The minds behind Masque Sound are transforming a bustling business into a booming empire. The veteran audio company, which has a recording studio in New York and a warehouse facility in Orlando, recently moved its headquarters into a 70,000-square-foot warehouse space in East Rutherford, N.J. Already catering to clients locally and nationally–from The Apprentice season finale in Manhattan to the Queen show in Vegas–the multi-faceted operation has brought all its various disciplines under one roof, from theatrical and broadcast to live sound and industrials. "We've always prided ourselves in quality first," declared Geoff Shearing, vice president, corporate theater division for Masque Sound. "I'm proud to say I've assembled a team that I would stack against anybody in the industry, in all of the different disciplines."
FOH recently received a guided tour of the new space–a 50,000-square-foot improvement over their last warehouse–that has allowed Masque to offer its different departments within walking distance, from the check-in and QC areas to the show zone area, carpenter and metalsmith facilities and the various administrative offices on the first and second floors. There is a flow to the space that also offers convenience and accessibility for clients. Additionally, being close to Manhattan and Newark Airport allows the company to assist customers both near and far.
Shearing stressed that the company's "umbrella of services" offers a general theme: to find out what its clients' needs are and how best to help them. To find out how they can be helped, what they need, how their lives can be made easier and more efficient, how to save them money, and how Masque can use technology to aid them.
"We are very much into a one-stop shop kind of thing," remarked Michael Descoteau, director of broadcast services. "We bring a real A-team concept to what we're doing here. We have some of the best and brightest in RF. We have some of the most experienced in sound reinforcement. Take a show like the Christmas tree lighting for NBC or the finale of Survivor. We can bring RF, sound reinforcement, radios, high-end intercom to interface into the trucks, two-wire systems… What we're finding is that show production people, particularly on the television end of things, are saying, 'I don't have to go to five different people on a set? I can go to one person who heads up a crew for all these different disciplines? We like that.'"
Descoteau believed that Masque could extend that concept from the broadcast side into any of the other areas they cater to, such as industrial or live sound. Additionally, they have created a stable of project managers, tech managers and show designers that work with Masque on a freelance basis. "So if Microsoft comes to us and wants us to do three shows–Chicago, New York and L.A.–and they need sound design and show design, we have a guy who's in our stable who knows our inventories, who can talk to the customer and interface between them," Descoteau explained.
The loading dock area is adjacent to check-in and QC, which includes a speaker testing area, where Shearing said that they "literally sweep every speaker and make sure the drivers are not blown." He added that in their AP area, "we literally plug in electronics. We've written custom tests for every piece of gear that we own. All the cable is tested individually. We have pre-built systems and individual items, and they are treated separately. From that point, they move into the inventory cage."
"Masque owns in excess of 1,000 channels of high-end UHF frequency-agile wires," boasted Descoteau, "so consequently in one of these bays over here, we have a total of four RF techs. All they do is work on RF equipment, and in our Orlando facility, which is close to 20,000 square feet, we have another four RF techs. We've got some of the best and the brightest. We're one of the largest Sennheiser dealers and users in the world, and I'm not exaggerating."
Gear-wise, the company offers a wide range of racks and speakers, based upon both customer preferences and Masque's interest in trying new products. They also want to jump into fiber-optic technology and computer-controlled systems. Descoteau remarked that while people talked a lot about convergence recently, it seemed like nothing was happening in the marketplace, but he believes all that is changing with the acceleration of HD TV and the lowering of price points for technology.
Beyond the nuts and bolts are the people who help put them all together. Shearing said that because some of their clients may have drawings that need done by the next day, Masque has a carpenter and metalsmith on staff and on site, "to make things happen when we need them to happen." Outsourcing is neither convenient nor efficient for Masque in this regard. While these employees were in a different building before, it is far more effective for the company to have them under the same roof, particularly for those inevitable pre-production all-nighters. Descoteau noted that show and sound designers often camp out at the warehouse for two weeks before a Broadway show, so having people and gear choices there is vitally important.
When it comes to the nerve center of Masque, the tech center is "where a lot of the magic happens," said Shearing. "We grow a lot of stuff here. A lot of R&D." He believes the division's ability to do custom work, solve problems and interface systems that "were never meant to talk to each other" helps the company stand out, but that such experimentation arises from business necessity rather than a desire to innovate.
A new development in the Masque continuum is the formation of Masque Entertainment, a DVD division for live music, educational and house of worship events. It is headed up by award-winning director Gerard Schmidt, a 25-plus-year veteran of film and television who has worked on recent DVDs for the Rolling Stones, Nickelback and Spongebob Squarepants, among many others. He has a voracious appetite for new technology, as evidenced when he displayed the new Rolling Stones Four Flicks DVD set, which includes features like a song with five angles to choose from and the ability to shuffle the live set list. This year Four Flicks won Music DVD of the Year at Billboard's inaugural Digital Entertainment Awards.
Along with the impressive expansion, Masque is banking on a thriving business to keep gear moving in and out of inventory. "The lion's share of our stuff is out renting," said Shearing. "We always joke that if it all came back tomorrow, we'd be working in the parking lot." More importantly, the company strives to maintain high standards both technologically and personally so that it can meet its clients' demands. The saying goes, "build it and they will come." Masque already has a large client base, but now they have better facilities to serve them.
