Swearing In Ceremony
Talk with MSI on handling the swearing in ceremony were ongoing throughout the year, but the contract wasn’t finalized until the end of November, says Robert Goldstein, president of Maryland Sound International (MSI). The physical install started January 2.
“After the election it became clear that this was going to be an event of historic proportions,” Goldstein says. “We developed a series of plans to cover various venues and areas of the city where we were fairly sure there would be a need for audio support. There were at least a dozen site visits.”
They worked closed with sound designer Pat Baltzel and the Capitol staff, both who are veterans of such events. “This gave us the opportunity to make evolutionary improvements to the system, rather than having to re-invent the wheel.”
The biggest challenges were more logistical than technical, especially considering the number of people attending and the security concerns. The weather had MSI dealing with a string of days in single digit temperatures, but they came prepared for that.
“This year we did introduce a number of new signal transmission technologies to the main ceremony, as well as some of the other larger outdoor events,” he says. “This was not as much a concern as it was another design and integration challenge, but that really just makes it more interesting. Our confidence in our work and our equipment was always high.”
On a personal level he adds: “Aside from the obvious and dramatic historic significance of this Inauguration, the sheer size of the audience both in person and live around the world is something that will set this event apart, and may not be replicated in our lifetimes. It is a privilege to be so closely associated with something like that, and to have done so as well as we did."
Soundco: MSI
Venue: Capitol Steps, Washington, D.C.
Crew:
FOH: Art Isaacs
System Engineer: Brian Bednar
Show Crew: Billy Martin, Chris Leonard, Eric Freidlander, Travis White, Suzy Mucciarone, Ben Hoffman, and Andrew Morton
Gear:
FOH Console: 2 Yamaha PM5D-RH
Processing: DLP
Speakers: JBL 4889 Vertec, JBL VP7315DP
Amps: Crown I-Tech
Podium Mics: Schoeps CMC6-MK40
Intercom: Production Intercom AD-Cat5
Show/Event: Lincoln Memorial Concert
Clair was responsible for 2.2 miles of sound reinforcement, from the Lincoln Memorial down to the end of the reflecting pools. “The clusters were designed to cover the first 100 feet, just short of the first delay tower,” Clair’s Mike Wolf says. “Southside of the reflecting pool, there’s a skinny strip where we had four towers equally spaced.”
The first load in was eight days before the event. “There were different events, but this was the largest one. And the weather was so cold we left the gear on overnight to stay warm. I never saw that many people before, and it was a very memorable event. You work hard, have long hours, and it’s a great feeling when it goes well. It’s just great.”
Soundco: Clair Global
Venue: Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
Crew:
Supervisor / Sales Exec: Ralph Mastrangelo
Crew Chief: Robert “Koz” Kosloskie
All Systems Engineer: Brad Ervin
FOH Mixer: Andrew “Fletch” Fletcher
Sound Designer: Patrick Baltzell
SE / Lead: Brad Ervin
SE: Rob Rankin
Monitor Mixers: Mike Pirich, Robert Bull
Monitor Techs: Shawn Bivens, Jason Bennett
RF systems engineer: Kevin Kapler
Gear:
Mains: 16 Clair i3 enclosures
Secondary Mains: 28 Clair i5 enclosures
Lincoln reflecting pool delays: 8 towers, each with 8 Clair i5 enclosures
Washington Monument/WWII memorial delays: 6 towers, each with 8 Clair i3 enclosures
National Mall delays: 12 towers, each with 4 Clair i5 enclosures
All powered by Crown amp racks and Clair stack racks w/Lab.gruppen amps
Clair Digital iO drive and wireless tablet control
MON: 1 Yamaha PM-1D, 1 Digidesign Profile
24 Clair SRM enclosures (wedges)
10 Clair R-4 enclosures (sidefills)
4 Clair ML-18 enclosures ( drum subs)
16 channels Sennheiser G-2 RF iem systems
6 Shure PSM-600 Hardwire iem systems
16 channels Shure UR-4D RF mic systems with various combinations of hand held and body pack transmitters (SM-9 and SM-58 capsules)
Show/Event: Neighborhood Ball
For the “people’s ball” aka the Neighborhood Ball, ATK Audiotek provided the sound. The only ball open to the public, it had unique challenges, says ATK’s GM Brett Valasek.
“We didn’t have much time because we had to send trucks before we even knew what bands would be there,” he explains. “But we did a good job at guessing at what we would need.” Inside the convention, two stage systems were set up, one south facing and another east facing, with the FOH area set up where those lines intersect. Each stage had it’s own monitor engineers.
“With all the events going on, frequency coordination was important. There was an overall frequencies coordinator and everything had to go through. And we had a lot of speakers for front fill as we were dealing with a podium where speeches were made plus the music.”
Valasek says it all went well and were especially appreciative of the work Kish Rigging did, as “nothing would happen without the riggers.”
Soundco: ATK Audiotek
Venue: Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
Crew:
FOH Mixer: Mikael Stewart
Stage One Monitor Engineer: Tom Pesa
Stage One Monitor Tech: Paul Wittman
Stage Two Monitor Engineer: Andres Arango
Stage Two Monitor Tech: Billy McKarge
Gear:
JBL Vertec 4888s
JBL Vertec 4889s
JBL Vertec 4880As subwoofers
3 Yamaha PM1- Ds (FOH and both Monitor Stations)
16 Shure UHFs
Shure PSM 700s PM Systems
Sennheiser g2 PM Systems
