normal comfort zone, but I’m not surprised that certain of their contemporaries and critics find it hard to open their minds to appreciate Soundscapes in its own context.” www.outboard.co.uk www.roh.org.uk www.nationalgallery.org.uk

P57

Please send all contributions for possible publication to drobinson@nbmedia.com

AUGUST 2015

Hither & sleeper All this gigging and golfing is enough to tire you out completely...

For the third year in a row, Capital Sound’s Martin Audio MLA PA system was on duty at the 10-day British Summer Time Hyde Park festival, culminating with a stupendous performance by The Who. Cap Sound assembled an Optocore optical fibre network for digital signal transmission across the huge site. And once again, the offsite requirements of promoters AEG Live and sound consultants Vanguardia were met with aplomb

Amate Audio hosted its international distributor convention last month, over three days and across a number of locations in the Catalan countryside around its Terrassa HQ, outside of Barcelona. This was the company’s first official event as Amate Audio, following the rebranding of its trading marque from Master Audio at the end of 2014. Around 20 representatives from 13 international distributors attended the summit

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Last month, the annual Sennheiser Charity Golf Day celebrated 20 years of raising money for the Caron Keating Foundation, which supports cancer patients and their families. Of the 80 golfers who teed up at Bearwood Lakes Golf Club, Nigel Green of TMB Events was the eventual winner (pictured, left, with Sennheiser’s Paul Whiting).

PSNEurope columnist Dave Wiggins was second.

Nice work, Wiggy!

Max Richter’s landmark piece Sleep will receive its world premiere this September in Berlin, in a concert performance lasting eight hours – from midnight to 8am – at which the audience will be given beds instead of seats and programmes. We assume the sound engineers will be doing shifts…

P58 AUGUST 2015

Backtalk

Paul Hurt

Today the gear for capturing a live concert is more likely to be within the venue than outside in big truck. But the skills and need for good quality equipment remain the same, finds Kevin Hilton…

P

aul Hurt, of London-based LX3 Live Recording, is a freelance sound recordist and specialising in multitracking and mixing live shows.

Over the last 10 years he has recorded a whole range of artists in a variety of venues, from Gary Numan in IndiO2, Fairport Convention at their Cropredy festival, Magazine (Manchester Academy), Thunder (HMV Hammersmith Apollo) and Richard Marx (Shepherd’s Bush Empire) to Madonna (Olympia, Paris), The Vaccines (King’s College London), Plan B (Edinburgh Picture House) and Florence and the Machine (Royal Albert Hall), as well as I Want My MTV Ibiza and the Exit Festival 2011 in Serbia.

Most of his work is for television, MTV, Channel 4 and others, or online video, including YouTube promos, with some pure audio recording for live albums and bonus tracks.

What equipment do you use?

These days I’m all MADI-based but still employing a traditional transformer mic split and preamps. I’m currently using a pair of DAD AX32 preamp/converters (64 inputs) sending MADI to RME and Direct Out interfaces with a MacBook Pro, plus a JoeCo BBR64 MADI recorder as safety.

But it depends – for other shows I take a pair of rackmount PCs with MADI cards, and sometimes when I have to travel light I leave the preamps and splitter at home and take MADI direct from the front-of-house or monitor desk or rack.

For multitracks I’m using Cubase Pro 8 on a MacBook Pro. I also use it on my two rackmount PCs when I’m using them live. Of all the DAWs and other recording software I’ve used, Cubase has been the most flexible and reliable. But if you’re working with a digital system like MADI or Dante then what you’re recording on to becomes irrelevant. I wouldn’t say that laptop recording is any more or less reliable than a

JoeCo but in some respects it does give more insights into what you’re doing in terms of metering and waveforms.

It’s a matter of adapting to the situation, but sometimes I still get a front-of-house engineer who asks whether my truck is parked outside.

What’s your biggest success to date?

Possibly my favourite job from the last 10 years was mixing Everything Everything performing with full orchestra, streamed live online from the Union Chapel. I love the band but hadn’t heard these arrangements before we went live, so I was in at the deep end.

More recently, we looked after the broadcast sound from the Big Top for Sky Arts’ Isle of Wight Festival coverage. Our slightly unconventional set-up of having separate on-site tracking and mixing teams worked great. Normally on jobs with such a short turnaround for broadcast everything would be mixed live, but I think our approach produced better results on a tighter budget.

What’s the biggest challenge coming up?

I’m gradually adding Dante networking, using the DAD system as the front end. There’s a lot to contend with to make it work, however, and one or two pieces of the puzzle are still missing. MADI still rules in terms of simplicity and reliability, especially for recording applications.

services, YouTube videos, social media, broadcast television and online streaming of shows.

It’s no longer simply a matter of an artist releasing one or two live albums and maybe a DVD over their career. Fans expect to see what their favourite artists are doing week to week now, so any time an artist goes out on the road it’s almost essential from a promotional point of view that selected performances get out to a wider audience somehow.

Has new technology made live recording easier?

In terms of the size and weight of the equipment needed, yes. Things like MADI and better, smaller, cooler-running mic preamps have made the task progressively easier over the last 10 years. But the seismic change in live recording really took place with the emergence of large track-count hard-disk recording about 15 years ago, so there were no more two-inch tape machines or banks of eighttrack digital tape recorders.

However, the basic principles still apply: You can’t beat an analogue split and good transformers – and that kit hasn’t got any lighter. Nor have mics, cables, stands, clamps, a good UPS and so on.. That’s the kit that can make or break a recording.

There’s a popular rumour that all you need to record live these days is a laptop and a copy of Pro Tools. Not if you want to do it well, though.

Is the business substantially different today?

What technical innovation would make your job easier or recordings even better?

Absolutely. I think the market for live recordings has changed for the same reasons that the whole music market has changed. There are now so many more outlets for an artist’s work than there were: physical audio and video formats, iTunes sales, streaming

In an ideal world, every member of the audience would be close-miked. It would be an extreme to go to but it would give a special result and bands that could afford it would reap the rewards. www.lx3.co.uk

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