Those who attended the very first concert at Los Angeles' Staples Center in 1999–Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band–can attest to the fact that the sound was abominable. In the vast arena full of hard surfaces–including those all-important revenue-generating glass skyboxes–sound ricocheted wildly with nasty, ear-damaging midrange the predominant sonic coloration. It was impossible to imagine that Staples would ever be a viable music venue. Five months later, the 2000 Grammy Awards show moved in. At rehearsal, I could only marvel at the difference good carpet (along with other acoustical treatment, of course) and sonic expertise can make; as Britney cavorted across the stage, the sound was actually decent. Thanks to the efforts of Staples itself and companies like Los Angeles' ATK Audiotek, sound provider for seven Grammy shows, the sound has continued to improve, garnering, this year at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards, more than a few compliments. With a show as complicated as the Grammys, those years of experience make all the difference. Besides multiple superstar acts, and the fact that the show is, actually, all about the music, there are those multitudes of audio producers and engineers, Recording Academy members, who are either actively involved, or actively critical of the show. For 2005, the Grammy's fourth Staples outing, the ante was upped with an opening number featuring five nominated acts across three stages: Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, Maroon 5, Franz Ferdinand and Los Lonely Boys.
For the past six years, Michael Abbott has been overall audio production coordinator for the Grammy Awards telecast. An 18-year veteran of the show, Abbott works with show producers Ken Erlich and John Cossette to make recommendations on equipment and anything else audio related. He's then responsible for disseminating decisions made by the producers to all technical participants.
"This show is a huge collaborative effort," Abbott comments, "comprising a wide variety of individuals with phenomenal talents. We try to marshal those talents, and put them in a discipline where everybody works collectively to achieve the same result: a great show with even better sound."
Although Abbott acknowledges that he works on the show, in an unofficial capacity, "all year," specific work starts two months prior, coordinating among the producers, artists, production companies and the Recording Academy (NARAS), and its audio manufacturing partners. "It starts with the nominees," he continues. "Offers go out to artists to be on the show; offers get accepted, a running order establishes, and various entities get involved: the network, NARAS, producers and the director. I compile data. Then, in a one-week period we load in and set up. In total, there were more than 60 technicians in the audio department this year. Show elements, and its running order, can be in flux up until close to dress rehearsal. We try to be as flexible as we can with the changes in the game plan from the producer, director, and artists. We're here to embrace what they do artistically, and to put it technically into a production sound package."
Creating that package for 2005's show encompassed three stages, 20 performances by 17 artists, and approximately 450 microphones and 6,000 patches to cover FOH, monitors and broadcasts for stereo, standard definition surround and high definition 5.1 surround. Artists rehearsed off site at a Burbank rehearsal complex, then moved to Staples for sound check and camera blocking, with typically, Abbott relates, 30 minutes to set up and 60 minutes of rehearsal that included three passes of each performance.
Although the team has show logistics down to as much of a science as possible, scenic elements, technology and the composition of the musical numbers change every year. "ATK Audiotek is the hub for the technical infrastructure of the audio system," Abbott informs. "In addition to live sound for the audience and on stage audio for the artists, they provide the overall signal infrastructure system: on and offstage splitters and distribution to the various mix positions for broadcast.
"Audiotek does their system design with CAD Software, then that design gets interfaced with Kish Rigging's overall CAD design for the show, which this year had, by the way, approximately 410 rigging points–a veritable forest of chain motors."
The bulk of 2005's set design was comprised of rear projection screens. Two separate stages were designed to provide four performance positions: two center, up and down stage; and left and right, allowing, Abbott says, "the producers to throw anything at us for the audio system." Two Yamaha PM1D consoles were used for FOH, one for production sound elements (podium mics, video and audio playback, etc.) and one for music. For 2005's intricate opening sequence, the production console multitasked, covering music for the Black Eyed Peas. According to Audiotek VP of special events–and for the 2005 Grammys, FOH production mixer–Mikael Stewart, except for a dbx 160SL tube compressor used for vocals on Gwen Stefani and Eve, no outboard signal processing equipment was used.
Audiotek provided a JBL line array for the primary FOH PA [ed. note: JBL was awarded its own Technical Grammy this year], which consisted of a JBL VerTec 4889 line array with four 12-box 4889 main clusters across the front of the stage covering the floor and side areas of the arena, and three 8 box clusters used as delays in the house to cover the back areas of the arena. Augmenting the system were 16 Audiotek double 18-inch subwoofers, six per side flown, and four on the ground, with a JBL 4887 box used for front fill.
Behind the second FOH console, dedicated to music, was mixer Ron Reaves. Mike Parker helmed stage B monitor mixes, and Audiotek's Tom Pesa manned stage A and C monitor mixes, with Scott Harmala on site as ATK system manager.
"This year's scenic elements worked to our benefit," notes Stewart. "Last year's set was shaped with lots of reflections that caused a few issues. This year, with the RP screens, there were lots of soft goods. Also, the stage didn't have backings behind the presenters or shells behind the performers, so it was a much more open.
"Staples has constantly been refining the acoustical treatment in the venue," he continues. "They have permanently installed large velour drapes that fly in over flat surfaces that aren't needed for concerts. There's also material on all the walls in the concourse level that used to be just cement. Our biggest issue now is the suites, with their glass front walls and hard surface back walls. What we've done is to take the P.A. up and point it down, so there are very few direct sources hitting those back walls."
The bulk of the P.A. was flown, with ground support from front fills and subs. Yet, in the arena airspace, with its huge amount of truss and lighting, the line array system seemed almost unobtrusive.
"It's a big venue," comments Stewart. "But using delay systems we've reduced the size of the mains. There were only 12 boxes in the main cluster; the three cluster 8-box system in the back was part of how we dealt with the suites. If we were to cover everything from the mains, there would be, basically, a horizontal beam hitting the back walls of the suites and giving us problems. We take the delays up and point them down at the suites, which helps a lot with the reflections."
Yamaha PM1Ds were also used for monitor consoles this year, with everyone but U2 (can't say no to the world's biggest band, right?) running through the ATK setup. "We don't usually allow that," Stewart says, "But every once in a while we acquiesce. U2 gave us, basically, power tails that we tied in, their mic feeds plugged into our splitters, and away they went."
Both B and A/C stages had Yamaha PM1D mixing systems for monitors. Audiotek's Tom Pesa provides details: "The standard ATK packaging of these systems is 128 input channels and 64 output channels," he explains. "The systems operate in mirror mode with two engines running simultaneously for uninterrupted backup. Each system also benefited from an additional input unit with 32 extra channels, as 128 was not quite enough."
All monitor signal processing this year (with the exception of Stefani's and Eve's dbx vocal compressors), including input and output EQ, compressors, gates and effects, was also covered by the PM1D's onboard processing.
Each stage had up to 18 channels of wireless personal monitors with a combination of Shure PSM 700 and Sennheiser G2 and 3000 series transmitters. ATK and Professional Wireless custom helical antennas were also used to increase transmission performance.
Wireless "wranglers" John Bell and James Young were each responsible for keeping track of nearly 30 in-ear receiver packs for the various performers on the two stages. They also had to continually monitor the densely packed RF environment to ensure that frequencies remained clear.
Each stage also used approximately 30 custom ATK M2 1×12 monitors and 16 ATK M5 2×12 monitors; additionally, drum monitors included two ATK CSW 218 subwoofers. Sidefills for each stage were ATK C6 three-way cabinets. The 18 "speaker" mixes for each stage were powered by ATK two-way racks loaded with Crown amplification and XTA DP224 processing. Sidefills were powered by ATK three-way racks with QSC amplification and XTA DP226 processing.
Keeping track of all that monitor gear–both at sound check and during the telecast–is a story unto itself. In the critical position of directing the mixes on stage were Tom Holmes on Stage A and Andres Arango on B. During any given band set-up and soundcheck, they dictated which artist received either an in-ear mix or wedge mix, determined what type of wedge and how many. They then–quickly–called out the contents of each mix to allow Pesa or Parker to dial it up on the console, while also interfacing with guest band mixers who stayed on stage during the process to communicate artist mix preferences. All of this in the 20 or so minutes before bands arrived on stage for their only sound checks.
Individual monitor mix tweaking was accomplished during camera blocking, with, generally, three or four passes before mixes were saved to the PM1Ds and the next band setup began.
"There really is nothing else on this scale for TV audio production," concludes Michael Abbott. "It's a specialized kind of organized chaos. As we're representing the Recording Academy and its members, we have to strive to be the best sounding show in television. It's a very delicate balance to maintain year to year, and a major challenge to the entire audio team."
