Every season has its distinct harbingers or signs of change. Most of us are familiar with the multihued colors of fall leaves, the first snowfall of winter (except in Las Vegas), the flowers of spring and the sizzling heat of summer barbeques. Equally important — if not more so — is the arrival of the sound season, which traditionally kicks off with school graduations.
Maybe it’s just because I live in an area populated with a lot of people, schools and colleges (San Francisco), but I can definitely recall years of “hell weeks” as local sound companies would try to juggle covering 25 or so overlapping graduation ceremonies over a few days. These are certainly not the most exciting gigs to mix — they rank right up there with political speeches, cardiology conventions and city council meetings — but are definitely on the schedule of nearly every local sound company. And although anything but glamorous, these bread and butter things do help pay the bills and rarely have clients complaining about the monitor mix.
After the Speeches Fade
Once the reverb tails of clichéd speeches about the “uncharted sea of opportunities before you” begin to fade, the business side of the sound season really kicks in with street fairs, July 4th pageants, county and state fairs, outdoor festivals, theme parks, races, rodeos, baseball games and every kind of event imaginable. And they all need sound. Also, this downtime period, with schools being shut down for a few months, offers a convenient time to get in and do installations and systems
upgrades.
Back to School
Speaking of schools, next month’s InfoComm show (June 8 to 14 2013; infocommshow.org) in Orlando affords an excellent opportunity to take a few days away from your lucrative sound season activities and improve your knowledge base and industry skillset. In addition to its huge expo of the latest technologies for audiovisual (especially audio, for us) gear, InfoComm offers a wide variety of programs and seminars for getting current with the constantly changing standards and practices of modern production.
InfoComm hosts a number of multi-day classes on topics such as “Networking Technology” and preparation for CTS (Certified Technology Specialist) certification, but perhaps some of the shorter programs are a bit easier to fit into your hectic show schedule. A plethora of “Super Tuesday” single-day sessions on June 11 (the day before exhibits open) focus on real-world solutions and tech trends. These include relevant, timely themes such as “Fiber Optics for the Pro-AV Market” and Peter Putnam’s “Wireless Trends.” Other short-format programs of interest for live sound pros to check out are Andre LeJeune’s “Power Distribution for Live Events,” Syn Aud Con’s “Sound Reinforcement for Technicians” and “Principles of Live Sound Mixing” presented by legendary FOH engineer Buford Jones.
Knowledge Sharing
The complexity of today’s sound reinforcement systems presents a sizeable barrier to anyone who casually wants to drop into this industry and start mixing. (For some reason, no one ever seems attracted to the idea of starting out by coiling/cleaning/untangling cables or stacking bass bins.) And with this complexity, it’s less likely that sound company operators have a lot of extra time on their hands to train people or bring in apprentices. So having some education or training is essential to anyone trying to break into the pro side of the biz.
At the same time, sound techs in the house of worship market may be working with volunteers (of various skill levels) and need to provide training or guidelines for them. In this month’s “Sound Sanctuary,” Jamie Rio offers advice and some basics every H.O.W. volunteer should know. It’s a must-read.
But knowledge comes from all kinds of sources. Recently our ProAudioSpace.com forum had a lively discussion about topics like XLR shell wiring and limits on how loud a show should be. And our resident scientist Phil Graham, writing about subwoofer placement in this issue (pg. 42) definitely opened my eyes with some interesting approaches to LF arrays. Don’t miss it.
And there’s a lot more in this month’s FRONT of HOUSE, whether backstage at the Bon Jovi tour, on the show floor of Musikmesse/Prolight+Sound or delving into the nuances or Solid State Logic’s first console for live sound). Check it out!
Catch George’s commentary at www.fohonline.com/foh-tv.
