Staying Cool Under Pressure
The Hollywood Bowl crew talks about the impact of digital technology
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When I first arrived to check out the Hollywood Bowl, the stage was full of rental gear for a number of acts, including Chic and the Gap Band, getting ready to perform at Disco Fever II. The Bowl’s assistant head of audio, Kevin Wapner, calmly went back and forth from the monitor board to the stage, as people insisted that the guitar inputs were backwards. He soloed the guitar channels on the Yamaha PM1D digital console, called up the screen with the mix assignments, and repeatedly replied, “No, they’re not,” without flipping out or losing his temper. |
A few days later, I sat down to talk with Wapner and colleagues Michael
Cooper, head of the audio department, and sound designer Fred Vogler.
I began by asking Wapner how he stays cool in the face of a classic cluster
you-know-what. “I put all the stuff in perspective,” he explains. “It’s
a show no one’s getting hurt, we’re not doing surgery, it’s all entertainment.
It’s not a life and death situation.”
But it is quite a workload under the hot L.A. sun, and that’s why I was
so impressed by his evenness. Most weeks during the summer season, there
are six shows two by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, two by the Hollywood
Bowl Orchestra, and two nights with jazz and world music. The sound team
must communicate with three entirely different sets of producers as
Cooper comments, “They only do two of the shows, and we do all of them”
and that’s where the stored templates on the recently installed PM1D
consoles come in.
HANGING ON THE WALLS
Before, there were two analog consoles at front of house (FOH), and two
more for monitors. “We would have to log all the EQ, all the effects,
and then have the strips of tape hanging on the walls,” Cooper relates.
A typical week might have three rehearsals for a performance of My
Fair Lady with 24 lavalier microphones. “We would set up the Philharmonic
(a total of 90 mics) to rehearse, strike that, then set up My Fair
Lady to rehearse, then strike that, and set the Phil up all over again,
and do the show.”
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I was looking back and forth between the three guys, because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It’s a big deal for me when, working at a place like the House of Blues, to have to put Tommy Lee’s soundcheck on hold for an hour to accommodate a Harley Davidson press conference on the dance floor with one podium mic and a video feed. The Bowl sound team collectively nods, as they see my brain start to calculate what those types of days must be like for them. |
“With the PM1D, you just hit ‘Recall,’” Vogler smiles, adding how many visiting mixers are at first “crying for the security blanket of their big analog console, but they leave saying, ‘Hey, that was good!’ This is the best Yamaha demo room anywhere.”
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It turns out Vogler has a lot of experience with strings he was the orchestra submixer on many Barbra Streisand concerts, working with FOH mixer Bruce Jackson. Years later, of course, Jackson is a driving force behind the Lake Technology Contour processors that now control the Hollywood Bowl’s system of 32 Sound Image G-5 main loudspeakers, 18 Sound Image four by 18-inch subwoofers and eight Sound Image G-2 compact loudspeakers. QSC EX Series amplifiers drive this house rig, while QSC PowerLight Series amps feed the 18 additional G-2’s used as monitor wedges. |
The day I talk with them, the team was in the middle of a three-night
run of a Fourth of July spectacular featuring fireworks, the L.A. Philharmonic,
and special guest Kenny Rogers and his band. After striking that at 11
PM, they stay until 6 AM to set up a whole projection system for the next
evening’s sing-along screening of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The next night it’s celebrity D.J. Paul Oakenfold (for whom they bring
in extra subwoofers) and a variety of percussion-based ensembles. The
rest of the month’s bookings includes a Verdi opera, an evening with Etta
James, and The Blue Planet, a documentary film with the Philharmonic
playing the score live to picture. For that, Wapner sends a click track
to the musicians, as though they were on a scoring stage.
“Our life has just become easier,” he comments. “I make the input list
for the shows the day before, then come in and type the show on my PC,
bring the card and plug it in, and do the show.” (I attended Yamaha’s
PM1D school with Kevin and Michael, and wrote about it for ProSound-Web.com
see “Stalking the Wild PM1D” in the Live section archives, under Gear.)
MOVE ANYTHING ANYWHERE
One of the recent events at the Hollywood Bowl was a Hall of Fame Gala
featuring Roger Daltrey, the Smothers Brothers and Josh Groban. Wapner
starts soundcheck for a show like this (or with any other guest vocalists)
by putting up his standard orchestra template on the monitor desk. “I
can throw that in, and they can start playing. I add the other singers,
and send that around to the orchestra, and then send the orchestra back
to the singers.”
For a typical “Pops” show, Wapner runs eight (Galaxy) Hot Spot mixes placed
around the orchestra. Then he sends six submixes to the drummer, who does
his own in-ear monitor mix. And there are also the usual downstage wedge
mixes for the featured guest vocalists.
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The flexibility of the PM1D’s patching is one of the most-welcome
features for users with complex needs. “You can ergonomically move
anything anywhere on the control surface,” Vogler mentions. “So
if someone has a big ‘jones’ to see some input show up somewhere,
we can do that.” |
The mains sit out in the sun above the Bowl all summer, “getting baked” as Vogler puts it. “The environment wrecks them the sparks and chemicals from the fireworks and also the concussions from the cannons those cabinets are getting trashed.”
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In total, 22 of the 23 available matrices on the PM1D are used. Before, with the older analog desks, an outboard LCS (Level Control System), with 16 by 32 matrix, was used for these purposes. The PM1D has the advantage of internal delays that can be applied
to any given send. Even though with its two layers of 48 inputs
apiece, there are 96 potential inputs into the PM1D, and the Hollywood
Bowl FOH setup uses a Yamaha DM2000 to handle all the orchestra
string inputs. This submix is then digitally sent, via an AES/EBU
output, directly into the PM1D. |
Further, there are area mics for the orchestra as well as 55 individual
Countryman string mics on stage, many of which are “Y’d” together. As
Vogler told me, “This is an application where you have to be quick and
do a show.” Typically there is only an hour and a half to set up before
an orchestra rehearsal. And to think that I always ask for two hours for
the five-piece rock bands I work with!
FILLING IT OUT
Although the men of the Bowl use the PM1D’s on-board effects and dynamics
whenever they can, there are also racks of high-end preamps onstage
40 Millenium Media, 24 more from Grace, and an addition six Avalon units.
At FOH, there are Millenia STT-1 preamps (that have compression, limiting,
EQ, and de-essing,) that Vogler cites as being a lifesaver with a singer
like Bobby McFerrin, who has a dynamic range literally from a whisper
to a scream. There is also a rack with Avalon AD 2055 Class A parametric
equalizers, as well as some of Avalon’s VT 737 vocal processor multi-function
units.
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Next year the Bowl will undergo a complete renovation. The trademark arching bandshell will be removed and replaced, concrete will be torn up, and a whole new enclosure will come into existence. “We’ll have a rack room and patch bays, and where the amps are (located) will change,” Cooper details. The new PA will be flown and removable to substitute a touring act’s system. The stage will be 40 feet by 60 feet, big enough to accommodate larger rock shows that can’t currently play the venue. |
When digital boards were on the horizon a few years ago, many of us immediately thought of festivals as being the ideal place to use them when you have a dozen bands in one day, each with their own input lists and monitor preferences. At the Hollywood Bowl, the audio crew is faced with what is essentially a nonstop festival for months on end, and digital consoles like the Yamaha PM1D have transformed their ability to get ahead of the curve, that unceasing wave of different shows constantly coming over the horizon.
Chris Kathman is a working mixer and a regular contributor to Live Sound and ProSoundWeb.com. He is a widely published author of a wide range of articles, and can be reached at chris@prosoundweb.com
September 2003 Live Sound International