Big House Sound started when a PA guy and a monitor guy joined forces. The rest, as they say, is history.
So, what happens when a man with a PA bumps into a man with a monitor rig? In a move that parallels a television commercial, the two join forces and start up one of the most successful audio companies in Texas. Welcome to the overly simplified history of Austin’s Big House Sound, which dates back to 1991 when Rod Nielsen, who owned the house PA, met Roy Kircher, the monitor owner.
At the time, Nielsen was on the road with the Christian rock band Caedmon’s Call, and Kircher was working with Asleep at the Wheel and Johnny Dee and the Rocket 88s. “We were also doing a lot of cover bands and club-style stuff,” Nielsen recalls. “It’s the stuff you should do in the beginning to really get your chops down. You know, mix a lot and be in it before you try to play with the big boys.”
Even as the doors to Big House opened, the two didn’t get off the road immediately. In fact, until about 2003, they had employees taking out gear when they weren’t around doing all kinds of gigs. “We tried to start a company that we didn’t have to live off of,” he explains. “For the first three years we took no money at all and tried to build it as fast as we could.”
The goal was to work six shows a month, he admits. “I thought, ‘that would be great. That would be enough to cover the bills and make a little money.’ Now we do more in the neighborhood of 60 to 80 shows a month.”
From Six to 60
The jump from six to 60 took some time as well as a broader marketing approach and an investment in gear. As far as purchasing gear, Nielsen explains, the company’s goal was to always have a note out on new gear with the intention of paying it off as quickly as possible. “So, we’d always have some gear that we’ve paid for and some gear that we’re paying on,” he says. “Over time that got easier because we had more gear that’s been paid for and less gear that’s not.”
What that meant in practical terms was that they started Big House with a Yamaha PM1800 console at front-of-house and a Yamaha 3210 monitor console with four stacks of Adamson MH 225s.
The Adamson boxes were selected for a couple of reasons. First, the two had heard them on various road shows and liked the performance. Secondly, LD Systems out of Houston was an EAW house. “We didn’t feel like we could get into EAW,” Nielsen says. “We wanted to have something that was an alternative name.”
Once that was settled, Big House started to add more boxes and outboard gear. “Once you’ve got the consoles down and add more boxes, then you start to try to take on more shows. That means you need at least a pair of consoles with snake systems, distro, amps and everything that goes along with it.”
Over the past couple of years, Nielsen reports, the company has added 24 Adamson Y18s, 24 Y10s and 16 T21 subs on the box front. Big House has also added Yamaha PM5Ds and Digidesign Profile consoles along with Lab.gruppen PLM 1000Q power amps.
Ones and Zeroes
The purchase of the Lab.gruppen PLM 1000Qs plays into the future plans at Big House, Nielsen reports, because the company is looking to create an entirely digital environment.
“We are doing it because we think it will sound better,” Nielsen says. “It also makes things a little more lightweight. Most of these digital consoles have, more or less, everything you need on them. There won’t be any need for drive racks or aux racks at front-of-house, same thing at monitor world, so you’ve gotten rid of a few racks there. Power amps racks are smaller and lighter now, too. With the four-channel Lab.gruppen amps, we can do a lot more with less space and interconnection. Hopefully that will add to the reliability of everything.”
The new gear has come in handy, especially as the company continues to service venues around town in the 2,000 to 3,000-seat size, as well as the occasional larger show. For instance, Big House recently supplied gear at R&B artist Chris Brown’s show at Dodge Arena. The rig included 12 Y18s with four under-hung Y10s per side, sidefills were four Y10s per side with a pair of subs, outfills were eight Y10s and subs were 16 T21s.
Core Competency
Big House is primarily an audio house, although the company reports that it can handle full production. “We do turnkey services,” Nielsen explains. “So, if somebody calls and asks for lighting, staging and video, we’ve done it all and can production manage any part of that. We own a little bit of video, but when it comes to any kind of decent-sized events, we’ll hire out and then just manage it.”
There was a time when Big House did get into lighting. “We got into it for a couple of years. We did OK and made a little bit of money, but our hearts just weren’t in it,” Nielsen admits. “In the beginning we focused on it, but after awhile we thought we were stretching ourselves a little too thin. We’ll leave it to the guys who really love it.”
Although Austin is a bit of a booming entertainment town, by Texas standards anyway, Nielsen reports that there isn’t much competition. There was one company, he says, when he and Kircher first opened, but they closed after a couple of years. The competition today comes from some smaller companies. “Guys that started in the garage started to take some of the small shows from us,” Nielsen says. “Part of the reason they are getting those shows is because we don’t play well in the really small markets. Our prices are more in-line with what the nation is doing, and we’re not as willing to drop our prices to take every little show that comes up. You end up chasing your tail on a lot of those and you’re just working to be working.”
At the same time, Nielsen points out that people are fairly respectful in the area. “We just don’t have the people coming in and trying to slam you. We haven’t had any major companies come in and try to lowball everybody to steal their work,” he says. “I think one of the reasons is that we got to the size we are and people respect what we are doing and think that they may have a hard time competing as an outsider.”
