Brian: Hey Paul, I've got an interesting one for you. I recently went out to do a site survey for an upcoming show and had a rather awkward experience. You see, one of my clients is a local Christian radio station that promotes a variety of CCM concerts in the area. They typically use one of the larger area churches as the venue. While I am used to most of the rooms, I occasionally have to look at a new room that we haven't done a show in before. It was on one of these visits that I got myself into a bit of a bind. I listened to their system a bit and determined that I would rather bring in my own rig to cover the room, as I was not pleased with the coverage that their distributed house system provided. Here's where it got a little sticky. My point of contact at the church was the wife of the engineer who not only installed and designed the system, but had designed the custombuilt speaker cabinets as well. How was I supposed to tell her that I didn't think the system was appropriate for a concert? Frankly, I don't know how it's appropriate for the contemporary worship they have every Sunday.
Paul: That is a sticky situation! I think that one way to go is to bring up a rider and explain that the band requires certain name brand gear and in certain configurations. I have used the rider (it doesn't matter which one) on an occasion to get things in certain places when the venue wouldn't let me do what needed to be done. Hopefully, your point of contact and the engineer who designed the system will be able to hear the difference in the sound and start to think about why it sounds better with your gear. Maybe a few well-placed compliments on how it sounds at the concert will also turn the tide. Human relations are a huge part of what we do and how we do things. I certainly have had my fair share of problems in this area. What are costs going to do with this concert? Can they afford to use your gear?
Brian: The funny thing is that the bill for my services doesn't come out of the venue's pocket. My client is the promoter, not the venue. So when I did mention that I wanted to bring in my own racks and stacks, it surprised me that the church was opposed to doing that. It turns out that this will be the first concert in their new building, and they want to keep things simple. I'm not sure that they completely understand that, regardless of how much equipment I bring in, there is no additional effort on their part, as I have my own crew that handles all of the equipment, and all I need from the venue is someone to let me in the building.
Paul: It appears that you have a tremendous selling job to do. First, as I see it, you have to sell them on the idea of using your equipment; second, you have to sell them on the idea that you are really doing them a huge favor to have different sound systems in the room, and third, you have to sell them on the idea of letting someone help them improve the sanctuary sound each service. Well, Brian, do you have striped pants and a multicolored jacket?
How does a person go about selling someone something that they don't think that they need? Is it possible to have the band call your contact person and explain what they need? Do you think that your contact person will then begin to understand that she is in over her head?
Brian: I tried to explain that, in my opinion, the in-house system was insufficient for the show. But it seemed to go deeper than that. I'm told that there is no infrastructure in the building to provide power for an audio system. It wasn't really that they were dead set against using another system; it was more to the point that they wanted to keep things simple the first time that they bring a national level artist into their room. They expressed to me that they are using this show as an experiment, to get the feel for whether they would like to host more large events in the future. Once I got to understand what they really wanted to do, their real goal, I was able to think more on their level. After all, making things easy on them is part of my job description.
Fortunately, I didn't have to do any convincing to sell them on the idea of using my FOH setup and monitor rig. It was immediately obvious to all of us that it would be better and simpler to use a separate console and outboard for the concert so that their equipment isn't disturbed. The consensus was that we'll do that for this show, and if they decide to do more shows in the future, that we can address the need to add a power disconnect and other amenities to the facility at a later time. After all, the show we are planning is less then six weeks away. While I'm used to making necessary changes at the last minute, to them the show might as well be this weekend!
Paul: I would then guess that the real issue is how to get them to let you make the necessary changes to the in-house system to make it sound better in the future. How do you go about explaining to someone that they designed a system that isn't doing the best that it could? I have had to do that in a recent Broadway-type show. I ended up not using the center proscenium speakers and changing the timing of the other speakers. It didn't make the designer very happy, but the end result was way beyond what anyone had heard in the room. Reviews were written up proclaiming that it was the best sound they had ever had in the room. What are you going to do for them, Brian?
Brian: In this situation, we will probably bring in some subwoofers and run them off of an aux send to supplement the low end of the house system. Beyond that, my hands are somewhat tied. Without going behind someone's back to tweak their system, I will naturally provide the touring engineer with an EQ in my rack so that he can tweak it to his heart's content. This won't solve any of the core problems with the system, but on this one I kind of need to respect the wishes of the venue so that we can do more work there in the future.
The real challenge with the house system is an overabundance of point sources. There are multiple speaker clusters in the room, and the biggest problem is caused by an overlap in the coverage from cluster to cluster. At some points in the room, you can hear four different sources of audio, and that is with CD playback, not accounting for direct sound coming off of the stage. I could cover the whole place with two stacks on each side of the stage, plus a couple of small center fills. This would give me a much more coherent sound, not to mention the low end extension and overall capability that the house system lacks.
Someone had suggested that I have a set of racks and stacks in the nose of my truck in case the tour engineer or artist complains about the house system. I'm thinking it will be at my best interest to do what the venue has requested, and the tour personnel can be the ones to make a stink about the rig if they aren't happy about it. I might come out the hero if I say, "I've got my rig in the truck."
