Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Definitions ..... By Popular Demand

I was reminded by Sheila that my industry has a language all to it own. Here are some translations/definitions to help you folks out as you read my blog.

FOH = Front of House - This is where the FOH engineer mixes the show from, the LD (see definition) controls the lights and the spotlights are.

MON = Monitors - This is where the MON engineer mixes what the bands are hearing in their individual wedges(see definition)

LD = Lighting Designer - This guy decides what the lights look like and when.

Wedges = Speakers that each artist uses so that he can hear himself and other people in the band.

Backline = Instruments - This could be guitars, drums, keyboards, amps, harps......

Truss = Aluminum Structural Element - Truss can be either one piece or many pieces put together. It is usually used to put hang lights from.

PRT = Pre Rigged Truss - A truss element that has the lights built in to it. Also known as Single Hung or Double Hung.

Array = The main speaker hang.

Subs = The speakers that put out the low frequencies (we have all heard the ghetto cars that rattle as they go down the road. Imagine an entire 35,000 seat building doing that)

Load In = The process of setting up a show. We are loading all of the equipment in to the venue

Load Out = The process of taking a show down. We are loading all of the equipment out of the venue.

Snake = A large cable consisting of hundreds of conductors through which the signal for all of the audio channels passes. Think of this as a bunch of microphone cables put together.

Loom = Multiple cables made in to one assembly. We use cable looms to connect multiple speakers.

Console = The audio mixing console

Rigging = This stuff that holds all of the equipment in the air.

Chain Motors = A sort of crane. Usually consisting of a single piece of chain of predetermined length with a hook on one end and an electric motor which climbs that chain with a hook on the bottom side for attaching a load.

Feeder = Single conductor cable that is about 1.5" in diameter (really, really, really heavy) There are usually 5 of these loomed together so that you have 1 Ground, 1 Nuetral, and Three Hots so that you end up with three phase power.

Socapex = a 19 conductor cable which carries power for six different circuits for lights.

Conventional Lights = A simple enclosure with a lightbulb, and lens.

Intelligent Lights = Lights that move and change colors and patterns on command.

Dimmer = A large (also read heavy here) rack which controls the intensity of the conventional lights.

Lighting Console = A control surface that tells the dimmers and intelligent lights what to do.

Three Phase Power = Don't make me explain this. If you don't understand it you probably don't need to. Just know that this is more power than your house needs and you should never play with electricity.

If you have any questions about anything that I talk about feel free to leave a comment and I will try to explain it as best I can.

ER

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Some Pics

I picked up my pictures the other day from being developed. Here are a few of them.

The opener for Kanye West - Black Violins. It's kinda blurry but I was 110' away.















A view of the stage for Kanye West before Lights out.















Kanye West in Full Swing. Makin' my eyeballs jiggle with the subs.
















The opening act for Doobie Brothers. There were a whole lot more people for Doobie Brothers than for the opening acts.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Hip Hop and Classic Rock

Yes, the water debacle was cleared up. They screwed up, they fixed it and sent me a letter of apology. I think I might frame it.

This past week was a rather full one. On Wednesday we left the shop with two 53' tractor trailers loaded with gear for Kanye West. It was a decent show. We loaded in on Thursday morning. The show started at 7:00 with a group called "Black Violins" I mixed FOH for them and it was pretty good. Kanye took the stage at 8:15. I mixed the majority of the show because his FOH engineer liked what I was doing and needed to take care of some stuff for the next show. The show itself was rather boring but the whole production went pretty well. I will post some pictures in a while. I also have a time lapse of load in that I am hoping to post soon. I am still on the film thing so I have to get it developed.

On Friday we drove up to Colorado Springs and checked in to the Antlers Hilton. Mike went all the way back up to Denver to get the SL320. We met up at the hotel that night and went to dinner. Load in started at 5:30am on Saturday. The Doobie Brothers were pretty easy to take care of. They brought their own FOH and MON consoles and just tied in to our system. There were three opening acts, none of which were all that spectacular. They were all bands who had placed in the top three of the battle of the bands at the college. We started load out at 10:30 that night and I got to leave by 12:45. It was kind of nice. I was the only one who had been there all stinkin day so I got to leave before load out was done.

My Dad showed up in Colorado Springs around 5:00 that evening. He stayed around and watched the show. That night we stayed at the hotel in the springs and left on Sunday around noon to come back to Denver. The drive was pretty easy but man was I tired.

That is the rest of my life for now. Dad left today to go back to Williamsburg, VA. It was good to see him.

Gotta Go