Editor’s Note

If this is January, then the Winter NAMM show is just around the corner (Jan. 19-22, 2017), and the annual pilgrimage of some 100,000 music and audio industry pros to the (hopefully) sunny skies of Anaheim is underway. Assuming you can get your iced-over flights from the Midwest or Northeast to cooperate, NAMM presents an ideal environment to escape the bad weather blahs and get down to some business (and a little fun) in this campus-styled enclave, where most of the lodgings are a short walk from the action.

Just a year after the Bataclan Theater attacks, the venue reopened with Sting performing a benefit show for the sold-out crowd. It’s definitely a good sign, in that the free world refuses to cower to (the thankfully rare) acts of terrorism, whether abroad or on our own shores, such as June 12, 2016, where 49 people perished at the hands of a lone gunman at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub. People will not — and should not — be afraid to go out to attend a sporting event or an evening’s entertainment at a theater, club or concert; in fact it’s an activity that people enjoy and can lift the spirits of anyone attending such activities and being part of a larger group.

All right, now that all this political fuss is over, it’s time to stop posting those silly partisan memes on Facebook and get back to work. Yet despite all those months of backstabbing and mudslinging between all the candidates, I for one am going to miss that drawn out process of primaries and general election frivolities. Well, not the constant barrage of negativity on the television ads and sound bite news journalism, but the massive influx of jobs and gigs it brings to the entire audio industry in terms of providing sound systems for all those rallies, events and fundraisers.

Doing any live event can be a high-stakes affair. You get one take, one shot and one chance to get it right. In a Christmas pageant at a local church or a coffeehouse performance at a neighborhood bistro, such situations provide for a certain amount of production concerns, perhaps with a 0.5 rating on a 1 to 10 scale. These should hardly lead to anxiety on the part of any seasoned audio production pro. Now let’s bump up the ante a bit — in this case, the first nationally televised debate on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University with Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

There are certain times that mark the end of summer. After all those Labor Day picnics, it’s time to pack that Weber grill back into the garage and get the kids off to school. Heck, fall officially kicks in on September 22, so pretty soon, many of us will be enjoying the changing of the season, with trees exhibiting their amazing annual display of fall colors.

Way back in my starving student days, summer didn’t mean three months of beach parties, but pouring on any additional work I could muster to self-finance my education. As an IATSE Journeyman, I could snag projectionist work, either running theatrical films or events ranging from closed-circuit, big-screen TV sports (mostly boxing matches) or corporate/convention gigs, for clients ranging from Mary Kay cosmetics to traveling spectacles designed to persuade car dealers to order more new Lincoln Continental models in the fall. And there was plenty of drive-in theater work, in case I wanted to do the 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift. There was also an additional hour’s pay each day to walk around the field with a cart full of parts to fix the clip-on 4-inch door speakers that customers liked to abuse in every conceivable manner.

Last month, I was chatting with FRONT of HOUSE columnist Steve LaCerra. I’ve known and worked with him for nearly 30 years, and he has an amazing sense of putting a sometimes-technical topic into a form that’s easy to understand. When not writing for us, he manages to stay out of trouble (i.e., keeping himself busy) by doing the three-hands-full job as the tour manager and FOH mixer for Blue Öyster Cult.

If you’re involved with installation, integration, production and their allied industries, then you know that InfoComm 2016 has rolled into Las Vegas this month for its annual summer shindig. And for some 40,000 attendees from more than 110 countries, Sin City becomes ground zero for the pro-AV industry.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re looking for an easy gig in audio, theater sound is no picnic. In fact, it’s probably the toughest job in audio. On a large musical production, the FOH engineer may have to deal with a 20-piece orchestra/band, another 20 (or more) performers and chorus members on wireless headworn mics, plus dozens of cue playbacks of ambiences, sound effects, etc. That’s a whole lotta input sources, all requiring precision timing.

It is nearly six years since early May of 2010, when torrential rains and flooding struck Tennessee, parts of Kentucky and northern Mississippi, leaving a horrific swath of death and destruction in its wake. And Nashville was far from immune to the effects of the storm, with major damage to the city and surrounding areas. But especially hard hit were those along the Cumberland River, which crested at nearly 52 feet, creating a nightmare for companies like Soundcheck and the many music and touring businesses housed there. Also affected with serious damage were the Gaylord Opryland Resort, Opry Mills, Bridgestone Arena, LP Field, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and the Grand Ole Opry House itself. But Nashvillians are a close-knit community and pull together in times of need. So other venues — notably the Ryman Auditorium and the War Memorial Auditorium (ironically, both former homes of the Opry) — pitched in to host Opry performances during the few months while the Grand Ole Opry itself was refurbished and repaired.