Billboardlive.com...

[Remoteness]

So, we headed to Grand Prairie, Texas to the first Billboard Live concert on the web

The first artist for this series is R. Kelly live from Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, TX

You can check it out right now (10.29.09); we're streaming live...

OWL -- Billboard Live

There are some cool artist coming up on the schedule.

Pictures of this event will be posted in a bit.

[Fuzzy Logic]

nice job steve. i just went to the site and it looked and sounded choppy. beyond that it really sounded great. the first song was out of balance but you got that under control quickly. i assume you guys had a dress rehearsal to workout all the blocking and sound balances. can you tell us more about the setup and what you guys used?

keep up the good work.

[Remoteness]

Thanks Fuzzy, but production venture took nearly fifty of us to make it so.

The choppy look and sound has everything to do with the amount of bandwidth available when viewing the program. I noticed this at times, but not as jammed up as others have seen. Streaming five 720P feeds with stereo audio needs a fair amount of bandwidth.

To be honest with you we didn't have the amount of time we should have had, so the first tune was my (real) chance to balance the mix. And, I'm talking about balancing 73 channels from the stage, plus additional playback sources and host mic.

I had over 80 channels of goodness to play with; no dress rehearsal, no blocking, just ESU and go!

We build a little audio control area with 16 sound blankets, pipe and drape.
Believe it or not, audio world actually sounded really good once we hung all those sound blankets.

Here are a few pictures of our control room set up for your review.

If you got (any more) questions, I got answers!

[Remoteness]

Here are a few pictures of our control room set up for your review...

[Remoteness]

A few pictures of Audio World, plus a shot of the two 40X16X2 mic splitters we used on stage...

[Remoteness]

Here's a picture of our lovely host, McKenna.

We used two satellite trucks up-linking five 720P feeds.

and, finally a couple of picture of all the empty cases...

[Remoteness]

Daughtry is the next online HD streaming concert.

This performance will be broadcast live from the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA on 11/19/2009 at 9:00 PM EST.

OWL -- Billboard Live

I will post some pictures and additional comments when applicable.

[Roland]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

Thanks Fuzzy, but production venture took nearly fifty of us to make it so.

The choppy look and sound has everything to do with the amount of bandwidth available when viewing the program. I noticed this at times, but not as jammed up as others have seen. Streaming five 720P feeds with stereo audio needs a fair amount of bandwidth.

To be honest with you we didn't have the amount of time we should have had, so the first tune was my (real) chance to balance the mix. And, I'm talking about balancing 73 channels from the stage, plus additional playback sources and host mic.

I had over 80 channels of goodness to play with; no dress rehearsal, no blocking, just ESU and go!

We build a little audio control area with 16 sound blankets, pipe and drape.
Believe it or not, audio world actually sounded really good once we hung all those sound blankets.

Here are a few pictures of our control room set up for your review.

If you got (any more) questions, I got answers!

Just looking at the video and the pic's it looks like a logistical nightmare! I didn't see a band on the stage, is it playback they are working too or are they in a pit? I'd love to know what your input list was.

Cheers

Roland

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by Roland

Just looking at the video and the pic's it looks like a logistical nightmare! I didn't see a band on the stage, is it playback they are working too or are they in a pit? I'd love to know what your input list was.

Cheers

Roland

Roland,

Yes indeed; it truly was a logistical nightmare!
IMO,we should have had a full set up day, but because we were piggy-backing on an existing show we had to deal with what was dealt to us.

Hey, I work best under adverse conditions; it's what we do best.

The band was behind the video screen for most of the show.
At times they were in silhouette; towards the middle to the end the screen was lifted and the band was part of the show.

Throughout the show it was band, MPC and PT playback.
It took me about three songs to the balance in a manageable place; kind where I should have been if I had a real sound check and (dare I say it) rehearsal.


Here's the input list you requested...

R. KELLY INPUT LIST
FOH...........M7CL............DCA.......DESCRIPTION.......INPUT TYPE
01..............A01..............A01..............OH SR..............AKG 414
02..............A02..............A01..............OH SL..............AKG 414
03.............. ….............. ….............. …....... …
04..............A04..............A01..............R04..............BETA 98
05..............A05..............A01..............R03..............BETA 98
06..............A06..............A01..............R02..............BETA 98
07..............A07..............A01..............R01..............BETA 98
08..............A03..............A01..............HAT.......
09..............A08..............A01..............SN 02..............PR22
10..............A09..............A01..............SN BOT............PR22
11..............A10..............A01..............SN TOP............PR22
12..............A11..............A01..............K 01..............BETA 91
13..............A12..............A01..............K 02..............HEIL
14..............A13..............A01..............PAD L..............J48
15..............A14..............A01..............PAD R..............J48
16..............A15..............A02..............BASS..............JDI
17..............A17..............A02..............KEY BASS....... .......JDI
18..............A18..............A03..............GTR 01..............SM57
19..............A19..............A03..............GTR 02..............KSM32
20..............A20..............A03..............GTR KEY..............J48
21..............A21..............A04..............KEY 01 L..............J48
22..............A22..............A04..............KEY 01 R..............J48
23..............A23..............A04..............KEY 02 L..............J48
24..............A24..............A04..............KEY 02 R..............J48
25..............B17..............B02..............MPC 01..............KICK
26..............B18..............B02..............MPC 02..............808
27..............B19..............B02..............MPC 03..............SNRS
28..............B20..............B02..............MPC 04..............SNRS
29..............B21..............B02..............MPC 05..............HATS
30..............B22..............B02..............MPC 06..............CLICK
31..............B23..............B02..............MPC 07..............SAMPLER
32..............B24..............B02..............MPC 08..............NOISES
33..............B25..............B02..............MPC 09..............PERC
34..............B26..............B02..............MPC 10..............PERC
35..............B01..............B01..............PLYBK 01..............KICK
36..............B02..............B01..............PLYBK 02..............808
37..............B03..............B01..............PLYBK 03..............SNR
38..............B04..............B01..............PLYBK 04..............HAT
39..............B05..............B01..............PLYBK 05..............BASS
40..............B06..............B01..............PLYBK 06....... ---
41..............B07..............B01..............PLYBK 07..............HI PERC
42..............B08..............B01..............PLYBK 08..............LO PERC
43..............B09..............B01..............PLYBK 09....... ---
44..............B10..............B01..............PLYBK 10..............SITAR
45..............B11..............B01..............PLYBK 11..............BRASS
46..............B12..............B01..............PLYBK 12..............LD VOX
47..............B13..............B01..............PLYBK 13..............INST
48..............B14..............B01..............PLYBK 14..............INST
49..............B15..............B01..............PLYBK 15..............BG VOX
50..............B16..............B01..............PLYBK 16..............BG VOX
51..............A33................ …..............ROB MAIN RF..............SHURE HH
52..............A34................ …..............ROB SPR RF................SHURE HH
53..............A36..............A07..............BGV 01..............SM58
54..............A37..............A07..............BGV 02..............SM58
55..............A38..............A07..............BGV 03..............SM58
56..............A39..............A07..............DRE RF.............SHRE HH
57.............. …................. …...............TB ROB..............CROWN HDST
58.............. …................ …................TB BAND..............CROWN HDST
59..............A16..............A02..............BASS MIC....... .......HEIL
60..............A40..............A07..............GUEST RF..............SHURE HH
61..............A35................ …..............ROB 55..............FANCY 55
62..............A41..............A08..............FOH SR..............SHTGN
63..............A42..............A08..............FOH SR..............CARD
64..............A43..............A08..............FOH SL..............SHTGN
65..............A44..............A08..............FOH SL..............CARD
66..............A45..............A08..............FOH REC L....... ------
67..............A46..............A08..............FOH REC R....... ------
68..............B33..............B06..............MON IPOD L....... ------
69..............B34..............B06..............MON IPOD R....... ------
70..............B35..............B07..............VIDEO L..............ISO
71..............B36..............B07..............VIDEO R..............ISO
72..............B37..............B07..............B VIDEO L..............ISO
73..............B38..............B07..............B VIDEO R..............ISO
74..............B39..............B08..............BILLBOARDLIVE VID L.......
75..............B40..............B08..............BILLBOARDLIVE VID R.......
76..............B41................ …..............SKYPE FEED.......
77..............B42................ …..............HOST HW HH..............MKH416
78..............B43................ …..............GUEST HW HH..............MKH416
79..............B44................ ..............
80..............B45................ ..............
81..............B46................ ..............
82..............B47................ ..............
83..............B48................ ..............
84.............. ................... ....... ..............
85.............. ................. ....... ..............
86.............. ................. ....... ..............
87.............. ................. ....... ..............
88.............. ................. ....... ...........M7CL48 B OMNI OUTPUTS
89..............A25..............A05..............MPC MIX LEFT....... 1
90..............A26..............A05..............MPC MIX RIGHT....... 2
91..............A27..............A05..............PLAYBACK MIX LEFT....... 3
92..............A28..............A05..............PLAYBACK MIX RIGHT....... 4
93..............A29..............A06..............VIDEO/IPOD MIX LEFT....... 5
94..............A30..............A06..............VIDEO/IPOD MIX RIGHT....... 6
95..............A31..............….................HOST / GUEST MIX....... 7
96..............A32..............….................SKYPE FEED....... 8

Sorry about the formatting of the input list; GS doesn't like tabs very much.

[Roland]

That's a big show!

I only listened to the first couple of tracks, I will take some time to listen to more of it now you've wetted my appitite! I love live mising, for me it's like sport, you really have one shot only, I'm guessing that's what you love about it too. Most of the shows I get to do only have up to about 24-40 inputs, supposed to be doing a Royal Philharmonic show next year with about 60, so that will be fun!

Regards


Roland

[Remoteness]

Oh man, if you only listened to the first couple of tracks, please make sure you listen to the later tracks, since I was still getting my balances together.

Yes, we had only have one shot and there was no safety net to rely on.
with that said, I do indeed love that aspect of our industry.

It's wonderful when you get the time to dial everything in, but if that opportunity is not available it does not stop us from doing our best to get the right sound.

Man, that Royal Philharmonic show sounds very cool.
Sixty inputs; sounds like a walk in the park.
I trust we'll be expecting a gig report thread about it sometime next year.

[Remoteness]

So, we're in Fairfax, VA.
Later today we begin ESU for this Daughtry live streaming event.
We're just under 56 inputs including all the audience mics I anticepate using.

I will report back when I come up for air.

If you're on the Web today (11.19.09) consider tuning in to Billboardlive.com at 9PM EST.

Let me know what you think of the show.

[mixedupsteve]

Our fearless leader allowed me to come by and check out the Daughtry production yesterday 11.19.09. I've never been involved in a production like this so I wanted to see it.
There were two video production trailers and a satellite truck. The trailer with the audio room also had the video control room in the rear. When I got there around noon the audio was just begining to be hooked up and the board (Calrec) patched etc. The video folks had set up two cameras behind FOH and had started to set up 4 more on the floor in front of the stage behind the bike racks. One of these was on a jib.
As you can imagine pulling these wires and patching everything took several hours. The sound company (Clair) had already set up and they were busy programming lights and EQing the system. The light guy told me they had used 1008 channels. Eventually the preliminaries got done and Clair started their line check. Steve and his guys did another line check afterwards for his end.
Sound check was at 4:00 and lasted about an hour after fixing a few things.
Everyone was great to me including Steve's guys and the video people.
It was remarkable how Steve seemed to enjoy the pressure as time wound down. The less time there was the larger his smile got.
I left after the sound check because the population of the trailer kept growing and I was really in the way sometimes.
Thanks Steve

[Larry Elliott]

Steve,

What is the Metering System in the pic in Post 5?

Larry

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by mixedupsteve

Our fearless leader allowed me to come by and check out the Daughtry production yesterday 11.19.09. I've never been involved in a production like this so I wanted to see it.
There were two video production trailers and a satellite truck. The trailer with the audio room also had the video control room in the rear. When I got there around noon the audio was just begining to be hooked up and the board (Calrec) patched etc. The video folks had set up two cameras behind FOH and had started to set up 4 more on the floor in front of the stage behind the bike racks. One of these was on a jib.
As you can imagine pulling these wires and patching everything took several hours. The sound company (Clair) had already set up and they were busy programming lights and EQing the system. The light guy told me they had used 1008 channels. Eventually the preliminaries got done and Clair started their line check. Steve and his guys did another line check afterwards for his end.
Sound check was at 4:00 and lasted about an hour after fixing a few things.
Everyone was great to me including Steve's guys and the video people.
It was remarkable how Steve seemed to enjoy the pressure as time wound down. The less time there was the larger his smile got.
I left after the sound check because the population of the trailer kept growing and I was really in the way sometimes.
Thanks Steve

Steve,

Thanks for making the time to pass by our little production.
NEP provided an A and B trailer; the A unit was the production facility and the B unit was the support vehicle.

I do work best under pressure, but this date was a tough one on so many levels.
We did not stop building the show until it was time to breakdown.
We were still patching stuff during the live broadcast.
That was not exactly what I call having fun, but we were not going to let anything take us down.
This was clearly not one of my better live broadcast mixes, but that's how things workout sometimes.

Thank goodness the Ray Davies live caprure from Town Hall in NYC I did the following day was spectacular.
I'm really looking forward to the remix which I plan to start tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Larry Elliott

Steve,

What is the Metering System in the pic in Post 5?

Larry

I believe it was the software based verion of the Tektronix AMM768.
I maybe completely wrong about this, so I will look into it to confirm the exact model for you.

[Remoteness]

The next broadcast is with Imogen Heap live from the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

We shall be there with TBM this coming Thursday (12/03/09.)
NEP Super Shooter 19 will be there as well along with two satellite trucks and a generator truck to power everything up.

I will follow this up with a gig report and pictures of the production.

If any one's interested in passing by just PM me and I'll see what I can do about it.

[bishopthomas]

Steve, for your fly-in dates, are you renting all equipment or are they trucking it ala the CBS shows? I don't recognize the cases being yours, it looks like some gear is from PSAV. If you're renting, is that your sole provider? How much of the gear do you spec and how much is just "what it is?"

[Remoteness]

Thomas,

The first date out of Dallas, was all PSAV.
The second date from Fairfax, VA was all NEP SS28 with a small (splitter and signal processing rack) rental acquired locally.
This upcoming Brooklyn date (as mentioned above) will be captured with ASL TBM.

Since the series is still new and everything is still being figured out.
There maybe a music audio fly-pack (a la the 2007 CBS shows,) but it's too soon to tell.

Each and every date is different, so the jury is still out on how to tackle the music audio portion of this production venture.

That being said, on the dates I'm involved in, I spec out as much as I can with regard to any portable rigs or additional racks for TV truck usage. I may go with a plan B on certain gear, but I try to keep it as close to how I like to work as possible.

When it comes to using an actual TV truck, we get what we get, but I do add the mission critical gear as per my needs for the particular show.

I trust this series will eventually evolve into using an entertainment truck and real music truck situation; we are making do with what we get because we are all interested in making this work on all sorts of levels.

At the moment, the bang for buck factor is an important part of the equation.



On another note...

I'm really looking forward to the Brooklyn date next week.
We're using one of our own trucks, we got a kick-ass tech manager and...
we're capturing Imogen Heap!
Man, she's simply awesome.

...More to follow.

[Remoteness]

So, the Imogen Heap date was a pretty cool show.
I really enjoyed mixing that one.
I will post a few pictures when I get back to NYC.

I'm now in Knoxville, TN; later today we're setting up to capture the Brian Setzer Orchestra from the Tennessee Theatre...

The BSO Christmas show will air on December 24th, 2009.

We have roughly 60 inputs total for this one.
It should be a lot of fun.
More information to follow...

[HughH]

Hello Steve,

You're with one of our entertainment video trucks. It's an old one, not our new huge one, but still does lots of great stuff. It just did Kennedy Center Honors in DC and goes off to Christmas in Washington after you. I told Tim, one of our engineers there, to say hi to you.
I'm in LA doing a show, otherwise I'd love to be doing Brian Setzer with you and finally meeting you. Have a good time.
Hugh

[Remoteness]

Oh man, you guys are simply awesome.
Now I know why Denali is the first call for all the major entertainment dates.

Pete and Tim were so "on the money!"
It made my life in TV audio feel like a dream...

I'll tell you what; Silver maybe 12 years old, but it is seriously maintained.

Furthermore, I felt like I was in an audio truck.
I loved working on that (good) old analog Calrec Q2 desk.

I understand Summit is a pretty cool rig.
I look forward to checking that out one of these days.

Yes, Pete was telling me he was working at the Kennedy Center.
I called him to advance my Knoxville show while he was there doing the KC Honors with ED Greene.

Tim, did indeed send me your regards...
And, thank you for the extra X48.
As you know, I must have my backups.
I also sent various stems to seven DVC Pro decks just in case

I understand one of the X48s was Ed's machine and the other was yours.
They worked flawlessly; we even remixed two tunes, just because we could.
I had to remix the first tune since I really didn't have a long enough sound check and the mix really wasn't there yet.
The other tune was remixed to get a better vocal balance.

What show are you doing in LA?
Are you on board Summit or Gold?

All the best to you and yours!

Originally Posted by HughH

Hello Steve,

You're with one of our entertainment video trucks. It's an old one, not our new huge one, but still does lots of great stuff. It just did Kennedy Center Honors in DC and goes off to Christmas in Washington after you. I told Tim, one of our engineers there, to say hi to you.
I'm in LA doing a show, otherwise I'd love to be doing Brian Setzer with you and finally meeting you. Have a good time.
Hugh

[bishopthomas]

Brian Setzer Orchestra! What a show! I was a fan growing up so when the stars aligned for me to help Steve with this show I was actually looking forward to a concert (doesn't happen very much anymore). The day went great. Audio Dave and Danny were excellent to work with inside and Steve and Jon D'Uva are always a great team together in the truck. I'm sure Steve will chime in with some more technical details. In the meantime I took a ton of pictures and some video, so enjoy...

[bishopthomas]

A few technical pictures. I wasn't in the truck very much so didn't get to take many pictures of it. It was raining so I didn't get any good shots of the truck itself, but here is the one I managed to snap in between trips up and down 3 flights of stairs (I'm feeling that today!). Also is a picture of the video patch panel on the truck. Because of the rain I didn't stop to get a shot of audio patch world. The other shots are of the snakes that went from the stage to the truck as well as the house patchbay. There were tie lines in the balcony, making it easy to drop down a pair of Schoeps MK5's for a couple of audience mics in the room.

By the way, other audience mics included a pair of MKH416's on the far sides of the stage, clamped to the Vertec subs. And another pair of mics (451's) on a stereo bar on a ledge behind the orchestra pit (which they raised to floor level to provide more seating).

[bishopthomas]

And a couple of videos:

http://www.nomadicpro.net/video/trio.avi
http://www.nomadicpro.net/video/orchestra.avi

[rmx16]

Originally Posted by bishopthomas

A few technical pictures. I wasn't in the truck very much so didn't get to take many pictures of it. It was raining so I didn't get any good shots of the truck itself, but here is the one I managed to snap in between trips up and down 3 flights of stairs (I'm feeling that today!). Also is a picture of the video patch panel on the truck. Because of the rain I didn't stop to get a shot of audio patch world. The other shots are of the snakes that went from the stage to the truck as well as the house patchbay. There were tie lines in the balcony, making it easy to drop down a pair of Schoeps MK5's for a couple of audience mics in the room.

By the way, other audience mics included a pair of MKH416's on the far sides of the stage, clamped to the Vertec subs. And another pair of mics (451's) on a stereo bar on a ledge behind the orchestra pit (which they raised to floor level to provide more seating).

I did the show in AC on the house's 20 year old MSL3 rig.thumbsup. Jimbo and Young Eric did a great job. Kick ass horn section and band. I'm lov'n the Royer's on the stage( SF24 on OH,122 on bass and a 121 on Brian's gtr rig)

I good time was had by all

Peace

[HughH]

Hello Steve,
Glad you had a good time, there's still a little fun to be had in television. I was in Gold through Wednesday then heading to Vegas today for some tapings in Summit over the weekend.

You're right, Pete and Tim are great. We love them, they're both really bright and on top of things. The best. They always have your back.
The Q2 is such a great sounding desk - it will be a sad day when we have to retire it for a recallable desk (lots of pressure to do that). Many great shows on that desk and as one mixer describes it, the Q2 "likes it's job".

Hugh

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by bishopthomas

And a couple of videos:

www.nomadicpro.net/trio.avi
www.nomadicpro.net/orchestra.avi

Yeah, these videos are not coming up.
I'm interested in seeing what you captured.

Originally Posted by rmx16

I did the show in AC on the house's 20 year old MSL3 rig.thumbsup. Jimbo and Young Eric did a great job. Kick ass horn section and band. I'm lov'n the Royer's on the stage( SF24 on OH,122 on bass and a 121 on Brian's gtr rig)

I good time was had by all

Peace

Jimbo was totally on point.
He was very helpful during sound check (also known as "line-check" to some.)
He hung out with us in the audio CRM on the radio to his crew.
Those Royers sounded mighty fine.

Originally Posted by HughH

Hello Steve,
Glad you had a good time, there's still a little fun to be had in television. I was in Gold through Wednesday then heading to Vegas today for some tapings in Summit over the weekend.

You're right, Pete and Tim are great. We love them, they're both really bright and on top of things. The best. They always have your back.
The Q2 is such a great sounding desk - it will be a sad day when we have to retire it for a recallable desk (lots of pressure to do that). Many great shows on that desk and as one mixer describes it, the Q2 "likes it's job".

Hugh

Yeah, I had a blast.

I understand Gold is the twin of Silver.
Are there any differences between the two mobile units?

Summit looks like a really nice rig.
I cannot wait to step into that facility one of these days.

Yes, P & T are seriously on top of things; they did indeed have our backs.

The EQ in the Q2 sounds very nice to my ears.
And, the compressors are not to bad either.

When I come up for air I plan to post a few pictures from both Imogen Heap and the Brian Setzer Orchestra dates.

Awesome!

[bishopthomas]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

Yeah, these videos are not coming up.
I'm interested in seeing what you captured.

Gearslutz is doing something weird to the link. When I click it I am taken to a page with a bunch of weird code. But if I copy the link (which I can only do by right-clicking and going to the link properties) and paste it in my browser it works fine.

http://www.nomadicpro.net/video/trio.avi
http://www.nomadicpro.net/video/orchestra.avi


Edit: For me, when the page opens with the code I click the URL and hit enter and it seems to work.

[Remoteness]

When I could not click on the links directly (got the weird code stuff too) I individually cut and paste the links into my brouser, but they both took me to an error 404 page that said it cannot display the webpage.

Originally Posted by bishopthomas

Gearslutz is doing something weird to the link. When I click it I am taken to a page with a bunch of weird code. But if I copy the link (which I can only do by right-clicking and going to the link properties) and paste it in my browser it works fine.

[bishopthomas]

It's working on both of my computers, one of which has never been to that domain, so a fresh start.