Step By Step
After graduating in 1995, he moved to New York City to intern at Promix full time for five months. Given the amount of time he spent touring over the next few years, however – working on various corporate shows, special events, television and theatrical shows for Promix and Masque Sound – he had little need for a home address and stayed with family or friends during his down time.
“In that time period I was usually an engineer or tech working for the sound designers,” he says. “On the national production of West Side Story” – which he did a 2-year stint with – “I started as the A2. Then, when the A1 moved on, I took over and mixed the show.”
The contacts he made working with other firms were integral to building the client base for Anderson Audio when he struck out on his own. Initially, as an independent, he kept his gear in a shed on his parents’ property, but it soon became clear that he couldn’t stay in upstate New York and build his business effectively.
“I went with what I knew, the nearest semi-metropolitan area, Harrisburg. I didn’t want to live in New York City. I’ve never been crazy about living in a major city, but I needed to live in a tertiary one and from Harrisburg I could get to Baltimore, DC, Philly and NYC easily.”
Originally, he ran the business out of a storage locker. As the company grew – in what Anderson describes as a “very deliberate process” – he expanded. “We were in one locker, then two, then the guy that owned the storage place let us take the wall down between them. By the time we were in our third locker, I knew I had to find a real shop, so we moved into our first building in 2005 and then landed in the 14,000-square-foot building we’re in now.
The location in Harrisburg contributed to their range of services, given there were few other providers in the immediate area. That also drove the acquisition of audio equipment, then lighting and video gear. Anderson Audio also has a partnership with a local backline company that shares the building.
Over time the company has provided systems and services for a diverse variety of clients; a particular point of pride is long-standing audio support of the WETA television program “In Performance at the White House,” which has been staged in the East Room and South Lawn.
Diversified Portfolio
Anderson Audio currently employs five full-time staff members in addition to drawing from a pool of part timers when necessary. As far as the division of labor, he explains, “I have one project manager who takes care of the corporate work, another project manager who does the music work, and then I catch all of the oddball or weird stuff that I drum up.”
Given the responsibility of running the company, Anderson is mixing less these days, adding, “But I’ll still mix anything I can get my hands on, and I’ve toured with artists over the last few years – usually jazz artists.”
Recording services are also on offer, including an 8-year stint working with the Kennedy Center tied into the facility’s educational program.
“But there’s less need for that now,” Anderson notes. “The recording rig comes out occasionally. We’ve used it at the White House, for ‘In Performance at the White House,’ and on Netflix and HBO specials we’ve done recently, but it’s not a major piece of the business.”
The company also does some installation work but it’s not a primary focus. “We don’t pursue installs,” he notes, “but they’ve saved our butts at times where it’s like, ‘I’m glad we have a major install this summer because we’re not as busy as we’d like to be’.”
While his roots are in theatre, Anderson’s focus now is on concerts and corporate events: “When I started there was no rock scene in my area. Theatre dovetailed over into corporate gigs very easily. Now, as a company, we do as much rock as anything else, but that’s not where I came from.”
Regardless of the type of show, he continues, “Our sensibility is always ‘the right tool for the job.’”
Anderson Audio has purchased gear accordingly in serving that ethic. A long-time EAW user, the past two years have seen a significant investment in the manufacturer’s Adaptive System technology, with 16 Anna modules joining an existing inventory that also includes KF730, KF740 and NTL720 line arrays. Recently the company also completely replaced its existing complement of amplifiers with Powersoft products.
Members of the Anderson Audio team evaluating an EAW Adaptive System array“Our purchase of the Adaptive System has been part of my effort to grow the business,” Anderson states. “I don’t want to just be the scrappy little company from central Pennsylvania. We need to grow this thing. We have the pedigree for it. We have the reputation for it. But it’s not that simple. It’s not just, ‘Hey, we’re good. Can we play?’ You’ve got to pry your way into the business.”
The events that he finds most compelling are those that allow his company to stretch its wings, to deploy gear and resources in a manner that’s extensive.
One example is the Scott Hamilton CARES fundraiser in Cleveland, which for the past 18 years has combined live musical guests and champion figure skaters to raise money to battle cancer.
“An arena-sized system with a rock band and a symphony with 100-plus inputs and three or four mixers working simultaneously – to me that’s what we’d like to do every day,” he concludes.