The 2010 NAACP Image Awards were broadcast on FOX on Feb. 26 live from The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, with audio production services provided by ATK Audiotek of Valencia, Calif.
Rickey Minor led the live band, which included drums, percussion, bass, guitar, keys, three background vocalists and a five-piece horn section. Each musician had their own M-48 Personal Mixer providing personalized control for their in-ear PMs or headphones.
For the Image Awards band, the RSS by Roland M-48s were used as an extension of the normal monitor position with the lead and front-line singers on wedges and the band on personal mixers. The M-48 system is designed so the monitor engineer can still be in control of everything, including an individual's personal mixer if necessary.
Providing "More Me"
"At first, we went with the typical setup, where the musicians used the personal mixer for communication, click track, along with support from floor wedges," said Andres Arango, project manager and monitor engineer for ATK. "But after the horn section heard themselves through their M-48s, especially with the reverb ability, we took away the wedges and they went on in-ears alone."
The M-48 system allowed each personal monitor to view up to 40 sources. Each musician was set up to arrange the sources in any way they wanted – single, stereo or grouped. In this case, the drummer had kick, snare, hat and tom stems spread out over many stereo groups, then a vocal and horn stem. All sources were individually controllable on the drummer's M-48 unit so he could get the exact mix he wanted. The horn and vocal sections simply had a single drum stem, and other band/horn/vocal sources on their own M-48s with their own "more me" control.
The Monitor Setup
The Yamaha PM1D was used as the monitor console and then connected to the RSS by Roland personal monitoring system using 40 direct outs on the console. Using XLR patch cables, Arango connected the direct outs from the PM1D to the 40 channels of input on the RSS by Roland S-4000S 40 x 0 (40 XLR inputs, no outputs) digital snake. Arango set up nine custom mixes for the musicians using the S-4000 RCS software to remotely control the S-4000S digital snake and personal mixing setup. The live mixed audio from the PM1D went to the Powersoft Amplifiers, powering the speaker clusters.
"Once we figured out how to set up each personal monitor and how user maps are stored on each unit, it was very simple," Arango said. "It was the easiest personal monitoring system that we have had to set up, yet powerful and flexible."
Each musician could control their own reverb, limiter and EQ via their own M-48 if they so desired. All sources came through the monitor board first, so basic-level EQ and compression could be applied as required by the monitor engineer.
In addition, each M-48 got power and 40 channels of audio via a single Cat5e cable, simplifying cable management.
The M-48 Personal Monitoring System made Arango's job much easier. "Once we got past the initial setup, all I controlled from the RCS software was the drummers' personal monitor mix with volume adjustments for click tracks, hi-hats, toms and the like," Arango said.
"The band loved this new M-48 setup so much that we're planning on using it on a number of other projects like Sunday's Best on BET," Arango added. "The RSS personal monitoring system is well-designed for performance and live TV applications."
VENUE
The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, Calif.
SOUNDCO
ATK Audiotek
CREW
FOH, Main: Barry Warrick
Monitor Engineer, Project Manager:
Andres Arango
Systems Tech: Rick Bramlet
Monitor Tech: Billy McKary
FOH Tech: William Hainey
GEAR
Consoles/System: Yamaha PM1D (2), RSS by Roland M-48 (16), RSS by Roland S-4000D (2), RSS by Roland S-4000S Digital Snake
Speakers: 30 ATK 2C foldback speakers, 8 ATK M5 foldbacks, 4 ATK C6 PA speakers, 5 ATK CSW-218 subs, 6 Electro-Voice DeltaMax 1152x PA speakers, 6 JBL VerTec VT 4880A subs, 41 JBL VerTec VT 4889s, 20 Fostex 6301B powered speakers
Amps: 5 ATK 3-way amps (2ch), 8 ATK 2-way amps (2ch), 3 ATK Sub Amps (2ch), 12 Crown MT-1200, 8 Crown MA-3600VZ, 8 QSC Powerlight 9.0, 10 QSC Powerlight 4.0, XTA DP-200, TDM Audio CX24-2
Ear Monitors: 2 Sony MDR-7506, 4 Shure E-1 ear pieces, 8 Shure E-3 ear pieces, 4 Shure E-5 ear pieces, 6 Shure PSM 600 wired ears
Mics: 20 Countryman DI, 3 beyerdynamic M88, 18 Countryman Isomax Omni Stand, 12 Neumann KM184 (ph,c), 3 Sennheiser E602, 5 Sennheiser E604, 1 Sennheiser E609, 7 Sennheiser MD 421, 3 Shure Beta 52, 14 Shure Beta 98, 4 Shure KSM 137, 18 Shure SM 57, 9 Shure SM 58, 3 Shure SM 91(ph,c), 5 AKG C414 ULS
Wireless/Mics: 8 Sennheiser MKE Platinum, 8 Shure U2 capsule/KSM9, 8 Shure U2 capsule/SM58, 4 Shure UR4D L3 dual receivers, 8 Shure UR1 L3 beltpacks, 8 Shure UR2 L3 handhelds, 4 Shure UR1 H4 dual receivers, 8 Shure UR1 H4 beltpacks, 8 Shure UR2 H4 handhelds, 2 Shure UA845 UR antenna dist.
Wireless/Accessories: 8 belt and pouch kits, 3 Coax BNC 50,' 1 Coax BNC 100,' 2 Coax BNC 150,' 1 helical antenna; 2 Shure PS705 antenna, 1 Sennheiser A5000 CP antenna system
Wireless Adapters: 6 P48V power supply
(battery) ATK O, 6 Schoeps XLRF-LEMO (4-Pin/6-D), 6 Schoeps XLRf-LEMO (4-Pin/
0-D)
Power Distro: 5 3kVA balanced, 2 Distro 45kVA balanced, 1 Distro 45kVA balanced
Processing: Cedar DNS 1000, XTA DP-226
