How’d They Do That?

For ATK/Audiotek it all came together back in the mid 80’s, some years after the company was formed. Their main competition, Burns Audio was eating their lunch in the TV business for the same reasons many upstart companies falter today. The equipment and approach to doing shows was becoming outdated and merely status quo. They needed an edge… and they found one!

Modular amp racks

Along came Richard Heyser and his now industry-famous test methods (Time Delay Spectrometry ) that changed our perceptions concerning the behavior of audio systems and acoustic environments. Scott Harmala pressed hard for management to take a hard look at this new technology.

He was convinced that they needed to “add some science to the seat of the pants approach they had been following”.

He acquired a used TEF machine, and invested many hours into learning how to use it. He tackled his first project, a redesign on a small wedge speaker called the M2. After many weeks of tweaking components, tunings and filter sets, Scott demo’d the revised loudspeaker system to Jim Showker. Jim couldn’t believe the difference! That moment changed the company forever.

Today ATK indulges in all of the technologies that we touring guys lust for! Through close relationships with some of today’s major manufacturers (like JBL, Yamaha, XTA and QSC) ATK/Audiotek has found itself in the center of a technical explosion in our industry. They were on the leading edge when things like line arrays, DSP electronics and digital consoles came to favor. It is these technologies and a few more that keep them at the forefront of the performance audio.

Same Bat Time… Same Bat Channel…
Tune in for part two, where we take a closer look at how the company uses these technologies and a behind the scenes look to see what makes the guys at ATK tick!


Editor’s note: When I visited ATK to shoot some pictures, Scott Harmala met me and gave me the guided tour. He showed me a new wireless device they are using, to control amp networks and any other functions loaded onto the host computer. Audiotek is also sending out standardized single-rack-space PC’s with every major system, including an accompanying keyboard that slides out on a rack drawer.

At first glance, the ATK warehouse is not all that different from those of many other companies. It is extraordinarily clean, but somehow I expected that. The most interesting things are subtle, like custom made 18 connector fly cable, that not only carries signal from amps, but also control lines for a digital inclinometer, and a short-wavelength green laser, visible in daylight, that shoots down and shows you exactly where your speaker coverage is!

I saw the carts that carry the Super Bowl speaker systems, which hide by the grandstands with the top speaker flipped over on brackets, so as to not interfere with sightlines, and then are deployed like lightning for the half-time show, and struck just as quickly. Pretty trick, but then Scott used to work in a racing motorcycle shop before he got into audio, and understands a few things about design and fabrication.

Eddie Casillas

Eddie Casillas checks all the speakers when they come back from a gig. The difference between ATK and other shops is I get the feeling he really does that, instead of like some places, that do it when it’s convenient, and when it’s not, you start finding blown wedges coming out of cases at a gig. Chief technician Bill Brungard understands digital circuits to the point that he built a custom tester so that when the connecting cables for stage boxes need to be tested, boom, both ends are plugged into a tester and it tells you in English on an LCD screen what, if any, defects are present.

All procedures in the shop are designed for the quickest possible turnaround, due to the volume of shows that the company does every year.

AC power flows “balanced” six-phase out of fat Euro-plugs that have a central ground and six 60V hots, so you get 120 by connecting two of them. This was not always legal in America, and when the laws were changed to allow it, Scott got right on changing over. I am not enough of an electrician to understand all the advantages of this, but how many people do you know who even understand that it is an alternative to the traditional manner of running a distro?

My conclusion is that the gang out there are not gods or rocket scientists, they are just obsessed in a very constructive way, towards a goal of making each part of a system the best, most logical, and most workable way it can be configured.

- C.K