Live Sound International | On Scarlet's Walk with Tori Amos: SSE Hire's Chris Beale talks about the system & the changing sound company business

On Scarlet's Walk with Tori Amos
SSE Hire's Chris Beale talks about the system and the changing sound company business. He sees recent loudspeaker and digital console technology as a primary lynchpin in a new corner being turned for small-to-medium productions.

By Mike Mann

SSE Hire's Chris Beale acknowledges that virtually everyone in the sound business tends to get a bit overly excited about their latest equipment, reacting similarly to proud parent's of a new baby. But he doesn't shy away from doing the same when talking about the system his company has assembled for the current Tori Amos "Scarlet's Walk" tour.

Specifically, Beale sees recent loudspeaker technology as a primary lynchpin in a new corner being turned for small-to-medium productions, headed by Nexo GEO Tangent Arrays deployed by SSE Hire for Amos concert dates in the U.S. and Europe.

"GEO is making people wake up to the fact that it really is possible to provide compact audio production. This doesn't just mean small boxes; the amplifier requirement is also minimal, as is the power distribution, and it genuinely is possible to tour an arena-sized system in a Bobtail (small truck)," he says.

The Amos tour is playing theaters and smaller arenas to audiences averaging about 5,000, and Beale believes it is to smaller productions that the industry needs to look. "Major arena tours in the U.K. and Europe account for only about five percent of the market," he explains. "If you're in sold-out arenas four nights a week, you don't necessarily worry about an extra half-truck for sound. The emphasis has more to do with getting the sound right but the chances of doing that with a traditional ‘wall of boxes' is very slim - there just isn't time to array a system that accurately."

VALUE OF EARLIER STUDIES

Based in Birmingham, England and founded by John and Heather Penn, SSE Hire has been a significant player in Europe since the late ‘70s. Beale joined the organization relatively early in its growth and has directed its sales and technical development since the early ‘80s. His background and approach to running a sound company offer an interesting dichotomy: SSE Hire consistently seeks to "push the envelope" in live sound technology and techniques, while Beale studied and qualified as a chartered surveyor (also dabbling in electronics) prior to entering the audio business.

"I got bored with the formality of the surveying business and when I was asked by Talk Talk to mix their tour of North America supporting Elvis Costello, I jumped at the chance," he says. When the band returned for a full production U.K. tour, he got in touch with John Penn and became involved with SSE Hire. Yet he still derives regular value from his earlier studies. "I'd say that each year I probably use 75 percent of my surveying knowledge as part of being a service company.

"It might be checking out a venue for flying points, or understanding planning law, or communicating with local authorities - it has turned out to be the best training I could have had for a life in sound.

To Beale, a push-the-envelope approach is defined by a sound company not being led entirely by sound engineers, whom he opines are a conservative lot by nature. "Hire companies are generally petrified of buying anything that might not be specified, but the sound companies have to lead the industry because if they don't we won't progress," he explains. Roles are also changing fast - systems are now developed to the point that their set-up is an objective rather than a subjective matter. "It's the service company's job to design and put the system up in the correct way to get coverage and sound pressure levels right for the audience, and the mix engineer runs the show. Everything's much more repeatable than it was a few years ago."

Chris Beale at the SSE Hire shop, giving us an exclusive first look at NEXO’s GEO T4805 array module.

This, Beale warns, spells trouble for sound engineers if they don't get their professional act together. "People have already seen that there is a big risk of losing ownership of your work. With digital consoles, it's theoretically possible to use a highly experienced engineer to set the show up and then run the show with an operator - which is a system used frequently in lighting." This represents not just a threat but also an opportunity for those engineers who can make the contractual step to becoming a sound designer, Beale is quick to add.

CHANGE OF PLANS

It's interesting to note that SSE Hire worked heavily with Nexo in the development and testing of the initial smaller-scale GEO system (called GEO S Series) now in use on the Amos tour, yet Beale acknowledges that its full capabilities were perhaps overlooked.

We had originally planned to use the larger Nexo GEO T system (due for launch later this spring in Frankfurt) on this tour," he notes. "We hadn't considered the smaller GEO S system, but at that point we didn't have sufficient experience with it to know what it could do. We were heavily involved in its development by Nexo, and we had thought of it as a very compact system for corporate (industrial) work. We didn't realize that what we were helping to design was capable of so much more."

This view provides perspective on the small footprint of the arrays.

SSE Hire first tested GEO S in an arena about a year ago and found that the system did what the prediction software had indicated. Of particular note was the achievement of the sound pressure levels quoted for the system. When it became clear that the bigger GEO T system wouldn't be available in time for the Tori Amos tour, it was decided that the smaller boxes would be enough, and Beale notes that this has indeed been the case.

While GEO acts as a line array, Beale notes that many of its specific benefits have little to do with line array technology. "We didn't even want it to be known as a line array. It helps overcome existing problems of creating a coherent source for high frequencies, and one that can be accurately curved to suit the audience layout," he explains.

"The difference is that some line array systems work fine until you separate the boxes whereupon the resolution of the HF deteriorates in proportion to the increasing angle.

"GEO uses a section of a hyperboloid reflector to generate a very controlled HF wave-front with five-degree vertical dispersion, however, two adjacent cabinets can be configured at any angle between five degrees to almost parallel to each other without perceivable interference. The only real restriction is that the transition of the curve between boxes has to be very smooth. You're trying to create an accurate logarithmic curve and that means using great accuracy in the rigging system. In the case of GEO-T we have achieved less than 0.1 degree error over 12 cabinets."

Monitorland is set, including a Midas XL4 console with XL316 extender.

GEO actually uses one-third-octave spacing on its rigging components; users can set angles of 0.125, 0.2, 0.315, 0.5 degrees and so on, making a logarithmic approach much easier. This accuracy really is necessary, says Beale. If a single cabinet is only covering a narrow section of the audience at a distance of, say, 60 meters, a one-degree increment produces a step of several metres. Much tighter accuracy is needed to create extremely consistent coverage.

Outside of this tour, Beale sees sea-change implications for developments like this, particularly in tandem with digital consoles. "Using the Innova-SON digital consoles and GEO, we've been doing shows in theatres with a 4 PM load-in for a 5:30 sound-check and the crew is heading home by 11:15 PM.

This really is a quantum leap in terms of touring audio. The saving in cost to a rental company for a one-off theater show is substantial just in terms of manpower and trucking alone, which can translate to the difference between healthy profit and a thumping loss."

Lab Gruppen amplifier and Nexo processor for the house system.

Spurred by this blend of technical cutting edge and business analysis, SSE Hire continues to prosper. There's a newly acquired sister hire company, Melpomen, based in France, and the SSE Audio Group operation now comprises about 40 full-time employees. The diversity of the operation helps insure its future.

"The most important thing about SSE is that it's not tied up with one single character. If any of the individuals in the company chose to leave, the business would still carry on and thrive, which is important when you are responsible for so many people.

Personally, I'm in the fortunate position of being able to indulge my technical interests as part of a company that works profitably too," Beale concludes.

Scarlet's Walk Tour Sound Crew and Gear

Mark Hawley, FOH engineer
Bennie Veenstra, Monitor engineer
Mike Rose, SSE crew chief
Andy Yates, SSE system tech
Trevor Lowe, piano tech
Justin Crew, keyboard/bass tech
Aaron Mlasko, drum tech

House Console

House Control Rack 1

House Control Rack 2

House Control Rack 3

House Control Rack 4

House Control Rack 5

House Control. Rack 6

Klark Teknik DN728 digital delay 1 House Loudspeaker System

Motors and Rigging

House Amp Standard Rack

From his base in the U.K., Mike Mann is a frequent contributor to Live Sound. He can be reached at mike@bigwords4u.com

February 2003 Live Sound International

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