What makes a hometown hero? What does it take to be the best, without being the biggest? FRONT of HOUSE readers have spoken and here are this year’s six Parnelli Regional Audio honorees. They all answer the two questions, and while each has whittled their own path to this year’s winner’s circle, like a snowflake, no two are exactly alike. They do, however, share commonalities: Gear, sure, but it’s the people; savvy business sense to survive and thrive and a business that is getting harder to navigate every year; and an insatiable desire to please the client. FOH readers can now visit www.parnelliawards.com and vote on which of the six should be named the Hometown Hero Sound Company of the Year.
Northeast
RSA Audio Services, Edgewood, NY
“We only provide audio,” declares Joe Light of RSA Audio. (Yes, his last name is Light and, yes, he’s heard all the jokes about that little bit of irony.) They are based on Long Island, NY, and have been serving the area for more than 30 years. Light met his business partner, Leon Esker as a friendly competitor, with both separately running burgeoning sound companies. When both outgrew their respective garages, they merged in 1983 and set up in their first warehouse.
“We’ve done over 10,000 events and shows,” Light says. “We came up doing rock ‘n’ roll clubs and tours.” Early on, they broke big when they were called in by a promoter for a gig at Radio City Music Hall, and the in house staff at RCMH said, “who are you guys?” and then booked them for many subsequent shows. Then there was the opportunity to provide The Beastie Boys on their breakout License to Ill tour.
Today, their 8,000 square foot warehouse is kept busy with six full-time professionals and plenty of freelancers, “some of which have been with us for 30 years,” Light says. The tools in the toolbox include Yamaha and Avid consoles controlling JBL VerTec systems. Wireless systems are from Sennheiser and Shure.
“We still do in-house proprietary cabling and make all our own cables, including snakes, sub snakes, rack panels, speaker cables, AC cables, etc.,” Light adds.
Today’s gigs are mostly ticketed concerts, as they serve all the major promoters doing events in New York City, and corporate events now make up about 40 percent of their work. They regular work the Beacon Theater, Jones Beach Theater, Hammerstein Ballroom, Radio City Music Hall, Barclay’s Center, Theater at Madison Square Garden, and the Nassau Coliseum, along with festivals like CBGB’s NYC Festival.
They are proud to be only audio. “We decided that we have enough of the piece of the pie that we didn’t need to diversify,” Light says. “We stuck with our true core.”
This is their first Parnelli for best regional sound company, “and we want to thank all our supporters!”
Southeast
Palmetto Sound Works, Spartanburg, SC
Palmetto Sound Works’ inventory consists of traditional speaker boxes with line array systems from EAW, JBL, K-Array, NEXO and Yamaha, and they offer rental customers Avid, Midas and Yamaha consoles.
Back in the 1980s, Alan Hulsey was playing drums in a band and “just got tired of never having a decent P.A.” An initial investment of $2,000 got him there, and was followed by some phone calls of other bands wanting him to do some for them. “I quickly found that I could make more money doing sound than playing bands,” he says. “I love mixing — doing it allowed me to start developing more clients, and soon I was doing small festivals.”
The company officially formed in 1994, and today there are 18 full time employees working in a 16,000 square foot warehouse. Over the years, Palmetto Sound Works branched into lighting, video, and staging, but their audio roots are still reflected in the company’s name. Audio-wise, they work with a lot of Yamaha gear and also deploy Avid and Midas consoles, JBL VerTec and NEXO Geo rigs and Shure wireless packages.
The company primarily does a corporate work, but after a chance meeting years ago with Adrian Ruiz, VP of Production for the Los Angeles-based Kids Artistic Revue series of dance competitions, Palmetto been supporting the production needs of their events as well — traveling, over the years, to every U.S. state except Alaska and Hawaii. “We do between 17 and 25 events per year” Hulsey says, of the dance contests.
Several other clients are willing to pick up the travel expenses to have Palmetto come do their shows, something Hulsey is understandably proud of. “It’s that ‘comfort zone feeling’ people get from us,” he says. “As much as some people want to make it out to be, audio is not rocket science,” he adds. “We’re a customer service company that happens to deal in production. Not matter what, the show will be done right, and we will get along with the client. There’s no yelling or drama.”
Hulsey says he was amazed to get the call about getting the most votes for the Hometown Hero Sound Company of the Year award in the Southeast. “I was thrilled, but it’s not for myself — I have some of the best audio engineers on the planet.”
Midwest
Audio Visions, Omaha, NE
For Audio Visions, based in Omaha, with an office in Minneapolis, this is a first-time visit to the Hometown Heroes Sound Company of the Year regional winner’s circle.
Founded by Richard Curzon in 1984, today the company has a staff of eight. The company demurred on specifics about their work, saying only that they do local and regional festivals and fairs. They also service indoor/outdoor concerts, theatres, symphonies, tours, religious events, corporate meetings and more. The company’s 10,000 square-foot warehouse holds JBL VerTec systems; d&b Q Series; Avid, Midas and Yamaha digital consoles; and Lab.gruppen PLM amplifiers.
“Our pride is the quality of equipment and technicians,” says Jasper Goforth, VP of Operations. “We are a mom and pop shop, working hard to provide solutions.”
Northwest
Sound Reinforcement Specialists, Fairbanks, Alaska
“I strive to keep Fairbanks up to date with the rest of the industry by constantly updating equipment and focusing on quality — not quantity,” Josh Bennett of Sound Reinforcement Specialists (SRS) likes to say. He must be doing a pretty good job at that and more, as more FOH readers voted for his company than any other on the Hometown Hero sound company ballot for the Northwest region.
Bennett has been doing sound in Fairbanks for more than seven years, and he’s been part of the production industry for more than 12 years. He started out running sound for his church, and loved it, but realized he needed more training.
“In 2005, I spent a little over a year out of Alaska to [attend] a well-known tech school for sound [Full Sail], the name of which admittedly can evoke love and hatred among many of our audio peers,” he laughs. “I then came back to Fairbanks with the goal of pushing Fairbanks production forward.”
As with most nascent sound companies, SRS had humble beginnings. “I started small and focused on getting equipment that was as rider-friendly as our market allowed,” he says, even if that meant running the risk of “buying equipment our market may never pay for. Lucky for us, our clients were all following the same growth trend, and together we’ve steadily been advancing the production quality in Fairbanks ever since.”
He says one of SRS’s early triumphs was when he got his hands on a used Lake Contour to process their three-way boxes. “At the time, that was a major milestone for us,” Bennett says, while also acknowledging that it’s “a rig we’ve now phased out. Some of our major shows have just happened in the last couple of years, allowing us to add some big things to our inventory. Most of our growth has been slow and steady.
“I knew how to be a sound guy, but had to learn a lot about the business of running a production company,” Bennett adds. “I’m still working on that.”
The company’s console inventory centers on “Avid SC48’s, but lately we’ve added three consoles from the Soundcraft SI expression line,” Bennett says. “We’ve come to love them for run-and-gun shows, plus being able to offer our local bands a way of repeating and polishing their mixes. We really like our Danley TH118 subs and SH69’s along with the VTC EL210 boxes. We have the standard Shure package along with all Radial DI’s (J48, JDI, ProDI), and we are the local Audix dealer, so we have a large assortment of Audix, the SCX25 being our favorite large diaphragm, well… along with the C414 pair we love. We have a number of Shure ULX-D wireless and PSM900 systems. Our monitors are the Radian Apex 1200 and we use all Crown amps.” And they added more VTC line array boxes this year along with TH118 subs and another SC48 console.
And he takes care of that gear. “A sound system is like a musical instrument — if not cared for correctly or tuned properly, you will never realize its full potential,” he says. “We use acoustic measurement and analysis equipment to tune your sound system to its particular environment,” he adds. “We also supply acoustic treatment for noise reduction and room correction.
“This year, we had a couple of big events to take care of,” Bennett continues. For the Arctic Winter Games, which were held this year in Fairbanks, AK from March 15-22, “we handled the opening and closing ceremonies in the 5,000-plus seat arena along with the cultural performances all week long in the local 1,400 seat theater. We also handled the sound for Cityfest with Andrew Palau with headliner TobyMac; these events allowed us to add some more speakers to the roster and put us at 20 tops and 20 subs.”
Today, in addition to freelancers, SRS has four core employees. Along with Bennett, “Anthony Smith is our drum tech/FOH; Frank Gamboa is my on-call tech; and James Bartlett [handles] artist relations/recording.” They work out of a “cozy” 1,900 square-foot warehouse. “It costs a lot to run a business in Fairbanks, so we maintain as small a footprint as possible. We’d rather spend the money upgrading equipment.” But Bennett also acknowledges the likely need for expansion as the company continues to grow. And ideally, along with all the company’s gear, he’d like to be able to park the truck inside when they have those chilly (-50° F) Alaska days in the winter.
“We are really lucky to have great clients that are growing with us in our small market and dedicated to doing things right and pushing Fairbanks forward,” Bennett says. “We hope to be doing this for a long time to come!”
Southwest
Precise Corporate Staging, Tempe, AZ
Precise Corporate Staging has, over the years, been recognized for both its prowess and lighting and sound — and sometimes both — with Hometown Hero nods from readers of FOH and PLSN magazines.
“I am very happy to win best audio company in the Southwest region,” owner David Stern says. “Over the past few years, we have heavily invested in people and top-notch gear and thus have been able to grow our concert division. This is on top of our commitment to continually make and build quality relationships with promoters and talent. We want to be part of their success and bend over backwards to achieve it.”
True to the nature of the business at this level, happy customers are key to success and longevity. “We were just asked by the Buffalo Chip Festival to re-sign a contract that will keep us supporting that event for the next 10 years,” Stern says, of the annual event that turns the Buffalo Chip Campground outside Sturgis, SD into a freewheeling music festival. PCS has also been asked to keep supporting the ever-growing Rock USA and Country USA festivals staged in Oshkosh, WI.
“We started out as a lighting company, then moved to audio, then to video,” says Stern. He notes the advantages for clients who seek out his company’s ability to “package” systems for ease of use — and PCS has quite an array of audio gear in their warehouse to pick from.
Stern is particularly bullish on L-Acoustics line arrays and added more to the inventory last year. Other gear in constant demand includes the company’s NEXO Geo S Series line arrays, EAW KF Series cabinets and JBL EONs. Mackie and Yamaha DM 2000 digital boards are also kept busy, as are PCS’ Midas Venice and Verona consoles.
Stern grew up in the small town of Dumont, NJ, near Hackensack. During his high school days, the New Jersey club circuit was on fire, and he kept busy working for club bands at night handling sound and/or lighting duties. He would work with Meat Loaf before eventually becoming keyboard tech for Bon Jovi in 1984. He was there for their first world tour opening for the Scorpions in the U.S. and KISS in Europe.
In 1980, on July 4, he met Marla, his future wife. They married shortly after. Twenty years later, the two formed Precise Corporate Staging. Marla’s experience was lent to the accounting side, and they turned their home into a business. “Monday night was cable-making night with the kids,” Marla says.
Meanwhile, in 1980 he met Marla, his future wife, at a bar on July 4th. They married shortly after. Twenty years later to the day, the two formed Precise Corporate Staging. “Our philosophy is, we partner with our clients,” Stern says. “We help them invest in their business. When their business grows, our business grows.” They work show-to-show, but also year-to-year. “We want to create events and relationships where we both win.”
Canada
KiAN Concert Sound Services, Richmond, British Columbia
These Canadians not only come to the winner’s circle for a second year in a row, they won the whole shebang, walking off last November with the 2013 Parnelli Hometown Hero Sound Company of the Year Award. “It was an honor just to be nominated last year, let alone win the Parnelli,” says Derek Mahaffey “To be nominated a second year in a row is just mind-blowing.”
Working with the “same great staff,” they continue to be called back again and again for reoccurring events. They were on hand for the tours of Hedley and Canadian singer-songwriter Dallas Green, a.k.a. City and Colour. Another big feather in the company’s cap is the Squamish Valley Music Festival (Squamish, BC; the 2014 event, held Aug. 8-19, featured headliners Eminem, Bruno Mars and Arcade Fire). Along with Squamish, KiAN has kept busy this past summer with Symphony Splash (Victoria, BC; Aug. 3) and the Rock the Shores Music Festival (Colwood, BC; July 11-13, 2014).
Along with a Meyer Sound MINA system, Tour Rig two-ton hoists and Midas digital consoles, KiAN invested in a Meyer Sound LEO system recently. Also in the KiAN tool box: L-Acoustics V-DOSC, L-Acoustics dV-DOSC, Avid Venue Profile and Yamaha PM5D-RH.
KiAN company president Mark Reimann is particularly bullish on the Meyer system. “I’ve been dealing with Meyer since the 1980s, and I trust those guys,” he says. “I never have a question about their quality.”
For more than a quarter of a century, KiAN, based in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, BC, has been taking good care of the regional concert, touring artist, music festivals, special events, and corporate conventions that call on them. They do a fair amount of audio installations, too, including the theater within the Richmond, BC-based River Rock Casino Resort, and another Great Canadian Gaming property, the Red Robinson Show Theater in Coquitlam, B.C., adjacent to the Hard Rock Casino Vancouver.
And KiAN continues to grow. “I’ve noticed at one time it was feast or famine — they’d be tumbleweeds rolling through the shop on some months,” Mahaffey says. “Now it’s more consistency for a company like ours to work steady through the year.”
Cast your vote for the 2014 Hometown Hero Sound Company of the Year award at www.parnelliawards.com.
