All the while, Scheirman has consistently updated his knowledge base, studying strategic marketing, technology development, finance and project management at Stanford, MIT, University of Washington and CalTech. Since joining JBL he has worked to leverage the company’s ongoing research and development efforts, including JBL’s patented Differential Drive dual-coil loudspeakers.
“I’ve always been fascinated with how new technological developments change audio product trends, and, ultimately, create new and better tools for the people who have to ride around in trucks and buses, delivering sound for audiences.”
His fascination with the business, however, extends beyond the technology, to the final link in the signal chain – the audience experience, and the degree to which the skills of equipment designers and system operators can impact what the concert-goers ultimately take away from a show.
“I was always interested in what they perceive. In the recording industry the storage medium is now a digital audio file. You can edit it, transform it, do re-takes, but in live sound the storage medium is the collective memory of the audience at the show.”
“You only get one shot to give them a positive experience.”
For Scheirman, the ability to do so in a way that maximizes the listener’s experience is not only the key to a successful event, but to the level of personal satisfaction he takes from it.
As an example, Scheirman references the 1991 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a joint project between the U.S. Navy and the National Parks Service.
The project offered substantial technical and environmental challenges, he explains.
“We were simultaneously dealing with the political and security requirements, field-testing some brand-new acoustical measurement technology, pioneering long-distance wireless transmission of audio over an expanse of open water, in Honolulu, in December, when the weather was unpredictable.”
But a good show, he adds, isn’t just a matter of good sound in the system operator’s opinion. It’s a matter of appropriate sound for the audience.
“As a practitioner of this craft you have to simultaneously understand your equipment and your input – meaning the artist on stage or whatever the content is – as well as who is listening to the results of your work.”
What stuck with him then wasn’t just the success of the event on a purely technical level, but the emotional reaction it evoked in the audience and, ultimately, in him.
“Try to picture being out at front of house, mixing the U.S. Navy’s Pacific 7th fleet stage band as they recreate the playlist from the officer’s club dance at Pearl Harbor the night the attack had taken place fifty years earlier, with clarinets and saxophones playing tunes like Glen Miller’s ‘In The Mood’.
The audience included widows of servicemen who’d lost their lives, and people from rest homes and veterans’ hospitals who’d been severely injured or emotionally impacted for decades.
“To watch them literally rise up out of their wheel chairs, ask women they didn’t know – 70 or 80 years old – to dance; to watch that entire audience come alive listening to a classic melody, presented at an appropriate volume with the right tonal quality authentic to the original source, well distributed; that’s the magic of getting it right.”
It’s only one moment, Scheirman says, from thousands of shows he has participated in. “But in that moment the hair stood up on the back of my neck.”
“Some people were crying, some people were laughing, but the point is, the process of designing an event sound system, and truly aligning it to the event, all came together in a way that made an entire lifetime of learning those skills and practicing that craft all come together. There’s nothing quite like it.”
Quick Stats:
Job Title: Vice President, Tour Sound, JBL Professional
Location: Northridge, California
Years in the Business: 36
Favorite tools: Sharpie series 30000 Fine Point permanent marker (various colors), 3M #1020-BLK-A polyethylene, reinforced, multi-purpose pressure sensitive (duct) tape and authentic (WDFC) WD-40 cleaner and solvent, and a robust laptop PC
Worked With: JBL Professional, Innovative Electronic Designs (IED), MediaLink Technologies and Concert Sound Consultants; event credits and artists including Presidential Inauguration, Olympics, America, Electric Light Orchestra, Linda Ronstadt, George Benson, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Glenn Frey, Harry Chapin, Jimmy Buffett, and others.
Based in Toronto, Kevin Young is a freelance music and tech writer, professional musician and composer.