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Regional Slants: A Little Guy in the Land of Giants

Regional Slants: A Little Guy in the Land of Giants

So, is this what it means to go from anklebiter to regional guy? I mean, I have received the odd invite to industry events before, but never anything on this level. Every year, the Harman Pro Group hosts a three-day event for their dealers, select soundcos and press people where they get an in-depth look into the technology and marketing plans for Harman's current crop of gear. (For the record, the actual title was the Harman Professional 2006 Global Business and Technology Conference. Harman Camp is shorter.) And all of this just prior to the Winter NAMM show.

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Hairspray is Here to Stay

It's out with the Blue and in with new as Las Vegas's Luxor Hotel bids farewell to its azure-painted performers The Blue Man Group and makes way for a brand-new draw–the hit Broadway show Hairspray. The musical turns the back the clock to 1962 when big 'dos ruled and plus-sized trend setter Tracy Turnblad just wanted to dance on a local Baltimore television show.

The show, which opened on Feb. 15, is a shortened, 90-minute reprisal of the multi- Tony-winning Broadway adaptation of the John Waters film that came out in 1988 and made actress and talk-show host Ricki Lake into an instant star.

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On the Bleeding Edge

I have such warm memories of my first audio spectrum analyzer. It was in a box the size of a small television–a tube television, that is. The screen of the analyzer was a matrix of red LEDs that turned on or off to indicate signal level at 1/3-octave frequencies across the spectrum. It worked very well and was easy to read in dark clubs, though it wasn't very useful in daylight. I guess you could say it was portable because it came with a small carrying case for transport, but it weighed about the same as I did in those days. It ran strictly on 120 volts AC and employed a separate measurement microphone that connected via XLR cable. I wonder if those warm fuzzy feelings came from the heat that thing threw off the top of the rack…

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The Vinyl is Tucked and Rolled…And On Fire!

Back in the day, Crown created a startling audio development with their pressure zone boundary microphone design. The PZM-30D was brand-new on the market. I had seen them in use at South Street Seaport–12 of them on Plexiglass plates in front of a choir standing on risers! My God, the sound was crystal clear, uncolored and beautiful! I had to have a pair for hanging on our stage. No more dangling microphones over the heads of actors! This was going to be the best!

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Inside the 48th Annual Grammys

It was Super Bowl Sunday and the freeways of Los Angeles were surprisingly forgiving. While most citizens were settling in for a long day of chicken wings and clever commercials, I was tooling toward Ground Zero for the music industry: the Staples Center, home to the 48th Annual Grammy Awards.

Despite the tranquility of downtown L.A. that morning, as I approached the Staples/ Convention Center staging area, I could literally feel the hum of activity in the hive. It was the first of three days of rehearsals, the technical shakedown before Wednesday's live broadcast of "Music's Biggest Night."

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Klark Teknik Square ONE GEQ and Dynamics, Shure UR2/KSM9 and UR4 Wireless Vocal Mic and Receiver and

Klark Teknik Square ONE GEQ and Dynamics

By Mark Amundson

Sporting three rack spaces and purple epoxy on the front and rear panels, the Klark Teknik Square One series of products takes the essence of KT signal processing excellence to a mid-market category of customers. I am going spoil the ending for you slightly by saying that both the Square One GEQ and eight-channel Dynamic Processor units are worthy in any application from touring outboard to garage band rehearsal rig.

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Twin Cities Installation

As with most installations, the one at Twin Cities Church in Grass Valley, Calif., started with an idea, continued with a plan and included a handful of adjustments along the way.

Over a three-year period, the Twin Cities ministry team worked with CCI Solutions, an Olympia, Wash.-based company that specializes in the design and implementation of audio, video and lighting systems for contemporary worship spaces. Prior to the new building project, CCI Solutions had established an ongoing business relationship with both Twin Cities Church and their architect, Gordon Rogers Associates. The first planning meetings for the new facility were held in 2002 and the final installation pieces were put into place so that the facility was ready for services in June 2005.

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Hook 'Em and Book 'Em–Contract Technicals

While this month's column is not theory, it is a whole lot of "practice" –the contractual technical description of your provided rig is an important part of winning bids. Yes, you can call contract terms part of the "biz," as most of the smaller gigs you take do not include riders and just want you to deliver the sound (and sometimes, stage lights) in a professional manner. But by describing your services in quantitative and generic ways, you connotatively express to your customer that you are all business and not over-promising a touring rig for an amateur event.

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Jersey Boys

One of the hottest tickets on Broadway is Jersey Boys, which tells the mostly-unknown behind-the-scenes story of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons; their rise from a working-class New Jersey town, where they were connected to the Mafi a, up through their staggering pop success and eventual dissolution. What's impressive are not just the dramatic performances, multiple set changes, live musicians and two-tiered stage with projections, but the quality of the lead actors' performances and their musical abilities. Audiences really buy them as the Four Seasons, and John Lloyd Young, making his Broadway debut as Frankie Valli, brings down the house every night.

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Who's Driving This Bus?

The live concert/touring biz pulled a rabbit out of the hat in 2005. Mid-year, Pollstar's data indicated that concert attendance had declined in North America by nearly 12% despite the fact that the cost of tickets had experienced their first drop in a decade. Fewer warm bodies in cheaper seats produced a drop of more than 17% in overall revenue. However, by year's end, a tour schedule back-loaded with big names such as the Rolling Stones and U2 pushed the year's total take to $3.1 billion, up 11% over 2004.

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Perk or Problem?

I so hate to use a line I have used before in a column, but sometimes there is no getting around it. Remember that TV show, Hill Street Blues? (For you pups out there, it was way back in the dim past in a time called the '80s.) Every show would begin with the crusty old Sarge doing the daily briefing for all of the street cops, and he would always end it the same way–"Be careful out there."

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