In regard to audio, it’s great to be on a concert tour as a band’s engineer, where the gig is all about the music. Monitors or front of house, small or large venues, opening band or headliner — it is still about the music. In venues catering to a musical performance and a music-loving clientele, these rooms and halls are specifically set up to provide for the best possible audio system. Granted, there are those times when the town crier is standing behind the front of house console with the police chief and an SPL meter telling you that the audio is restricted to be no more than 90 dB at the FOH mix position, and you humbly nod your head in agreement while, at the same time, realize that the SPL coming off the stage is 110 dB before the mains are even turned on. Or a specific piece of gear that is crucial to the show is unavailable in a town so remote that you cannot even imagine that anyone in the vicinity has even heard of the band. I am well aware that even in the best of situations, there are technical problems and audio heartaches, but at least it’s still rock ‘n’ roll — or something like it.
But In Event Audio World…
Event audio, on the other hand, is a whole different beast to be tamed and controlled. Events are usually hosted and presented by large corporations with a product to launch or sell, and while there is no lack of corporate funding behind concerts, the approach to audio in the event world is quite dissimilar to concert procedure and protocol. In regard to the technical, audio is the red-headed stepchild of the event world, and despite the demanding nature of these events and the importance that the audio appears to play, in many cases, it seems that audio is always an afterthought. Maybe as audio is heard and not seen, many event designers don’t perceive it as a physical entity, and therefore they don’t plan on it until some video person asks about playback or the band booked for the event inquires whether their rider is being fulfilled.
It’s always a joy to be on the back-end of the event design, dealing with people who have nary a clue as to the how, what or why of sound. But don’t get me wrong: event audio is great work if you can get past the fact that it’s populated by a completely different type of person and preference than those found in the music world. Most of the audio technicians I know are — much like me — musicians who entered into the world of live sound because of a vast love of music and a desire not to starve. It might not necessarily be in that order, but the point is that very few engineers I know decided to enter into the realm of audio thinking how cool it would be to run video playback and multiple channels of lavalier microphones as one executive after another drones on about the wonder of their new product and the joys of team-building.
Reality and Realizations
I am aware that the décor, food, presentation, signage and lighting take precedence over audio for these events, but seriously, someone should at least make an attempt to include the red-headed stepchild before all the “i’s” are dotted and the “t’s” are crossed. Now, this is not always the case, but as I stated before, these event people are not music people and have no idea as to what it takes to make a musical event happen in a corporate setting — or any other locale, for that matter. Therefore, after quite a few years of doing this, (I never said I was quick) I finally realized that, in some cases, it is better to offer a different solution to the client and walk away from a sticky situation rather than attempt being the hero.
A Real-Life Example
Recently, an event planner sent me a band rider and room layout for an extremely high-end wedding and told me that the room did not have any audio and that a full package would be needed The caveat was that all the planners and vendors had already attended multiple meetings and finalized all their plans before realizing they had once again ignored the red-headed stepchild. To kick off our conversations, the designer relayed to me that they had decided on a beige décor for the room and they did not want to see any black speakers. By chance, it just so happens that I can get beige speakers that look like scenery, but I was then told that I could not place any speakers on stage right or stage left due to some overly expensive glass monuments that would be on display for all the guests to ogle.
Unfazed by the first setback, I then designed a plan for the beige speakers to be on the upstage left and right and for room coverage two more beige speakers spread about 30 feet to the left and right of the mains. Even though the speakers fit the décor of the room, I explained that I had amp racks and cables that would need to be on the floor. Of course this didn’t go over well with the designer, but as soon as I figured out a way to hide them, I found out that no consoles would be permitted on the floor and all control would be in the balcony. Of course, the band had a monitor engineer as well as a house engineer, so it was required that house console would be on the balcony facing the band and the monitor console would be behind the band on the balcony. This required me to run a 250-foot snake and a 350-foot feeder cable around from the front balcony to the rear, then dropping down to the distro and stagebox below.
Back to Earth
A bit of a pain, but it was nothing that couldn’t be accomplished with a little bit of labor and time. Unfortunately, the idea of black cables dropping down from the balcony to the back of the stage did not fit the décor of the room, and when I suggested we could dress the cables if I could just load in earlier, it was then that I was informed of my two-hour time period from load-in to sound check. At this point, I called the house technician to find out what they usually did in situations such as these. “Well,” he said, “we usually use the hidden speakers that are built into the walls and our stagebox that breaks out from the back wall.” “Really; how come none of the multiple designers and planners who have been torturing me with this event knew that there was house sound?” It was a redundant question, and I never heard the answer, because this red-headed stepchild had cut and run.
