RASTATT, Germany Despite an

extended period of restructuring, the

French company Innovason SAS has
been formally dissolved. Its products
and trademarks are now wholly owned
by Lawo AG, based here, which had first
acquired a majority share of Innovason
back in April 2008.
I have believed in the brand from the
beginning, said Lawo CEO, Philipp Lawo.
I admire innovation which has always
been a driving force for the development
of Innovason products.
Lawo acknowledged that, despite
Lawos intervention in 2008, the compa-
ny was still not able to realize its full po-
tential. But he added that, now that the
brand is fully integrated into the Lawo
structure, I am confident that together
we can achieve success.
Were all excited by Lawos technical
resources and renewed prospects for the
Innovason brands future, added Kevin
Madden, president of NeyLex, Innova-
sons U.S. distributor.
Now that the Innovason products
have become part of the range offered
by Lawo in Rastatt, it means that the
continuity of the brand is guaranteed,
said Marcel Babazadeh, Innovason inter-
national sales director. Babazadeh add-
ed that Lawo, with more than 40 years of
experience in pro audio technology, was
committed to maintaining the heritage
of Innovason, including the continued
development of the Eclipse platform,
with more resources available to us
than ever before.
Along with Babazadeh, who remains
international sales director, other key
execs on Innovasons former manage-
ment team have been retained by Lawo
to continue developing the brand. They
include Herv de Caro, who has been
named product manager for Eclipse;
Nicolas Gozdowski, who will continue
in his role as
service engi-
neer; and Ben-
oit Quiniou in
R&D.
Im also
d e l i g h t e d
to welcome
the new col-
leagues on
board, all now key members of the Lawo
team responsible for Innovason, said
Lawo. It is the dawning of a new chapter
of innovations. Were all looking forward
to a new and promising future in the live
sound market together.
DECEMBER 2011 Vol. 10 No.03
Katy Perry: The Sound and the Spectacle
PEOPLE. PRODUCTION. GEAR. GIGS.
Lawo Acquires Innovason, Retains Key
Members of Former Management Team
www.ProAudioSpace.com/join
Road Test
Xilica Audio Design is a manufacturer
of stand-alone DSP systems. We take a
look at their 4x8 XD-4080.
Speaking of Speakers
Why it makes sense to carefully place
and direct cardioid subwoofers, and
how to best do it in dierent venues.
24
28
Self-Powered
Subwoofers
Katy Perrys taste for spectacle and willingness to rue a few feathers has helped her
match Michael Jacksons all-time record of ve #1 pop-chart singles on a single album. Peter Kep-
pler mixes Perry on an Avid Prole, the tour included a Clair arena system, and Erin LaReau has
provided the artist with four blinged-up Sennheiser SKM 5200I wireless handheld mics to help
the star strut her stu. (For the full story, turn to Production Prole, page 20.)
This months Buyers Guide features
gear from D.A.S., dB Technologies, EAW,
Electro-Voice, JBL, K-array, L-Acoustics,
Mackie, Martin Audio, Meyer Sound,
Outline, Peavey, QSC (KSub pictured
here), RCF, Renkus-Heinz, Turbosound,
WorxAudio and Yamaha. For full details,
turn to page 26.
BUENA PARK, CA Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. an-
nounced the development of the MY8-LAKE processing card for Yama-
ha digital products.
The new card, to be distributed worldwide by Yamaha starting
in the spring of 2012 with a target MSRP of $3,200, adds new Lake
Technology to PM5D, PM5D-RH, M7CL, LS9, DM2000, DM1000, 02R96,
and 01V96 digital consoles, as well as DSP5D Expander, DME24N/64N
processors and TXn power ampliers.
The MY8-LAKE includes Lake Processing features such as Mesa EQ,
Ideal Graphic EQ, Linear-Phase Crossover and other tuning elements
found in the DSP expansion card. While compact, the cards process-
ing power allows for up to 8 inputs/8 outputs in Mesa mode (system
EQ), 4 inputs/12 outputs in Contour mode (crossover), or combina-
tions of the above to suit the application.
Flexible I/O conguration via the consoles insert points and the
cards AES/EBU connectors,
along with the ability to
run at 96 or 48 kHz, paves
the way for the integra-
tion of Lake Processing
into any live sound sys-
tem. Yamaha products
that support multiple card
slots can also make use of
Lake Processing Added to Yamaha Digital Products

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Philipp Lawo
MY8-LAKE processing card for Yamaha products
continued on page 6

DECEMBER
2011
Vol. 10.3
www.fohonline.com
Features
Britannia Row supported two national anthems and
the Goo Goo Dolls at the NFLs fth-annual Interna-
tional Series game in London.
Bears, Bucs and Brits
W
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FOH-at-Large
With a little creative accounting, an enterprising
soundco can make money the new-fashioned
way: by eecing investors.
36
14 New Gear
From Celestion, D.A.S. , DiGiCo, JBL, JH Audio,
NEXO, PreSonus, QSC Audio, Radial, Sennheiser,
Shure and Soundcraft.
18 Showtime
Darius Rucker/NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase,
Allegan Oktoberfest, DeLuna Fest 2011, Foo
Fighters tour, Longwood University Oktoberfest,
Frankie Valli and The Beach Boys (Bushkill, PA)
20 Production Prole
Katy Perrys California Dreams tour included
a few tense moments as the miked artist ew
around the cotton-candy clouds in her Candy-
fornia world of make-believe completely in
front of the PA system.
24 Road Test
Xilica Audio Designs 4x8 XD-4080, tested with
the Jacksonville Symphonys 18-year-old JBL
Architectural Series PA system.
26 Buyers Guide: Self-Powered Subs
From D.A.S., dB Technologies, EAW, Electro-
Voice, JBL, K-array, L-Acoustics, Mackie, Martin
Audio, Meyer Sound, Outline, Peavey, QSC, RCF,
Renkus-Heinz, Turbosound, WorxAudio and
Yamaha.
28 Speaking of Speakers
In four easy steps, you can create directional
subwoofer arrays and give the low end a
dramatic boost at weddings, corporate events
and other small gigs.
31 On the Digital Edge
Digital acionado David Morgan still pined for
his non-digital tap delay until he discovered
Waves H-Delay plugin.
32 Theory and Practice
Theres no such thing as a reject lter to weed
out bad musicians, but you can target and stop
other problems at the source with low-pass,
band-pass and band-reject (a.k.a. notch) lters.
33 The Biz
Times have been tough for audio engineers
since late 2008, but there are rays of hope for
2012. One of them is the resurgence in mid-
sized music clubs.
34 Sound Sanctuary
When it comes to the holidays, sometimes
the best present you can give to yourself (and
others) is to just say No to those offering more
gigs than you can handle.
4 Editors Note
5 News
11 International News
13 On the Move
14 New Gear
18 Showtime
Katherine Jenkins at Wembley Stadium
G
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Columns
Departments
Editors Note
DECEMBER 2011 www.fohonline.com
4
By MarkFrink
Publisher & Editorial Director
Terry Lowe
tlowe@fohonline.com
Editor
Mark Frink
mfrink@ fohonline.com
Managing Editor
Frank Hammel
fh@fohonline.com
Tech Editor
John Murray
jmurray@fohonline.com
Senior Staff Writer
Kevin M. Mitchell
kmitchell@fohonline.com
Loudspeaker Editor
Phil Graham
pgraham@fohonline.com
Contributing Writers
Dan Daley, James Elizondo,
Daniel M. East, David John Farinella,
Steve LaCerra, Baker Lee, Jeff
MacKay, David Morgan, Bennett
Prescott, Jamie Rio, Dave Stevens
Art Director
Garret Petrov
gpetrov@fohonline.com
Production Manager
Victoria Scott
vl@fohonline.com
Web Master
Josh Harris
jharris@ fohonline.com
PAS Blog Master
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evan@fohonline.com
National Sales Manager
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dh@fohonline.com
Sales Managers
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mh@fohonline.com
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md@fohonline.com
General Manager
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Front Of House (ISSN 1549-831X) Volume 10 Num-
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permission of Front Of House.
W
ith the New Year approaching, we
make lists and promises for the next
trip around the sun.
I recently visited the shop of a major
sound company where an entire room of
top-shelf rider-friendly analog outboard
equipment was collecting dust because most
mixing now occurs inside the box of digital
consoles on tours, in venues and at festivals,
eliminating outboard gates, compressors,
and, to a lesser degree, EQ and eects.
The digital workow advantage, based
on the consoles le, rather than the hardware
itself, dictates that if its not part of the digi-
tal mixing system, it is cumbersome. All the
enhancements to the console must be soft-
ware-based plugins so they can be incorpo-
rated to le-based workow.
In the back of that sound shop sat a row
of Midas analog consoles a stable of thor-
oughbreds out to pasture. Come next July 4
th

(this year its a Wednesday) otherwise empty
shops will be using a Heritage 3K to prop the
door open and get a breeze. If they were all
on eBay at once, the price of used analog gear
would plummet. Meanwhile the day has ar-
rived when engineers need nothing more to
manage their event and its documents and
les than an iPhone or iPad.
The new iPhone 4S has users retiring per-
fectly good older iPhones. Its easy to toss it
in a drawer just in case, but actually putting
it to use is not only smart, it helps rationalize
that new 4S, providing a guilt-free upgrade.
With that in mind, below are 40 apps for your
old (and new) iPhone. Merry Christmas.
An app bought for one iOS device, by the
way, can be loaded to another on the same
account for free. Unless noted, the following
are free (although some have in-app purchas-
es and others require a paid version to lose
the banner ad):
AKG Wireless monitors DMS 700, WMS
4000/4500 and IVM 4 IEMs. Powered By
Crown ($4) controls networked Crown I-Tech,
I-Tech HD, and Macro Tech I amps.
Remote controls iTunes on Macs over
WiFi. AC-7 Core Mini ($5) remote controls
most DAWs. Ludwig Metronome has tap
tempo.
AccuWeather beat the National Weather
Service in Indianapolis by 16 minutes. RTA
Lite and Fourier Lite provide handy frequen-
cy references. UE SPL checks concert SPL.
White Space shows TV channels for un-
licensed wireless. ProAudioCalc calculates
amp size, output and speaker SPL. WaveCalc
($2) converts frequency, half-wavelength and
time. TiltMeter is a bubble-level and incli-
nometer.
Touch Mouse provides a WiFi trackpad
and keyboard for PCs. System Status Lite
monitors iPhones CPU. Speedtest tests
WiFi speeds. WiFi Finder and Skype for
WiFi make great travel companions, as does
FlightAware.
Blue FiRe eld recorder goes with Blue
Mikey. iProRecorder ($1) one-touch record-
ing from BIAS. NightRecorder ($3) stealth
records while iPhone is in standby. KASB
Sound Player ($2) plays sound les back for
SFX, walk-ons or announcements.
Reactable ($10) plays loop-based music,
used on Bjrks Volta tour. Soundrop draws
lines to make sounds; good earphone fun.
Songify turns recorded speech in songs.
Dozens of ashlights, but my favorite
is Light. It can be strobed, and it blinks SOS
when shaken. Mag Light uses both camera
and light to look at small things in the dark,
like serial numbers in the back of racks.
Billboard Charts tracks top 10 songs
(watch Katy Perry make history). LiveMusic
($3) shows local concerts from Pollstars da-
tabase.
PayPal and eBay are better than on your
PC. Invoice2go Lite manages 3 invoices at
once. Truck Loader ($1) names load list road
cases and sorts them by row and layer.
JotNot uses iPhones camera to scan.
eFax faxes. Camera Plus upgrades iPhones
camera. PhotoShop Express tweaks images.
Night Camera ($1) takes shake-free low-light
venue snapshots.
Dont forget USA Today, New York Times,
and FRONT of HOUSE (pictured below) to
catch up on news. Christmas is a holiday
favorite. Resolutions and iResolve organize
New Years resolutions.
My New Years resolution is to be more
green. Every day we make choices. Now that
there are high-eciency ampliers, its pos-
sible to replace old amps and save enough
money on electricity to pay for the new ones.
Like buying a Prius, energy savings can pay
for the purchase over time. This year will see
energy ecient amps begin to pay o on
tours as venues start to charge for electric-
ity at settlement, using meters on company
switches.
Merry Christmas, friends. May your tree
be lit with LEDs. Heres to 2012.
Wish Mark Frink an appy New Year at mfrink@
fohonline.com.
Publishers of...
Appy Holidays and Recycled Resolutions
BOULDER, CO The X192 AES standards
task group, which is seeking to expand interop-
erability between audio networking products
from dierent manufacturers, is being chaired by
Kevin Gross, who conceived and developed Co-
braNet and has helped QSC deploy Q-LAN.
Gross noted that X192, once implemented,
could provide manufacturers with the means to
remain with network technology they are invest-
ed in, while also interfacing with products that
support other networks.
X192-enabled devices are using existing
protocols, including the IEEE 1733 variant of
AVB, Dante, Livewire, Q-LAN and RAVENNA, to
be interoperable able, Gross noted, able to
exchange audio data while operating under vari-
ous proprietary Layer 3 protocols.
Alternately, Gross added, manufacturers
may nd that X192, once fully developed, will
meet all their criteria and may decide to imple-
ment it as their only networking protocol. QSC
Audio Products, LLC and Telos Systems Axia Au-
dio division have become sponsoring members
supporting Grosss work.
Gross added that manufacturers and us-
ers can both benet by using Layer 3 network
technology and applying existing IP protocols
such as IEEE 1588, RTP and DiServ as a way to
meet the challenge of distributing high channel-
count, low-latency, uncompressed digital audio,
with benets including compatibility with o-
the-shelf network hardware, scalability, manage-
ability and acceptance by IT professionals.
When youre working in the IP environ-
ment, there are a limited number of ways to
mix and match existing pieces to implement an
audio network, Gross noted. So its inevitable
that IP-based solutions will have similarities. As
I surveyed various implementations, it became
apparent that these similarities provided an op-
portunity for interoperability.
The task group membership is comprised of
representatives from prominent audio manufac-
turers including ALC NetworX and members of
the RAVENNA consortium, network equipment
and component manufacturers and key end us-
ers.
Gross experience includes involvement with
the systems and network design in projects uti-
lizing audio networking, including Wembley
Stadium, the U.S.
Senate, the 2000
Olympics in Sydney
and theme parks
such as Disneys An-
imal Kingdom and
Tokyo DisneySea.
Gross also holds
several patents, has
written papers and
articles and pre-
sented on numerous AV networking topics. In
2006 he was awarded an AES fellowship for his
contributions to digital audio networking.
2011 DECEMBER www.fohonline.com
5
News
AES X192 Standards Group, Led by Kevin Gross, Seeks to Expand Audio Networking Interoperability
Kevin Gross
Riedel Opens Moscow Ofce
MOSCOW
Riedel Commu-
nications opened
a branch oce in
Moscow recently.
The new oce, the
10th branch oce
for the company, was opened in response to de-
mand for the companys products in Eastern Eu-
rope, including Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The
company also maintains oces in the U.S., Asia
U.K., Europe and Australia.
Now that were starting our own oce in
Moscow, we have the opportunity to establish a
more direct contact with our existing customers
here, said Yevgen Khovanskyi. This way Riedel
can provide a more direct service for existing and
new customers within this area.
Recent projects in this region include the
studio installation at Kiev-based broadcast net-
work STB, Moscow-based broadcast network
RBK and ANO Sports Broadcasting. The new of-
ces contact information follows: Riedel Commu-
nications, Petrovka st. 27, 107031 Moscow, Russian
Federation; Tel. +7495 956 04 72.
Riedel at NATEXPO in Moscow
LOS ANGELES
For the fourth
year, nominees
for the annual
Grammy Awards
were announced
on The Grammy
Nomi nat i ons
Concert Live, a
one-hour show
that was broadcast from Nokia Theatre Nov. 30.
The nominees, named by voting members
of The Recording Academy, were an eclectic
mix. Fourteen-time Grammy winner Kanye
West topped the eld with seven nominations;
Adele, Foo Fighters and Bruno Mars each gar-
nered six nods; and Lil Wayne and Skrillex each
are up for ve awards.
Drake, producers/songwriters Paul Ep-
worth, Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine, Nicki
Minaj, Mumford & Sons, Radiohead, Rihanna
and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) each received four
nominations. Best New Artist nominations went
to The Band Perry, Bon Iver, J. Cole, Nicki Minaj
and Skrillex. The 54th Annual Grammy Awards
are set for Feb. 12, 2012.
Kanye West Tops 54th
Grammy Nominations
Kanye and Jay Z at the 2011 VMAs
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BATON ROUGE, LA More than 200 au-
dio engineers, technically-minded musicians
and media gathered at the Shaw Cen-
ter for the Arts Nov. 19 for PreSonus
rst user conference, PreSonuSphere.
The one-day event, with a Ca-
jun dinner and entertainment from
LAngelus and Phat Hat the night be-
fore, included a double-track of ses-
sions covering StudioLive digital mix-
ers and Studio One audio recording
and production software.
There were two sessions in the
morning and four after lunch, followed
by a closing panel discussion that in-
cluded PreSonus CEO Jim Mack, founder/
president Jim Odom and CTO Bob Tudor.
Featured presenters included Ace Baker,
Byron Gaither, Doug Gould, Jonathan Hill-
man, Scott Harrell, Rick Naqvi, Rhett Mouton,
Mike Rivers, Paul Gilbert and Craig Anderton.
Studio One lead developers Wolfgang
Kundrus and Matthias Juwan, who are based
in Germany, were available for questions and
customer feedback throughout the day.
The attendance at PreSonuSphere ex-
ceeded our expectations noted PreSonus
Mack. I would have been pleased had this
been our third PreSonuSphere. For a rst time
out, Im extremely impressed. Plans are now
underway for PreSonuSphere 2012.
News
continued from cover
multiple cards.
Lake Controller software installed
on a compatible Windows PC oers us-
ers control of the MY8-LAKE and other
Lake devices in the system, and compat-
ibility with Smaart sound system mea-
surement software promises smooth,
ecient speaker system tuning. Over
1,000 speaker presets are accessible to
optimize performances in a wide array
of spaces.
Lake Processing Added to
Yamaha Digital Products
First Annual PreSonuSphere Audio Conference Draws 200+ Attendees
PreSonuSphere 2011
TORONTO Adamson Systems Engineer-
ing named MPM France and SLS as beta partners
for its Project Energia program. France is a key Eu-
ropean territory for Adamson, with more than 30
vendors carrying the Y-Axis and SpekTrix series.
MPM, established in 1990 in northeastern
France, employs more than 30 in its warehouse
and works with more than 100 freelancers. It
supports more than 15 tours and provides rental
services for more than 1,200 shows annually. The
soundco, which also supports with festivals in-
cluding Carcansonne and Les Voix de Gaou, has
more than 500 Adamson cabinets in its inven-
tory.
Marc Morosini, director general of MPM, got
the chance to visit Canada last fall to listen to one
of the rst nished prototypes of the E15 system,
and credited it as oering more power than any
other cabinet, in a smaller and lighter package...it
is the system of the future, available today.
SLS, with a 36,000 square-foot facility in Ales
and a second location in Montpellier, has 15 full-
time and 140 freelance employees, and its loud-
speaker inventory is comprised exclusively of Ad-
amson products. Though SLS is focused mainly
on festivals and corporate events, they provide
sound production for a few tours, including Les
Ogres Barback (a.k.a. The Ogre) currently on tour
with SLSs new Adamson E15 system.
We started as a small local company with
some enthusiastic technicians and have since
steadily attracted bigger and better jobs, said
Leon van Empel, SLS owner and production
manager. We were very excited to get our hands
on the new E15. van Empel also commended
Adamsons French distributor DV2 for its gear
and service.
In addition to MPM and SLS in France, in-
ternational Energia beta partners include Big
Daddy Entertainment Group (Indonesia), Eighth
Day Sound Systems (U.S./U.K.), Fluge Sonido Pro-
fesional (Spain) and Wigwam Acoustics (U.K.)
MPM, SLS Join Adamsons
Project Energia in France
The crews from MPM (top) and SLS (bottom) with E15 gear
News
DECEMBER 2011
8
www.fohonline.com
LAS VEGAS For the recent iHeartRadio
Music Festival, sponsored by Clear Channels
iHeartRadio social media network and staged at
the MGM Grand Arena, Firehouse Productions
provided a full complement of JBL VerTec speak-
ers and subwoofers.
The event featured performances by Jay-Z,
Alicia Keys, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj,
Kenny Chesney, Jennifer Lopez, Usher, The Black-
eyed Peas, Sting, Rascal Flatts, Alicia Keys, Cold-
play, Sting and other top acts.
Firehouse provided main left-right arrays
comprised of 17 JBL VerTec VT4889 large-format
line array elements each, accompanied by two
own arrays of a dozen VT4880A subwoofers.
Firehouse also provided JBL VT4888 mid-size
line arrays for side coverage and JBL VT4887
compact line array enclosures for front lls, plus
two ground-stacked columns of three VT4889
loudspeakers, each on top of three VT4880A
subwoofers. Crown I-Tech 12000 HD ampliers
powered the system using JBLs new VerTec V5
DSP settings.
With a show this size, there are dierent
rehearsals taking place at dierent times, all
with information and settings that need to be
conveyed back to the main system, noted Mark
Dittmar, Firehouses lead design and integration
engineer.
He credited the VerTec line arrays ease of
setup for helping the production ow smooth-
ly, and the V5 preset software upgrade for the
VerTec system. The high end is much smoother.
The V5 presets also solve all kinds of midrange is-
sues, and the low-end response is amazing, Dit-
tmar said. Some acts used the entire headroom,
pushing all the amps to the max, and even when
touching the limit, it sounded linear and smooth.
Its always nice when you dont have to
worry about pushing a system too hard and can
just let it y,Dittmar continued. Its great to have
the performance upgrade without having to
buy new equipment. The software upgrade was
done in a half-hour, and we were ready to go.
Firehouse Supports
iHeartRadio Festival
at MGM Grand Arena
The setup included an ample assortment of JBL gear
WESTMINSTER, CA Korean First Pres-
byterian Church of Orange County, a mega
church with over a thousand members and a
30-year history, recently upgraded with QSCs
KLA line array.
Aviwork, Inc. of Fullerton, CA handled the
installation and was tasked with designing a
solution to meet the challenges of the shal-
low, wide sanctuary, which has a number of
balconies.
With the former system, congregation
members in the corners, on the balconies
and underneath them werent able to hear
the sermons. After visiting the church several
times and analyzing the audio problems, Avi-
work recommended QSCs KLA as the solu-
tion.
I have been interested in the KLA since
its recent release. Its got an easy rigging sys-
tem, a good price point and it sounds great,
said Hosung Leem, senior AV consultant at
Aviwork. Believe it or not, I didnt even hear
the KLA System before recommending it to
the church. I didnt have to. Ive had so many
good experiences with QSC loudspeakers
that I already knew the KLA would be great.
The new KLA System has elicited praise from
the pastors as well.
OC Mega-Church Installs KLA System
The QSC gear at Korean First Presbyterian Church of Orange County
2011 DECEMBER www.fohonline.com
9
News
Jazz at Lincoln Centers Allen Room Equipped with Melodie System
NEW YORK After a year spent audition-
ing audio systems, Doug Hosney, director of
production at Jazz at Lincoln Center, opted
for a Meyer Sound Melodie system. The new
system includes two arrays of eight Melodie
line array loudspeakers each hung below two
500-HP subwoofers, with two more 500-HP
subs on the oor.
The 500-capacity Allen Room based
on the design of a Greek amphitheatre
has a 50-by-90-foot glass window backdrop
overlooking Columbus Circle and is one of
three live music venues
at Jazz at Lincoln Cen-
ter. It hosts a variety of
events, and it recently
became the home of
Anderson Coopers
new show, Anderson.
We do a lot of jazz
concerts, noted Hos-
ney. It may be a big
band, a solo, a small
jazz combo, or a blues
concert. Many of the instruments sounded
great acoustically, but we needed to lift the
piano or the bass a little bit. We needed a
way to do that as transparently as possible so
they blended with the acoustic energy in the
room. We also needed something very musi-
cal that had the right texture so that it would
blend with acoustic instruments; as well as
handle a totally amplied performance. Our
goal was an accurate representation of what
was happening in the room.
We listened to several systems over the
course of almost a year, Hosney continued.
Overall, the Meyer Sound system delivered
the highest quality and served all of our
needs. The one event that probably clinched
it for me was an impromptu appearance by
Arlo Guthrie: It was perfectly seated right
where it belonged, yet it was clearly amplied
and you could hear it everywhere.
Along with the two 8-box Melodie arrays,
two UPJ-1P loudspeakers provide reinforce-
ment above to each side of the mezzanine,
with two UPJ-1P loudspeakers on both sides
serving as front lls and a center reference
between the arrays. Six UP-4XP loudspeakers
are placed on the front edge of the stage. A
pair of Galileo 616 processors provides sys-
tem drive and processing.
All performances produced by Jazz at
Lincoln Center are recorded for broadcast on
SiriusXM satellite radio and on Jazz at Lincoln
Center Radio. The Allen Room also employs
a Soundcraft Vi6 digital console, and a full
complement of microphones including mod-
els by AKG, Neumann, DPA, and Earthworks.
The own arrays Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center
TORONTO Duran Durans longtime
FOH engineer, Snake Newton, supported
the bands recent North American tour with
Adamsons Project Energia. The six-week tour
was a build up for Duran Durans All You Need
is Now album, due for release in early 2012.
Energia beta partner Eighth Day Sound out of
Cleveland provided the system and crew for
all of the North American dates.
When Snake gave us the thumbs up
to be the rst on tour with Energia in North
America, our team was ecstatic, said Jesse
Adamson, Adamsons director of marketing
and sales. Snake and Eighth Day Sound pro-
vided a awless performance on the North
American debut of Energia in Phase 1. The
results could not have been better.
When I was approached to test-drive
Energia in the beta phase, I had absolutely
no reservations, said Newton. Eighth Day
Sound provided great support on the
tour, and the E15 delivered every time.
The mid-range denition and low mid
punch is incredible, and there was
no sign of power compression at any
point.
Adamson have always produced
great speakers, and I look forward to
seeing the next phase completed,
Newton added. With the amp and DSP
in the box, consistency will be guaran-
teed in every territory throughout the
world, along with many exciting array
control possibilities which cannot easily be
achieved by currently available systems.
Eighth Day Sound systems engineer Kyle
Walsh oversaw the daily system design, in-
stallation and alignment. The E15 rigging is
very simple to use, he said. The angles are
indicated with a combination of color cod-
ing and numbers, and all angles are set on
the ground. There is no lifting required, so I
was able to preset everything in the morning
without the help of stagehands. The bumper
and extender bar are lightweight, and they
travel on the stack. Tuning was a breeze, as
the box sounded great out of the gate.
Snake Newton Supports Duran Duran with Energia
Fromleft, Charles ChopperBradley (monitors) and Snake Newton (FOH)
KNOXVILLE, TN The engineers
supporting the 2011 Alison Krauss &
Union Station (AKUS) Paper Airplanes
tour, including FOH engineer Cliff Mill-
er and monitor team Bernie Velluti and
daughter Haley, have been using DiGiCo
SD10 consoles. Miller specified the dual
consoles used for the tour after first try-
ing them out for AKUS at Merlefest in
2010.
Miller credited the consoles for
their consis-
tent, clean
sound qual-
ity. Mixing
an acoustic
band like
this is prob-
ably one of
the more
chal l engi ng
things for a
digital con-
sole... its re-
ally the sum
of all the
parts and
what goes into the console that affects
what comes out. Theres a lot of detail
with stringed instruments that you nev-
er hear with electric guitars and a lot of
the other typical rock n roll instruments.
Its important to understand the
sound of these instruments, because
when theyre amplified, its literally a
balancing act to get that right blend
where the sound system is equalized
and isolated enough to keep the instru-
ment resonance minimal and as natural
as possible, and the low-end frequen-
cies maintained, Miller continued. And
that can change, too, depending on the
facility and whether its indoor vs. out-
doors.
Outdoor sheds with vinyl roofs
over the audience are a real challenge.
Theres a lot of reflection even when you
make a point of keeping the PA out of
it. Its very live, Miller added. I find that
even in the varying circumstances, once
I get the overall PA tuned the way it
needs to be, then my presets work well
from day to day, inside or outside, pretty
consistently.
The only thing that may change is
the EQ from day to day, Miller contin-
ued, noting how Ron Block, on banjo/
guitar, has the ability to change the EQ
on his Fishman Aura DI, depending on
what hes hearing in his ears. That affects
what Im getting at front of house, so I
just compensate for that on a daily ba-
sis. I let him get it to suit his taste, and
then I set it to suit mine!
Alison Krauss Tours with Dual DiGiCo SD10s
Audio engineers Bernie Velluti, Haley Velluti and CliMiller
News
www.fohonline.com
DECEMBER 2011
10
SAN ANTONIO, TX Known throughout
Mexico for his Nortea and Banda
(brass inuenced) musical styles, Es-
pinosa Paz following is expanding on
both sides of the Mexican border.
For U.S. shows, Adrian Gallegos,
co-owner of Global Productions,
serves as both the tours production
manager and monitor engineer, sup-
porting Pazs performances with a
D.A.S. Audio Aero 12A, Aero 8A, and
Aero 50 line array loudspeaker sys-
tems and LX-218A subwoofers.
We go from arenas to theaters to
nightclubs, so I have to be able to handle a wide
range of performance spaces,said Gallegos. For
many shows they y a dozen Aero 12s per side,
supported by a half-dozen stacked LX-218A
subwoofers per side.
Weve also been using D.A.S.s large-format,
3-way active Aero 50 line array enclosures for
the largest venues like arenas and big theaters,
Gallegos noted. When we use the Aero 50s, we
typically y eight per side, using the LX-218A
subs for low-end support. He also uses Aero
8A ultra-compact line array enclosures for front
lls.
I love the versatility, Gallegos said, also
crediting Aero Series 2 for ease of setup, tear
down, transport and sound quality. Although
nightclubs are never easy to set up, Gallegos
noted, its very easy to rig six or eight boxes of
Aero 12As per side. We can hang these loud-
speakers from Genie lifts without any prob-
lems, and they also work well when we need to
ground-stack.
The fact that these are self-powered makes
system cabling considerably easier, Gallegos
added. Further, the DSP capabilities for loud-
speaker management are excellent and, since
the power amps are built right into the rear of
the enclosures, the end result is much faster and
simplied setup and tear-down.
Global Productions Tour With Espinosa Paz
From left, Adrian Gallegos and Michael Horn, president of American Audio
Visual with D.A.S. gear
VIENNA, VA For the 7,000-seat Filene
Center at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Per-
forming Arts, Matt Snyder and other IATSE Local
22 crewmembers upgraded the loudspeaker
system with JBL VerTec VT4886 subcompact line
array elements and VT4883 subwoofers.
Opened in 1984, the rebuilt Filene Center IIs
existing delay system required more and more
maintenance, Snyder said. However, it couldnt
be installed just anywhere. Management would
not allow the new speakers to intrude upon the
design of the theater, meaning they could not
be placed anywhere other than the alcoves for
the previous speakers extremely limited for a
modern line array. Secondly, the lack of available
power precluded the use of powered speakers
and limited our amplication options.
The use of existing wiring was another pri-
ority to keep costs in check. Basically, the fewer
amplier channels needed, the better, Snyder
said. In the end, we were able to implement this
system with just ve circuits per bay.
Coverage requirements also pre-
sented a challenge. We needed an array
which could provide substantial vertical
coverage over 30 feet of elevation
yet also had a relatively short throw
range; about 120 feet was needed for this
installation,Snyder noted.
The VT4886 line array elements
proved well-suited to the task. Their
smaller size enabled us to put a large
number of enclosures into each array,
and we went with nine-element arrays in
each of the six bays which cover the lawn
area. The controlled axial shading of the
VT4886 gave us the coverage pattern we
needed.
The cardioid coverage of the VT4883
sub arrays also worked to our advantage, as we
had to minimize low-end spill from the delay
subs into the main pavilion, Snyder added. The
lower weight of the VT4886 and VT4883 was also
a big advantage, as we could easily hang all the
speakers without making any major structural
modications.
Snyder added that JBL Line Array Calculator
speaker conguration and acoustic modeling
software helped predict the response of the sys-
tem,and that, once the speakers were installed,
we did nal tuning with the aid of SMAART and
SIM measurement and analysis software.
We are extremely satised with the results,
Snyder concluded.
IATSE Local 22 Updates Wolf Trap Delay System
The crew updated Filene Center with JBL VerTec Gear
BALTIMORE, MD The New Light
Church was heavily damaged from a re
that broke out during roof repairs. Al-
though prized stained glass windows
were lost, no one was injured, and during
the rebuilding process, church leaders de-
cided to include a new sound system.
Connectivity Group llc designed and
installed the system, which includes Tan-
noy VQ 100, V8 and V6 loudspeakers.
There wasnt much in there before,
founder/owner John Saunders says, and
they were looking at getting a new system
before the re. Originally he intended to
use a VQ 60, but EASE modeling pointed
toward the VQ 100 as the better solution.
Its hung as a center ll, 20 feet high, and
covers most of the room a small but re-
verberant space. A single V8 hangs from
the ceiling in the rear for balcony cover-
age and two V6s are mounted 6 feet high
on columns anking the stage for front
ll. Additional low end is provided via two
dB Technologies Sub 15s.
Other system elements specied in-
clude three Crest CC1800 ampliers, Sa-
bine Navigator NAV360 DSP and an Allen
& Heath ZED-436 console, placed on the
main oor at the back of the congrega-
tion seating, in an enclosure custom built
by the church.
The churchs new mic package in-
cludes a Shure ULX-S wireless system
with four ULX2 SM58 handhelds for solo-
ists, a ULX1 body-pack with a WL185 lav
mic, three Shure SM81 condensers for the
choir and an MX218 gooseneck mic at the
pulpit.
A dB Technologies Twin 128 is hung
behind the VQ as an overall stage ll and
is augmented by two EAW SM109z oor
monitors and an Aviom system for the
choir and band.
Baltimores New Light Church Rebuilds
Connectivity Group provided Tannoy VQ 100, V8 and V6
loudspeakers
www.fohonline.com
2011 DECEMBER
11
International News
RIO DE JANEIRO The 10th annual
week-long Rock In Rio festival returned
to Brazil after spending even years of the
past decade in Lisbon and Madrid, draw-
ing 700,000 to the site planned for the 2016
Summer Olympics to hear Guns N Roses,
Shakira, Katy Perry, Stevie Wonder, Ke$ha,
Metallica, Rihanna, Coldplay, Elton John, the
Red Hot Chili Peppers and many other top
artists perform.
Gabisom Audio once again provided the
massive sound system, which included a
main PA hang of 120 VerTec VT4889 line array
elements and 84 VT4880A subwoofers and,
for the secondary Sunset stage, a 12-per-
side Outline GTO system, supplemented
with GTO Low bass extension and GTO-DF
downll elements and eight ground-stacked
Lab 21 subwoofers.
Main Stage
We had used the VT4889 and VT4880A
line arrays at previous Rock In Rio shows,
and they can provide the expansive high-
volume sound we need over this extremely
large coverage area, said Peter Racy, Gabi-
soms chief engineer. We wanted to make
sure that the people at the front of the stage
werent blown away by excessive volume,
but that the people all the way in the back
could still hear everything clearly. The con-
guration we used enabled us to achieve
this.
Installing and operating the Goliath-
sized rig was only part of Gabisoms chal-
lenge. The festival had very little time be-
tween acts, and Gabisom had to constantly
change each artists complete stage setup
including backline, stage props and monitor
wedges, noted Jaime Albors, senior director,
Sales Intercontinental for Harman Profes-
sional. When Katy Perry nished on open-
ing night, Elton John went on just 20 min-
utes later, with a completely dierent stage
setup, and Gabisom pulled it o without a
hitch.
I was extremely impressed by the SPL
capability of the system, Albors continued.
When you have 100,000 people clapping
and screaming, they can literally be louder
than the level of the PA, but this was not the
case for this event. With 120 VT4889s and 84
VT4880As, the system had enough power to
be heard well above the crowd.
The most impressive attributes of the
JBL VerTec line arrays are their eortless
power and clarity, said Racy. This is because
of their ability to deliver high output while
maintaining smooth frequency response
and high resolution without
distortion. In addition, their pre-
dictable coverage pattern lets us
optimize their placement in any
outdoor or indoor concert
sound installation.
Sunset Stage
For the secondary Sunset
Stage which still served audi-
ences of up to 60,000 people
the diverse array of acts including
Joss Stone, Sepultura, Tits+Xutos
Pontaps, Afrika Bambaataa,
Matanza and Milton Nascimento.
Gabisom employed a 12-per-side
Outline GTO system, supple-
menting with three GTO Low bass
extension cabinets and a GTO-DF
down-ll element per side as well
as eight ground-stacked Lab 21
subwoofers. The system drew
praise from sound engineer Fer-
nando Luis Leite, who mixed FOH
for the rock jam session featuring
Ed Motta and Andreas Kisser of
Sepultura and also for Baile do
Simonal, a Brazilian act.
The Outline GTO was a very
pleasant surprise for me, Leite
said. The two bands I mixed are
totally dierent one playing
classic rock with ve guitars, and
the other a pure Brazilian sound
with lots of percussion and horns.
But the GTO system handled
them both really wellThe Rock
In Rio crowds expect it to be loud,
and it was we were working at
around 115dBA at the mix posi-
tion, Leite added, crediting the
gears ability to maintain intelligi-
bility at full volume.
We didnt have a soundcheck
at Rock in Rio, only a quick line-
check, said Jorge Guerreiro, FOH
engineer for local band Matanza
It was like one, two, three, four
and go! The GTO system really
saved me, because it sounded
like very good studio monitors,
but for a live sound. So it was just
a matter of doing a fast balance
and a little bit of EQ on individual
channels. We also had excellent
feedback about this show.
Stanley Soares, who mixed Brazilian
metal band Sepultura, along with French
industrial percussionists Tambour du Bronx,
was also impressed. Very clear and tons of
pressure, he noted. I had a good time.
Rock in Rio is scheduled to alternate
sides of the pond between Lisbon, Madrid
and Rio over the next four years.
Rock in Rio Festival Supported Once Again by Gabisom Audio
The main hang included 120 VerTec VT4889 and 84 VT4880A
Sepultura at the Sunset Stage
SEOUL For the musical, Mamma
Mia!, which opened recently at the new D-
Cube Arts Center, Seoul, L-Acoustics Korea
distributor, Dream Sound, installed a K1
WST line source and XTi coaxial system
the first such installation anywhere in the
world.
Located within Seouls futuristic D-
Cube City, the 1,242-seat venue has been
equipped with two hangs of eight K1 and
two K1-SB subs left and right of the stage,
six KARA as downfill, and two stacks of four
SB28 subs in cardioid mode positioned on
stage below the K1 hangs.
Additionally, there are four under-bal-
cony hangs of two KIVA WST enclosures,
while 32 8XTi coaxial speakers relay musi-
cal surround effects throughout the ven-
ue. The system is driven by L-Acoustics LA4
and LA8 amplified controllers.
L-Acoustics XTi Architectural Series
has been designed and optimized for per-
manent and semi-permanent fixed instal-
lations, such as musicals where visual con-
straints require a discreet integration. This
is accomplished with low-profile rigging
and custom RAL colors to match architect
and designer specifications. Additionally,
the sound quality matches the well-known
XT range.
Dream Sound Provides L-Acoustics Gear for
Mamma Mia! at D-Cube Arts Center
Outline GTO at the Sunset Stage
The setup included L-Acoustics Gear
International News
LONDON For the fth year since it
opened in 2007, Britannia Row Productions
provided live audio for the NFLs annual In-
ternational Series game seen by some 80,000
fans in Londons Wembley Stadium a ven-
ue Britannia Row has worked many times,
including Live Earth, the Concert for Diana,
Metallica and Foo Fighters, among others.
Before the game, which pitted the Chi-
cago Bears against the Tampa Bay Bucca-
neers, fans listened to performances by Goo
Goo Dolls, Noah Stewart and Katherine Jen-
kins. Brit Row has provided Outline Buttery
line arrays for a variety of previous Wembley
events, but for the NFL event they installed an
extensive distributed system, typical of enter-
tainment for athletic events.
The main system consists of a dozen 4-box
arrays of Outline Buttery enclosures, each
stacked on a pair of Subtech 218 subwoofers,
powered by Outline T9 ampliers.
The low, ground-stacked approach
preserves sightlines for fans. Brit
Rows Dan Orchard headed up the
project, with Kieran Walsh super-
vising wireless, Sergiy Zitnikov as
system engineer and Stefan Krista
managing stage audio for pre-
game entertainment. Four more
Brit Row technicians dealt with set
up, operations and mic changes.
Both the U.K. and American
national anthems sung, re-
spectively, by Katherine Jenkins
and Noah Stewart were heard via Shures
Axient wireless, chosen for its audio quality
and as a safeguard against dropouts. Each
performer used an AXT200 handheld with a
KSM-9 capsule. Axient is a standout product
in the sense that not only does it have excel-
lent core audio and RF performance but it
oers several new to the world features such
as complete transmitter remote control and
Interference Detection and Avoidance,noted
Shure UKs Tuomo George-Tolonen.
All the transmitters on air had backup
frequencies ready to go at a moments no-
tice. They were also operating in Frequency
Diversity mode, transmitting a single audio
channel on two compatible frequencies at
all times. We could have taken a direct hit
on these mics and nothing would have hap-
pened, RF technician Kieran Walsh added.
The remote control of transmitters also came
in handy. They were able to remotely adjust
the transmitters gain during soundcheck
rather than physically hold them to make
changes. The time saved was noticeable.
Roger Lindsay, FOH engineer, has mixed
sound for International Series games every
year since they came to London, mixing on
a Yamaha PM5D. This was the second time
weve used Buttery for this event, and I have
to say that so far, it is comfortably the best-
sounding system weve had, Lindsay said.
Wembley Stadium is a dicult, reverberant
acoustic space in which we have to achieve
the best possible coverage across a very large
area, he added, crediting the Buttery sys-
tem for its smooth response, achieved with
minimal system EQ, and its excellent projec-
tion and even dispersion around the entire
stadium along with its compact size.
An event of this type incorporates large
amounts of media. This ranges from the pre-
game entertainment to video feeds, replays,
referee mics, PA announcements, and live
satellite linkups to other games in the league.
NFL home stadiums are state of the art xed
installations designed to cope with the com-
plexities of the game. Wembley Stadium in
London was designed as a soccer stadium, a
very dierent game, with dierent demands.
This means that additional infrastructure re-
quired to deliver a regular season football
game has to be built on a temporary basis,
and incorporated with the xed installation
already in existence.
Signal distribution around the eld was
achieved using Dante-linked Lab.gruppen
Lake LM 26 and LM 44 Processors, system
engineer Sergiy Zhytnikov explained. A to-
tal of 14 units were deployed, one at each
speaker array, one at the Front of House mix
position in the stands and another to tie into
stadium control. The use of ber optic ca-
bling to deliver both Dante audio and remote
control gave real benet, he adds, instead
of using over a mile of analog cabling which
due to necessity would be placed in cabling
conduits at eld level, along with every other
kind of electrical cable imaginable.
In addition to electromagnetic immunity,
Dante also solved the problem of signal deg-
radation over long distances. Zhytnikov com-
mented Using Dante on the Lab.gruppen
platform is reliable, presents an easier control
system is faster to connect and remove, and
most importantly, delivers higher quality au-
dio.
This was the cleanest audio distribu-
tion system weve ever used for an NFL game
weekend, said Lindsay, who also cited posi-
tive feedback from the visiting NFL produc-
tion team.
Though it was the second trip for the
Bucs, whose owner, Malcolm Glazer, also
owns Manchester United, the Bears dominat-
ed the rst half and won 24-18.
LONDON and STRATFORD, Ontario
Jim Neil, who has served as head of audio
at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario for
the past 28 years, is also sound designer for
the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Strat-
ford, Ontario.
For the past six years, Neil has been
using Countryman E6 Omni Earset and B6
Omni Lavaliere microphones for produc-
tions ranging from Joseph and the Amaz-
ing Technicolor Dreamcoat to Cookin at the
Cookery.
Along with sound quality the rst
and foremost factor Neil credited the
Countryman gear for build quality, reliabil-
ity and the ability to stand up to moisture.
I remember using Countryman E6
earset mics on the two actors in Cookin at
the Cookery, Neil noted, recalling the mics
ability to perform awlessly throughout
the entire run despite perspiration and fre-
quent costume and wig changes.
With Joseph and the Amazing Tech-
nicolor Dreamcoat, I used two B6 micro-
phones, Neil continued. The lavaliere mics
cable and capsule were small enough to be
practically invisible in the performers natu-
ral black hair, held in place with bobby pins.
(In this instance, the gear was black in color,
but a variety of colors are available to meet
dierent needs.)
Bears, Bucs and Butteries at Wembley Stadium
Katherine Jenkins
sangGod Save the
Queen
Audio Veteran Using Countryman Gear for Theatrical Productions in Canada
Jim Neil with Countryman mic and LCS console
G
E
T
T
Y

I
M
A
G
E
S
Audinate and South Korea-based Inter-M
are collaborating on consoles, speakers, wire-
less systems, microphones and other prod-
ucts that will make use of Dante, Audinates
IP over Ethernet media networking technol-
ogy. Inter-M plans using Dante end-to-end
throughout their systems.
Blue Microphones
named Brian Biggott
chief technology o-
cer. Biggott joined Blue
in 2008 in association
with Transom Capital
Groups acquisition of
the company. Prior to
Transom Capital, Big-
gott was a management consultant in the
Los Angeles oce of McKinsey & Co. Biggott
will continue to be based out of Blue Micro-
phones headquarters in Westlake Village, CA.
Cadac Hold-
ings Ltd. an-
nounced the de-
parture of director
of sales Bob Thom-
as. Thomas had
joined Cadac in
2005 as managing
director, where he
oversaw both the
broadening of its product portfolio beyond
theatrical sound products and Soundking
Group Company Ltd.s acquisition of Cadac in
January 2009.
dBTechnologies named Signal Audio as
its new distributor in Denmark. Signal Au-
dio, owned by the Matrix Group, which also
owns Nordic Staging and Moto Audio Sales,
serves rental, installation, live and broadcast
markets.
H a r m a n s
Studer has named
Simon Roome tech-
nical sales manager.
Based in Potters
Bar and reporting
to Karl Chapman,
Simons primary
task will be techni-
cal sales support for
U.K.-based systems integrators and the U.K.
broadcast market and will support Studer
sales across the European region as required.
Juice Goose has named DiModica Sales
as its representative in Florida. DiModica
Sales will market the companys power man-
agement products in music retail, commer-
cial audio, sound reinforcement and related
markets.
Music Group
named Vishal Joshi
customer support
manager for India.
Joshi will manage
the regions key ac-
counts and custom-
ers and provide local
promotional sup-
port for the Behring-
er and Bugera brands. Prior to Music Group,
Joshi worked for Harman International and En-
grid Global. He also has marketing and techni-
cal experience in audio and video engineering.
O u t l i n e
s.r.l. named
The Audio
Specialists b.v.
(TAS) as their
exclusive dis-
tributor for
Belgium, The
Netherl ands,
Luxembour g
and Germany.
TAS founder and former MD of E-audio Ben-
elux b.v. Axel Nagtegaal is credited by Outline
with the concept of service hatchdistribution
in pro audio, where a territorial distributor ef-
fectively becomes the local oce for the man-
ufacturers they represent.
On the Move
www.fohonline.com
Bob Thomas
Vishal Joshi
Chris Hinds, Giorgio Bi and Axel
Nagtegaal
2011 DECEMBER
13
Brian Biggott
Simon Roome
MLA Partners in Italy Take the Martin Audio Brand on the Road
VIADANA, Italy All Access srl, the Mar-
tin Audio MLA consortium formed by three
Italian rental companies Amandla Pro-
ductions, Electra Service and Fumasoli Ser-
vice, with support from Martin Audio
distributor Audiosales has created
a high-visibility way to transport and
promote the MLA (Multi-cellular Loud-
speaker Array) system.
The idea was oated by Electra
Service owner Roberto Buttarelli, and
soon Audiosales funded the modi-
cations to an existing 53-foot trailer,
which is designed to hold a 112-enclo-
sure system (including MLA tops and
MLX subs).
We knew the truck would be regularly
traveling around Italy and have high visibility
during shows and festivals, noted Audiosales
owner, Stefano Rocchi.
The new MLA trailer is based at Electra
Services Viadana headquarters, near Parma
in northern Italy. It has already been put to
use since the All Access consortium invested
in their initial acquisition of 72 enclosures last
spring for the tour for Italian rock band Sub-
sonica.
It has since been seen at Bolognas Upper
Park Festival, Torinos Trac Festival, Luccas
Summer Festival, as well as two Italian Elton
John shows, and also for Ricky Martin at Ve-
ronas Arena, the Radio Bruno tour, Bolognas
Independent Days festival and with DJ Tisto
in Reggio Emilia.
The All Access consortiums MLA truck trailer
LONDON Technomedia Solutions provid-
ed Abercrombie & Fitchs agship London store
with an audio system upgrade that included
a custom conguration of Powersoft Digimod
amplier modules to power a distributed and
networked sound system consisting of JBL AC15
and Martin AQ8 loudspeakers.
The stores new sound system includes 60
JBL AC15 and 20 Martin AQ8 full-range loud-
speakers powered by 25 Digimod 500 and
25 Digimod 1000 amplier modules with the
low frequency sound provided by 30 Meyer
Sound self-powered subwoofers.
The system redesign and install was han-
dled by Technomedia Solutions, an AV de-
sign, consultation and installation rm head-
quartered in Orlando, FL with oces in New
York, Los Angeles, London and China.
Our original objective was to redesign
a sound system that would t into the past
design approach in the agship stores and
sound amazing, said John Miceli, president
and owner of Technomedia.
The London agship store is situated in an
historic building with larger rooms and taller ceil-
ings than other locations. The previous system
utilized powered components that were con-
cealed in the top of custom millwork distributed
throughout the store.
The new system needed to use the
same cabinetry in order not to impact the
aesthetic of the store while at the same time
providing an evenly distributed high-end
stereo listening experience, noted Anthony
Liccardi, manager of AV Systems for Aber-
crombie. The challenge was nding a small
powered speaker that would t the connes
of the cabinets while providing the sound
quality Abercrombie required from the sys-
tem retrot.
Technomedias Miceli was already very
familiar with the Powersoft Digimod ampli-
er modules, and specied Digimod 500s and
Digimod 1000s to power the full range loud-
speaker system. We realized that we could
hard-wire the loudspeakers to the Digimod
amplier modules and create our own pow-
ered loudspeakers, he noted.
The 2-channel 1000 delivers 500 watts per
channel into 4 ohms and 1000 watts into 8 ohms
in bridged mode. The 500 is the only Powersoft
amplier module with a single-channel output
stage delivering 500 watts into 4 ohms.
Building the boxes for the modules ended
up being very benecial,Liccardi said. We used
grommet connectors and hardwired the loud-
speakers to the amplier boxes. Each module
powered one or two loudspeakers depending
upon the location. It worked out extremely well.
Abercrombie & Fitch in London Equipped with Powersoft Amplier Modules
'(&(0%(5 LC"" vvv.IRKRQOLQH.cc
"=
New Gear
Celestion CF18VJD
Celestions CF18VJD is an 18-inch ferrite magnet, cast aluminum LF driver that delivers 1600Wrms power han-
dling with 97dB sensitivity. Its 5-inch high-temperature dual-layer inside/outside voice coil is designed for effi-
ciency and to prevent sensitivity loss through thermal compression. The FEA-optimized magnet assembly provides
symmetrical cone movement for low harmonic distortion, and the vented front plate increases airflow for greater
cooling. The twin demodulation rings are designed to reduce flux modulation, minimizing electromagnetic distor-
tion. Its double suspension and multi-roll surround improves linearity at extremes of cone excursion. The CF18VJD
weighs 51 pounds and its Thiele-Small parameters include Qts: 0.5; Vas: 164 liters; Re: 5.51 Ohms and Fs: 33.1 Hz.
http://professional.celestion.com/pro
D.A.S. Audio Aero 8A
The self-powered Aero 8A measures 10 by 21 by 14 inches, weighs 40 pounds and employs on-board DSP plus
Class D power amplification, providing 250W for the lows and 100W for the highs. A two-position array EQ com-
pensation switch adjusts HF response for arrays of four or eight or more units. The Aero 8A incorporates D.A.S.s
8MN 8-inch neodymium low frequency transducer using a 2.5-inch voice coil. An M-60N neodymium compres-
sion driver is attached to a BPS-191 waveguide. Its 1.75-inch voice coil is employs copper clad aluminum flat
wire attached to a urea polyamide diaphragm. The enclosure is made from birch plywood protected with Iso-
Flex black paint. The 5 trapezoidal shape and rear splay adjusters maintain seamless front coupling between
adjacent enclosures for improved performance. Captive rigging can be adjusted in 1 increments from 0 to 10.
dasaudio.com
DiGiCo SD10-24
DiGiCos SD10, positioned between the SD8 and SD7 in both performance and price, now has a smaller foot-
print, with 25 100mm faders instead of the original SD10s 37. The SD10-24s compact frame is just 3 feet wide,
helpful for remote trucks, monitoring applications, smaller venues and festivals. It retains 96 channels with dual
mono inputs for fast Main and Alt channel switching, and a 24dB-per-octave HPF. Output processing includes
eight bands of parametric EQ and auxes with direct talk-to-output with dim control. Like the SD7, it can con-
nect to up to 14 SD or D-Rack IDs (448 channels) on a single redundant optical loop. All 48 mixes can be config-
ured as mono or stereo, plus a stereo or LCR Master and 16 by 12 output matrix. Dual solo buses provide moni-
tor engineers with comfort and security. It has 24 graphic EQs and 10 stereo FX. Integration with Waves V8
provides 16 stereo Racks handling up to 8 plugins each, with direct control and snapshot recall from the console.
digico.org
JBL HiQnet Performance Manager Software
JBLs HiQnet Performance Manager (PM) VerTec system software, a free beta download at http://hiqnet.harman-
pro.com, provides a step-by-step system workfow. Users frst load array templates, then run Line Array Calculator II
to determine which enclosures, and how many, are needed. The PM software automatically loads the VerTec confgura-
tion for each array into the application one of many automated processes. After the Crown I-Tech HD amplifers are
defned, PM associates them with each enclosures drivers and programs them with the correct JBL preset data, as well
as gain shading and EQ that are determined in Line Array Calculator II to optimize SPL and response. Driver band-pass
symbols for each enclosure provide visualization of array confguration. PMs GUI also ofers embedded control panels
for array calibration, time alignment and system EQ using I-Tech HD DSP. Attenuation, EQ, delay and band-pass controls
are directly accessible, with grouping and solo/mute functionality for system testing. Once system tuning is complete,
Show Mode is optimized for live performance, with controls for system EQ and monitoring of levels, loads, heat and AC.
jblpro.com
JH Audio JH3A DSP Headphone Amp
JH Audios JH3A 3-way stereo headphone amplifer is designed to work with custom-ft JH16 Pro IEMs, en-
abling a frequency response of up to 23K. The JH3A employs a multi-amp system that independently am-
plifes the IEMs dual treble, dual mid and quad bass transducers, using DSP on each band to improve clar-
ity over traditional passive IEM crossovers. It provides time, phase and EQ control and compensates for earpiece
imperfections. More than 18 months in the making, the JH-3A DSP Amp, paired with the JH 16 Pro IEMs, allows us-
ers to digitally control both volume and bass, with a range of 0dB 12dB. An optional 8-pin to 3.5mm adapt-
er allows JH 16 use with any source, including iPods. A 2-way mode allows for fat response (fat low-end to 10 Hz).
jhaudio.com/promusic
NEXO R2 Series PS8
NEXOs compact PS8 is well-suited for under-balcony, surround, front-fll or monitoring applications. The two-way enclo-
sure employs an 8-inch neodymium woofer crossed over at 1.8 kHz to a 1-inch neodymium compression driver. Employing
enhancements from NEXOs next-generation R2 redesign of their classic PS10 and PS15, the PS8 features a similar proprietary
constant directivity horn with asymmetrical horizontal dispersion for graduated near-feld coverage from 50 to 100 across
its 55 vertical dispersion, whether used as a fll speaker or compact foor monitor. The horn is easily rotated for orientation in
any direction. The PS8s light-weight (16.5 lbs.) 2-way passive 8 design requires a single 200W to 500W amplifer channel to
deliver 125dB peak SPL @ 1m, reducing cost, size and complexity, and a new grille design increases durability and enabling the
PS8s use as a wedge.nexo-sa.com
'(&(0%(5 LC"" vvv.IRKRQOLQH.cc
"E
New Gear
PreSonus AudioBox 1818VSL Interface
PreSonus AudioBox 1818VSL is a single rack-space USB 2.0 computer interface with 8 XMAX preamps, 8-channel
ADAT I/O and stereo S/PDIF I/O. With the included VSL software, the AudioBox 1818VSL provides a computer-based
26x18, low-latency mixer with two stereo efects buses for reverb and delay plus the same Fat Channel processing as
the StudioLive 16.0.2. Engineers can use the 1818VSL as an onstage mixer, controlled from a laptop, and it can send
all its Fat Channel efects directly to the P.A. while recording. VSL also provides complete editor/librarian functions.
More than 50 Fat Channel presets are included for enhancing instruments and vocals. As with all PreSonus interfaces,
it ships with PreSonus Studio One Artist DAW (Mac/Windows) and supports Core Audio and ASIO, so it works with
any recording software.
presonus.com
QSC Audio KW122 & KW152
QSC Audios KW series has two 2-way models the single-12 dual-purpose KW122 and the single-15 trapezoidal
KW152. They have the same 1000W Class D power, 1.75-inch high output HF device and extensive DSP as QSCs K Series.
Directivity Matched Transition (DMT) provides even coverage and GuardRail protection prevents its amps from clipping.
Other KW features include 35mm dual-angle Tilt-Direct pole sockets, M10 rigging points for suspended installation and
the KW122 can also function as a foor monitor. XLR combo jacks accept both mic and line level inputs, while RCAs allow
connections from consumer equipment. Up to three audio sources can be mixed internally and summed to a balanced
output for daisy-chaining multiple units. Separate direct outputs are also provided on each channel for additional out-
put fexibility.
qscaudio.com
Radial H-Amp
The Radial H-Amp interface lets users connect multiple headphones directly to a power amplifer or in-line with a
loudspeaker such as a wedge monitor or PA cabinet to safely supply headphones using a standard Neutrik speakON
4-pole connector. A second speakON acts as a throughput, allowing multiple H-Amps to be chained for larger groups
such as orchestras. Designed to accommodate two musicians at the same time, the H-Amp is equipped with two head-
phone outs each with individual level control. A 3-band EQ allows users to adjust the tone for one or both sets of head-
phones. The H-Amp features Radials familiar bookend design 14-gauge I-beam steel construction to protect switches,
pots and connectors. A full-bottom no slip pad provides mechanical isolation and slip resistance.
radialeng.com
Sennheiser MK 4
While Sennheisers MK 4 large-diaphragm condenser microphone was designed for project studios, it has been used on stage for na-
tional tours such as Sade and the recent CMA Awards. Made in Germany, the MK 4 has features comparable to the higher-priced Neumann
TLM-103. Its 1-inch true condenser side-address fxed-pattern cardioid capsule promises a gentle HF presence boost above 4 kHz. The MK 4
has a full metal housing and encloses its internally shock-mounted 24-carat gold-plated diaphragm, with low inherent self-noise and high
maximum SPL. The MK 4 microphone comes with the MZQ 4 microphone clamp, but has an optional MKS 4 elastic suspension shock mount
for studio work.
sennheiserusa.com
Shure PSM1000
Shures PSM1000 Personal Monitor System is a full-rack, dual-system, stereo IEM transmitter, networkable
over Ethernet to enable remote control of transmitter functions and comprehensive frequency coordination us-
ing Shures soon-to-be released Wireless Workbench Version 6 (WWB6) software. Its diversity body-pack employs
dual antennas. Its ultra-wide 72 MHz tuning bandwidth allows up to 9 systems to operate in one TV channel, up
to 39 total systems in one frequency band, and its backwards-compatible with PSM 900 components. Packaged
systems include one P10T Dual Wireless Transmitter and two P10R Wireless Bodypack Receivers, available with
or without Shures dual driver SE425 Sound Isolating Earphones. At the recent CMA Awards 14 channels of PSM
1000 were put to the test, with 28 receivers covering performances on the main stage plus a B stage at the back
of Nashvilles Bridgestone Arena.
shure.com.
Soundcraft Si Compact 32
Soundcraft extends its Si Compact series with the Si Compact 32, adding to previous Si Compact 24 and 16 models.
The Si Compact 32 is capable of delivering 40 inputs to mix while maintaining the no-compromise DSP functionality of
its smaller brothers. The Si Compact features 14 main buses (all with dynamics, delays and BSS graphic EQs), four matrix
buses, four dedicated FX buses, four full-featured dedicated Lexicon efects and a range of option cards to interface with
other systems such as Aviom, CobraNet, AES/EBU and MADI. All Si Compact models can connect via MADI to the new
32x16 Compact Stagebox, adding remote connectivity to these digital mixers.
soundcraft.com
DECEMBER 2011
www.fohonline.com
18
Darius Rucker/NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase
Venue
Chicagoland Speedway
Joliet, IL
CREW
FOH Engineer: Billy Huelin
Monitor Engineer: Joel Stickrod
Systems Engineers: Martin Bilecki,
Tony Troncozo
Production Manager: Jason Parkin
System Techs: Art Janota, John Bell,
Mark Bianchin
GEAR
FOH
Consoles: Avid VENUE Prole,
Yamaha PM5D
Speakers: EAW KF760/761
Amps: QSC PL380 PowerLight3
Processing: EAW UX8800 DSP (4)
Power Distro: Ramtech
Rigging: CM
Breakout/Snake Assemblies:
Ramtech
MON
Consoles: Avid VENUE Prole,
Yamaha PM5D
Speakers/PMs: EAW SM200,
Sennheiser ew 300 G3
Amps: QSC PL340 PowerLight3
Processing: Ashly Protea
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser
Showtime
ST
Allegan Oktoberfest
DeLuna Fest 2011
Venue
Downtown Allegan, MI
CREW
FOH/Systems Engineer:
Nick Rose
Monitor Engineer:
Jacob Wilkins
Production Manager:
Al Bierfeldt
System Tech: Mike Fish
GEAR
FOH
Console: Allen & Heath GL
2400
Speakers: JBL VRX932 (10), JBL
SRX 118 (4), JBL SRX 218 (4)
Amps: Lab.gruppen, Crest
Audio
Processing: BSS
Power Distro: Custom
Breakout/Snake Assemblies:
Whirlwind
MON
Console: PreSonus StudioLive
Speakers: JBL SRX 112s
Amps: QSC Audio
Processing: dbx
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser
Venue
Pensacola Beach
Pensacola, FL
CREW
FOH Engineers: Various band
engineers
Monitor Engineers: Charlie
Klein/various band engineers
System Engineers: Rick Shimer,
Lee Moro
Production Manager: Clint Aull
System Tech: Ted Daniels
GEAR
FOH
Console: Avid VENUE Prole
Speakers: Meyer Sound MILO
(24), MICA (24), 700-HP (34), MSL-4
(1)
Processing: Meyer Sound Galileo
616
MON
Console: Yamaha PM5D
Speakers: Meyer Sound MJF-
212A (10), 650-P (6), MSL-4 (4),
CQ-2 (2), 700-HP (2)
ST
ST
Soundco
Performance
Sound/Gerard
Audio
Soundco
A&N Audio
Soundco
Blackhawk
Audio
From left, Al Bierfeldt, owner, with Nick Rose, head tech
More than 30 acts, including Weezer and Janes Addiction, performed.
2011 DECEMBER www.fohonline.com
19
Foo Fighters
Venue
Various (tour)
CREW
FOH Engineer: Brian Worthen
Systems Engineer: Phil Reynolds
Production Manager: John
Beebe
System Tech: Scott Scooter
Scherban
GEAR
Console: Midas XL4
Speakers: L-Acoustics K1, KARA,
V-DOSC, dV-DOSC, ARCS
Amps: L-Acoustics LA8 Racks
Processing: Dolby Lake (3)
Power Distro: Motion Labs
Rigging: SGPS
MON
Console: Midas PRO6
Speakers: d&b audiotechnik
M2s; Martin Audio drum sub,
sidells
Amps: d&b audiotechnik
Mics: Sennheiser
Power Distro: AC Power
Distribution
ST
Longwood University Oktoberfest
Venue
Langford Mall/
Longwood University
Farmville, VA
CREW
FOH Engineer: Bob Lipford
Monitor Engineer: Chris Buford
GEAR
FOH
Console: APB-DynaSonics
Spectra Ti48
Speakers: Turbosound Aspect
Amps: Lab.gruppen fP
Processing: BSS, Lexicon,
tc electronic
Power Distro: Soundworks
Breakout Assemblies: Rapco
Snake Assemblies: Radial
Engineering
MON
Console: Avid VENUE SC48
Speakers: Soundworks SW2, SW3
Amps: QSC Powerlight
Processing: BSS
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser, Audix,
Radial Engineering
Venue
Tom Ridge Pavilion at
Mountain Laurel Center
Bushkill, PA
CREW
FOH Engineers: Mark Newman,
Jim Redford Sanders, Paul Danese
Monitor Engineers:
Daniel Baruch, Larry Sharkey
Systems Engineer: Ralph Grasso
Production Manager: Joe Feiola
System Tech: Vernon Perrone
GEAR
FOH
Console: Yamaha PM5D-RH
Speakers: L-Acoustics V-DOSC, dV-
DOSC; dV-SUB, SB218 subwoofers
Amps: Camco
Processing: XTA Electronics
Power Distro: Lex Products
Rigging: ChainMaster
Snake/Breakoutassemblies:
Ramtech
MON
Consoles: Yamaha PM5D-RH ,
PM4000M
Speakers/PMs: L-Acoustics 112P,
SB115P; Sennheiser G3; Shure PSM
900; Future Sonics buds
Mics: Shure, Sennheiser, AKG
ST
Soundco
Delicate/
Clearwing
Productions
Soundco
Soundworks
of VA
Frankie Valli and The Beach Boys
Soundco
Boulevard Pro
ST
: From left, Bob Lipford and Chris Buford. The event featured
Chuck Wicks, Yung Joc and Augustana
DECEMBER 2011 www.fohonline.com
20
K
aty Perry rose to fame with her 2008
single, I Kissed a Girl. Her 2010 album,
Teenage Dream, which debuted at
number one, included ve number one hits
(with a sixth on the way up) a feat matched
only by Michael Jacksons Bad. She is also the
rst artist in history to spend 52 weeks in the
top 10.
This years California Dreams 123-show
tour began in Europe in February, ending in
the U.K. in April, with May spent in Japan and
Down Under. The summer North American
leg stopped at 51 cities from June to Septem-
ber, returning to the U.K. in October to hit a
dozen arenas after a side trip to South Amer-
ica for Rock in Rio. The tours last scheduled
date was at the Staples Center in Los Ange-
les, and a nal show was added with free
admission the night before Thanksgiving,
called Katy Perry Gives Thanks.
Perrys concert has been called a jukebox
musical,with a storyline about a butchers as-
sistant following her cat Kitty Purry through
Candyland in pursuit of the bakers boy,
performed in quirky, outlandish outts on a
stage with a candy cane staircase, giant lol-
lipops and cotton candy video clouds above.
The Console foh
Peter Keppler mixes the show on an Avid
VENUE Prole. Hes equally comfortable in
a studio control room as at Front of House,
having recorded at Long View Farms and
NYCs Hit Factory and Looking Glass Studios.
Previous tour credits include Steve Earle, The
Eels, David Bowies Heathen and Reality Tours
which he mixed on a PM1D and Nine
Inch Nails, where he made the switch to the
Prole, as Trent Reznor was an early VENUE
artist. I personally go back to Square One
with Keppler, having known him longer than
anyone in live sound, as we both started in
Northampton, MA, working at Sun Sound Au-
dio and hauling our own respective PAs down
the stairs of Sheehans Cafe.
The Speakers foh
The Clair arena system on the tours nal
two-week run in the U.S. consists of 14-box
main hangs of i5 and double i5B line arrays,
with 8-box i5 side arrays and 4-box R4s to
cover the last upstage section of seats, always
a process with sold-out shows. A half-dozen
BT 218 dual-eighteen Bow Tie subs are
ground-stacked on each side of the stage be-
low the mains in two 3-box columns, whose
height helps three P2 front-lls re over the
standing audience. The system is powered by
Lab.gruppen PLM series amps in Clairs tour-
standard StakRaks. System engineer Jason
Vrobel also served on Paul Pab Boothroyds
Paul McCartney and AC/DC tours.
Keppler stopped in mid-interview to talk
about the new Clair i5 D prototype system
that was on their three-month U.S. summer
tour. Before that, it was with Bon Jovi and
Roger Waters. The i5D is a 450-pound enclo-
sure, and the rigging has been completely
redesigned from the original i5 system to ac-
commodate the size and weight. It is loaded
similarly to an S4 with dual 18s, quad tens and
quad 2-inch drivers. Keppler calls it the rst
true full-range line array box, adding that it
sounds amazing, even in the upper rear of an
arena bowl, where it still delivers full impact
at all frequencies, especially the low end.
The Mics foh
A remarkable feature on the tour are
Perrys Sennheiser SKM 5200-II wireless hand-
held mics, equipped with an MD 5235 cap-
sules and covered in crystals by Erin LaReau,
who started as bling technician and has
since become the tours head of wardrobe, a
daunting task in light of the shows spectacu-
lar costume changes. There are four separate
handheld mics, each decorated dierently to
match her wardrobe in each part of the show.
With the 5235, Katys voice has never
sounded better, Keppler notes. The high
end is open and clear and the overall timbre
is well balanced. Balance is especially impor-
tant for the times when shes on the down-
stage thrust, especially on Pearl, when shes
lifted 15 feet into the air, putting her right into
the PAs coverage.
Perry also spends a third of the show sing-
ing on a DPA 4088 miniature cardioid head-
band mic, based on the original DPA 4066
omni, but extending 3mm to the corner of
the mouth. Its used during the ballad, Think-
ing of You, when she ies through the air on
a cotton candy cloud playing acoustic guitar
and is completely in front of the sound sys-
tem, providing Keppler with a tense moment.
Naturally, the 4088 is tted to a Sennheiser
SK 5212 miniature transmitter, and all her
mics employ Sennheisers next-generation
EM 3732-II receivers, which use digitally-syn-
thesized companding for reduced artifacts
and natural sound. For monitoring, the show
relies on 12 Sennheiser SR 2050 IEM transmit-
ters 10 in the A range and two in the G
range that work as spares.
Screaming Teens foh
Though the show enjoys a wide demo-
graphic, a core fan base of young girls pro-
vide the usual pop singer mixing challenge
of ghting against a 2 kHz wash of screaming
Production Prole
Katy Perry
Katy Perry crew at FOH Avid Prole (L-R): Jason Vrobel (System Engineer), Peter Keppler (BE), Austin Dudley (PA Tech), Shawn
Dier (PA Tech), Danny Badorine (Mon Tech) and Manny Barajas (ME).
By MarkFrink
A
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DECEMBER 2011 www.fohonline.com
22
teens at moments. Rather than trying to get
on top, Keppler settles for gently pushing and
waiting it out, a technique gleaned from sea-
soned pop-tart engineers, but at times, the
screaming resembles feedback disconcert-
ing when the singer is in front of the PA.
Keppler employs a variety of drum mics
on Adam Marcellos custom-made Q-Drums
kits (fabricated by Jeremy Berman, owner of
Q-Drums and also the tours drum tech), in-
cluding a Sennheiser e902 and e901 on the
kick drum and e904s on the rack toms. A trick
he learned from Music Mix Mobiles John
Harris is miking the oor tom with a large-
format kick mic, where he uses a second
e902. Sennheiser e914 condensers are used
for overheads, and due to their sound and
small prole, Shure KSM137 pencil condens-
ers were chosen for ride cymbal as well on
hi-hats. Another pair of KSM137s are used at
FOH for audience recording mics.
Telefunken M80s have replaced the SM57
on snare, and the KSM32 on the guitar cabi-
nets, though the other mic on Casey Hoopers
Matchless combo amp is still an SM57, which
Keppler pans 50 percent. Anything an SM57
sounds good on sounds better with an M80,
Keppler adds. Its a little fatter and more airy.
Typical for many Clair tours, Radial Engineer-
ing JDIs are used on all the line-level instru-
ments.
Keppler favors a pair of Genelec 1031a
reference monitors over headphones at Front
of House. When youre mixing a live show, its
cumbersome to put headphones on to check
an input, it changes the acoustic space your
ears are in and takes valuable time away from
mixing.
Processing foh
Keppler uses a variety of plugins, includ-
ing Sound Performance Lab (SPL) and Waves
Mercury bundle on his Prole, which is con-
gured for 64 channels, with 46 inputs com-
ing from the stage. He uses Waves TruVerb
reverb on the snare and toms and Smack! on
the drums. He uses SPL Twin Tubes modeled
harmonics and saturation eects on various
DI instruments, particularly the electric bass
DI. It adds a certain life to the bass that I cant
get with an EQ, and I really like the ability to
tune the upper harmonics.
He also uses SPL EQ Rangers application-
specic Bass Ranger modeled passive graphic
EQ on bass and key bass, as well as Waves
Ren-Desser on bass to control slapping. He
uses Seratos Rane Series dynamic EQ on vo-
cals, along with Waves C4, which he also uses
on acoustic guitars along with Crane Songs
Phoenix, which he also uses on some of the
drums. Lastly, he also uses McDSPs MC2000
multi-band compressor on keyboards.
Monitors foh
Mixing monitors on a Yamaha PM5D,
clocked by an Apogee Big Ben, tucked un-
der the stage, is Manny Barajas from the Rat
Sound family. He got his break mixing moni-
tors in 2009 when The Mars Volta asked him
to mix monitors for them. Hes assisted on
stage by monitor tech Danny Badorine. Spe-
cial credit goes to tour production manager
Jay Schmit, who has taken California Dreams
around the world twice from theaters to are-
nas and beyond.
Production Prole
There are four separate handheld mics, each decorated
differently to match Katy Perrys wardrobe in each part of the show.
Manny Barajas (ME) and Danny Badorine (Mon Tech) with
Sennheiser EK300 IEMs andblinged SKM 5235 handheld mics.
Yamaha PM5D tucked under the stage
Clair Global Lab.gruppen StakRaks
SM57 and M80 on Casey Hoopers Matchless amp The mics are adorned with plenty of bling
Clair Global i5B system ies over Perrys cotton candy clouds
Katy Perry strikes a pose over Adam Marcellos Q-Drum kit
DECEMBER 2011 www.fohonline.com
24
T
oronto, Canada-based Xilica Audio De-
sign is a manufacturer of stand-alone
DSP systems. Principal Engineer Donny
Chow is a familiar face at trade shows, as
many of his best customers are OEM manu-
facturers who rely on his designs for their
own branded system processors. If you look
closely at this processor, and then around
our industry, youll easily recognize his work.
There are two XD models: the 4x8 XD-
4080, reviewed here, and the 8x8 XD-8080,
which is more of an installation piece. As
such, it comes with Phoenix connectors
instead of XLRs. Both products are distin-
guished by digital I/O on a female DB-25
connector and by the ability to employ FIR
lters.
Otherwise, the 40-bit oating point DSP
and high performance 96k/24-bit converters
are identical to those in Xilicas analog-only
XP models: the XP-2040, XP-2060 and XP-
4080, which also employ a slightly smaller
display. The analog-only XP-8080 again has
Phoenix connectors for the installation mar-
ket. There are two alternate models, the XD-
4080M and XD-8080M, which also provide
mic pre-amp inputs with 45 dB of gain in
3dB steps, useful for room-combining ap-
plications.
Five-LED metering provides signal indi-
cation with three green LEDs for -30, -12 and
-6dB, a yellow -3dB LED and a red over/limit
LED. Each inputs red LED references maxi-
mum headroom, while each outputs red
LED indicates the threshold of the output
limiter. Below each channels metering are
mute and select buttons, which sensibly illu-
minate as red and green, respectively, when
engaged. The display has a generous four
line, 26-character backlit LCD and next to it
are the menu navigation buttons: menu up
and down, cursor up and down, enter and
exit. On the front panel far left are conve-
niently located USB and RS232 connectors.
Both the XD and XP processors are 9
inches deep, weigh 10 pounds and are the
typical single rack-space. They all operate on
any international AC from 100 to 240 volts.
All of these processors are assisted by
the same XConsole Windows-based applica-
tion for programming and control of the de-
vices via either the front USB or rear Ethernet
connection, the latter allowing wireless con-
trol with a WiFi router. Using VNC or a slate
PC, wireless control of the Xilica is possible.
Holding an input or output channel se-
lect button and pressing another (of the
same, input or output) links those channels
together, indicated by their green LEDs il-
luminating together, and data changed for
the selected channel is applied to the linked
channels as well, handy for stereo applica-
tions.
Every input and output channel has a
generous 8 bands of EQ that, in addition
to being parametric EQ, can also be low- or
high-shelf and rst- or second-order all-pass
lters.
Every input channel also has a 31-band
graphic EQ, allowing loudspeaker designers
to employ the 8-band output PEQ for enclo-
sure optimization and systems engineers to
use the 8-band input PEQ for array and room
tuning, while leaving the graphic EQs for the
artists mix engineer to make nal adjust-
ments to taste.
Both the XP and XD have an industry-
standard choice of Bessel, Butterworth or
Linkewitz-Riley crossovers with slopes from
6 to 48 dB-per-octave. Under General Set-
tings, the EQ and crossover settings can be
made in either 1 Hz increments or 36 steps
per octave.
Input compressors have ratios up to 40:1
and thresholds from -20 to +20dBu in 0.5dB
steps, with attack times from 0.3 to 100 ms
and ve release times from 2x to 32x. The
outputs brick-wall (40:1 xed) limiters have
the same threshold, attack and release. Each
output can have each input sent to it from
inf. to 0 dB, acting as a mix matrix if needed.
Input and output channels have 6-character
names (L_SUB,R_HIGH, etc.), while the 30
presets can have 12 character names (JBL_
AS_3XFIR).
Hard Case foh
For this review, we chose a hard case:
The Jacksonville Symphonys 18-year-old
JBL Architectural Series PA, which gets
dragged out for smaller pops shows, when
renting a sound company system isnt in
the budget a pair of AS2215-64 single-15
two-way trapezoids and dual 18-inch subs
with 2241 drivers. Thankfully, due to a re-
cent ret, these are powered with three QSC
Audio PLX amps: a 1602, a 3002 and two
bridged 3402s for the subs). Unfortunately,
these were crossed over with an old 48 kHz
PA processor.
After we installed the XD-4080, it was
a straightforward process of choosing our
crossovers and examining the unequalized
response (easy as a single-cabinet array)
with SMAART. We employed Linkewitz-Riley
48 dB lters at 80 and 1800 Hz, building our
rst preset entirely from the front panel con-
trols to get a feel for them.
Xilicas data encoder is a distinctive ro-
tary thumb wheel that employs velocity
sensing to quickly make larger changes. This
unique encoder initially seems impractically
stylish, but its functionality (which more
products should employ) quickly becomes
apparent. Additionally, when changing fre-
quency (and delay), moving this encoder
while pressing Enter changes values by
100X.
We proceeded to quickly lop o the
tops of the mountains, especially in the full-
range AS2215, using all 8 parametric lters
in both bands. Anyone who remembers the
Architecture Series, or is familiar with JBLs
2225 and 2446 components in other enclo-
sures, knows they benet from precise EQ
work in the mids and highs. Companies with
these drivers in proprietary wedges should
consider either Xilica 4080 for 4-mix amp
racks.
We easily performed all this in a few
hours after the symphonys maestro sud-
denly cancelled an afternoon rehearsal, and
then we used the system for our show that
night. It was night and day, like getting a
new system for the price of new DSP.
FIR? What FIR? foh
We later went back and replaced the
mid-high LR48 crossover with a FIR cross-
over (Finite Impulse Response), writing a
new preset so we could go back and forth.
This tightened up 1800 Hz and eliminated
the need for our out-of-band HF EQ at 1500
Hz. We next noticed that employing more
FIR taps made the slopes steeper, choosing
to go with 200 instead of 150.
The number of FIR taps assigned are
paired for outputs 1&2, 3&4, etc., so when
using FIR lters for stereo systems, its best
to pair left and right bands, making linking
them easier too. The sum of all taps cannot
exceed 1500, and maximum taps per pair is
1200, with a minimum of 50.
This means crossover points below 210 Hz
arent possible with FIR, so sub-woofers will al-
ways employ IIR lters, which you would want
anyway, due to the latency issue. That said,
there are plenty of taps for any other combina-
tion of mid- and high-frequency FIR crossovers
(stereo 4-way, quad bi-amp, etc.).
Like all FIR lters, theres a larger latency
penalty for using them at lower frequencies,
where more taps are required. Using more
taps at the same frequency provides a steeper
slope, but induces more delay. For example,
the maximum of 1200 taps would create a
6.25 ms delay. For our 1800 Hz crossover with
200 taps, the delay was about 1 ms quite
acceptable for monitors and other two-way
enclosures.
Instead of the front panel controls, this
time we used Xilicas XConsole Windows ap-
plication connected via USB. After a couple
of hiccups (O.E., quickly addressed by Xilicas
fast, friendly tech support), we were able to
adjust the parameters more quickly on XCon-
sole than from the front panel to congure our
FIR preset. Im not sure the extra cost of the FIR
lters is justied in this particular case for our
legacy system, but for newer systems, particu-
larly line arrays, it would make a bigger dier-
ence, and the added ability to create all-digital
drive would be good in larger venues.
Conclusion foh
If you dont need XDs FIR lters or digital
I/O, Xilicas XP, analog-only processors provide
the same great performance for much less,
saving about a third with the 4080. An after-
noon with a Xilica processor this winter might
be just what you need to breathe some life
into your old mains (or wedges).
Road Test
Xilica XD-4080
By MarkFrink
'(&(0%(5 LC"" vvv.IRKRQOLQH.cc
LE
Buyers Guide
D.A.S. Audio
Variant 18A
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 20 x 22.5 x 25.5 inches
Weight: 108 lbs.
Freq. Range: 33 to 150 Hz
Power: 1250W
dasaudio.com
SUB 18D
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Band-pass
Size: 28 x 21 x 24 inches
Weight: 93 lbs.
Freq. Response: 35 to 120 Hz
Power: 1000W
dbtechnologies.com
NTS250
Driver: Dual 15-inch
Design: Clamshell push-pull
Size: 21 x 25 x 31 inches
Weight: 127 lbs.
Freq. Range: 35 to 130 Hz
Power: 2x 1000W
eaw.com
Live X ELX118P
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 26 x 20 x 22.5 inches
Weight: 87 lbs.
Freq. Response: 42 to 100 Hz
Power: 700W
electro-voice.com
PRX718S
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 26 x 21 x 28 inches
Weight: 76 lbs.
Freq. Response: 37 to 130 Hz
Power: 700W
jblpro.com
Ko70
Driver: Dual 21-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 23.5 x 45 x 33.5 inches
Weight: 172 lbs.
Freq. Range: 25 to 120 Hz
Power: 2x 3500 W burst
k-array.com
SB15P
Driver: Single 15-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 17 x 20.5 x 20.5 inches
Weight: 79 lbs.
Freq. Response: 45 to 100 Hz
Power: 1000W
l-acoustics.com
HD1801
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 23 x 23 x 28 inches
Weight: 106 lbs.
Freq. Response: 40 to 95 Hz
Power: 800 W RMS
mackie.com
MLX
Driver: Dual 18-inch
Design: Hybrid
Size: 44 x 24 x 47 inches
Weight: 352 lbs.
Freq. Response: 35 to 150 Hz
Power: 8500W
martin-audio.com
dB
Technologies
EAW
Electro-Voice
JBL
Professional
K-array
L-Acoustics
Mackie
Martin
Audio
Self-Powered
LC"" '(&(0%(5 vvv.IRKRQOLQH.cc
L
500-HP
Driver: Dual 12-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 18 x 26.5 x 22.5 inches
Weight: 164 lbs.
Freq. Response: 36 to 130 Hz
Power: 2x 900W
meyersound.com
Lab 21 HS SP
Driver: Single 21-inch
Design: Hybrid
Size: 28.5 x 44 x 32 inches
Weight: 291 lbs.
Freq. Response: 23 to 165 Hz.
Power: 8500W
outline.it
PV 118D
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 27 x 22 x 20 inches
Weight: 76 lbs.
Freq. Response: 46 to 90 Hz
Power: 150W
peavey.com
KSub
Driver: Dual 12-inch
Design: Bandpass
Size: 26 x 14 x 28 inches
Weight: 74 lbs.
Freq. Response: 48 to 134 Hz
Power: 1000W
qscaudio.com
TTS18-A
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 20.5 x 27.5 x 34 inches
Weight: 106 lbs.
Freq. Response: 35 to 120 Hz
Power: 1000W
rcf.it
DR18-2R
Driver: Dual 18-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 48 x 24 x 24 inches
Weight: 204 lbs.
Freq. Response: 32 to 120 Hz
Power: 2x 850 W RMS
renkus-heinz.com
Milan M18
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Bandpass
Size: 23.5 x 27.5 x 23.5 inches
Weight: 99 lbs.
Freq. Response: 36 to 125 Hz
Power: 1000W
turbosound.com
TL.118SS-P
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 22.5 x 28 x 30 inches
Weight: 135 lbs.
Freq. Response: 26 to 150 Hz
Power: 2500W
worxaudio.com
DSR118W
Driver: Single 18-inch
Design: Bass refex
Size: 20.5 x 25 x 23 inches
Weight: 92 lbs.
Freq. Response: 50 to 110 Hz
Power: 800W
yamaha.com
Meyer Sound
Outline
Peavey
QSC Audio
Yamaha
WorxAudio
Turbosound
Renkus-Heinz
RCF
Subwoofers By MarkFrink
DECEMBER 2011 www.fohonline.com
28
M
anaging low frequencies is one of
live audios constant challenges.
We deal with room nodes, archi-
tectural resonances, uneven coverage and
unwanted spill. Todays line arrays pro-
vide fairly uniform horizontal coverage
with adjustable vertical splay. However,
an equivalent vertical subwoofer array
that provides low-frequency directivity is
enormous. The last decade has brought
about the ready availability of digital sig-
nal processing (DSP) and with the advent
of digital consoles, modest DSP is included
in every mixers outputs, allowing the easy
creation of cardioid arrays with everyday
means.
Powered loudspeakers are a logical ex-
tension of our evolution towards improved
control and precision. With amplifiers and
processing integrated into each enclosure,
powered loudspeakers provide protec-
tion, flexibility and ease of use. Powered
subwoofers, like those in this months Buy-
ers Guide, can be used with stereo system
processors dual subwoofer outputs, but
even the DSP in digital consoles can create
a simple directional low frequency array.
Low frequency arrays employ precisely
controlled cancellation to provide steer-
ing of bass energy where we desire. This
extra low frequency control is nearly free,
except for the time it takes to understand
the physics, reconfigure subwoofer place-
ment and program some DSP with polarity
inversion, a few milliseconds of delay and
a slight gain reduction.
In this article, we will leverage simple
DSP to implement a particular type of di-
rectional subwoofer configuration known
as a cardioid array named for the shape
of its coverage pattern one of the most
common directional low frequency arrays
1

and easiest to construct. We will show you
how to quickly set up an array that proj-
ects low frequencies in front, while provid-
ing cancellation behind. The cardioid array
requires two channels of DSP and is easily
implemented with two self-powered sub-
woofers.
Steering Sound: Why foh
The most treacherous enemy of quality
sound reinforcement is usually the space
where the performance is heard! Whether
its a band shell messing up monitor mix-
es, balconies causing reflections at FOH,
or arenas echoing for days, room acous-
tics are our nemesis. We already battle
the room in several common ways: system
equalization to reduce excitation of trou-
blesome acoustical problems; directional
microphones used to isolate performers
and instruments from the room and from
each other; and mid and high frequency
horns that aim sound onto the audience,
but off the walls. Extending control to low
frequencies is the next frontier in manag-
ing room acoustics. And as subwoofers
have grown more powerful to keep up
with line arrays, the need to control the
subs has grown.
In addition to wrestling with room
acoustics, it is often beneficial to reduce
low frequency energy for the performers
on stage, or for event considerations. Re-
ducing subwoofer stage wash cleans up
the mud that normally clouds monitor
mixes and has musicians asking for more
level on stage. Whether indoors or out,
when we keep low frequencies out of ad-
jacent areas, event organizers have one
less frustrated entity to pacify. Whether for
acoustics, performers or logistics, the ben-
efits of steering low frequency sound are
substantial.
Steering Sound: How foh
Many papers and articles have been
written on the science of using multiple
sources in arrays to provide directional
control of sound, and we wont repeat that
excellent work here. Instead, we mention
the key mechanisms that these arrays em-
ploy, and then move directly to the practi-
cal details of setting one up.
The first factor for grasping the func-
tion of directional arrays is that sound
waves combine in varying amounts de-
pending on the time when they arrive at a
specific location. Sound is merely regions
of high- and low-pressure air that move
through space. High-pressure means that
the air is compressed above atmospheric
pressure, and low-pressure means the air
has a pressure below atmospheric. If two
high-pressure regions arrive at the same
location at the same time, then they com-
bine to produce an even higher pressure,
and greater sound volume. Two, four or
eight subwoofers stacked together be-
come louder and louder.
Conversely, if a region of high pressure
and a region of low pressure arrive at the
same place at the same time, the combina-
tion results in cancellation. For example,
this can happen accidentally if a double-
eighteen subwoofer has a reverse-wired
driver, or if one of two banana plugs was
inserted backwards in its amps binding
post. When the cancellation is exact, the
resultant pressure cancels to atmospheric
pressure, and the sound volume is zero.
Cancellation of high- and low-pressure
regions is how directional arrays remove
sound from specific locations.
One mechanism at work in directional
arrays is that sound sources can be physi-
cally spaced to arrive at different locations
at different times. This seems obvious, but
it is an important concept. Since the speed
of sound is constant, a sound source that
is farther away arrives later. We can utilize
different arrivals to control sounds cancel-
lation, so the sound sources must be phys-
ically spaced apart.
As subwoofers operate mostly be-
tween 40 and 120 Hz, a center frequency
of interest is 80 Hz, which has a wave-
length of 14 feet, so a difference of 7 feet
in arrival a half-wavelength produces
cancellation. Another mechanism for pro-
ducing cancellation is polarity reversal of
one of two sources with the same arrival,
as in the case of our dual-eighteen with
one driver miss-wired.
Combining these factors allows us
to employ spaced, delayed and polarity-
reversed sound sources to produce loca-
tions where pressures either combine to
increase sound volume, or cancel to re-
duce SPL.
Mathematics can be used to determine
where and how addition or cancellation
occurs at any point in space. Software
can calculate these values and display
them graphically. Fig. 1 shows the relative
sound pressure level (SPL) from a typical
two-box cardioid array looking down from
above.
Sound Steering: Build It foh
Building a directional array begins
with identical subwoofers, because while
any closely matched sources can combine,
it takes identical sources out of phase to
maximize cancellation. First, our two loud-
speakers are separated in space, one be-
hind the other. This arrangement is a good
option when stage height is low, but there
is sufficient depth. With one subwoofer
placed behind the other, a good spacing
distance between them is a quarter-wave-
length, or about 3.5 feet from the front of
one cabinet front to the next.
Thus, if the subwoofers are 30 inches
deep, there will be a foot between the
back of the first enclosure and the front
of the second. The second cabinet, placed
behind the main subwoofer, will be used
to cancel sound behind the pair, while re-
inforcing the sound in front of them both.
Next we invert the polarity of the second,
upstage enclosure. The polarity reversal
causes it to create pressure opposite the
main subwoofer at all frequencies. Oppo-
site pressure is required for sound cancel-
lation behind the array. For the rest of the
article, well call this rear cabinet the can-
cellation sub.
Now that we have spaced sources, with
the cancellation sub polarity-reversed, we
must adjust its arrival time to that of the
main subwoofer in front. We want the
inverted sub to add with the main sub-
woofer out in the audience, in front. Since
we know that a half-wavelength offset
produces maximum cancellation, half-
wavelength spacing coupled with a polar-
ity inversion produces maximum addition.
We therefore need to a add quarter-wave-
length of delay to the cancellation subs
quarter-wavelength of physical spacing to
create the full half-wavelength of offset.
Adding 3.1 milliseconds (ms) of delay to
the inverted sub provides an extra quarter-
wavelength offset, but you may find that 4
ms will provide a more desirable result.
In front of both subs the rear cancella-
tion sub arrives a quarter-wavelength late
and is electronically delayed by a quarter-
wavelength totaling a half-wavelength
difference in arrival. This would normally
create cancellation, but because the rear
sub has its polarity inverted, it sums con-
structively in front of the pair in the audi-
ence area.
Speaking of Speakers
Cardioid Arrays Using Powered Subwoofers
By Phil Graham
Two subwoofers, a little DSP, and four
simple steps produce directional bass
response to the benefit of your audience,
musicians and management.
Behind the two subs, the front, primary
sub arrives a quarter-wavelength late due
to the offset, but because the rear sub is
electronically delayed by a quarter-wave-
length, they arrive at the same time. The
rear subs polarity reversal causes the two
to cancel behind them.
Finally, we need to turn the level of
the cancellation enclosure down by 3 dB.
This is because the sound level behind the
main subwoofer is slightly lower than it is
out front. We want to closely match the
level of the rear cancellation subwoofer
to the level of the main subwoofer to pro-
duce the best cancellation.
Quickly summarizing our creation of
a directional subwoofer array from two
identical subwoofers, we perform the fol-
lowing four steps:
1) Place one sub a quarter-wavelength
(3.5 ft) behind the main sub.
2) Reverse the polarity of this rear can-
cellation sub.
3) Delay the cancellation sub by a quar-
ter wavelength (3 to 4 ms).
4) Turn down the cancellation sub by 3
dB.
Two subwoofers, a little DSP, and four
simple steps produce directional bass re-
sponse to the benefit of your audience,
musicians, and management. The details
of this basic low frequency array are simple
enough for anyone to utilize at their gigs!
Conclusion foh
In describing the steps above we have,
of course, simplified the mathematical
subtleties that give the cardioid array its
special sauce. We feel this a worthy trad-
eoff to provide a simple process you can
set up in your shop today. Try the cardi-
oid array and hear for yourself how ef-
fective the rear cancellation can be. Your
experiment can be as simple as feeding
two matching subwoofers with the stereo
outputs of a digital console reversing the
polarity of one channel, delaying it a few
milliseconds and turning it down 3 dB.
One important final factor when creat-
ing cardioid arrays is that there must be
some space around the sides and back of
the array. A good rule of thumb is to allow
at least three feet from any solid bound-
ary near the array, whether a stage or the
venues proscenium wall. This will enable
the array to work effectively.
With small digital consoles routinely
used at even simple events, the live sound
professional will often have the DSP read-
ily at hand to direct low frequencies with
cardioid arrays of two or more subs. The
self-contained nature of powered sub-
woofers makes this even simpler. Small
gigs, weddings, ballroom talking heads
and other such events can now utilize the
low frequency tricks of the big boy pro-
duction houses. Control of low frequency
energy ultimately improves your custom-
ers sonic experience, adding value to your
services.
1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardioid
Phil Graham is a principal of PASSBAND, llc
in Atlanta, GA, a professional audio consul-
tancy, and started building subwoofer ar-
rays more than a decade ago. Email him at:
pgraham@fohonline.com.
Figure 1 - Simulated cardioid
subwoofer pattern. Red
indicates high SPL, blue
indicates low SPL. Cardioid
simulations produced in Ray
End Acoustical Simulation
2011 DECEMBER www.fohonline.com
31
On the Digital Edge
Waves Plugins Part 8:
H-Delay
O
kay I will freely admit it. There
are some processors from my real-
world rack of outboard gear that I
have been missing since adopting the Avid
VENUE mixing platform and then choos-
ing to fully embrace the digital domain by
relying exclusively on plugins rather than
hardware. One absent, and very much
missed unit, was an easy-to-use, musical-
sounding tap delay. For years, I had been
accustomed to having to having one and,
quite often, two tc electronic 2290 delay
units that I dedicated to lead vocal effects.
One would be set for a fairly tight delay
time in the 160ms range and returned at
a low level to add just a bit of resonant
depth to a vocal. The other 2290 was cus-
tomarily designated for longer delays, uti-
lizing programmed special effects presets
that I would change with a remote MIDI
keypad.
So there I was, digitally pining, until I
discovered Waves H-Delay. Other delay
plugins I have previously tried out were
too sterile or too glitchy or too unnatural
to really feature prominently in a mix. An-
other operational obstacle I encountered
was trying to navigate interfaces that pres-
ent an environment in which it is difficult
to locate parameters and enter the neces-
sary data.
Intuitive Interface foh
I am pleased to say that these particu-
lar issues are definitely not the case with
H-Delay. As can be seen in the screenshot,
each parameter control knob on the dis-
play screen is really big and very easy to
find. Small movements of the mouse on
individual controls do not result in vast,
unwanted changes. The amber and black
interface is easy to read in the dark. The
extremely large size of the Tap Pad ensures
that small movements of the cursor as one
is tapping in time values do not result in
inadvertently jumping off the button.
As the first day of rehearsal for this
falls Joe Walsh solo tour approached, I
knew I would need to employ a device
that would recreate the vocal delay effects
that are present on many of Joes record-
ings. Joe himself reinforced that require-
ment on the first day of rehearsal when he
requested that I have delay on his vocal for
every song. In my preprogramming for the
show, I had loaded H-Delay into my virtual
rack and set it up for a medium delay time
with 2-3 repeats in descending volume.
The rest of the programming process
was extremely easy. The H-Delay plugin
was set to change delay time, feedback
level, modulation depth, modulation rate,
high pass filter and low pass filter with
each different song snapshot saved on my
VENUE Profile desk. All I had to do was
click the desired beat on the Tap Pad for
each of the songs, round up just a bit for
better definition and then adjust the re-
maining parameters for the specific needs
of the song. These tasks were very simple
to perform on the fly because the interface
is so well thought out and accessible. The
Avid VENUE platform makes it easy to link
plugin settings to individual snapshots so
that editing and saving setting changes on
the fly is a simple, step by step process.
I know I barely scratched the surface
of H-Delays capabili-
ties, but I was extremely
pleased with the way
the plugin performed in
this particular task. Typi-
cal delay times varied
from 160ms to 380ms.
The display can be set
to read out in Millisec-
onds or BPM. There is a
Host option that allows
BPM to be set by an ex-
ternal source. LFO set-
tings were either off or
set to a subtle depth at
a slow rate. Feedback
was maintained at 2-3
repeats with a naturally
diminishing volume.
I set the level on the
effects return fader by
listening to the point at
which I heard the first re-
peat distinctly and then
pulled the fader down a
few dB to make the ef-
fect less obvious. On the
song, Rocky Mountain
Way, I did use the op-
tion of linking the high
pass and low pass filters creating a band
pass filter that made the delay effect more
distinctly mid-rangy. However, that was
as tricky as I got.
Old-School Eects foh
I did not audition the Lo-Fi effect that
emulates the original 8k bandwidth devic-
es from the late 1970s and early 1980s, nor
did I try out the ping-pong stereo func-
tion that is also available. I checked out,
but did not employ, the feedback settings
from 100-200 that create repetitions that
increase in level over time. I did use the
Analog function and settled on 2, the de-
fault setting. That choice just seemed to
bring everything together in a way that
worked for me.
In my world, H-Delay represents the
latest step in a long and distinguished line
of delay tools that began with the Lexicon
Prime Time and progressed through the
Super Prime Time, PCM 42 and the tc 2290.
The effect that H-Delay produces is both
musically pleasing and properly present in
the mix. The operation is instantly famil-
iar; the settings are well-defined and com-
fortably responsive. H-Delay is definitely
a valued member of the Hybrid family and
will become a necessary component of my
touring effects package.
The H-Delay user guide offers this de-
scription on page 1: From slap-back echo,
ping-pong delay and tempo-sync with
modulation, to filtering, flanging, phasing
and more, H-Delay delivers real old-school
effects, controlled by a super-intuitive inter-
face.
Yessir! Thats just the device I was look-
ing for.
Dont delay. Get a ping-pong effect going
with David Morgan by emailing him at
dmorgan@fohonline.com.
By DavidMorgan
Waves H-Delay
DECEMBER 2011
Theory and Practice
www.fohonline.com
32
L
ast month, we discussed the basics
of filters and examined in detail
the concept and application for
high-pass filters (FRONT of HOUSE, Nov.
2011, page 41). This time well check out
low-pass, band-pass and band-reject
(a.k.a. notch) filters.
Low-Pass foh
As the name implies, a low-pass fil-
ter cuts highs. Fig. 1 shows RTA of pink
noise in Metric Halo Labs SpectraFoo
software. You can see that the frequency
response is reasonably flat from 30 Hz
to 20 kHz. If we apply a low-pass filter
to the signal we get Fig. 2. This par-
ticular low-pass filter is set for a corner
frequency of 1,000 Hz (note that the 1
kHz band is down 3 dB) and a slope of
18 dB per octave. Changing the slope to
6 dB/octave gives us the curve shown
in Fig. 3, which, as you can see, allows
more high-frequency content to pass
through. (The numbers at the top indicate
which band has peaked ed.)
A low-pass filter (LPF) comes in
handy when you want to reduce bright-
ness or remove the shrill character of a
sound, like taking out some of the bite
on a crunchy guitar. It also comes in
handy when you have a vocal mic pick-
ing up a lot of leakage from cymbals
(which happens all the time). If youre
faced with a drummer who hits hard
and a singer who sings softly, or a singer
who does not stay on-mic, you can get
as much cymbals in the vocal mic as you
get vocal in the vocal mic. Careful use of
the LPF will help reduce this problem,
but beware the overzealous use of
a low-pass filter can make instruments
sound dull. Its an unfortunate fact that
most hardware consoles do not provide
low-pass filtering, which is one of the
reasons I always loved the Midas XL4
console (which does). Many digital con-
soles EQ have a high band that can be
switched from high-shelf to low pass fil-
ter, which is eminently useful.
Band-Pass foh
The band-pass filter is not used to
weed out bad musicians. (If only). Its a
filter that simultaneously cuts high and
low frequencies, allowing a certain mid-
range band to pass (see Fig. 4). A band-
pass filter is actually a combination of
high-pass and low-pass filters. Most mix-
ing consoles for live sound dont have
band pass filters, but you will find them
in outboard processors, most often in
crossovers for creating low-mid, mid-
and high-mid outputs for multi-amped
systems. Dont underestimate the value
of a band-pass filter on stage, which can
easily be created by using high-pass and
low-pass filters simultaneously. I have
found them useful in situations where
you need to cut highs and low on an
instrument and leave the midrange un-
touched, like on a guitar amp.
Band-pass filtering also comes in
handy for the side chain of a gate. By fil-
tering out the low and high frequency
content of the signal that triggers the
gate, you can reduce the tendency for
kick drum, toms and cymbals to open
the gate. Ditto for the toms, where you
can allow only the low-mid band to
pass, thereby reducing the tendency
of the tom gate(s) to open on snare
hits. Another very useful application
for band-pass is on a bottom snare mic,
where you definitely want the low end
removed, but also want to make sure
that the high hat does not bleed into
the mic.
Notch Filter foh
The band-reject filter (no wise cracks
about your peers, please) leaves high
and low frequencies untouched, cutting
a certain range of mid frequencies (Fig.
5). Band-reject filters are seldom seen
on mixing desks, but a severe form of
band-reject known as a notch filter can
be found in many drive rack processors
or EQs intended for use on monitors.
Fig. 6 shows a notch filter centered at
1 kHz. Notice the notch in the graph
at 1 kHz. Also notice how the adjacent
frequencies (800 Hz and 1.25 kHz) are
barely touched, and how, by the time we
move down to 630 Hz or up to 1.6 kHz,
the filter is barely affecting the audio.
Thats because notch filters have very
narrow bandwidth (bandwidth is how
wide a range of frequencies are being
adjusted). Most notch filters give you
control over frequency and bandwidth.
They are generally intended for use in
controlling feedback, the idea being to
notch out the frequency that is ringing
and leave the rest of the audio band un-
touched. In fact, most feedback elimina-
tors feature floating notch filters that
are automatically assigned by the de-
vice to offending frequencies, thus re-
moving the ring. Notch filters can also
be used to slice out a small range of of-
fending frequencies for example, the
high-mids on a female vocalist that can
sometimes become shrill.
Steve Woody La Cerra is the tour man-
ager and Front of House engineer for Blue
yster Cult. He can be reached via email
at woody@fohonline.com.
By SteveLa Cerra
A low-pass filter (LPF) comes in handy
when you have a vocal mic picking up a lot
of leakage from cymbals.
Filters, Part 2: Low-Pass, Band-Pass
and Band-Reject Options
Fig. 1 Fig. 2
Fig.3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5 Fig. 6
T
he 1970s were the golden era of the
mid-sized music venue. From Maxs
Kansas City, CBGB and the Bottom
Line in New York to the Troubadour in L.A., a
re code of 500 to 1,500 people seemed like
just the right size for rock n roll. The larger
theaters, like the Fillmores and the Beacon,
were waiting to take touring acts to the next
level, but the middle tier was the night-to-
night Petri dish for the eras music, a place
for artists to develop and let fans watch
them do it.
The Mid-Tier foh
The mid tier was bumped from the lime-
light in the 1980s and 1990s, during the
reign of arena rock, when even country acts
like Garth Brooks and the Dixie Chicks found
20,000-seaters too small. The technology
that supports live stage performances duly
scaled up to meet the demands of the stadi-
ums line arrays cornered the market, and
their hangs grew ever longer; digital mix
consoles were introduced as much for their
ability to manage ever-larger I/O lists as for
their sonic qualities; video screens became
large and bright enough to be seen from the
Space Shuttle.
The drop-o in recorded music sales
seemed, at least initially, to signal that, as
live music ticket sales supplanted CDs as the
primary revenue source of the music indus-
try, the large-scale evolution of the technol-
ogy to support live performances would
continue as well. But as it turned out, the
underpinnings of the arena-rock era were
just as vulnerable to being over-scaled. Af-
ter steadily rising through the rst decade
of the century, live music revenues stalled.
Ticket sales for the 50 biggest grossing tours
globally fell 12 percent in 2010 to $2.93 bil-
lion, from $3.34 billion in 2009. In the U.S.,
the worlds single biggest music market,
the proportional drop-o was even larger,
with concerts here reporting a 15 percent
decline in sales and widespread last-minute
discounting reported. And those same top
50 acts played eight-percent fewer shows in
2010, according to Pollstar, which blamed
rising ticket costs to consumers as a major
reason for the downturn.
500 to 1,500 foh
The response has been what is becom-
ing a strategic repositioning away from
arena-sized touring and on to night-after-
night gigs at mid-sized club venues that
are in that same 500-to-1,500 sweet spot
that we saw emerge 40 years ago. In some
cases, individual entrepreneurs are starting
up new mid-sized venues, such as classical
musicians David Handler and Justin Kantor,
who opened Le Poisson Rouge in New York
(on the site of the old Village Gate), featur-
ing John Storyk-designed sound and acous-
tics. In other cases, its the large corporate
entities, Live Nation and AEG Live, that had
come to dominate the big concert business
in the previous decade and that are now
focusing on the mid-sized tier in search of
revenues.
In 2007, Live Nation took over the vener-
able rock club, Irving Plaza, in Manhattan, in
the process revitalizing the classic Fillmore
franchise that Live Nation also represents. A
year earlier, Live Nation acquired the House
of Blues chain of music clubs. Not to be out-
done, in 2007, AEG Live bought two high-
prole Seattle clubs, the 1,147-capacity
Showbox at the Market, and the 1,511-ca-
pacity Showbox SoDo. But whats as in-
teresting is the fact that some of the best-
known brands in the mid-size world, like
Manhattan jazz Mecca, The Blue Note, and,
more recently, the Highline Ballroom, have
adopted expansionist strategies, taking
their mid-market expertise and marquees
to new locations. For instance, the Blue Note
Entertainment Group has backed new mid-
sized venues in Baltimore, Richmond and
Washington, D.C., with more to come.
Mid-Sized Gear foh
The scale of the technology has been
responding to this trend. Some visceral evi-
dence of this is found in what has become a
new category in PA products, the compact
line array. Bose, though better known for
its consumer products, was an early player
in this silo with their ingenious MA12 sys-
tem. But they were quickly joined by other
contenders, like Renkus-Heinzs Iconyx, JBLs
VT4886 subcompact line array and its CBT
Series line array columns, the Meyer Sound
MINA compact line array and Community
Professionals Entasys column array.
Pro audio retailers are noticing the up-
tick in this venue category. Dan Scalpone,
regional manager for south-central U.S. for
Guitar Center Professional, says the mid-
sized clubs hes seeing in the Midwest and
South are looking for powered PA systems,
with JBL VerTec and QSC WideLine-8 being
among the most popular.
Im also seeing these systems going
into existing businesses, he says, identify-
ing a trend that sees restaurants and other
establishments adding live music to attract
more revenue.
Good News for Mixers foh
All this activity around the burgeoning
mid-sized music venue should be music to
the ears of sound mixers. The indie-artist
paradigm that increasingly dominates the
record business is creating a horde of new
artists who are perfectly scaled for this type
of house, and that means more jobs avail-
able for mixing and systems maintenance.
Furthermore, after 20 years of being treated
to eye-popping big-venue technologies,
patrons are expecting a much more sophis-
ticated experience, no matter what sized
venue theyre in. So mid-sized clubs that
two decades ago would never have consid-
ered video and moving lights are now buy-
ing those technologies, in part to support
the rise of DJ-based electronica in the U.S.
That will create even more employment op-
portunities as club management looks for
qualied operators to run them.
This isnt pie-in-the-sky stuff its
happening, and its a nice and upbeat
note to end 2011 on: more jobs in more
places around the U.S. And more of you
get to sleep in your own bed every night.
Give Dan Daley a virtual high-five at ddal-
ey@fohonline.com.
2011 DECEMBER www.fohonline.com
33
Mid-sized Music Clubs
Make a Comeback
The Biz
By DanDaley
House of Blues in Boston
DECEMBER 2011 www.fohonline.com
34
I
f you are a regular reader of Sound Sanc-
tuary then you have probably read my
holiday primers before. If this is the rst
time, I will give you the outline. Whether you
mix at one house of worship or a number of
them, the holiday season can oer more chal-
lenges than any other time of the year. Each
season, I put together a list of my advice, my
rules and anything else I have learned during
the previous year. It is my hope that this infor-
mation will help you navigate (in a sane man-
ner) though the holiday season.
Ringing In the Season foh
For me, it all begins right after Halloween.
However, this year, things began to rock one
day after the Day of The Dead (Da de Muer-
tos, Nov. 2). On Nov. 3, I received two calls
about my Christmas schedule. It is common
for houses of worship that I havent heard
from for the entire year to call me to mix their
Christmas events.
Along with my worship schedule, I have
a handful of clients who are planning their
holiday parties and need sound systems. I
know most of you are audio volunteers and
only have your home church to deal with, but
I am guessing that you will still have lots of
additional responsibilities and will be asked
to invest more time into your worship house
sound duties. Of course, if you use your spiri-
tual mixing skills as part or all of your income,
the responsibilities can be even greater.
Please dont get me wrong, I love the Christ-
mas season. It is a great time of year. Those of
us who mix for our livelihoods can certainly
increase our income, but some simple rules
must be kept.
Before we jump into the rules, I would
like to share one thing I began to do last
year before my house of worship rehearsals.
I started playing Christmas music as soon as
I got the sound system red up. Stored in
my iPod is everything from spiritual choral
music to Frank Sinatra and the boys singing
some of the holiday classics. Playing music is
a simple thing, but it seems to lift the spirits
of everyone involved with the house of wor-
ship events.
Holiday Rules foh
Okay, on to the rules. The rst of my rules
is to communicate as clearly and early as pos-
sible. If I am working with more than one wor-
ship house, the dierent houses should know
this. This knowledge will make it easier to
schedule the various rehearsals. I have found
that most houses of worship will work with
my schedule or allow me to set up the actual
rehearsals around my schedule. The obvious
advantage is that I wont be double-booking
myself.
My second rule is not hard-and-fast, but,
nevertheless, I try not to plan on mixing two
rehearsals in the same evening. I have been in
the situation where I was mixing a rehearsal at
5 pm, which was planned to go until 6:30 or 7
pm. I had an 8 pm start at another church just
15 minutes away. You can guess I was late to the
second rehearsal. It is simply that church timeis
often in some other dimension. By booking one
rehearsal per evening, you will eliminate a lot of
personal stress.
Along with booking one rehearsal a night,
I suggest you leave your Fridays and Saturdays
open. Most of the worship events, parties and
shows fall on the weekends. So it only makes
sense to keep your weekend free. Besides, no-
body wants to rehearse on a Friday or Saturday
night. (Maybe a Saturday morning or afternoon.)
Oh, by the way Christmas will fall on a Sunday
this year.
Take Care of YOU foh
This next rule falls under what would be con-
sidered common sense. Please take extra care of
your physical body. We generally dont equate
sound technicians with health nuts, but dur-
ing this time of year, try to raise the bar on your
personal nutrition. Obviously, every sound tech
must drink buckets of coee, but a donut stued
with strawberry jam does not count as a serving
of fruit. The reality is that a head cold or u will
mess up your hearing, and your hearing is your
number-one tool. That said, take your vitamins,
drink water (not soda) and eat something that
didnt come from a drive-through window.
My next rule is, dont overbook yourself.
There is no doubt that, for some of you, there will
be a great demand for your time and others of
you will have an opportunity to make some extra
cash. As you know, I believe that, as sound techs,
we are a positive inuence in the community of
God. I also happen to enjoy cash. But it all boils
down to proper balance. You can only mix so
many events and make so much money. Dont
overdo it. Know yourself and your capabilities.
And if you have family and friends, dont forget
to spend some time with them. It is the season to
be jolly, after all. Remember, as much as you may
want to say Yes, you have to also be willing to
say No.God knows what you are capable of. You
dont have to be a hero (as a volunteer), and you
shouldnt let greed control your decision-making
process.
My Holiday Plan foh
As usual, this year I have two Christmas Eve
events one early evening and one midnight
service. It is simple, and I can mix both events
well without any stress. In the past, I have booked
three Christmas Eve services. That is just dumb
and a bit greedy. Not any more. I want to have
fun during the holiday season, and I want to have
good will toward myself. I also plan on spending
more time this year with my family and friends
even if it means I miss out on a few dollars or
dont catch my midweek church service. The idea
is to celebrate the season, not burn out on it.
Personally, I celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ. I look at it as a huge birthday party. If your
house of worship believes something dierent,
more power to you. You are free to believe what
you want. I am a sound man, not an evangelist. I
hope Santa brings you everything you want. See
ya next year.
Give Jamie Rio a virtual jingle at jrio@fohonline.
com.
Tis The Season
Sound Sanctuary
By JamieRio
Remember, as much as you may want to
say Yes, you have to also be willing to say
No. You dont have to be a hero (as a vol-
unteer), and you shouldnt let greed control
your decision-making process.
ADVERTISERS INDEX
Company Page Phone URL
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Digico 17 516.249.1399 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-105
Futuresonics 2 877.374.3277 http://foh.hotims.com/36248- 351
Harman/JBL 21 818.894.8850 http://foh.hotims.com/36248- 110
JH Audio C1 866.485.9111 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-264
JoeCo 12 44 (0) 1223 911 000 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-366
Kaltman Creations 15 678.714.2000 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-355
L-Acoustics 25 805.278.5887 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-267
Lectrosonics 33 800.821.1121 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-284
Meyer 3 510.486.1166 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-112
QSC Audio Products C4 800.854.4079 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-115
Radial/Cabletek C3 604.942.1001 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-179
Riedel Communications 9,11,13 49 (0) 202.292.90 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-275
Sennheiser 6 860.434.9190 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-209
Shure 7 847.600.2000 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-312
Smarter Shows 29 44.130.687.1302 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-362
Solotech 23 702.614.8882 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-364
Soundcraft 1 818.920.3283 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-135
Sweetwater Sound 30 260.432.8176 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-247
Tannoy/Lab.gruppen 4 818.665.4900 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-133
Company Page Phone URL
Waves Audio Ltd. 10 011.972.36084113 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-195
Whirlwind Music 18,19 888.773.4396 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-187
Xilica 31 905.770.0055 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-365
Yamaha Commercial C2 714.522.9011 http://foh.hotims.com/36248-159
MARKET PLACE
Company Page Phone URL
Armando Cases 51 760.559.0909 http://foh.hotims.com/36247- 354
AVForSale 51 404.355.6147 http://foh.hotims.com/36247- 261
Gator Case 51 813.221.4191 http://foh.hotims.com/36247-364
Georgia Case 51 770.938.0707 http://foh.hotims.com/36247-325
Hitech Audio Systems 51 650.742.9166 http://foh.hotims.com/36247-127
In-Ear Systems 51 618.345.0407 http://foh.hotims.com/36247-274
New YorkCase/Hybrid Cases 51 800.645.1707 http://foh.hotims.com/36247-168
Pro Production Services 51 602.437.0221 http://foh.hotims.com/36247-332
SKB Case 51 714.685.5239 http://foh.hotims.com/36247-365
Sound Productions 51 800.203.5611 http://foh.hotims.com/36247-129
35 2011 DEcEmbEr
To Adver ti se i n Marketpl ace, Contact: Dan 415. 218. 3835 dh@fohonl i ne. com
fohbookshelf.com
Assistant Head of
Projections at IRIS in
Hollywood
Description:
Cirque du Soleil in Hollywood, CA is
searching for an Assistant Head of Pro-
jections at IRIS.
Apply Online: http://bit.ly/AHODPIRIS_PLSN
This listing is also available for view-
ing online at:
http://www.plsnbookshelf.com/classieds/viewlisting.
php?view=852
www.fohonline.com
Creative Accounting
FOH-at-Large
T
hree guys are traveling together, and they
stop at a hotel to spend the night. To save
money, they decide to rent only one room,
and they ask the hotel clerk what the price of
the room is for the night. Upon learning that the
room is $30 for the night, they each chip in $10
and head for the room.
A little while later, the hotel clerk realizes that
the room only rents for $25 a night, so he takes
the $5 and hops in the elevator, intent upon
refunding $5 to the three travelers. On the way
to the room, the clerk decides to make a little
money o the deal, and he pockets $2 of the $5
overpayment. He knocks on the door and tells
the voyagers of the $3 overpayment and gives
them each back one dollar.
The three men take the money without
question, and are thrilled that they now have
each only paid $9 instead of $10 for the room.
But it appears that there is a missing dollar. If
each guy only paid $9 for the room, then the
total cost of the room is $27. Add this to the $2
pocketed by the hotel clerk, and the total is $29.
What happened to the extra dollar?
Now, before you get out your calculator,
please be aware that you are probably not smart
enough to gure out this conundrum, since
problems such as this one are best left to the
talented elite few who sit on top of the money
chain and each year make millions of dol-
lars in bonuses coming up with ways to create
prot from thin air.
These are the same people who are too big
to fail and, while sitting high atop their ivory
towers, they create money from nothing, as if
spinning gold from straw. Fortunately for them,
when there is no more straw, they can be bailed
out with an infusion of real gold, with which they
can line their pockets while they gure out new
ways to manufacture prot from thin air. After all,
who better to gure a way out of the mess than
the people who ushered it in?
Please understand that these same people
are so smart that they have devised new and cre-
ative ways to keep their books in order. Instead of
using the old fashioned analog methods of com-
putation, they have actually taken a mathemati-
cal quantum leap that has allowed them to up-
grade their way of thinking to a modern digital
means of calculation, which in turn enables
them to utilize less to have more.
Investors Wanted foh
Heres how I (one of the small brains) per-
ceive the game to work. The bankers commod-
ity is money, and to make money, these bankers
need to sell their commodity, or, in their case,
lease their product, with a specic interest rate.
The borrowers, or renters of the commodity,
need to show the bankers that they are worthy of
such a loan. The more valuable that the borrower
appears, the better the rate that they will get on
their lease, because the banker then sees that
the borrower has collateral in case of a default
on the loan. Investors seek large returns on their
investments and look for companies that show
growth. Therefore, if a company can attract inves-
tors, the company can build collateral as well as
good credit, which then attracts banks to lend at
a decent rate, which in turn will help the
company show a prot, thereby attracting more
investors.
Just for fun, lets take a look at how someone
can open and run a protable sound company
in todays selectively-burgeoning marketplace.
For example, lets say that someone invests into a
small sound system. Two speakers, two subwoof-
ers, a small mixing console, some microphones,
direct boxes, cables, stands, a van and anything
else they might need to start renting their gear
and doing small shows. Their total investment
is $10,000, but, in the old fashioned way of cal-
culating, they are already showing a loss due to
the depreciation on the equipment starting from
day one.
They go out and do a few shows with the
gear at a rental rate of $500 per day, and the
good news is that, after 20 rentals, they will have
broken even on the gear. Its not an excessive
amount of rentals before starting to turn a prot,
but it does mean that someone has to care for
the equipment; gas has to be bought to move
the gear around; pieces will need to be replaced
and repaired; and someone has to deal with the
client.
Using this method, it appears that it will be
hard work and long hours before this company
can become truly protable, and it will take
someone with a real passion for audio to make
it a success. A more modern approach might be
the better way to go if turning a prot is the de-
sired result.
Rosy Projections foh
Using genius computation, the more cre-
ative way to express the worth of this company
would be to take the $500 rental and multiply it
by the projected rental period of, say, 20 times
per month, or 240 times per year. Now take the
$120,000 and multiply it over a 10 year period,
and the projected worth of said company is now
$1.2 million dollars, which is a pretty good return
on the initial $10,000 investment.
Numbers such as these begin to attract
investors, and pretty soon, the company has
raised some capital. Lets say 10 investors each
invest $10,000, which, based upon the previous
gures, boosts the companys worth to $12 mil-
lion over a 10-year period. Thanks to the recent
investments, the books show that there is about
$100,000 in cash thats available, despite the fact
that most of it has gone to the CEOs yearly salary.
Regardless of the fact that there is no dis-
cernable income for the company, other than
the investments and the one working system,
the banks consider a company that has a paper
value of $12 million a safe bet in terms of a loan,
and thus grants the company a $1 million loan.
The company now has some money to play
with, and pays a high dividend to their investors,
which, of course, makes for happy investors, and
the company then appears even more prot-
able. This, in turn, attracts more investors who
believe that the company is a goldmine, and the
banks then extend a larger line of credit to the
company.
Paper Prots foh
Through loans and investments, the compa-
ny now boasts a net worth of about $15 million,
with the CEO now taking home a huge yearly
salary. While some of the money has been used
to grow the company, most of the infused cash
has been taken up by the executive salary and
dividend payouts as well as loan repayment. On
paper, the company credit is excellent, and again,
more money is attracted through loans and in-
vestments, even though very little of the cash
has been earmarked for audio equipment.
At some point, the executive decides that
he needs more of a salary, and that means less
dividends paid to the investors. The company is
still repaying their loans, but now some of the in-
vestors want to cash out. The company can cover
the cost of a few investors pulling out without
anyone suspecting any wrongdoing, but when
there is a run on the company bank, then the
company starts to default on their loans. The
banks and investors then step in and try to liqui-
date the companys assets and nd that the only
available assets were the employees pension
funds and 401K plans that have already been
liquidated to pay o a few of the disenchanted
investors and several bank loans.
Aftermath foh
Although the company is bankrupt and the
employees are put out on the street with noth-
ing, the CEO is fortunate enough to have squir-
reled away a good portion of the money in his
personal account so that he can live the lifestyle
to which he has become accustomed while he is
negotiating a bailout of his rm.
The few sound systems that were purchased
with investment cash are virtually worthless and
can be stored away just in case the CEO decides
to start another audio rm. Lawsuits will be led,
outrage will be noted, investigations will be
launched and fortunes will be lost. Prison time
and pardons may or may not be oered to cer-
tain individuals and, most likely, there will never
be a satisfying answer or conclusion to the rea-
sons and methods of the how and why the busi-
ness was run.
The geniuses behind the whole debacle will
speak eloquently about collateral debt obliga-
tions, sub-prime loans, adjustable rates versus
xed rates and mortgage-backed securities
while deriding the involved parties as rapacious
and irresponsible, but the question will still re-
main as in the story of the three men and a
hotel room What happened to the extra dol-
lar?
Baker must have pocketed it. Email him at blee@
fohonline.com.
COMING NEXT
MONTH...
Production Profile
Bob Seger & The Silver
Bullet Band
Road Tests
Kaltman Creations
Invisible Waves X; beyer-
dynamic Drum Mics
Buyers Guide
IEMs & Plugins
Showtime
Top 10 Tours of 2011
By BakerLee
Take the $500 rental and multiply it by the
projected rental period of, say, 20 times
per month, or 240 times per year. Now
take the $120,000 and multiply it over a
10 year period, and the projected worth
of said company is now $1.2 million dollars,
which is a pretty good return on the initial
$10,000 investment.