Jon Monson and Daniella Shepherd

Today, for smaller US sound companies who have no foreign affiliates, their bands touring abroad poses a question: how to determine the best ways of supplying the touring sound system? Rat Sound had the idea of sending their proprietary PA system around Europe on the Blink 182 tour, which was to kick off in Zurich and make its way across 5 other European countries. Unfortunately, the tour was cancelled at the last minute.

However, the experience and planning gave good knowledge for future endeavors, both for Rat and other companies in the same position.

Why would a company in their right mind want to endure all the trials and tribulations of hauling a whole PA across thousands of miles of land and sea? Apart from the challenges of actually sending their own equipment to Europe and the obvious exposure that it gives a company overseas, the actual economics of it aren’t that bad either. Increased freight costs are offset by the higher commission rates that American bands are charged when hiring a Europe based system. Unlike the US, where fierce competition drives down prices, European companies are able to charge more, because a good company is virtually unrivalled.

There is also the risk that if you sub-hire equipment from someone else, they will do a poor job which reflects badly on you as a company. According to Dave Rat, “In our case, we have a unique PA which can’t actually be sub-hired out there. Obviously if we had affiliates with similar equipment, then the task would be made easier but, since we do not, we felt the only option to maintain the high quality of the Blink 182 production was to send the entire sound system to Europe. More and more bands are looking for their production needs to be filled on a global scale. RAT has, in the past, lost contracts to companies able to provide sound in more than just the US market. In order for RAT to compete in this global marketplace, we felt it was necessary to show we could handle a band’s production needs on a global scale.”

When the planning for the European Blink 182 tour began, it became apparent that there were several issues that needed to be overcome. Rat needed to consider the power conversion requirements for their sound system. They also needed to consider motor, cabinet, flybar, and general cabinet rigging as well as safety and certification ratings for the tougher European standards. The logistics of the actual freighting needed to be planned out. Technical details such as wireless microphone or in-ear permits needed to be researched. Finally, there was the customer’s desire to have Rat paid by the numerous overseas promoters in each country in order to reduce General Sales Tax (GST) liability which also posed many financial and tax questions.

The first and most obvious problem that RAT faced is how to easily satisfy power requirements. Fortunately, this problem is pretty easy to solve. American bands routinely travel to Europe to perform. RAT could purchase a large transformer, case it, package it with circuit breakers, connecters, and meters, and send it over in the container. The cost for this proved to be fairly high, for what amounts to a three week tour. However, the European market is quite accustomed to providing voltage conversion for American touring acts so there are numerous sources for power conversion rental.

RAT decided to rent a 75kva transformer from their UK friends SSE Hire. This will convert 220-240v Three Phase Power to 120V Three Phase Power. It does not convert the frequency. US power is based on 60 Cycles per Second compared to the UK and Europe power of 50 Cycles per second. Most audio equipment will work fine on either 50 or 60 cycles. Some people claim their tube amps do not sound quite right, but we this would not be a problem. The only drawback? Amp rack cooling fans will run a little slow!