Well-ordered endeavors begin at the beginning… or so the story goes. So that’s where we’ll start this new series.
The first thing that the sound professional must do — long before imagining the purchase or rental of enticing new equipment and visualizing him/herself behind the console mixing an exciting presentation — is to back up and think carefully about how to best serve the client’s needs.
As sound practitioners we are, after all, a service organization. While we rely heavily on making intelligent use of the best selection of equipment that’s available to us, the skills and abilities we bring to the table are what sets one sound practitioner apart from another.
Anyone can buy equipment — given adequate finances — but not everyone can optimally utilize that equipment, work supportively with talent and production staff, and end the day with an exemplary outcome for the audience and the other stakeholders.
Let’s take a pragmatic look at what’s involved in this profession. Almost everything you’ll ever do in sound can be broken down into four foundational elements.
Take a moment to ponder them:
• Electrical
• Mechanical
• Acoustical
• Operational
Working backwards, Operational covers items like planning the system in relation to budgetary restrictions, getting the system transported and installed in a timely manner; interfacing with other trades such as broadcast, video, rigging, carpentry, lighting, back line folks; accommodating the needs of the talent; mixing the event; having adequate spare equipment available; and much more as we’ll see as this series progresses.
Acoustical refers to the art and craft of making great sound in the specific environment you’ll be working in. Acoustical considerations encompass the understanding of loudspeaker characteristics, optimal speaker placement, possible acoustical treatment (especially applicable in fixed installations), and all else that goes into making sound the best it can be.
The venue may change from day to day if you’re on tour, or it might remain stable for many years to come if you’re the resident engineer in a concert hall, house of worship, or other fixed installation environment, but there’s always more to learn, adjust, and accomplish to make each show better than the previous one.
Mechanical is all about how you’re going to package the necessary equipment to get to and from the gig, hang the loudspeakers in the air, run the cabling, ensure that safety requirements are met, and still have time to deal with the other elements.
Electrical is where it all comes together from a functional standpoint. The successful sound practitioner must understand how to power the system, what to do to move signals from one point to another without buzz, hum, or other interference, and how to keep the lead singer from frying his or her lips when touching the microphone due to improper grounding. Without an understanding of Electrical, there will be no show, even if the other three elements have been brilliantly managed.
With this in mind we’ll address each topic in this series by looking at the four elements holistically. Sometimes Mechanical, for example, might require only a sentence or two. Other times, it might comprise the crux of the matter.
Getting The Job Started
Before a system design and budgetary spreadsheet is generated, the first order of business is to clearly determine what the client truly needs, and if the client’s intentions will properly serve the needs of the talent—or we might even say the needs of the show itself. This is largely an Operational task, but requires knowledge of the other three elements to make effective decisions.
Professional clients who have been managing shows for a long time usually understand what needs to be done. Others, say perhaps a wedding planner who is mainly concerned with decor, might have an idea that two speakers on sticks can adequately cover 500 people without being too loud or too soft throughout the audience area, because they are not versed in sound and want to keep the budget to a minimum.
Therefore, the role of the system planner is to sort out the many variables among performance quality, budget, and space requirements that can often conflict with one another. Once these parameters are understood, then it’s time to submit an intelligent proposal to the client. It’s an easy trap to go over the top, specifying a $75,000 console, let’s say, for a medium sized wedding party because it would be fun to use it.
It’s also common to underestimate the difficulty of providing intelligible sound in a small, but highly reverberant room such as a chapel. A pair of wide angle loudspeakers mounted in the wrong places might provide enough power, but could be a disaster in terms of speech recognition.
While it’s impossible to cover the many variants that make up a well thought-out system design for every size, shape, and type of event, especially if the system is complex, the ground rules are fortunately much easier to understand and address.
First and foremost, listen attentively to the client to make sure you understand what it is they’re seeking. They might be wowed by photos of dazzling modern equipment from a rental company brochure, but they might not need anything that resembles those photos to get the job done. Removing personal likes and dislikes, in respect to a certain brand or piece of gear, is a good exercise to consider at this stage.
Next, determine if the talent will be able to perform within the limitations of the budget, the timelines, the available space, and the other governing parameters. If it seems absolutely impossible, then it’s time to make the client aware that a 12-piece horn band playing to 700 people outdoors can’t be adequately reinforced with two low-cost music store speakers on tripod stands and a 6-channel mixer/amplifier located backstage.
Finally, always be professional. Even the biggest gigs often impose restrictions that are sub-optimal from a sonic standpoint. There may be one or more ways to compromise that won’t harm the integrity of your work without having to walk away from the gig. Flexibility is an important characteristic in our business, but bear in mind that flexibility is about effective and mutual compromise; it’s not about reducing your standards to the lowest common denominator.
Until next time…
