Some shows are the stuff of legend. While the advent of YouTube has made it possible for a wide audience to get a small glimpse of the scale of these shows, it's impossible to truly appreciate the behind-the-scenes complexity of today's largest productions without witnessing them in person.
Each year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame holds a ceremony/concert for that year's inductees. Up until 2008, it was an invitation-only dinner event held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. In 2008, the show was moved to Cleveland, and ticket sales were opened to the public. In October of 2009, marking 25 years of the Hall's existence, the show evolved into a two-night fundraising event at Madison Square Garden. The show featured a Who's Who of rock ‘n' roll elite representing the full spectrum of the genre's reach.
One technical thread running through the last eight Hall of Fame events, as well as recent MTV Video Music Awards, tours for Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead, and more televised concert events than most of us have viewed (much less worked on) is the involvement of Red Hook, N.Y.-based Firehouse Productions. That's quite a resume for a company that started out as a monitors-only provider.
The Evolution of an Audio Company
Throughout the 1980s, Bryan Olson toured as a monitor engineer for some of the decade's biggest acts, including The Cure, Thomas Dolby, Peter Gabriel and Tears for Fears. Feeling that monitors were considered "an afterthought at best" by many of the era's biggest sound-reinforcement companies, and determined to provide the highest quality experience possible for his clients, he began building custom monitor systems based on his own original designs. The word spread, and today, Firehouse monitor systems are a staple of the live-performance audio landscape. In 1994, Olson incorporated as Firehouse Productions-taking the name from their original HQ in a former firehouse-and began providing monitor gear and services.
Standing at the FOH position in Madison Square Garden, Mark Dittmar, Firehouse's lead design and integration engineer, gestures around the beehive of activity and says, "As you can see, it has grown considerably since then." The company quickly gained a reputation as the place to go to "put out the fires" that often accompany outrageous deadlines, visionary creative artists and ever-increasing production challenges.
The house mix position for the Hall of Fame show looked like a console showroom. A Midas Heritage 3K for Crosby, Stills and Nash with guests Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and James Taylor, a pair of Midas XL4s for Paul Simon with guests Little Anthony and the Imperials, James Taylor and a guy named Art, a DiGiCo D5 for Stevie Wonder with guests John Legend, Sting and Jeff Beck, and a Digidesign Venue system for Bruce Springsteen with guests Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave), Ronette Darlene Love, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and Billy Joel. All the satellite desks' outputs were run into a Digidesign Profile master desk which fed four Dolby Lake processors driving a very large JBL VerTec rig powered by 96 Crown I-Tech HD amps.
Firehouse, one of the earliest users of the Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers, has continued using them consistently for large-scale events such as this. "We had approximately 6dB more volume than we had before with the I-Tech HD amplifiers coupled with the V4 DSP presets. You get more power and clarity than any other amplifier," stated Dittmar. "Also, the limiters on the I-Tech HD amps are extremely efficient, so we are doing more than ever with fewer boxes.
"Since this concert was for TV, we needed the system to cover the entire arena, yet not be visible in the camera shots," he continued. "With VERTEC you get a light-weight system that sounds excellent and it can be aimed at angles that other PAs wouldn't be able to achieve."
Excellence in Diversification
Beyond their obvious knowledge of large audio systems, part of what makes Firehouse such a heavyweight when it comes to big televised events is their expertise in RF and intercom, as well as having great gear and the right crew. "Quality and consistency are important to us, and we stay heavily involved in all aspects of designing and implementing all of our systems," says Olson. The Hall of Fame gig had Firehouse RF guru Vinny Siniscal wrangling 190 channels of wireless for a once-in-a-lifetime event in midtown Manhattan-a challenging RF environment to say the very least. Firehouse's Riedel systems were the core of the comm on the Hall of Fame gig, with a total of more than 50 wireless HME and Telex belt packs in use.
The same perfectionism and high standards that drove Olson to create his own monitor systems is what fueled his desire to become one of the top RF providers on the East coast. This has expanded Firehouse's potential to be a full-service audio, RF and comm systems provider for today's biggest productions., and that diversification is no accident. "Getting into things like TV and corporate events has enabled us to stay busy year-round," says Olson. "Unlike a company that is completely dependent on touring, we have no slow season."
An unwavering commitment to excellence is fundamental to Firehouse's practice. "When you do a show like Live Earth with many acts, and everyone leaves happy, the next time any of those acts come around and find Firehouse on the gig there is immediately a level of comfort and confidence that just makes everything smoother," Olson says.
At the Hall of Fame show, the cool, organized and competent nature of the company is evident in everything they do. From confidently managing the extensive needs of a large production down to details like adjusting their pack to use smaller trucks that can roll onto the floor of Madison Square Garden (thereby avoiding the dozens of forklift trips that 64 VerTec 4889s would usually require), Firehouse's thoroughness and experience is obvious.
2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts
GEAR
Consoles: 1 Digidesign Profile (master desk), 7 Digidesign Profile and Venue desks, 3 Midas XL4 consoles, 3 Midas Heritage 3000 consoles, 2 DiGiCo D5 consoles.
Speakers: 64 JBL 4889 VerTec line array speakers, 24 JBL 4880A flown subs, 18 d&b B2 subs for floor, 16 JBL 4887 for front fills.
Monitor Speakers: 40 Firehouse F12 monitors, 24 Firehouse F15 monitors, 24 Sennheiser G2 PMs
Amps: All JBLs powered by 96 Crown I-Tech 12000 HD amps
Processing: 4 Dolby Lake speaker processors
Mics: 32 Shure UR Wireless mics, 16 Sennheiser SKM 5000 wireless mics, 12 Firehouse 56×3 and 56×4 splitters, 400+ wired mics (Shure, Sennheiser, beyerdynamic, Audio-Technica and Audix).
Intercom System: 4 Riedel 64 Port main frames with fiber control, 16 DCP 1016 master panels, 68 digital belt packs, 40 HME and Telex wireless belt packs
