Psn live 2015 digital

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Chessington, Surrey KT9 2QL. Tel: +44 (0) 1372 845600

Heard in all the right places... with all the right faces

PSNEurope’s essential annual analysis of the European live sound business

www.psneurope.com

P41STILL ON TOP THOSE SHARP DRESSED MEN FROM TEXAS ARE BACK!

P26BOUTIQUE IS BESTIS IT ALL OVER FOR THE TRADITIONAL BIG FESTIVAL?

P30BE CONSISTENT THE PUNTER WANTS THE SAME SOUND IN EVERY SEAT, RIGHT?

2015

VOLUME 10

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MAKERS OF PSNEUROPE

032015

is brought to you by the makers of PSNEurope

2015

EditorialA fresh approach for 2015... here’s how

p4

Sound EngineersHow it looks from FOH (or monitors)

p6

PA/Hire CompaniesSelect views of the people with the kit

p7

Exquisitely proportionedThe rise and rise of boutique festivals

p26 Craving consistencyThe state of PA: is it all about ‘the same

sound in every seat’?

p30

Ever closer: recording and performanceLive capture is practically de rigueur

p35

ZZ still on topThe Texan rockers in Germany

p41

P10

The FOH engineer

P12

The PA company boss

P13

The educator

P14

The festival organiser

P16

The crew boss

P18

The guitar technician

P20

The PR guru

P22

The sound levels expert

P24

The venue owner

P42

The festival regular

Views from the top

04

2015

Hello and welcome to PSNLive 2015,

our annual ‘temperature-taking’ of

the European live/touring sound

industry.

For this, our tenth edition, we

altered the look and size of the publication, in

keeping with the revamp of PSNEurope

a couple of months ago. But, more than this,

we’ve overhauled the approach to the yearly

market reports.

Previously, an independent research house

spent many hours grilling engineers, PA company

bosses and other live sound professionals in

order to build up a complete picture of the audio

landscape. And, it must be said, the data revealed

has shown, for the most part, only gradual

change in our industry. We don’t expect fireworks

and paradigm shifts every year, of course not, but the predictability of the results

have not met our expectations with regard to the time and effort involved in

mining them. (Perhaps I’m being too honest here. But still...)

So, for 2015, a different, leaner method: we stripped back the surveys to a

handful of key questions, posted them online and asked YOU to come to US. This

passive implementation has meant, inevitably, smaller sample sizes (less than

15 respondents for each survey). However, key trends and indicators have still

emerged, as you will discover on pages 6-8.

The reports are complemented by another innovation. From p10 onwards, you’ll

find ten ‘Views from the top’, whereby we quizzed incumbents of key industry roles

on the ups and downs of the business. Not just the engineers and hire companies

either, as you will see. (Yes, we had to finish with the ‘festival regulars’ – ie, the pop

stars – for the back page.) The result is a range of insights from a diverse group of

individuals, all of whose careers are inextricably linked to the fabric of live sound.

Add to this a look at boutique festivals, sound coverage for large events, and the

tech involved in capturing live sound – plus a quick burst of ZZ Top(!) –

and PSNLive 2015 is, in short, a whole heap of great reading! Enjoy!

Dave Robinson, Editor (and keyboards)

Editor Dave Robinson

[email protected]

Deputy Editor Jon Chapple

[email protected]

Managing Editor Jo Ruddock

[email protected]

Advertising Manager Ryan O’Donnell

[email protected]

Sales Executive Rian Zoll-Khan

[email protected]

Head of Design Jat Garcha

[email protected]

Production Executive Jason Dowie

[email protected]

© NewBay Media, 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the copyright owners. The contents of Genuis are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems. NewBay Media is now the Data Controller under the Data Protection Act 1998 in respect of your personal data. NewBay Media will only use your data for the purposes originally notified and your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 are not affected by this change.Printing by Pensord Press, Tram Road, Pontlanfraith, Blackwood NP12 2YA

Our contributors and some of their best live experiences…

2015

Erica Basnicki“Smashing Pumpkins at The Phoenix in

Toronto; January 3, 1996. I queued for

hours in –35°C weather to be at the front

of the stage. They were at the height of

their fame, the venue was intimate and,

yes, I was right up at the front. It was

beyond epic.”

Mike Hillier“My favourite festival moment has to be

seeing Radiohead’s Thom Yorke come

back on stage for the encore on the

Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, 2003. The

entire crowd was still singing the reprise

from Karma Police. It just humbled him,

and his smile reached from ear to ear. His whole stage

persona completely slipped.”

Kevin Hilton“Greatest live act in terms of stature was

BB King at the Royal Albert Hall in the

late 1980s, a slick but soulful show made

all the more memorable when I drank

champagne on stage with the sound

crew once everyone else had gone. For

intensity of performance, Peter Gabriel at Wembley Arena,

in the 80s AND in the 2000s.”

Marc Maes“The greatest act I’ve seen live was the

August 1977 double bill of Carlos Santana

and (flamenco virtuoso) Paco de Lucía

at the Plaza de Toros in Barcelona. The

best festival experience I’ve had was

Stevie Ray Vaughan performing at the

Northsea Jazz Festival’s Garden Pavillion in 1985 – rockin’

and bluesin’ the jazz audience. And my favourite venue? The

Roma, Borgerhout, Belgium!”

Phil Ward“Kraftwerk at the Tribal Gathering Festival

of 1996 was the perfect circumnavigation

of a cultural globe, completing a journey

that began in 1974. Then, at Glastonbury

around 2003, I was at FOH with old

mucker Andy Lenthall and a mutual

friend just as McCartney took the stage…”

Mike Clark “The best act I’ve seen live was a gig by

the Neville Brothers, plying their funky

New Orleans wares under a star-studded

summer sky at Umbria Jazz; this would

also win the prize as my best festival

experience, from the arena with the big

crossover names to the jam sessions in the bars.”

David Davies“The Barbican’s imposing concrete

edifice isn’t to everybody’s taste

(personally, I like its Ballardian overtones)

but the venue itself remains one of the

greatest symbols of London’s diverse

musical culture. Outstanding memories

of the pplace include the force of nature that is Keith Jarrett

blazing through jazz standards accompanied by Gary

Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, and satirical genius Randy

Newman drawing on a songbook with few equals.”

NewBay Media

1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London, UK, N1 8LN

Market report: Sound engineers06

2015

Engineering a solid future

Although the number of live events,

especially during the summer, has

continued to increase in recent years,

the optimism of sound engineers

hasn’t exactly been unwavering. Rapid

turnarounds required by intensely scheduled tours, as

well as insufficient back-up and support, have meant

that the lot of the touring engineer hasn’t always been a

happy one.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say that these concerns

have disappeared from the 2015 report, but taken

overall this year’s responses do point to an increased

sense of momentum about live sound. Activity levels

are strong, and are expected to remain so, while new

technology and streamlined workflows are being

embraced more fervently. However, there are longer-

term concerns that should be noted carefully: for

example, some fear a lack of innovation in events

production, while others highlight a lack of properly

skilled engineers coming into the industry.

This year, we appealed for engineers from across

Europe to come forward and express their views rather

than approach them directly. Since this constituted a

more passive approach than in previous years, the total

responses were somewhat fewer in number than we

might have wished. Consequently, what we have here

are more the thoughts of a very informed focus group

than a comprehensive survey per se.

Nonetheless, those who did answer did so diligently,

so there is still plenty of food for thought contained

within the results of the 2015 Engineers’ Survey.

Core data

Once again, the UK constituted the largest single share

of survey respondents, while The Netherlands was

responsible for the second largest amount of responses.

Other respondents came from markets as far afield as

Colombia and the UAE.

In terms of overall activity levels, 66.6% of

respondents said that their activity levels have

remained the same or increased in 2015 to date when

compared to 2014. Underlining the present health of the

mainstream festival market, larger festivals constitute

the largest increasing share of our engineers’ work,

followed by smaller festivals and general touring [E1].

In a result that points to overall improved economic

conditions, 40% of contributors expect their average

payment per project to increase overall in 2015, with

only 10% predicting a decline. This should be cheering

news for anyone looking to train to enter the industry, or

perhaps move across from the studio world.

It has been a tradition of previous PSNLive reports

that insufficient budget and resources as well as

inadequate set-up preparation time top the list of the

factors most likely to impact live events negatively.

Absolutely no change there this year, and with acts

looking to cram in evermore dates as their recorded

income continues to dwindle to dust, it’s a situation that

is unlikely to change any time soon.

Technological transition

The fact that nearly all live sound engineers have

moved over to digital desks is taken for granted at this

point, but the extent to which they have engaged with

networking and more sophisticated onboard software

and effects has been shown to be variable. However, on

the evidence of this year’s report, broader technological

transition is now firmly underway.

To wit, two-thirds of engineers confirmed that the

type and feature-set of systems they use for live sound

work has changed significantly over the last few years

[E2]. Meanwhile, nearly 89% of respondents confirmed

that audio networking is now supplanting traditional

point-to-point connectivity in their daily working lives by

either a significant or moderate margin – an emphatic

result after several years of decidedly erratic responses

on this topic [E3].

Future facing

With nearly 89% of respondents declaring themselves

to be very or moderately optimistic about the future

of the live sound business in the UK and Ireland, there

is certainly no sense of imminent risk. But responses

to the longer-form questions do reveal some deeper

concerns about the long-term outlook.

No surprise to find that noise restrictions constitute

a commonly-cited challenge to live sound events

[see festivals feature, page 26, for more discussion

of this subject]. But even more frequently aired is a

reservation about the access to training (or lack thereof)

After several years of reports revealing fluctuating levels of optimism, the

2015 PSNLive Engineers’ Survey indicates a surge of confidence about the

future and emerging audio technologies, says David Davies

Significantly 66.7%

Moderately 33.3%

Hardly at all 0%

'Keep it analogue!' 0%

E2: To what extent have the type and feature-set of

systems you use for live sound work changed

over the last few years?

Significantly 66.7%

Moderately 22.2%

Not really 11.1%

'What is audio networking?' 0%

E3: To what extent is audio networking now

supplanting traditional point-to-point

connectivity in your daily working life?

Larger, 'mainstream' festivals 50%

Smaller, 'boutique'-style festivals 40%

General touring 1%

Events NOT based around live music 9%

E1: In which of these areas of activity have you

witnessed the greatest uplift in recent years?

072015

and standard of younger engineers coming into the

profession. “There are too many people willing to push

up faders and claim to be an engineer, yet who possess

next to no knowledge about spec’ing or even setting up

a mid-level PA system,” maintained one respondent.

There were also calls for governments and local

authorities to make it easier to stage live events in

response to a question about what can be done to

encourage further growth of the business. “There

should be more leniency with regard to SPL levels,”

suggested one respondent, while another urged the

Powers That Be in the UK to take a more supportive

approach to the industry’s overall contribution to

the economy: “The [Government’s] blinkered view is

depressing at best. We have some of the best artists

and technicians in the world, and we punch well above

our weight.”

There has been a fair amount of talk lately about

possible over-saturation of the touring and festival

markets. Most respondents didn’t seem overly

concerned about a theoretical decline, although

diminishing opportunities for bands to get started at a

grassroots level are giving cause for concern.

Whatever the future holds, the fact that an increasing

number of live sound engineers now have ‘portfolio’

careers that may include studio/installation projects

and educational work, among other duties, should stand

them in good stead.

Conclusion

The quality and availability of those personnel

embarking upon their careers does represent a genuine

concern, but in general engineers are continuing to

enjoy the benefits of the live event explosion that began

in the mid-Noughties. Time-poor and over-stressed

they might be, but overall they remain very busy and

– as the answers to the technology questions reveal

– highly engaged with the changing demands of their

profession.

Addressing the longer termFestivals and large-scale touring are keeping many PA firms busy

throughout much of the year, but greater diversification looks set to be

crucial to the sector’s long-term prosperity. David Davies sifts the results of

the 2015 PA/Hire Companies’ Survey

Despite fluctuations in the broader

economy, the PA/Hire Companies’ Survey

has generally painted a fairly upbeat

picture of the sector in recent years. The

explosion in the number of live events

since the mid-Noughties has meant that activity levels

have remained reliably solid, while diversification into

other areas such as conference and theatre work has

also strengthened many players’ hands.

For the 2015 survey, we appealed for PA/hire

companies from across Europe to come forward and

express their views. Again, like the Engineers’ Survey on

the previous page, our more passive approach meant a

smaller return; however, the responses outlined below

should still be regarded as indicative of a business that

continues to perform strongly throughout most months

of the year.

Core data

As in previous years, the UK constituted the largest

single share of respondents. Other countries

represented in this year’s responses include France, the

Netherlands and Norway.

Echoing the results of the last few years, overall

activity levels have stayed approximately the same for

the majority of respondents when compared to 2014

(63.6%). A reasonable percentage reported an increase

(27.3%), with only 9.1% citing a decrease.

Similarly, a question about average payment

per project evinces little evidence of change, with

a comfortable majority (63.6%) reporting that it is

generally staying the same. Only 18.1% reported a

decline, which perhaps shouldn’t give too much cause

for concern at this stage.

In an interesting contrast to the 2015 Engineers’

Survey, where larger festivals were said to constitute

the area in which engineers have seen the greatest

uplift in recent years, general touring (40%) and

smaller/‘boutique’-style festivals (30%) scored best

among the PA/hire firms [P1, over the page].

Time and resources

In another echo of the Engineers’ Survey responses,

insufficient budget/resources and inadequate set-up/

preparation time were reported to be the factors that

typically have the most negative impact on live sound

projects. Plus ça change there, then.

PA/hire firms also noted that the type and feature-set

of systems they use for live sound work has changed

substantially over the last few years. Indeed, 87.5%

DJ superstars Axwell & Ingrosso at last year’s V Festival at Weston Park, with sound by SSE Audio Group

Market report: PA/Hire companies08

2015

said their set-ups had altered ‘significantly’ – the result,

no doubt, of the transition to digital operation that has

characterised the post-millennial period.

Further underlining this development, 50% of

respondents observed that audio networking is now

supplanting traditional point-to-point connectivity

in their daily working lives by a ‘significant’ margin,

with 37.5% reporting a ‘moderate’ impact. After some

distinctly variable responses to networking-related

questions, it is cheering to report that only 12.5% opted

for ‘what is audio networking?’ by way of response [P2].

In the final specific area of enquiry, a heartening

87.5% of respondents declared ‘moderate’ optimism

about the future of the live sound business in the UK/

Europe – with absolutely no one reporting themselves

to be disillusioned [P3].

Digital delivery

For the first of this year’s ‘open’, longer-form

questions, PSNLive asked PA firms to highlight the

primary ways – structurally, organisationally or in

terms of personnel levels – their companies have

changed over the last few years.

By far the most commonly cited response was the

move towards digital systems, although there were

also references to enhanced and more responsive

organisational structures – as one respondent put it,

“new equipment, better trained staff, better premises

and infrastructure, all leading to efficiencies and

greater service for our customers.”

Next, survey participants considered the extent to

which diversification is now an important component

of their company philosophy. A significant majority

indicated that it is now crucial to achieving prosperity;

as one respondent put it, “diversification is the key

to our growth. Without it we would not be where we

are today.” Another simply noted, “more eggs in more

baskets [is the way to go].”

Most respondents indicated that their overall project

mix has changed somewhat during recent years, with

greater amounts of corporate, theatre and festival

work among the frequently cited developments. As

one remarked, “these days we have a more stable mix

of theatre and festivals, which are more or less the

same year after year, and the calendar is [otherwise]

filled with one-offs. Previously we tried to take

anything thrown at us.”

Finally, participants were asked for their opinions

about the recent debate surrounding possible over-

saturation in the live touring and festival sectors.

In general, there did not seem to be a great deal of

concern at present, although several respondents

alluded to a long-term change in the festival scene

pinpointed elsewhere in the 2015 edition of PSNLive

(see page 26). As one remarks, “I see less work in

large festivals [in the future], and a rise in small local

festivals where things other than music are important.”

Summary

‘PA/hire companies holding steady’ might be a

reasonable sub-title for this year’s survey report.

Activity levels are good, and there is a more than

reasonable sense of optimism about the future.

But perhaps most crucially of all, the technology

questions reveal that companies are pushing forward

with new systems and workflows – in other words,

seeking the progress that will be vital to continued

competitiveness.

Significantly 50%

Moderately 37.5%

Not really 0%

'What is audio networking?' 12.5%

P2: To what extent is audio networking now

supplanting traditional point-to-point

connectivity in your daily working life?

Very optimistic 12.5%

Moderately optimistic 87.5%

‘We're all doomed!’ 0%

P3: To what extent would you say that you are

optimistic about the future of the live sound

business in UK/Europe?

Larger, 'mainstream' festivals 20%

Smaller, 'boutique'-style festivals 30%

General touring 40%

Events NOT based around live music10%

P1: In which of these areas of activity have you

witnessed the greatest uplift in recent years?

Out front for techno act Howling is engineer Tommy Williams with a new Allen & Heath GLD-80 Chrome digital mixer

P10

Can a die-hard analogue man embrace digital networking? And why small clubs and festivals are changing the world

Who are you?

Jon Burton, jobbing sound engineer.

What do you do?

I am primarily a live sound engineer. Over my career I

have done about 50/50 FOH and monitors.

Where do you do it?

In the last few years I have primarily been a FOH

engineer for, among others, The Prodigy (top left) and

Bombay Bicycle Club.

About six years ago I also built a small recording

complex in Sheffi eld with a colleague, Dave Hadley,

called The Laundry Rooms. We have fi ve control

rooms sharing a central live room. I have rediscovered

recording and done a few singles and albums in

the last year. Primarily I use my room to mix live

recordings for DVD or YouTube release. I do have a bit

of a reputation as an analogue engineer and my mix

room refl ects that, with a big analogue desk and loads

of outboard, including some of the 20 or 30 delay units

that I own. I have a weird dub addiction…

Why do you do it?

I’ve always been interested in sound and have been

working in music since leaving school. I played in bands

but also began engineering fairly early on. I did tours

in my early career where I was playing in the support

band and mixing the headliner.

What’s your biggest success to date?

My biggest success to date is probably still being

given the chance to do it! I love mixing and I’m lucky

to have worked with some great bands. I am one of

those rare people who look forward to work every

day. Getting the chance to do The Prodigy has been

great and it suits my style of engineering: I have a

keen interest in sub bass, which the band are happy

to encourage.

What’s the biggest challenge coming up?

The biggest challenge I see is fi ghting the corner for

sound over convenience. Having spent years trying to

get the best sound possible, I do feel pressurised into

forsaking it for convenience.

I was an early adopter of digital. I have no problem

going forward but until it sounds – actually sounds –

better mixed on digital I will try and remain on the best

desk for the job – which for me is grey, made of steel

and wood with a leather armrest.

I’ve always seen my job as being the band’s engineer,

and my role is to get the best for the band. Being my

own system tech is something I fi nd compromising. As

soon as I set up my own system I feel compromised.

When faced with a diffi cult gig I will go for the easiest

option. If you walk into a gig as a tech, you look at the

most practical, easiest way to solve the problems. As

an engineer I go in with a more challenging, questioning

attitude. My tech will say it will be fi ne with eight

speakers – I say why not 12? We settle on 10…

Having said that, I feel it is my responsibility to keep

up to date so last year I did Martin Audio MLA and d&b

training. I always try and stay up to date. However, just

because I have done all the theory I should never be let

anywhere near rigging and motors.

What is the ‘issue’ that never seems

to go away?

That’s an interesting question. Money is the most

obvious thorny issue that blights any industry. Being

upfront about money is always a good policy. Spell out

what you expect, and what they can expect from you.

Judging that fi rst bid is never easy, though, and it’s true

you get what you negotiate. But if you agree too easily,

don’t moan afterwards!

Do you care about digital audio networking?

I do care about digital networking, as I care about audio

quality and I care about latency. Once a signal is in the

digital domain I try and keep it there until the end of

the chain. Latency, though, is the curse of the modern

system. It ruins your mixes; it ruins your system! Why

aren’t we all shouting about it?

I have an issue with standards as well. Why have

them if people are going to do a special ‘not compatible’

version of MADI, for example? Don’t you manufacturers

ever talk to each other?

Are you fi nding more and more venues

have their own loudspeaker systems

permanently installed?

Loudspeakers in clubs are now better than ever before.

I have been in 200-capacity clubs with little line

arrays that sound fantastic! [But] maintenance is

another matter.

How else is the touring scene changing, from

where you’re standing?

The main change for me in recent years is the number

of festivals I now do. The year before last I worked all

year, but I only did seven days of traditional touring. The

rest was festivals. I don’t mind, but it is a diff erent style

of mixing. Festivals can be great but the factors are not

all under your control.

My colleague Ray Furze summed it up nicely: for a

great sound at a festival you need a good engineer, a

good PA, a good band and good weather! The four very

rarely come together at the same time…

What technical solutions have made your life

better in the last few years?

For me the greatest advance has been the introduction

of modern line arrays. I doff my cap to Christian Heil

and Marcel Urban. These men – along with Paul

Bauman – have done more to change my job than any

others.

Looking to the future, I am starting to teach more

and get involved in educating the next generation of

engineers. I’ve also started at university part time

so I can fi nd out how academia works, and I continue

to write for magazines and lecture online for

Soulsound.

www.laundryrooms.co.uk

2015 Views from the top

12

35 years with Britannia Row Productions… “and I’ll probably still be here in another 35”

Who are you?

This morning, I was Bryan Grant.

What do you do?

I’m managing director of Britannia Row Productions. We

rent out people and equipment to the live entertainment

industry. That covers gigs, tours, events, sporting

events... anything that makes a noise, we do.

What is your biggest success to date?

Still being here, I think [laughs]. Waking up every

morning with most things working, coming into work

and the business is still here – and we’re having fun. I’m

serious about that, I suppose.

As I said to Derek Zieba just before he died, we’ve

been to places, seen things, and done things that most

people wouldn’t even begin to dream of. We’re very

lucky in that respect. There are people who live their

whole lives in boredom. I’ve never considered what

we do as work. I’ve always considered “work” to be

something that you don’t want to do, but you have to get

up in the morning and do it to put money on the table. I

think people in our industry are lucky in that what they

do aff ords them a living. So what they do fi rst is what

they want to do, and secondly they can make a living at

it. That’s as good as it gets, isn’t it?

What is the biggest challenge that is

coming up for you?

Still being here! Every morning’s a challenge [laughs].

There are diff erent sorts of challenges. It could be

the next big gig we have to do. That could be the Foo

Fighters; I hope Dave Grohl is going to get better and

play. I think the Rugby World Cup is going to be a real

challenge; we’re doing 13 stadiums there. But we have

lots of people around us who rise to the challenge far

better than what I can.

The challenge as Mike [Lowe, fi nancial director]

and I get older is to have a business that can carry

on. It’s not that we’re tired of it? To respond to those

challenges, we’ve got a great team of people in our

middle management. I can see them looking at me

sometimes thinking, “Poor old sod… go and sit in the

corner somewhere!” It’s fi ne; it’s what should happen.

Could you ever retire?

I don’t know. Is retirement stopping? I have too much

fun. The way this business works, your work is your life

and your life is your work.

There will come a time, I guess, when someone will

say: “For God’s sake, piss off !”

What about the business, if anything, do you

really dislike?

I think being dictated to by people who don’t understand

or respect what it is we do, and what we contribute

to the business. The people who know the cost of

everything and the value of nothing. It’s an old cliché,

but the lowest price isn’t necessarily the best price.

I dislike being put into situations where I can’t deliver

what I regard to be the best possible audio. I dislike

being compromised in that way, and sometimes we are.

I dislike people who don’t have respect for other people.

What is the one issue that never goes away?

There is a lack of respect for audio. You can have

everything else spot on; if the sound isn’t working, you

don’t have a concert. It’s the most fundamental thing

about performing in front of more than a few hundred

people. It’s so fundamental it’s been forgotten.

I wouldn’t say I want us to be sanctifi ed or put on

a pedestal, but let’s just all respect what each other

does, give each other credit for that and help each other

achieve the best we can.

How do we achieve that?

It’s just education, I suppose. We in the audio industry

have been our own worst enemy. Sound engineers tend

to be very laid-back people. Lighting designers and set

designers and choreographers tend to be people that

stand up and shout and get what they want. We infl ict

our own wounds.

Time for engineers to stand up and be

more assertive?

It’s more about other people not thinking. What would

you say to a crowd of 20,000 people if there was no

sound? It’s funny, isn’t it: we built this whole industry up

on amplifi ed sound. The fact that you can even play to

100,000 people isn’t because the lights are so bright, is

it? It’s because they can hear you.

What adventures are you looking forward to next?

I tell you what I always look forward to: going to a gig.

It may not be the hippest thing in the world, the biggest

band or the one with the most artistic merit.

But what I occasionally get is a reminder of why I got

into the business: when you see a hundred, a thousand,

or one hundred thousand people having the greatest

time. Or somebody playing an instrument you’ve never

heard before and you think: “Wow, what is that noise?

How did that happen?” When somebody sings a song

that brings you to the edge of tears. That is why I keep

at it.

www.britanniarow.com


The former owner of Tiger Hire is giving something back to the industry he loves…

Who are you?

My name is Jim Parsons. I used to own a PA company

until I realised how daft that was. It took me 28 years

to realise this.

What do you do now?

For the last 10 years I have been running a live sound

degree course.

Where do you do it?

Based in Plymouth, UK, dBs Music is a specialist

music technology provider that allows me the

freedom to design and run the course in a way which

combines structured learning with plenty of practical

work using cutting-edge audio technology. We have

a 400-capacity working venue as the main teaching

environment and we have pro gear like Midas, Avid

and Martin Audio – which is not always the case with

publicly-funded college courses.

Why do you do it?

I felt for a long time that the old ‘junior dogsbody’

assistant engineer pathway to learning live sound

engineering was a bit random as it really depended

on the senior mentor engineer being able to

communicate information clearly and accurately, and,

of course, it depended upon them being right in the

fi rst place.

The other thing is that the live sound industry has

undergone rapid change over the last 30 years. In

the past, being physically strong, having a driving

licence and having a positive attitude were the main

prerequisites for a budding engineer. Now you need

to know, understand and remember pretty complex

technical stuff , particularly since digital technology

has revolutionised sound consoles, audio networks

and loudspeaker control.

The good news is that this all means that there’s

a good variety of jobs for the new generation of tech-

savvy technical crew in this digital age. So I suppose

my goal is to inspire and train the new specialist

technicians and engineers who ultimately will replace

my generation.


I fi nd my role in education very rewarding. You know

why? When I fi nished the last lesson of the academic

year in May, the whole graduating class applauded.


Here at dBs Music we have a new collaborative

partnership with Martin Audio, so Plymouth’s own

sonic guru Simon Honywill will be instructing the

new students in September in the mysteries of

loudspeaker design – and particularly the principles

and operation of the revolutionary MLA speaker

system. This of course is the main challenge that

we always face: keeping up to date with the rapidly

changing technical landscape. Not so diff erent to

running a PA company, really!


to go away?

There are some basic laws of physics which govern

all audio, and understanding the principles of

acoustics and the mechanics of sound transmission

and reception will always be at the core of live sound

education. This will never change – unlike the latest

mixing desk upgrade.

What can the industry do better to

encourage youngsters?

The relationship between young live sound students,

equipment manufacturers and sound rental

companies is crucial to the renewal and development

of the new professionalism in pro audio. In particular,

manufacturer-led equipment training is essential to

the successful adoption of new technology because

this in turn makes the student more employable to the

rental company. It’s a kind of synergy in operation.

Can they get work?

We have good relationships with all our local sound

companies and a steady trickle of students end up

fi nding employment with them. Education is now an

expensive business for any student, so I fi nd that most

of them are keen, hardworking and really want to have

a career in some part of the live sound workplace.

Why are there more courses now than

ever before?

Unfortunately, there are quite a few courses available

now, both publicly funded and private – meaning

pay to learn – and many cover a bit of everything

connected with music technology. This means that the

student ends up with a little bit of knowledge about

lots of diff erent subject areas, but has no proper depth

of understanding about any one thing. This is what

sets the dBs Music live sound degree apart from the

rest: we live and breath pro audio, obsess about it and

dream about how to do it better. That is what we do!

If you were 18 today, what advice would

you need?

Now is a great time to be 18. Get as much education

and training as you can, take every opportunity that

you are off ered, buy some decent ear protection and

don’t restrict yourself to particular job roles or types

of work. Remember: you always need to keep on

learning so that you’re prepared for the future.

www.dbsmusic.co.uk

Views from the top13

2015

14

Bringing a little bit of Caribbean sunshine to the centre of Europe

Who are you?

My name is Lode Verschueren (top centre). I fi rst

organised the Antilliaanse Feesten (Caribbean Festival)

in 1983 when I was 27. And I’ve just become a “young”

grandpa…

What do you do?

I’m a full-time festival organiser – and happy to say that

I’m my own boss. I’m a free man, and that’s my biggest

victory in life. Before, I worked as a surveyor…

Where do you do it?

The Antilliaanse Feesten is being staged in the tiny

village of Hoogstraten, with some 20,000 inhabitants.

Indeed, Hoogstraten is the very centre of Europe,

equidistant from Cologne, Amsterdam and London.

That’s why we’ve called our festival company ‘Belgium

Oversees’ – a tongue-in-cheek reference to illustrate

that we oversee the music we put on, better than some

who actually perform it [laughs]. No, really, we claim to

be the one festival bringing all of the Caribbean musical

styles together. For 31 years now, we’ve staged the

festival at the Blauwbossen riding school, a beautiful

landscape in the woods.

Why do you do it?

I have to admit I didn’t know Caribbean music at all –

but I was curious and fascinated by what I discovered

– so organising the festival was a combination of

coincidences and lots of passion. I started organising

the festival in the punk and blues era; friends tried

to talk me out of it, but they were wrong, it turns out.

Starting up wasn’t easy but I’m happy to see that, over

the years, we’ve built an audience consisting of both

‘Europeans’ and also lots of expats with roots in the

Caribbean living in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany

and France.


Don’t ask me for hard facts, names or fi gures! I think

my biggest achievement is to keep the festival fresh

and inspired after all those years. And to remain

independent and not be part of the big multinationals

controlling the live market. To be independent,

successful and medium-size – that’s what it’s about.


It’s along the lines of the previous question. The main

issue is to pass on the passion – crucial when it came

to setting things up – to the next generation. Continue to

give the event an identity of its own, off ering a fresh and

innovative programme with an attractive festival site. In

terms of business, we try to adapt: for instance, adding

extra stages – this year’s festival has fi ve!

What’s the issue that never seems to go

away?

The fucking weather! I have a billboard in my offi ce

saying ‘Don’t mention the weather!’. Bad weather

conditions do have their infl uence. Although all of the

stages are in huge tents or marquees, the festival

requires ‘Caribbean’ weather. Last year we had a heavy

rainstorm just as the campsite gates opened…

Is organising a niche festival an advantage?

Actually, I see no direct disadvantages – we made a

clear choice as to the festival’s identity. If we should lose

this typical aspect by mixing other musical styles or

adding pop bands, we would loose our core audience

and not be able to attract new public.

How loyal is the audience?

Very loyal – we see it on social media and in

communications with the visitors. Every edition attracts,

weather permitting, some 15,000 people per day, plus,

for a few years now, several thousands in the campsite

the day before the festival weekend. We don’t have

any exact fi gures on hand – the only thing we know

from polling at the entrance is that 56 per cent of the

audience are female. In the months prior to the festival,

our audience is very involved with what we do via social

media. We don’t attract festival tourists driving from the

Graspop Metal Meeting to the Tomorrowland dancefest.

Many of our visitors attend only one festival: ours.

And what about the evolution in Caribbean

music?

Our audience is very open to new musical trends. The

most popular new bands are massive on the social

media and YouTube. Bands that didn’t exist six years

ago now get 100m views in Latin America. Those are

the bands we want at the festival, in combination with

traditional salsa and merengue orchestras. This year

we have Grupo Niche, a Colombian salsa orchestra

with many horns who attract a huge audience here.

The advantage of having multiple stages is to be able to

have style accents throughout our programme.

Flying so many bands from Latin America

must be a logistical challenge…

This could have been my ‘issue’, but it has grown on

me over the years. I’m used to solving problems, like

this week when a band’s booking agent is off the radar

for fi ve weeks with Schengen visa and fl ight tickets

pending – with one month to go till the festival, this

requires daily following up.

What is the festival’s future?

I believe in constant innovation as the key to its

future. Caribbean and Latin American music moves

on, and it’s our job to keep our fi nger on the pulse.

www.antilliaansefeesten.be


16

Mixing sound fi t for an Olympian with the other Pavarotti…g y p

Who are you?

Angelo ‘Pavarotti’ Camporese, born in Borgoricco, the

north-eastern province of Padua, Italy, and audio chief

on productions by Agorà, Italy’s largest rental company.

What do you do?

In the case of particularly complex events or

installations, I’m responsible for the technical/logistic

coordination necessary for all members of the

production team to carry out their individual jobs in the

best possible way, optimising the entire operation’s time

schedule and technical set-up.

Where do you do it?

Wherever the events are – more or less worldwide

nowadays. I’ve worked in every country in Europe with

Italian artists’ tours, plus events in Tunisia, Egypt and an

entire year in the UAE, working out of Dubai.

What do you do it with?

A computer, e-mail, meetings and even more meetings,

to perfectly understand events’ technical requirements,

and the necessary jobs involved, form the team that

meets these requirements, allocate individual jobs, train

the staff in the event of technical upgrades and draw up

the list of equipment required; making certain the rental

company can provide it or, where necessary, fi nding the

most appropriate alternatives.

What has given you the most satisfaction?

Every event involves a challenge, hard graft and

satisfaction, but having contributed to the realisation

of three Olympic Games (Turin’s 2006 Winter Games,

Sochi 2014 and the European Games this year in

Baku, organised by the European Olympic

Committees) with a world-level organisation, off ering

technical solutions to projects that were defi nitely

complex and very varied, after months of

commitment, dedication and intense human interaction

the positive results were an enormous satisfaction.

On the sports front, I was also system manager and

network manager at Hampden Park, Glasgow, for the

2014 Commonwealth Games.

What’s your next big challenge?

There are similar events to those already mentioned on

the agenda, as well as smaller events with the same

technical complexity.

What ‘issue’ that never seems to go away?

Budgets to be respected, appropriate technical

solutions, over-tight time frames for planning.

On one hand, choosing the right staff to respond to

the need for professionalism regarding the use of the

technology required; on the other, paying particular

attention to the ability of each member of the team to

cooperate in harmony with their colleagues, since large

events often involve lengthy work schedules and calm

cooperation. Taking great care with the make-up of the

team ensures the best results.

As well as being an audio chief, what’s your

background in the live event or music world?

I began as a sound engineer in 1986, then progressed

to PA management and later system designer. For

years I worked on the technical aspects of the audio

and lighting divisions of a rental company, which

enabled me to accumulate in-depth knowledge of

the ‘philosophical’ and design approach to sound

reinforcement systems, with a particular focus on new

technologies – devices using important technological

solutions that frequently integrate audio, lighting and

video in the same network. I’ve been working as a

sound chief since 2000.

I also work on technical staff training, so that the use

of these solutions becomes increasingly normal – at

fi rst glance they may seem diffi cult for their complexity,

but in the end they’re they only ones that off er the

fl exibility necessary to meet clients’ increasingly varied

requirements.

How did you become an audio chief?

I started out in situations that were much simpler and

are still the norm today, where one of the technical

staff had the job of also following the events’ general

organization and was the reference point per skill and

knowledge, while still continuing to play an operational

technical role. In more complex events, this obviously

becomes a such an complicated job that all your time

and energy goes into coordination, to ensure that all

those involved have the necessary means for carrying

out their jobs.

How would you rate the standard of Italian

audio chiefs with those abroad?

I’d say they have similar roles, even if traditions are

diff erent – from the US and northern European world

in general we’ve learned a lot regarding organisation

and logistics, combining this with the fl exibility

which distinguishes Italians’ modus operandi. This

fl exibility was the ‘added value’ we brought to this

industry, which requires increasing fl exibility and

rapid decisions and meets a positive reaction on the

international productions we worked on.

What artists would you like to be or have

been the audio chief for and why?

Names such as The Wall, Pink Floyd and U2 are

without doubt examples of top-grade production

in my generation’s imagination, but the Olympic

Games are in fact the world’s largest “show” as far as

audience numbers are concerned, and the impressive

production machine that is part of the ceremonies

off ers great stimuli from a technical and emotional

point of view.

Do you fi nd it frustrating that other

technicians involved in live event industry

(sound engineers, lighting console ops)

often have a higher profi le than audio

chiefs?

Not at all. If you consider the aim of the operation

you’re working on and believe in the team you’re a

member of, you realise that there are certain roles

that are natural interfaces with the ‘outside world’. In

our fi eld, these are normally the people who ‘press

the buttons’ – the sound engineer or the production

manager, who can give overall insights on the events.

The work behind the scenes is carried out by team of

highly specialised technicians working with passion,

dedication and professionalism, all fundamental for

achieving the end result. This is suffi cient personal

satisfaction for me but, obviously, having the

opportunity to express your point of view is without

doubt a pleasure.

[email protected]


18

“Too many arse-lickers and snakes in the grass”: it’s not the same as it was

Who are you?

Dario Cappanera, known by everyone as ‘Kappa’ and

born in Leghorn, Tuscany, in 1973.

What do you do?

I began playing guitar at the age of eight, and have

played in numerous bands since, worked with

instruments, amps and guitars and owned an

[analogue] recording studio from 1993 to 2000.

I’ve worked as a guitar and bass tech since 2001,

but thanks to my studio experience, I’ve a fairly

comprehensive background in the audio world –

cabling, keyboards, drums, mics, etc.

Where do you do it?

I’ve mainly worked in Italy, but from 1990 to 1992 lived

and worked as a guitarist and tech in Austin, Texas; in

London in 1993; then, back in Italy, in various studios

in Milan. Once on the scene, I worked mainly in Italy,

above all when Diego Spagnoli ‘enrolled’ me with

Vasco [Rossi] in 2003. I went back to the States, to LA,

for the whole of 2009.


I have an unpretentious workcase containing the bare

essentials: Boss tuners, overdrives and boosters for

acoustic guitars, jack cables, soldering gear, all the

tools necessary for guitars, including hex keys in

millimetres and inches for all kinds of bridges, spare

potentiometers and jacks… in short, all the odds and

ends necessary for emergency repairs on the road.


I’ve worked as a guitar tech for a lot of musicians, but

my biggest satisfactions were with Vasco Rossi – from

2003 to 2014 I was his band’s guitar and bass tech (for

Maurizio Solieri and “Gallo” Golinelli) – and for another

great guitarist, Mike Scott, ex-guitarist with Prince,

with whom I worked on tours and events with [Italian

singer] Giorgia.


Changing my job! [Laughs] Seriously, I’ve been

globetrotting since I was 18 and I’m 41 now. I’d like to

stay at home with my family; working conditions aren’t

what they used to be, plus I no longer have the passion

and desire to experience music as I once did. It seems

to be all business and technology now – too cold and

impersonal, too many arse-lickers and snakes in the

grass… it’s not the world I once knew.


to go away?

With Italian musicians, rather than a roadie or tech,

you need to be a psychologist, as there are too many

improvised artists and prima donnas, too many

bigheads and a load of moaners. In short, they expect

you to look after them too much.

As well as a tech, do you do any other work in

the live or music world?

I play in an Italian metal band, La Strana Offi cina. I’ve

played with a lot of other artists and I also have a

blues project where I sing too. I’m a songwriter, too,

have acted in a fi lm and am also a yacht skipper…

I’m always on the hunt for new challenges and crazy

things to do. I’m quite eclectic, and in ‘simple’ tech this

seems to annoy folk sometimes.

How did you start work as a tech?

After some session work in 2000, I realised it wasn’t

the job for me: I’ve always hated pop music, which is

Italy’s most successful genre. My roots are in blues

and rock ’n’ roll, so, undecided on how to make a living

and having closed my studio, I decided to try my hand

as a roadie with DeltaV, a band I’d already worked with

as a backliner, stage manager and monitor engineer.

It was hard, crazy work, but there was friendship,

esteem and a great atmosphere. Then, in 2002, I got

the call from Diego Spagnoli.

How would you rate the standard of Italian

techs with those abroad?

As far as professionalism, ability and know-how is

concerned, Italian techs are in no way inferior to those

from abroad, but there are some big diff erences: US

and European techs deal exclusively with the backline!

On the other hand, here in Italy, we’ve always worked

with everything, from cabling to snakes, mics, the

risers or stage set and loads of other crap. I think that

this has given us that ‘something extra’, since, in my

modest opinion, I think if you’re involved in hundreds

of other audio aspects you learn a lot more!

What musician would you like work with as a

tech and why?

I’d have liked to have been the guitar tech with one

of my icons, Gary Moore (RIP), or Zakk Wylde, whom I

got to know well during the years on the road, and Joe

Bonamassa.

Do you fi nd it frustrating that other technicians

involved in live events always have a higher

media profi le than techs?

In my career as a musician, I’ve always been involved

in the promotional aspects – interviews, video and

photo shooting, etc. – and I think it’s part of the job, but

as far as roadie and tech work is concerned, I prefer

to stay in the background, not in the spotlight. I leave

that crap to the various prima donnas that populate

backstage areas worldwide!


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Glastonbury Festival

Hyde Park

EDC, New York

20

Getting the right publicity for concert tours and festival appearances is a skill

and, despite the open internet fi eld provided by Facebook and Twitter, some

directed guidance and good old common sense remain valuable assets

Who are you?

Judy Totton of Judy Totton Publicity. I’m based in

London and work in the UK, though I do have media

contacts overseas. I promote big events, charity

shows, companies and theatre, as well as artists

releasing albums or touring. Some of my current

clients are Bill Wyman, who has just released his fi rst

UK solo album in 33 years, Joan Armatrading on her

last big world tour, Andy Fairweather Low and his

band The Low Riders, Joe Brown and Paul Brady. I’ve

represented many artists from all genres over the

years and been involved with big festivals including

Blenheim Palace and 11 years of Castle Donington

Monsters of Rock.

What do you do?

I look after the artist, handling their profi le. I aim to

get the best possible coverage for them and the job

or project at that time. If someone is promoting a

tour then the focus is to sell tickets and make sure

as many people as possible know a gig is happening.

It’s basic common sense, seeing where the target

audience is. This means dealing with the whole

gamut: newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and selected

digital outlets. I write the press releases and often the

biographies.

The other side of my activities is photography. I

studied photography at the Royal College of Art and

initially photographed small theatre companies. After I

moved into music PR I put photography to one side but

later found it could be useful. I photograph a lot of live

gigs and other situations, as well as my own clients.

It’s something I love doing.

How did you end up where you are now?

I started out in music publicity at Magnet Records.

After two years there I joined CBS where I worked

with a wide variety of artists from The Jacksons to

ABBA, with John Cooper Clarke, The Only Ones, The

Vibrators and many more in between. By the late

1970s Epic records was being split away from CBS

and a lot of internal changes were happening. I wasn’t

sure what to do, and it was artist agent Ian Flukes who

suggested I set up my own company.

That was 1979. John Cooper Clarke and The

Only Ones came with me and within a month I was

approached by Status Quo. Toyah soon followed and

then Haircut 100 and Orange Juice. From there I never

looked back.


I hesitate to say because it depends on how you

measure success. Does it mean covering all the bases

on a job or is it getting the biggest client? If it’s the

latter then I’ve worked with David Bowie, the Dalai

Lama and Steve Miller. I also won an industry PR

Award on four occasions. But is it more successful

to get someone in Time Out or t The Telegraph or on

Jools Holland’s TV show? Or maybe it’s just keeping

somebody out of the papers.


to go away?

Perhaps people’s expectations. Sometimes you

can work with a company that has very realistic

expectations and on others an artist can be swayed by

people around them saying things like “I saw so-and-

so on TV – you should be too.” But that particular artist

might not fi t with the programming. Or maybe it’s just

that one media person out to prove themselves that

crosses the line. Or the editor with an agenda.

Is the sound at live events something you have

to deal with in your work?

If the sound in a concert hall is too loud the gig can get

a bad review. Very loud sound will reverberate through

your body and can make you sick, so however talented

or wonderful an artist is they will get a bad review. I’ve

also had situations where I haven’t been responsible

for seating my media guests and they’ve been put in

poor seats where the sound coverage hasn’t been

good enough, which has drawn a negative reaction.

The internet and social media have changed

how the music industry works. Has it aff ected

your job and is there still a requirement for

publicists in the traditional mould?

There will always be a need for human interaction. I

see my role as the cement between the bricks joining

journalist and artist. Good relationships count for a

lot. The medium has changed in recent years but the

message is the same.

And despite social media, print, TV and radio

continue to be important outlets. People still read

newspapers, not just the nationals but regionals as

well. National TV and radio can still have a big eff ect

while a good piece in national print can also infl uence

the broadcast media. I think traditional PR continues to

have a viable role and fulfi ls an essential function.

www.judytotton.com


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22

Not upsetting the neighbours is a priority for promoters. Obtaining the

right level is a matter of science, but being a music fan helps too

Who are you?

Edward Crofton-Martin, principal acoustic

consultant at Able Acoustics. I am a Member of

the Institute of Acoustics (MIOA), as well as an

Accredited Associate of the Chartered Institute of

Environmental Health (ACIEH) and an Incorporated

Engineer (IEng).

What do you do?

I solve problems related to noise. More specifi cally,

I specialise in acoustics and environmental

noise control. This involves determining practical

methods of noise control by applying the scientifi c

theory of sound (acoustics). I work with events

managements companies and promoters to help

achieve a balance between music noise levels that

are suffi ciently high to make the event workable

whilst at the same time minimising disturbance to

nearby residents. Promoters and event managers

are increasingly aware of the benefi ts of avoiding

complaints and possible confl ict with local

authorities.

I am also an accredited expert witness in the

fi eld of acoustics and noise control and have

prepared reports and given evidence relating to

entertainment noise in the High Court.

Where do you do it?

Most of my work is UK-based although I do get

asked to provide advice and assistance for events

outside the country. I have worked at Glastonbury,

Hyde Park Concerts, Move Festival Manchester,

Homelands Dance Festival and the Brit Awards, as

well as at Earls Court with artists such as Muse,

Kylie Minogue and Madonna. I also got to work

at the former Millennium Dome while Sir Paul

McCartney was using it as a rehearsal venue.


Sound pressure levels are measured in decibels,

which work on a logarithmic scale. The actual

measurements are done using specialised and

calibrated laboratory grade equipment capable of

measuring individual frequencies to get accurate

and reliable measurement data.

When do you get called in?

It is generally a condition of the licence that a

competent and experienced person is brought in at

an early stage and we would start by liaising with

all relevant parties, including promoters and the

local authority. One of the fi rst things that needs to

be done is to check the viability of the event against

recommended levels: a concert running below

95dB(A) does not tend to provide satisfactory

entertainment for the audience while topography

of the local environment may not be suitable if

guideline limits are to be met.

Should the proposed event location be viable

we would then consider elements such as the

timetable, running order, stage location, speaker

layout/orientation and noise from set up and de-

rig, sound checks/PA testing, vehicle movements

and installation of welfare facilities. We would also

identify the nearest noise-sensitive premises and

agree suitable monitoring locations.

How do you set the requirements for

each project?

This typically involves calculation. We use

specialist software to build a computer noise

model and assist in evaluating the eff ectiveness of

any mitigation measures. This also helps formulate

a noise management plan, which would contain

measures to control noise, a complaints procedure

and procedures in the event something goes

wrong. Prior to the event itself we would undertake

sound propagation tests. This is done using pink

noise played through the PA system and then

measured simultaneously at both the mixer and

the nearest noise-sensitive premises to determine

the maximum permissible levels. During the event

we take measurements at the agreed locations.

This allows us to assist the promoter in ensuring

any set limits are not breached. Following the

event we would report the measured levels as well

as any investigate action that may have

been required.

Are there diff erent considerations for

various types of gig?

Every event is considered individually but

depending on the venue type and the amount of

events to be held, the limits vary for music noise

levels when measured or predicted to 1m from the

façade of any noise sensitive premises. For events

continuing or held between 23.00h and 9.00h the

music noise should not be audible within noise-

sensitive premises with windows open in a typical

manner for ventilation. Control can be exercised in

this situation by limiting the music noise so that it

is just audible outside the noise sensitive premises.


Getting backstage passes to see my favourite

bands and being paid for it!

What’s the biggest challenge in

your work today?

Increasingly people seem prepared to resort to the

courts to resolve their disputes. The expert witness

work I do is always a challenge because the key is

to communicate technical concepts in a manner

the court can understand – and some of these and

the applicable British Standards governing good

practice are extremely involved.

What is the ‘issue’ that never

seems to go away?

There is a popular misconception that over-

estimates the use of foliage. That is the idea that

if there are some bushes or hedgerows between

the source and the receiver they are is going solve

the problem by providing an acceptable amount of

acoustic screening. Then there is always someone

in the crowd who thinks you are the ‘noise police’

waiting to shut the event down, when the opposite

is true.

www.ableacoustics.com


24

A proper restoration man. We forgot to ask what colour he likes his drapes

Who are you?

Graham Walters, Chief Operating Offi cer for the

Academy Music Group and Live Nation Entertainment.

What’s been your biggest success?

With so many venues (14 in the AMG portfolio), it’s

diffi cult to pinpoint just one as we have so many

events, but for Academy Music Group, continuing to

expand our business over the last 15 years and the

opportunities that come with that, make every day

interesting.

All our venues are unique and many iconic, such

as the world famous O2 Academy Brixton and O2

Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, steeped in

history, and O2 Apollo Manchester and O2 Academy

Leeds, renowned for their cultural infl uence in the

respective cities.

AMG venues range from traditional theatre and

cinema-style from Scotland down to the South coast,

with warehouse buildings to club formats, so the live

experience off ered across the estate is both varied

and original.


Maintaining old buildings with grand histories is

always a challenge, and can often come with as many

complications as they do charm, but that really is part

of the joy.

From a technical point of view, revisiting

established venues, we opened sites in Birmingham

and Bristol at the start of the year 2000, so keeping

up with progression and investment in lighting, sound

and video technology.

We’ve invested in scalable capacities and

confi gurations, such as draping options for short hall

formats, as well as an on-going investment plan to

upgrade facilities, both front of house and back stage.

New LED screen technology features at our venues

in Leeds, Leicester and Newcastle to name but three,

as well as front of house facilities at O2 ABC Glasgow

with our partners at O2, who we are also looking

at front of house Wi-Fi solutions to enhance the

customer experience across the estate, so keeping

ahead is part of those challenges.

What’s a big ‘issue’ that never seems to go

away?

Within our industry as a whole, there are always hot

topics, for example: pricing of tickets to ticket resale

in diffi cult economic markets; the pound vs the euro;

many say lack of headline artists for bigger venues

and festivals. There’s always something.

According to a recent UK Music report, gig

attendance is up 23 per cent since 2011.

Are you feeling the benefi t? What’s your

experience of the booming live market?

Business has been good particularly over the last

couple of years and we have opened up well for 2015.

We’re looking at a strong autumn, post-festival season,

and this year alone Academy Music Group venues

will host some 3,000 events, with up to three million

customers through the doors. Live Nation venues are

also performing well which host around 1,000 events

a year across the four LN venues including gigs,

comedy, theatre, sport, conference and exhibitions.

It’s obviously not something that’s fi ltered

down to the smaller, independent ‘toilet

circuit’ venues, with what seems like clubs

and live venues closing every week. Does

that have a knock-on eff ect on you guys?

It’s always sad to hear when small venues are closing,

as we have several ourselves with O2 Academy2

rooms across the UK. It does highlight how diffi cult

it is to have a sustainable live music business, that

level (small rooms/pub circuit) is so important to

the development or artists and the wider live scene.

Before those acts get to play Academy Music group

venues, it’s where they learn their trade, likewise

where many promoters come from, cutting their teeth.

What’s your view on the closing of The

Arches in Glasgow?

It’s never good to hear of venues closing, The Arches

is a much loved and established venue, home of many

great club nights and gigs. It certainly complemented

our two venues in Glasgow (O2 ABC and O2 Academy)

very well and we worked very closely with them.

How the live music scene has changed since

you started out – for better and for worse?

With any industry there are extreme highs and lows,

it’s a constantly evolving machine. With advancements

in technology to marketing tactics, ticketing, trends in

talent, it changes all the time, but at the end of the day

there is nothing quite like the feeling of watching your

favourite artists. When they walk out on stage, there

really is nothing quite like it.

www.academy-music-group.co.uk


XX

2015

26

2015 Boutique festivals: Small but perfectly formed

Exquisitely proportioned

One quick search of The Festival

Calendar website confi rms the extent

to which the UK summer festival sector

has blossomed over the last ten years.

From Birmingham’s dance-oriented

Electric Daisy, to the Bruton Reggae Fest, to the

classical and jazz-driven Petworth Festival, there

is quite literally an event to match every possible

musical penchant.

The fact that many of the newer events belong

to the sub-30,000 attendance category underlines

the extent to which expansion of the sector is being

driven by the smaller events. But although ‘boutique’

is a commonly-deployed buzzword, these events

display a remarkable level of diversity, with some

newer events zeroing in on one specifi c genre while

others pursue a multi-disciplinary approach mixing

music with literature, movie screenings and more.

What does tend to unite them, however, is the

general emphasis on creating a more rounded and

(whisper it) pleasant festival-going experience. Part

of the strategy here has been to reconfi gure events

in a more family-friendly fashion as the most recent

festival boom generation gets older and starts

having children, but at a more basic level it has also

translated to elements as seemingly straightforward

as an improved quality and selection of food and –

quite frankly – decent toilets and washing facilities.

Hedonism in its various forms is unlikely to

disappear from the festival scene any decade soon,

but at the risk of making a drastic generalisation it

would be fair to say that at the newer generation

of events one is more likely to fi nd revellers

perambulating with a jug of Pimm’s than reclining

drugged-out in a ditch. More seriously, with new

events popping up all the time, several pertinent

questions rise into view, not least: precisely how does

one go about delivering a popular new small festival

at this stage of market maturity? And is greater

diversity of attractions the most reliable route to

success? PSNLive decided to fi nd out by talking to two

of the brightest additions to the festival fi rmament

over the last ten years.

Location, location, location

For many of the more recent additions, the answer

appears to be ‘accentuate the unique’ – whether that

be in the form of cuisine, activities or, most likely, the

location of the festival itself. That certainly seems to

have worked out well for the Port Eliot Festival, which

takes place just over the Cornish ‘border’ at the end

of each July and has been running for 12 years now.

“Port Eliot is very much informed by its location,”

confi rms associate director Colin Midson, pointing to

The last decade has witnessed an explosion in the number of smaller,

niche-orientated festivals across the UK and mainland Europe. But how do

these events go about off ering truly unique experiences to festivalgoers

facing an ever-greater panoply of options, and what is the outlook for the

larger festivals driven more by headline acts? David Davies reports

XX2015

GLASGOW | 20-21 JANUARY, 2016 LEEDS | 10-11 MAY, 2016

272015

the festival’s setting in the grounds of an historic

priory that is home to the Earl and Countess of St

Germans. “For example, we have activities in the

walled garden and one of our stages is located

in a bowling green. Down by the river we also

have canoeing, so there are a lot of site-specifi c

activities.”

Midson – who was a long-time attendee of

the festival before joining the directorial team in

October 2014 – believes that the “steady” growth

of the event has been a crucial ingredient of its

success. “In the second year there were only 1,000

attendees and now we are up to about 10,000, but

I don’t think there is any real desire to take it much

larger than that,” he says.

Interestingly, Midson reveals that festival

director Cathy St Germans’ original vision for

the event was to focus primarily on literature.

The explosion in the number of literary events

to complement the long-established likes of the

Hay Festival can be explained in part by “readers

connecting with authors on social media and

Capital Sound stands by at Wild Life in June

Boutique festivals: Small but perfectly formed28

2015

having the desire to see them in person. But in my

experience, literary festivals can be a bit ‘one-note’

– basically authors either giving a presentation or an

interview about their latest book. So ultimately Kathy

took the decisions to take it broader.”

The team has certainly achieved that as the 2015

line-up – which includes writers Sarah Waters, Iain

Sinclair and Simon Armitage on the literary stages,

and The Unthanks, The Lilac Time and Villagers on

the music stages – amply demonstrates.

‘The complete experience’

Kendal Calling in the Lake District is another event

whose organic growth trajectory indicates what

appears to be a common trait in this festival category.

Only 900 people attended the first event, in 2006, but

this year some 23,000 are expected. Unlike Port Eliot,

music has always been the core component of Kendal

Calling’s offer, but co-founder Ben Robinson believes

that the gradual addition of other elements over time

has stood it in good stead.

“We have always looked to book great musical

acts, of course, but more than anything it is about

offering the complete experience,” says Robinson. “My

observation is that those festivals which are relying

on the big headline names are more likely to struggle

if they don’t manage to secure them. It’s quite a big

commitment to spend three to four days in a field, so

it has to be amazing to justify the time and expense.”

The 2015 event certainly has its fair share of major

names – among them Elbow, Snoop Dogg and The

Vaccines – but alongside an increasingly compelling

array of dance and electronic acts, comedy and

performance art. Brand-new for 2015, meanwhile,

will be a woodlands area featuring sculpture and

immersive arts, established with the support of the

Arts Council.

“It seemed like another logical step,” says

Robinson. “I think the underlying point here is that you

have to keep innovating and adding new attractions

while always retaining the core creative spirit [that

inspired the festival in the first place]. You have to

make sure you avoid stagnation.”

To which end Robinson and his team have now

embarked upon the process of building a portfolio of

events, having announced plans for a new festival,

Forgotten Fields, to take place in Tunbridge Wells this

August.

PA company prosperity

By some estimates there were as many as 1,300

festivals in the UK in 2014 (although one suspects

that a significant number of those might stretch the

definition of ‘festival’ as we understand it beyond

breaking point). Whether or not this is ultimately

sustainable, the dramatic enhancement of the

summer schedule can, in the short-term, only be

perceived as good news for audio providers.

“We have probably seen a 30-to-50 per cent

increase in our festival business between the start

of May and the end of August over the last few years,

and a lot of those are what would be termed smaller

festivals,” says Paul Timmins, general manager of

Capital Sound. “2015 is again looking very busy, and

I think in part that is down to our investment in three

different varieties of the system that so many events

are keen to use now – the Martin Audio MLA [Multi-

cellular Loudspeaker Array].”

The good results that Capital has achieved with the

MLA in minimising noise off the British Summer Time

Hyde Park festival site has been well-documented

and does not require reiteration here. But Timmins is

sure that its successful deployment there has helped

“Port Eliot Festival is very much informed by its location… we have activities in the walled garden, one of our stages revolves around a bowling green and there is canoeing down on the river” Colin Midson, Port Eliot Festival

Kendall Calling (to the faraway towns, etc.)

292015

to spread the general renown of the system, which

enables control of every single cell in the array for

highly directive sound coverage.

“There is a desire to achieve higher levels within

the festival site compared to the off-site situation,”

he says. “There have been a lot of events where they

were struggling to get much beyond 96dBA at the

FOH [because of noise restrictions], which isn’t really

at the enjoyment level and is quite likely to prompt

people coming over to the desk and asking for it to

be turned up. MLA allows you to add another 3–4dBA

without creating noise issues off-site.”

LIve at Chelsea, and the brand new rock and dance

festival Wild Life, which took place at Shoreham

Airport in June, are among the many more boutique

events to which Capital Sound is applying the MLA

system this summer.

G. Reaper Festival?

These examples alone point to the current rude

health of the smaller festivals sector – but if

anything, it could be that we are set for even greater

proliferation of sub-30,000-capacity events as the

larger events increasingly confront some challenging

generational obstacles.

Perhaps the greatest of these – and let’s make

no bones about it – is death. Although many of the

heritage acts have continued to play longer than

MINI GEMS: FIVE SUBLIME SMALLER EUROPEAN FESTIVALSIt’s not just the UK that has witnessed a surge

in the number of more compact summer

events… just take a look at these five top

picks from mainland Europe recommended

by friends of PSNLive, industry observers and

other assorted experts:

• La Roche Bluegrass Festival,

Roche-sur-Foron, France (29 July–2 Aug)

Family-friendly roots music.

• Mysteryland, Haarlemmermeer,

Netherlands (29–30 Aug)

Electronica, interactive theatre and more.

• Flow Festival, Helsinki, Finland (14–16 Aug)

Power plant setting for living art, live music and

excellent food.

• Aste Nagusia, Bilbao, Spain (22–30 Aug)

Basque-flavoured smorgasbord of music,

dancing, sports et al.

• Soundwave, Tisno, Croatia (6–10 Aug)

Rock, dance and much more on the idyllic

Croatian coast.

anyone (not least themselves) expected, the now-

bulging obituary pages of the rock music monthlies

indicate that mortality is destined to intervene

more frequently than ever during the next decade.

Meanwhile, for those who do persist in treading the

boards as long as humanly possible, their continual

reappearance on the circuit every year in response to

plummeting recorded music income runs a serious

risk of inciting customer indifference.

“There is a limit to the number of major heritage

acts, and for those festivals who are more geared

towards them, success at getting them will be

dependent on who has the deepest pockets I guess,”

says Grant.

”Hinging a festival around headline acts seems

to be missing the point of festivals, anyway, I would

suggest. Something like Glastonbury does have lots

of major names, but more than anything it is now a

rite of passage for Middle England and doesn’t rely

on the names to sell tickets.

“Similarly, WOMAD doesn’t rely on big names;

rather it offers a unique musical experience in a very

pleasant environment and that’s why it continues

to grow. To my mind, festivals were, and are, about

having a temporary shared time with reasonably like-

minded people. If that becomes a chore for everyone

involved, including those who work them, they will

decline.”

“The underlying point is that you have to keep innovating and adding new attractions while always retaining the core creative spirit. You have to make sure you avoid stagnation” Ben Robinson, Kendal Calling/Forgotten Fields

Legendary promoter Harvey Goldsmith is among

those to have highlighted the major acts issue and to

predict in response the continued rise of mixed-arts

events – and as long-term industry observers, Harvey

does have the tendency of being right.

In this regard, among others, smaller events

are one step ahead and already have the mentality

of continued (gradual) evolution that seems

fundamental to their survival. In short, small(er)

might not just be beautiful – in the longer-run, it could

be the only way to go.

Craving consistency

Consistent, even coverage throughout

an entire venue is not a fad or a new

trend,” says Rational Acoustics’ Jamie

Anderson. This is the one point on which

everyone can agree. No one wants to put

up with, or deliver, awful sound.

Naturally, sound quality has always been a focal

point for PA manufacturers. Lately, the idea of

providing “the same sound in every seat” appears to

have increased in importance. Where opinions on the

matter begin to diverge is in trying to establish who

is driving this demand.

Anderson explains: “Audience members listen to a

performance from one point in space. They generally

do not know if the sound is better or worse in the

next section over. What they care about is sound

quality and fi delity. It’s the production companies

and system engineers who care about coverage and

consistency.”

Martin Audio’s marketing director, James King,

agrees: “The audience tends to be able to only judge

in terms of whether they can hear clearly enough

from their position and whether as a whole they are

moved by the concert experience. If not, they take

to social media to complain and worst case to the

promoters to ask for their money back. Depending

upon the scale of the issue it can also break through

into mainstream media.”

Case in point: In 2013, Live Nation refused

to refund Iron Maiden fans in Stockholm after

widespread complaints about the gig’s sound quality:

barely audible guitars and muddy vocals. According

to reports, Live Nation investigated the issue with

concert staff but ultimately dismissed the complaints

on the grounds that “sound experience is subjective”.

Sweden’s National Board for Consumer Disputes

agreed with the fi ndings.

Prior to 2013, concerts in London’s Hyde Park

were criticised for their less than optimum sound

quality, marring performances by high-profi le acts

such as Paul Simon, Arcade Fire and Blur. The gigs

just weren’t loud enough.

So far, there have been no reported complaints of

sound quality variance from one seat/audience area

to the next. That’s not to say that there won’t be any

in the future.

“As ticket prices for seats at live events are ever-

increasing, the audience’s expectations are rising

proportionally,” explains Michael Creason, product

manager, system applications and training, Meyer

Sound.

Even the artists are becoming aware of this. For

their latest tour, U2 has been “experimenting” with

a new sound system comprising speaker arrays

suspended from the ceiling, in order to provide equal

coverage for everyone in the audience. (According to

Reddit users, the sound isn’t great. Oh, well.)

One would be inclined to assume that PA houses

are also pushing for the best possible coverage from

their investment, naturally. King notes that “since

MLA has now solved the Hyde Park conundrum and

highlighted what can be possible, MLA has gone on

to win more and more festivals around the world.”

Consistency may have always been important,

but, as systems like the MLA have shown, technology

is becoming a major factor in improving what can

realistically be achieved.

Hardware or software?

Now the question is what role DSP should play – if any –

within a system. Here the variances are even wider.

On one end of the spectrum is KV2. As Dave

Is the promise of consistent sound coverage more

important than ever, or is it simply easier to deliver?

Erica Basnicki takes a well-balanced look...

PA: Same sound in every seat?30

2015 German artist Peter Maff ay on tour with a Meyer Sound LEO system (Photo: Ralph Larmann)

“

www.kv2audio.com

ESR215

Theatre applications are particularly

demanding, the quietest of sounds are

often crucially important to the show.

Similarly Orchestral and Jazz performances

have huge variations in levels.

The KV2 Audio ESR Series has been

designed to deliver an impressive full range

response with extraordinary dynamic

range. Every aspect of an ESR system

is aimed at delivering total accuracy

and audio quality.

Test the ESR Series in your performance

space today - you will be able to hear

a pin drop...

”I can honestly say that the decision

we made to use KV2 point source speakers

instead of a line array was absolutely right!

After years of using line arrays in our business

it seems that a lot of people including me just

have forgotten the advantages of a point

source speaker. Together with the offered

quality of KV2, the enormous ability of SPL

and the harmonic spread, the result

is amazing.“

Andreas Hammerich,

Theatrical Sound Coordinator,

Stage Entertainment GmbH

When you need to hear

a pin drop...

PA: Same sound in every seat?32

2015

Croxton, sales director at KV2 explains: “At KV2 we

have one simple and clear rule. Software will never

replace hardware when it comes to sound quality.

You cannot fix poor speaker design or bad circuitry

with DSP. At KV2 we focus on getting every aspect

of a system’s design electronically and acoustically

right so that there is no need for digital correction.

As soon as DSP is introduced into the signal path a

ceiling is put on a system as far as resolution and

clarity goes. Today the majority of manufacturers

limit the resolution and clarity of their technology

with DSP.”

Eschewing the popular notion that line array

technology is best, KV2 launched its VHD5.0

constant-power point-source array in Frankfurt last

April. Instead of DSP, KV2 utilises ‘20MHz digital

delays for time alignment, trans-coil speakers

for greater control and superfast electronics for

far lower non-harmonic distortion’ to provide an

audience (and that’s a much bigger audience than

what VHD2.0 was built for) with the best possible

sound.

Croxton doesn’t see it as bucking the trend as

much as an anticipation of the live sound equivalent

to the current vinyl resurgence. “It will take time

but, just as we have seen in the recording industry,

the cycle will eventually come full circle. Artists

and audiences will demand higher levels of sound

quality. The most important thing is we don’t lose the

emotion in the musical art form to technology.”

The counter-argument to the ‘hardware first’

approach is best explained by Jeff Rocha, president

at EAW: “Fundamentally the industry has been doing

things the same way and using the same basic tool

(a curved line array) for about 20 years. All products

in the market are variations on that theme. After

launching Anya and Otto into that space it has

become clear that engineers have been waiting for

‘the next thing’. The universal expectation has been

that it would heavily involve digital processing and

control which would yield substantial benefits in

terms of performance, control and workflow.”

EAW’s Anya arrays and Otto subs rely entirely on

the Resolution software control – no down-fill or

long throw modules required – to deliver consistent

coverage throughout a venue. The benefits are that

the system itself is smaller therefore can be flown

faster, uses fewer motors, etc., while also providing

the same instantaneous adjustments as any system

modified or controlled digitally.

A balanced approach is best

“The ability to steer the shape of sound requires a

combination of software and hardware to be effective,”

says Rik Kirby, VP of sales and marketing at Renkus-

Heinz. “In fact, you can’t achieve the necessary results

by only employing one without the other. Yes, a good

DSP and software might allow the engineer to gain

and frequency shade to improve the consistency of

response throughout the coverage area, but a system

designed with the appropriate driver spacing and

alignment, the right calculations and algorithms in

software and the right DSP to realise them can allow

the engineer unsurpassed control, even the ability to

steer beams of sound to miss hard surfaces that might

cause reflections and room reverb.”

It’s what made the company’s IC2 arrays top

choice for California’s Long Beach Arena’s Pacific

Ballroom. “The IC2 delivers such even sound

pressure level from front to back,” says Andy

Batwinas of Electrosonics, the company responsible

for creating the system. “When we did the demo, it

was set up at the far end of the arena and shot down

the long way. You could walk the whole space, cover

the floor, and keep it a solid 98dB SPL from one side

to the other.”

It’s the route most manufacturers are taking:

using DSP and speaker design in combination

to achieve the best coverage as possible. The

differences are in the technologies that drive their

cabinets.

The MLA way of achieving this relies on multiple

cells within an enclosure, each with its own DSP, and

processed using optimisation software. It was a big

Smaart at the Ride of Eastern Culture Festival in Białystok, Poland (Photo: Krzysztof Polesinski, Airpol Sound & Light)

Meyer Sound’s new LEOPARD system debuted at the Moers Festival (Photo: Ralph Larmann)

shift in line array technology and for rental houses,

it did mean an initial outlay for a new system. The

upside, according to King, is that it’s a solution that

can be developed for a number of years to come at a

minimal cost:

“We have gone the route of marrying hardware

with sophisticated software and we see this as the

way forward in the future too. Our solution marries

acoustic heritage of all horn-loaded techniques,

controllable individual acoustic cells each with their

own DSP, and our proprietary Display software. This

allows full control over where sound needs to be

and where to avoid, and allows for actual results to

track extremely accurately with predicted ones. The

benefit also of the software platform is that this can

improve and develop over time, without the need

for hardware change, so the system as a whole can

actually get better over its lifetime rather than being

uncompetitive.”

As reported in May (‘Good vibrations’, PSNEurope

May 2015), d&b audiotechnik has also stepped

up to the challenge of providing consistent sound

throughout a venue in a major way. The d&b

solution centres around ArrayProcessing, a major

new feature included in the recent update to the

company’s ArrayCalc simulation software. Using

complex algorithms, ArrayProcessing redistributes

peaks and troughs in both SPL and tonal balance.

Each cabinet in an array must be driven

individually, and so for any large-scale system there

would be an investment required for the additional

amplifier channels. However, here is no new system

involved; ArrayProcessing is backwards compatible

with d&b’s J-, V- and Y-Series line array systems and

the software itself is free of charge.

At Meyer Sound, the combination of elements that

make up the LEO family – LEO-M loudspeakers, the

1100-LFC/900-LFC low-frequency control elements

and the Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management

system – work in harmony so that “engineers can

easily achieve the sonic vision they had to struggle

to create with previous technology”, says product

manager for system applications and training

Michael Creason. “Mixing is no longer the ‘chore’

of ‘keeping the vocal on top of the mud’. Now every

subtle change the engineers make in a signal is

clearly represented in the sonic picture and the

system becomes more like a blank canvas than a

graffiti wall.”

Creason adds: “Further to this, all the other

trappings, such as streamlined rigging systems,

durability, accurate prediction software and

performance monitoring/reporting, all contribute to

a total system solution that gives both the users and

the audience a top-notch experience. A strong chain

has no weak links.”

Thinking outside the box

In many ways, hardware and software have worked

together to improve consistency for a long time... just

not necessary housed within the same physical product.

Having on-board DSP has in no way eliminated the need

for these additional tools.

As early as the 1980s, software-based acoustic

modelling has been helping system designers create

and configure an ideal setup within a specified

venue. One of the earliest to enter the market was

Modeler, an acoustic design and analysis program

by Bose.

“Prior to the introduction of Modeler, and other

computer-aided sound system design tools (EASE,

AcoustiCAD, PHd, etc.), sound system design was

performed using pencil, paper and a calculator,” says

Rob Kosman, product manager for engineered sound,

tools and electronics at Bose Corporation. “In many

cases the selection and arrangement of components

was based on an educated guess of how well the

system would perform. With the introduction of the

personal computer many felt it would be far more

efficient for the computer to do the calculations,

allowing the engineer to explore various scenarios

and ‘what-if’ explorations.”

Meanwhile, modelling software in general

has since been widely embraced by other PA

manufacturers, and continues to play an important

role in system design. Among them is L-Acoustics,

who recently announced an update to its Soundvision

software to version 3.0. The new version is fully

re-designed on a new architectural platform and is

reportedly up to 40 times faster than its predecessor.

At the time of its launch in 2004, Soundvision was

the first 3D sound system design package capable

of operating in real time, a feat we take for granted

now. In fact, it’s safe to say there aren’t many system

designers who remember (or want to remember)

the pen and paper calculation days. Access to

modelling software is a given and, according to

Florent Bernard, director of applications, touring, at

L-Acoustics, it’s possibly the only software you really

need.

“The reality is that good sound still relies

majorly on physics – choosing the right cabinets

for the job and optimising them in placement and

design. Design your system well – with a tool like

Soundvision – and you shouldn’t have to worry about

performance issues. Its unique ability to model in 3D

and in real time allows designers to account for both

horizontal and vertical coverage, taking into account

cluster interaction, room geometry, etc., giving them

the full picture of a complex sound design.”

Of course, another player that’s been this game for

awhile is Rational Acoustics’ System Measurement

Acoustic Analysis Real-time Tool, Smaart. Now on

version 7, “Smaart can help evaluate loudspeaker

systems, but it cannot fix them,” says Anderson. “If

you start with speakers that do not have a consistent

response through their entire coverage pattern,

there is almost no way you will have the same sound

in every seat no matter how much technology you

throw at them.

Anderson concludes: “The way to achieve the

same sound in every seat is not through

technology alone, nor is it solely through better

box design. It’s a combination of the same things

it has always been… the right products for the

application, chosen and deployed correctly by

competent, experienced audio professionals. The

rest of it – in-box DSP, modelling and prediction

software, analysis software like Smaart – are all

tools to help achieve the goal.”

www.bose.co.uk

www.dbaudio.com

www.eaw.com

www.kv2audio.com

www.l-acoustics.com

www.martin-audio.com

www.meyersound.com

www.rationalacoustics.com

www.renkus-heinz.com

(Note: Some sections of this piece appeared in the June

issue of PSNEurope)

332015

MLA has “solved the Hyde Park conundrum” says

Martin Audio’s James King (Photo: Erica Basnicki)

XX2015Recordists often have to bring their own mics and set them up at

classical gigs: this crossed pair is the work of BPM Recording’s Ken Blair

Ever closer: recording and performance

Once a mainstay of the record and

recording businesses, the live album

is now almost a thing of the past.

In-concert recordings have not gone

away completely, it’s just that today

they’re more likely to be for B-side, bonus or ‘format’

tracks on studio albums or special downloads. This

change began 20 years ago and over that time many

of the big names on the mobile studio scene – RAK,

Advision, the Rolling Stones Mobile, Fleetwood and

Manor – have been consigned to history.

In many cases recordings are now made directly

from the FOH desk, something made possible by

advances in technology, digital and interconnectivity

in particular. This has led both console and digital

audio workstation manufacturers to build-in features

to satisfy a common need. SADiE developed its LRX

multitrack location recorder as a 16-track machine

ten years ago, which Steve Penn, senior support

engineer with SADiE owner Prism Sound, says was

quite early in the development of this equipment.

“Traditionally SADiE has been used in classical

recording and to begin with engineers used it

in conjunction with CD duplicators from stereo

recordings,” he says. “We’ve now added a MADI card

because a lot of live desks are using that. When we

developed the MTR multitrack software, engineers

could plug in the system and set their sources, which

was quite important in getting the LRX into rental

companies for dry hire.”

PA OK

Derk Hagedorn, senior marketing manager for live

systems at Avid Technology, observes that the use

of DAWs and other long-form recording formats

has enabled entire tours to be recorded, rather than

selected nights, with no need for a large number of

additional crew. “The technology is reliable enough

that it will capture recordings night after night,” he

says. “That means productions can eke out every

dollar from a tour, as well as streamlining it, and

off er the best performances as recordings.”

Avid has developed its Pro Tools DAW and range of

VENUE digital live consoles so they can be combined

for FOH recording. “When this started an engineer

would need a HD TDM-based Pro Tools system to

record from VENUE,” Hagedorn says. “This then came

down to a number of cards to make the connection,

which was very reliable and didn’t require any

conversion.”

DiGiCo’s D5, launched in 2001 and fi rst used on

Rod Stewart’s tour of that year, was initially designed

to work with the Merging Technologies Pyramix over

a MADI connection. “We launched the desk with a

recorder–playback system using Pyramix and since

then everything has escalated, with lots of ways to

do this,” comments DiGiCo managing director James

Gordon.

DiGiCo now connects to a range of recording

software, including Reaper, Logic and Pro Tools, with

a MADI router sitting at the front of the I/Os. “13–14

years ago people didn’t have many options,” says

Gordon, “but now laptops are fast enough to route 56

tracks.” He adds that this year’s Stevie Wonder tour

is using MADI connectivity with four streams at 96k

producing 120 tracks for recording.

Chris Hollebone, sales, operations and marketing

manager with Merging Technologies, comments that

“more people are recording live and fi nding other

ways of doing it”. This, he explains, could be with a

DAW app on a laptop or a hard disk-based machine

such as the JoeCo. “Pyramix is now also off ering live

There was a time when a big liveried truck lurking in a back

alley meant a live concert was being recorded. Now, writes

Kevin Hilton, there are fewer clues due to computer-based

recording straight from the front-of-house desk

352015Live capture: Rise of the machines

Live capture: Rise of the machines36

2015

sound mixing in the box with recording running at

the same time,” Hollebone says.

Hollebone adds that another “big difference” has

been made by the use of RAVENNA audio-over-IP

(AoIP) technology on Merging’s Horus networked

audio interface. This, he says, is able to connect

stage boxes with the main PA and any recording

system on a single Cat-5 or Cat-6 cable.

RAVENNA’s rival in the AoIP stakes is Dante, which

targeted live multitracking with its dedicated Virtual

Soundcard. Console manufacturer Allen & Heath

claims to have been the first in the market with

a 64-channel interface for this, allowing 64-track

recording to a laptop over Cat-5 without interfacing.

The company has also targeted live recording with

its Qu-Drive multitrack recording and playback

system that can run with USB media as well as SSD,

HDD and SCSI drives. “At the end of the performance

the USB drive or key can be delivered to the

production, artist or manager, saving hassle and

the time associated with file transfer or rendering,”

comments A&H product manager Nicola Beretta.

A similar arrangement is available for the ICE-16

recorder, designed for use with analogue mixers.

Doing it the hard way

Hard-disk multitrack recorders such as the Klark

Teknik DN9696 and JoeCo BlackBox Recorder

have also found favour in this new world of live

recording as back-ups as well as main device. “Our

philosophy has always been that the FOH engineer

should be able to focus primarily on mixing the live

show, even when recording is required,” says JoeCo

founder Joe Bull. He is of the opinion that it is not

really acceptable nowadays to use the live FOH mix

for release material because consumers are more

demanding. “What sounds good through the PA could

sound awful on headphones,” he says. “The best way

of resolving this is to capture the multitrack source

with a BlackBox and then remix offline.”

Paul Hurt of LX3 Live Recording agrees, observing

that the pre-amps on live sound desks are of

“variable quality”; while there are some he says he

would be happy to take feeds from, others he would

not: “I always take my own sources because of

that. Also there are some FOH engineers who drive

into the red, which generally doesn’t work well for

recording.”

Hurt says he is usually called in when an artist

is producing a full album or involved in a live TV

broadcast. While there is still the argument that a

fully isolated mobile studio gives the best chance

of capturing the highest quality multitracks for

later remixing, the trend is now for flight-cased

recording packages, such as those offered by LX3,

Live Here Now and Direct Recording Services.

These operations tend to concentrate on rock and

contemporary music, with classical and orchestral is

FOH engineers have always had a lot to deal with

during shows and that has increased with the growth

in recording straight from the desk. Avid Technology

has applied its interconnectivity concept to the new

VENUE S6L console in a bid to address this. The

S6L is designed to be the front

end for the MediaCentral Platform,

making it part of Avid Everywhere.

“There might be 60 to 200 tracks

recorded a night and the challenge

is keeping track of it all without a

dedicated archivist,” says Avid’s

senior marketing manager for

live systems, Derk Hagedorn. “A

lot of how live sound fits into Avid

Everywhere is down to metadata,

which is embedded in the files and

saves time when the recordings

are taken back to the studio for

mixing.” Hagedorn adds that while

some bands might have a live engineer who would

also mix any concert album release, the convention

is more for a demarcation of responsibilities, so the

mixer needs as much information about the sources

as possible.

Avid Everywhere for live

Dave Millward: multitracking on every show of Morrissey tour

372015

a more specialised sub-set of the market. [Live Here

Now, if you’re out there, please get in touch! –Ed]

Because very few orchestras and classical

ensembles use amplification, the recordists in this

part of the business usually have to manage their

own mic set-ups and sources. Ken Blair of BPM

Sound Recording says he would only share splitters

with the FOH desk to take in mic feeds. Blair has

moved on from quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape

machines when he started out in 1989 through DAT

to SADiE DAWs for full multi-track recording and

CompactFlash recorders, such as the TASCAM HD-

P2, on simpler, stereo-only sessions and as back-up.

While saying that laptops still give him “the jitters,

because you know what computers are like”, his

main rig is computer-based through SADiE. “We

record live on to multitrack and then mix later but

usually with a stereo reference,” he says. “We take

the mic feeds through a multi-core from the stage

into Focusrite Saffire PRO 40 interfaces and then

a FireWire connection to the SADiE. Once I started

using a DAW I realised I didn’t need a mixer any

more, although I still have one. I now mix on-screen.”

Some gigs are bigger than others

DAWs in all forms are now used for recording

alongside the FOH desk at many, if not all, gigs

in rock, pop and R&B today. David Millward is

multitracking every show on his current tour with

Morrisset, primarily, he says, for archiving with

occasional tracks used as B sides. “I am using a

MacBook Pro running Logic with a bus powered

SSD drive to record to,” he comments. “I then have

two inexpensive USB drives, which I archive to

each day. For the last few years I’ve been using an

Allen & Heath iLive-80, so with the addition of an

A&H Dante card, it takes just one Ethernet cable

and an inexpensive Virtual Soundcard licence from

Audinate to connect laptop and console. I also have

a MADIFace card in case we ever need to connect

to any other consoles along the way. This makes

for a very compact recording system that can go

anywhere and apart from having to remember

to press record each night, it does not affect my

workflow at all.”

Tom Odell’s regular FOH engineer, Davy Ogilvy,

says recording straight from the desk to multitrack is

now “a matter of course”. Ogilvy also uses MADIFace

but into Reaper. “I do a stereo reference mix out

of the DiGiCo SD8 so we can hear the live sound

but every channel is also individually recorded,” he

comments. “Tom always finishes his shows with the

song Cruel, which hasn’t been recorded as a studio

track. There’s a chance it will be released as a live

recording, so people can hear the audience as well.”

Despite engineers using their DAW of choice,

Avid Pro Tools is the still name that emerges when

traditionalists bemoan the shift away from mobile

Masters of both studio and live sound technology,

the Floyd were admired and ridiculed in equal

measure for their painstaking approach to

recording and performance. Pulse was originally

intended to be a live record of the band’s 1973

studio album Dark Side of the Moon as performed

on the 1994 world tour but was expanded to

include tracks from other albums, including The

Wall and the then-current The Division Bell. Thirteen

nights were recorded, with six reels of multitrack

tape used for each so that producer/engineer

James Guthrie and singer–guitarist David Gilmour

could choose the best performances and drop in

sections if any fixing was necessary rather than

over-dubbing. Recording was in the then-Neve VR

equipped Le Voyageur II on to two pairs of Studer

A80/Otari MTR90 combinations. The album was

mixed at Gilmour’s Astoria houseboat studio to

produce analogue stereo with QSound processing

emulating the quad immersive effect as used on

the original Dark Side. With the live performance

the priority, Guthrie said at the time that he and the

recording team had to be “as invisible as possible”

so they didn’t disrupt the established routine of

the road crews. As proponents of new technology

Pink Floyd would have doubtless appreciated the

less intrusive benefits of digital, computer-based

recording, although that might have detracted from

the old-school feel of Pulse.

Flashback: The recording of Pink Floyd’s Pulse

Oz Bagnall at Montreux: recording straight from the desk to multitrack is now “a matter of course”

Live capture: Rise of the machines38

2015

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• Capture or replay live multi-track audio without a computer • Records/replays via USB2/3 drive, or Flash drive • Various analogue and digital versions available • Remote control via iPad with JoeCoRemote • Store multiple Player setlists

LIVE RECORDING OR PLAYBACK? NO COMPUTER - NO WORRIES

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15

studios. Dave Swallow, who is about to go out on

the road with UB40 (the Ali Campbell, Astro and

Mickey Virtue version), is using Pro Tools, which will

probably record a mooted live album for the band.

“No one has ever said to me, ‘Can you record the

show?’, it’s now just normal for me to take the laptop

and other tools in the case with me,” he says.

Blurred lines

The heyday of the mobile studio in the ’70s and ’80s

helped reinforce the divide between recording and

live engineers. “When I started off there was the idea

that you could put a live engineer in the studio and

get something reasonably good but if you went the

other way – a recording engineer working live –

you wouldn’t because they didn’t understand

acoustics,” Swallow says. “That’s just ignorant,

and the fine line between the two is now even

more blurred.”

Bagnall has used Pro Tools on tours by Jackson

Browne and Ellie Goulding, running in conjunction

with Avid Profiles running HDX cards in the local

rack. Now back on the road with Browne he is using

a KT DN9696 mirrored to two 1TB FireWire 800

Glyph drives with a Midas PRO6 desk.

Browne’s regular engineer, Paul Dieter, is on the

tour, with another live album in the offing. “Paul is

a unique person because he has for many years

been Jackson’s live and studio engineer as well

as producer,” Bagnall says. “I am always amazed

that he does all of these roles so well. I am a live

engineer and have no interest in going in to a studio

as it is such a different way of working and probably

requires a whole new set of skills. This is probably

why they get such good live albums from the shows

as he magically uses a gain structure at FOH that is

more at home in a studio than at a gig.”

Technology has increased the crossover between

live sound and concert recording, but because it

allows the FOH engineer to get on with mixing the

show – after remembering to press ‘record’ – the two

jobs remain largely independent of each other.

Dave Swallow speaking at last year’s Pro Sound Awards Classical sound recordist Ken Blair’s main rig is computer-based through SADiE, although

laptops still give him “the jitters, because you know what computers are like”

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ZZ still on topT

here’s never any surprise as to who is

going to supply the PA for ‘Bluetone –

The Festival on the Danube’. Formerly

‘Jazz on the Danube’, the festival site is

a stone’s throw from the EV/Dynacord

factory (part of Bosch Communications Systems) in

the Bavarian town of Straubing.

While the Swiss have resisted any calls to remove

the somewhat misleading ‘jazz’ descriptive from their

annual music festival in Montreux, the Germans have

proved to be more progressive by dropping the word,

as Bluetone has hosted Seal, Carlos Santana, Chaka

Khan and Mousse T among other ‘pop’ acts since 2002.

The 2015 edition was arguably the biggest edition

so far, in fact, for both the audience and the Electro-

Voice team. Ahead of five days of Helles-swigging

in the sunshine, EV deployed its brand new X-Line

Advance high performance compact line array,

launched at PL+S earlier this year. Flying either side

of the stage were 12 pieces of X-Line Advance EV

X2-212/90, with 26 X12-128 subs out front. Power and

DSP came from six System Racks (comprising TG7

amps, RCM-28 processors and a distribution panel),

with three N8000 NetMax digital controllers binding it

altogether.

Further X2-212/90s provided delay for fans in the

rear. Fills and monitors also came from the Electro-

Voice and Dynacord catalogue, while freelance sound

engineer Rüdiger Nürnberg, like last year, put the

system together. The show’s opening night saw Lionel Richie

topping the bill; star-in-the-ascendant Gregory

Porter and Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club kept

the international presence high the next day. But it

was down to the legendary ZZ Top to headline the

final day, with a scorching 90 minutes of fuzzed-up

blues-rock from the fuzzy-faced Texans. Billy Gibbons,

Dusty Hill and Frank Beard (yes, the one without facial

furniture) may have a combined age of over 195

years – the band formed in 1969 – but they can still

put on a blistering, full-throttle live show. The X-Line

Advance gave Give Me All Your Lovin’ all the bandwidth

the audience needed; Legs was outstanding; Sharp

Dressed Man was immaculate.

The show was ballsy and badass and proved that

the ‘Top’ are still up there.

Sharp dressed men: Dusty Hill (left) and Billy Gibbons Photo: Bosch Communications Systems

Twelve boxes of X2-212/90

The audience are ready to rock with the Top!

412015View from the audience

42

Between soundchecks at Wembley, Rudimental’s Kesi Dryden and Piers Agget tell PSNLive about life on the road

What roles do you play in the band?

KD: We’re both producer–songwriters. But when it

comes to playing live, Piers plays the Nord

and organs, and I play percussion and some

keyboard parts.

Describe your live set-up.

PA: My set-up is a Nord Stage 2 and a Virus TI hooked

up to a MIDI keyboard under my Nord. I play, organ,

piano, Rhodes and funky clav parts, as well as synth

parts on the Virus. I also sing backing vocals.

KD: I use Mainstage on a laptop controlled from a

MIDI keyboard and a Roland SPD-S, and every now

and then I jump on the drumkit, which can get pretty

complicated. The SPD-S has samples that we’ve

loaded in, Mainstage has sounds and synths that

we’ve built, some are from our productions that we’ve

copied over and put into Mainstage, but obviously

tweaked for the live show.

What do you do to make your live shows

special?

PA: Sometimes we’ll try and play and remake all the

parts that we made in the studio. But other times

we’ll choose something else, if there’s a synth line

that can be played by a guitar and it sounds good,

then we’ll change that line to a guitar. But if we feel

like it’s a key part of the song then we’ll sample

it from our production and play it as a sample in

Mainstage. We’re adamant that the live show doesn’t

sound exactly like the record. We want it to be an

experience that blows you away. The Virus deals with

a lot of the hard synth sounds, it’s got a really good

synth engine. And having Mainstage really helps,

because if we build a synth sound in Logic on the

ES-1 or ES-2 then we can load it straight into the

live show.

Sometimes they sound great in the studio but

when you load the same sound into Mainstage and

put it through a massive PA it doesn’t sound as good,

so we spend a lot of time editing it in the rehearsal

space. We’ll add compression and EQ in Mainstage

before it even touches the sound desk.

KD: That’s what a lot of our rehearsal time ends

up as: rather than putting in new songs in and

rehearsing them, we end up tweaking the sounds.

PA: Our sound man, Ricky, has been with us quite a

while. Some songs will take three or four months to

nail down sonically. We have to test it on diff erent

PA systems, and he’ll come with us and give us

feedback, let us know you know that sound isn’t

cutting through properly, and ask us to change it

on stage.

Are there any challenges associated with

mixing live instrumentation with pre-

recorded samples?

PA: We’ve got six or seven channels coming from

Ableton, with the click going to the drummer, and

we all follow the drummer. Then probably another

50-channels of live instrumentation. It can get quite

intense, and complex. For us it’s important to have

the bass heavy and having the drums and bass cut

through like a rave. For our style of music that’s

quite a challenge, because we’ve got trumpets,

saxophones, keyboards all blended in with really loud,

tough drum ’n’ bass.

What would you consider your biggest

success to date?

KD: Defi nitely putting on our own festival with

Disclosure, the Wild Life Festival, on 6 June. We had

70,000 people over the weekend. We headlined the

Saturday and Disclosure headlined the Sunday. We

curated the line-up as a dream festival, people we

wanted to see, people we’re fans of and people we

grew up listening to. We had Nas, Wu-Tang Clan and

our friend Jess Glynne. This was the fi rst time, and

it was a great success. Next year hopefully it’ll be

bigger and better.

What’s the biggest challenge that you see

coming up?

KD: Being on the road so much of the time, being

away from family and friends, and just getting tired.

When you’re doing fi ve diff erent countries in fi ve days

with minimal sleep and you’re stuck on the tour bus

with 15 people that you see every minute of your life

it can be a bit stressful. But it’s all fi ne when we get

on stage, and that’s the pay-off . We’re not moaning;

we love what we do, it’s the dream. But at the end of

a three-month tour, after seeing everyone constantly,

it does get hard.

What is the one issue that never seems to

go away?

PA: Random technical faults that you can’t foresee.

We’ll turn up to a festival in America and we’ll hire

gear in. Hopefully that hire company has made sure

everything is in tune, and that nothing is missing.

But a little thing can mess up the intro to the show.

There’s so many factors that make our show run, and

sometimes you can’t have a perfect show, but you

can’t get that all the time.

www.rudimental.co.uk

(L-R): Amir Amor, DJ Locksmith, Kesi Dryden and Piers Agget


Documents

Psn live 2015 digital