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2005: Box Office Bonanza

2005: Box Office Bonanza

While the movie industry claimed it was in a slump (not factoring in mega DVD sales) and the music industry was hurting, Broadway had its best year on record in 2005, raking in more than $825 million in ticket sales, a whopping 10% over the previous year. In fact, according to Broadway.com, the week ending Jan. 1 was the best ever in the history of the Great White Way, with $25.2 million in gross sales and an average capacity of 93.9%. No wonder Hollywood brought out big-screen adaptations of Rent and The Producers (which, ironically, was a movie in the first place).

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Church Audio is Big Business

This space has talked about the Christian music market before, and that industry remains a growth area and a place where live-sound talent can fit itself into nicely. But also worth looking into is the church sound market itself. So-called mega-churches are rising in number and in sheer displacement. The largest in the U.S. is Lakewood Church, in Houston, which seats 16,600 faithful in what was once the Houston Rockets' 150,000-squarefoot arena. What sets it apart from its former incarnation as a sports venue? The Jumbotrons are bigger and the sound system is better.

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Moving On Up

Jamie Rio: Since the very first edition of Anklebiters, I have attempted to answer your questions and share my real-life, seat-of-my-pants experience of the sound biz with all of you. And with the help of some very capable fellow sound techs and anklebiters, I think I have done a good job of it. Well, after seven years of working my own small niche company, I am graduating to the next level. That means I have grown from a local guy to a more regional organization. This will be my last installment of Anklebiters and I would like to share some of my experiences of taking "the next step."

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A Simple Thank You

It's one of those nights. It is 4:15 a.m. and I can't sleep. You know how it is: I'm tired, but my mind is racing and I can't fall asleep. So, what the hell? It's a perfect time to write this month's missive.

It will be early to mid-January by the time you read this, but I am writing it a few days before Christmas. As we begin 2006 with this issue, I find myself looking back on the past year. Most of us do that and, like most of you, some years bring a sense of opportunity lost and others of accomplishment, some of sorrow and some of great joy. As I look back over the last 12 months, I am struck with a profound sense of gratitude. It has been a year of growth, both personally and professionally, and a year of many changes.

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Opening Band Blues

Consider it the equivalent of hazing before getting into the fraternity of Front of House engineers–you're working with an opening band, and as you step up to mix a show, the main act's muckety-muck reaches over and turns down the entire P.A.

Welcome to the big time. Everything you'd hoped for, huh?

That situation has played itself out over decades of FOH history and new engineers accepted it both as a right of passage and brutal reality. The good news, according to Seether FOH mixer Howard Worthen, is that those days may be passing. "I've gotten the shaft pretty hard as far as them cutting me on volume and stuff. You don't see that a lot any more, and I think that comes from guys like me who started in the '80s going through that whole scenario," he says. "I know my point of view is that I've been through that and I would never do that to another person.

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You Want Structure?

A colleague of mine has recently discovered the joys of mixing Front of House without the compulsory addition of a 31-band graphic equalizer across his main left and right output, and is now espousing his newfound technique as though it were a revolutionary breakthrough in live sound reinforcement. While (in theory) it is true that the sound is better without this extra piece of outboard gear, the idea is neither revolutionary nor new, and for all of those who find this approach intriguing, may I suggest that you not unscrew the equalizer from your rack just yet?

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Pab Boothroyd

How many times have you encountered a lead singer with an attitude? Like he consistently comes to work with the right attitude each day, excels at his job and seems to have a sense of just being a regular guy on and off the stage? Well, that's Paul McCartney, the guy Pablo Boothroyd mixes for each night.

Pab will tell you it is business as usual to record each sound check and each show for every stop on a Paul McCartney tour. This time, the job also entailed sending two songs live, as they happened, to a couple of astronauts for a morning wake-up call in space. A Paul McCartney tour also usually results in a live CD and a tour DVD, as well as some goodies used for Internet content. When it comes to the art of the concert tour and everything that surrounds it, and I mean everything, Paul McCartney is simply one of the best to work for out there and he just keeps on doing it better and better. Pab and I each pulled up a road case and sat down for a look-see at the Front of House position used on the 11-week Paul McCartney US tour.

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On the Bleeding Edge: Of Mouse and Men

Riddle me this, Batman: When is an audio console not really an audio console? When it's a control surface. With digital technology running rampant, there are plenty of control surfaces out there masquerading around as audio consoles. We've got to recognize the differences or we're sunk.

If you're reading FOH, you already know that an audio console is a device with faders, button and meters designed to route and process audio. We've all plugged our mics into these desks and used them to mix shows. Ah, but a control surface would like you to think it processes and routes audio when really, it is nothing more than a very expensive mouse! Alas, this Mighty Mouse under your fingertips controls a computer, typically (but not always) processing audio in the digital domain.

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A Horse, Of Course–But There's More

When I telephoned Gary Nellis on Dec. 19 for an interview, he certainly sounded calm. Talk about the eye of a storm.

Nellis, who headed up the electronic install at the brand-spanking-new South Coast Casino in Henderson, Nev., a city that hugs the southeastern rim of Las Vegas, didn't actually answer the cell phone; someone on his crew answered for him as he discussed business on his other cell phone. Momentarily, he switched over, and with mind-boggling calmness, talked to me about the task of getting a big electronic install done under pressure.

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Regional Slants: Being Bigger Than You Are

In our pursuit to grow and expand our business, we must look beyond our current inventory and capabilities and be willing to take on risks and challenges that might be beyond our current level of comfort.

Sometime last year, we were awarded the contract to do a large event for the City of Albuquerque. "Freedom Fourth" was scheduled to run over four days with multiple acts each day at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Grounds–a large 94-acre park. With more than 30,000 estimated to attend the final day, it was an ambitious undertaking for us. But hey, there's nothing like putting up a big honking sound system to crank out your favorite tunes.

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Power Play

While doing FOH at an outdoor gig in Victoria, B.C., with a fair-sized (six boxes/side + 6dual 18) EAW rig next to city hall, the local city representative and his trusty Realistic SPL meter came up BEFORE we turned on the mains and told us to keep it down–the local bylaws say that they have a 90dB limit. The stage sound at FOH was around 90 to 95dB. The local system tech didn't turn on the system for the first band, and we were the second of three bands in the lineup. Well, I hadn't seen the city guy in an hour, and figured I could bluff and delay us through a 30-minute set, and mix with adequate volume. This, however, was not the issue. Halfway through the first song, the subs go down. No comms to stage, so I run to the deck and get the system dude to click the breaker back on. Bear in mind that I was peaking at about -6 on the output of the crossover. Went back to FOH and was there for a minute before the subs went down again. As I ran back to the stage, the high/mids went down. The stage guy said I was pushing it too hard, but my mix was so conservative that there was NO WAY I was close to the red lights. The monitors seemed to be relatively stable, and the band I was working for had been accustomed to no monitors, so I cranked the vox in the wedges and pointed them towards the crowd. The owner of the rig finally showed up and crawled under the deck, played with the distro and all was good. The last twothirds of the set went off without a hitch, at about 105dB at FOH. But during the second-to-last song, the city guy reappears and gives his meter a good, hard look, and glares at me. I held my SPL, and nothing came of it. Had he asked me to turn it down, I may have inserted the meter in him. By the way, I found out later that a construction worker next door had plugged an electric jackhammer into our power distro.

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