By Phil Ward in AV Magazine Events July 7, 2022 Comments Off on AV50: At every stage
In the time that AV Magazine has been published, there has been no business like show business. Phil Ward follows the audio path from start to finish.
In 1972, original hard-rockers, Deep Purple became the first rock act to tour with nobody else on the bill. It doesn’t sound odd now, but back then it broke all the rules. Appearing as the sole focus of attention was the exclusive preserve of symphony orchestras. Show business was, quite literally, Variety – and even if the bill-topping name was huge there would be support acts, and support acts for the support acts, often not even musical ones.
It was the seed of the notion that the sound reinforcement for a live music performance could be customised for the individual artist. Bands had been ‘mixed’ for a few years, mostly using simple consoles, primitively chained amplifiers and column arrays, such as the ones developed by Watkins Electric Music (WEM). But the new attention on the individual sound of one act or another coincided with a new era of rock music as a serious artistic statement – and a very loud one at that.
Audiences were huge, or could be if the promoters got their way, which they usually did. The mega-festivals of the late 1960s generated a culture of event-driven, community-focused concerts, and venues much larger than theatres and cinemas were co-opted: football stadiums; cricket grounds; exhibition halls, notably Earls Court.
Firstly, this demanded more powerful PA systems and, luckily, a few audio pioneers obliged. Secondly, what we would now call AV was needed to overcome the uncomfortable truth that upwards of 50,000 people were squinting at a small group of individuals hundreds of yards away, as if they were stranded on a pontoon and waving for help.
The microphone has been the context of live pro audio and AV for 50 years and only now, right now, are there genuine signs of change. However, the technology within this paradigm has gone through enormous improvements, adding all the time to the recognition of musical signatures, the skill of sound design and the art of noise.
L-Acoustics’ L-ISA immersive audio system installed at the Tampereen Työväen Teatteri in Finland.
Beginning at the microphone, Deep Purple were typical in using light, handheld dynamic microphones such as the Shure SM58 with long, theatrical cables that needed balanced inputs on the mixer to cancel the greater amount of electrical interference gathered on the voice’s journey from stage to PA. In 1976 there was genuine change when, in California, John Nady’s wireless microphone system at Nady Cordless Inc introduced freedom of movement on stage, combined with improved sound: this is now the industry standard technique.
Ten years later Electro-Voice in Michigan launched a neodymium-based (N/DYM) magnet structure inside the microphone, extending frequency response and increasing power output, and soon becoming another industry standard. Wireless microphones finally went digital in 2012 after 10 years of research by German market-leader, Sennheiser. The Digital 9000 system rivals any wired solution because its audio is uncompressed; few digital audio solutions to date had managed to avoid squeezing sound into the system.
The overall improvement in sound systems has seen a rise in the use of condenser mics and capsules for wireless live performance, such as Neumann’s KK 104 and 105 S capsules – very popular on Sennheiser 5000 series transmitters – Shure’s Beta 87A and KSM9, or the AEW-T3300a and AEW-T5400a cardioid condensers from Audio-Technica.
DPA Microphones’ d:facto II range bridges the wireless-condenser gap with an ingenious adaptor called the SE2-ew, providing a high-end DPA capsule for Sennheiser’s Evolution and 2000 series of radio mic systems.
Over the last 20 years even more-sensitive condenser models have been used on stage despite being designed for the recording studio. Models by Audix, Neumann and Schoeps are now common in live jazz, classical music and light pop such as Nora Jones and Katie Melua; the fact that auditorium electro-acoustic systems can accommodate them shows how closer to studio conditions they are, to the benefit of everyone.
Processing power: DiGiCo’s SD7 at the FoH position for the Classical BRIT Awards at The Royal Albert Hall.
Mixer Between 1972 and 1973, Brits Phil Dudderidge and Graham Blyth dreamed up and implemented the ready-to-go mixer in a flightcase. This was based on the Soundcraft Series 1 using aluminium cases, and included a multicore and stagebox to connect everything.
Series 1S had even more benefits: 4-band EQ and mic-pres without expensive transformers. Within 20 years models, such as Yamaha’s PM4000 and the Midas XL4, sported 48 channels and were the last word in analogue sophistication.
The era of the digital live console began at the Audio Engineering Society Convention in New York, September 1999 with Yamaha’s PM1D, shipping in spring 2000. It used 32-bit processing and was configurable in 48-channel and 96-channel versions with 48 mix busses, a 24-way matrix and 12 DCAs. As the decade progressed, Yamaha refined its digital live mixing technology into several variants and was joined in the market by healthy rivals. Chief among these is DiGiCo, formed in June 2002 with the launch of the D5.
A surprise entry into the digital live arena, in September 2004 Digidesign’s Venue console was based around a dedicated computer running Windows XP Embedded, but initially did not include the company’s Pro Tools DAW. It did, however, feature third-party plug-ins developed for Pro Tools, and introduced the D-Show control surface.
At Prolight+Sound in 2006 the Midas XL8 signalled the entry of the last bastion of analogue mixing into the digital fray, the moment heralded by the manufacturer as when ‘digital goes Midas’ rather than the other way round.
As well as attempting to match the sonic reputation of the company’s XL4, the console introduced a new era of open-architecture, cross-platform integration and distribution – using the AES50 protocol to evolve the product from a mixing console to a production network hub.
Today, DiGiCo is using seventh-generation FPGA semiconductors that enable much faster communication between chips and far greater application capacity. These integrated circuits are at the heart of the latest advancements in production capacity and, therefore, overall sound quality, and provide the core of installation-friendly digital audio engines. DiGiCo, meanwhile, reports that the biggest show productions are now running at 500-plus channels.
Lab Gruppen’s PLM20000Q combines power and DSP for the first time.
Signal processing and management From racks of heavy outboard units to embedded DSP; from weighty stage boxes to, well, slightly less weighty digital engines and AV networks; from analogue to digital. This is the journey of the audio signal over 50 years of live sound. And going digital hasn’t changed the goal; indeed, mostly the same old techniques have simply been digitised rather than ditched.
Typical example: since the introduction of the DS201 noise gate in 1982, Drawmer products have been installed in almost every major recording studio, live venue and broadcast facility throughout the world. The company is based in Yorkshire and was founded by Ivor Drawmer in 1981.
The DS201 was the world’s first ‘frequency conscious’ noise gate, its High-Pass and Low-Pass filters, comprehensive envelope control and fast attack time making it the industry standard gate throughout the world. It’s now a software plug-in called Tourbuss.
As for signal management, miles of thick cabling have been replaced following the advent of Aidan Williams’ Dante audio network in 2006, and its alternatives. Working at Motorola in Australia, Williams looked at the Ethernet port on his computer and decided that he could place all audio and video traffic through it. Crucially, he proved that this could be professional quality audio, including complex signal processing, and media content joined data on its way to the metaverse.
Once on a network, audio is ready for integral amplification, DSP, digital audio networking and networked system monitoring for entire venues, rather than stuck inside huge, ugly boxes nailed to the walls. You still need slightly smaller, slightly more attractive boxes, but you’re less ‘in the way’.
Meanwhile, digital audio also enables two more minor miracles: acoustic prediction and measurement technology that analyses an auditorium in the design of large-scale sound systems; and beamforming using data acquisition hardware and software, and a DSP algorithm.
A reversal of this process, using the sound pressure levels (SPLs) of every source to localise them, given that each one will take a slightly different length of time to arrive at the microphone transducer, gives us the same ‘delay-and-sum’ beamforming for microphone ceiling arrays that can identify not only the strength and frequency of the signal, but also the direction of travel.
Combining management and processing, immersive live audio is the biggest change in five decades. Around 1996, sound engineer Robin Whittaker identified how to localise audio convincingly and, thereby, overcome the basic limitations of any sound reinforcement system. There are more ears than speakers at most gigs, and not enough audio to share equally and connect visually with its source. Whittaker made the mission of his company – Out Board Electronics – that of solving the inequities of sight and sound and created TiMax, the world’s first time-delay matrix for sound.
Its principle of object-based audio is now used by several systems including Soundscape by d&b audiotechnik, L-ISA by L-Acoustics, Atmos by Dolby and SpaceMap Go by Meyer Sound, among many others used in smaller applications and audio post-production. The next ten years should see it replace standard LCR speaker configurations and stereo.
The DS100 processor for d&b audiotechnik’s Soundscape immersive audio platform.
Amplifier After years of more slaved power in heavier boxes, Class D amplification began to make power generation more efficient – but not digital. For example, UK independent Linea Research uses an average of six DSPs and microprocessors but is nevertheless making analogue amps. The company also makes it clear that without some analogue circuitry an amplifier wouldn’t be adequate for professional audio and AV needs.
In 2007, Klas Dalbjörn of Swedish manufacturer Lab.gruppen – known to his friends as ‘Klas D’ – came up with his Powered Loudspeaker Management concept. Combining his company’s amplification with signal processing by Australian company Lake, Dalbjörn bridged the world of mains power with the world of DSP. Even U2, who could afford more trucks than most, appreciated the ergonomic benefits and packed their 360° tour with scores of them.
And now that audio networking such as Dante can be included, zoning is a plug-and-play no brainer that comes in the amplifier package, even without a mixer.
Martin Audio’s F2 system set a new benchmark on Sade’s 1988 world tour.
Loudspeaker Dave Martin established Martin Audio in 1971, pioneering a folded-horn configuration in his loudspeaker enclosures inspired by Iron Butterfly’s visiting cinema system, left behind in the UK because of shipping costs and picked up by The Who, Pink Floyd and ELP. It led to the MR212 in 1978, which looked like a giant version of the popular ‘70s electric razor and was therefore nicknamed the Philishave.
Focused on the mid-range, especially for vocals, it rounded out a truly modular system if you included the 115 or 215 subs. Innovative stacking techniques, separating HF, mids and LF, added clarity and long throw, and was exploited on standard-setting tours by the likes of Dire Straits and Supertramp.
At almost exactly the same time, his contemporary Tony Andrews began to use mid-range cone drivers in place of compression drivers, using unique waveguides produced by the brand Turbosound as the TMS-3, Floodlight and Flashlight ranges. Another British pioneer, Malcolm Hill’s combination of his own solid state amplifiers and JBL or Martin speakers reached a peak at Live Aid.
Ten years after the Philishave, FoH engineer Roger Lindsay debuted Martin Audio’s new F2 system on the four-month US and European Stronger Than Pride tour by Sade. According to Lindsay: “F2 proved to be a perfect match for the subtle details of Sade’s voice and band, and nothing I’d heard before had come close to that kind of ‘hi-fi’ definition and transparency. It even got great press reviews – for the sound, not just the music – from The LA Times, The New York Times… everywhere we’d been.”
From 1990, John Meyer’s self-powered loudspeakers revealed the sonic advantages of consistency and low distortion. Meyer knew all about speakers and all about power, and it was time spent in Switzerland at the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies that opened up the route to integration. That same year, also in the US, Electro-Voice introduced electronically controlled DeltaMax loudspeaker systems as well as AcoustaCADD room modeling software, soon superseded by ODEON, EASE and many proprietary packages.
Christian Heil’s V-DOSC line array was unveiled in 1993 and arguably marks the beginning of the kind of frequency forensics deployed today. L-Acoustics’ patented Wavefront Sculpture Technology (WST) was the original blueprint for modern vertical line array and the heartbeat of V-DOSC: since then, the other line arrays in the portfolio have all used the same principles in the vertical domain. What’s changed more recently lies in the horizontal domain: the ability to alter the horizontal directivity pattern of a line array module, widely adopted by the market leaders.
Monitors We’ve gone from a vague reference to what’s going on, in wedges, to studio-quality mixes individually tailored to each performer on stage, sometimes running up to 40 in-ear programmes via 80 busses. “If you’d told someone ten years ago that they’d need eighty busses for a monitor console,” says DiGiCo managing director, James Gordon, “they’d have laughed and said: I’m fine; I’ve got 24.”
Artists don’t turn back from this kind of upgrade, and quickly get used to things once considered a luxury which, in no time at all, appear on the rider. Just around the corner is an even bigger step, by which Immersive In-Ear Monitoring (I-IEM) will introduce object-based audio into the ear buds – at this stage, also courtesy of DiGiCo and KLANG:technologies – at which point on-stage sound surpasses even the recording studio.
But it was Chris Lindop’s Garwood Communications that pioneered IEM in 1995. Although Nady Systems showed IEM in 1978, this was the system that kick-started the revolution brought to worldwide fruition by Shure and Sennheiser, as well as others. Finally, vocals no longer had to battle it out in the tiny bit of headroom above the backline and could become a creative part of the mix.
Nady Systems’ UHF1-L introduced wireless microphones on stage.
Theatre Something else happened in 1972. A central FoH position was finally agreed for Jesus Christ, Superstar, groundbreaking in its use of studio-level audio techniques.
A professional mixing console was not used in the West End until Company, also in 1972, justified in order to enhance Stephen Sondheim’s subtle orchestration and sharp lyrics. Amazingly, Broadway didn’t follow suit with such sophistication until Cats, a full 10 years later.
Theatre’s distinguishing feature in today’s digitally networked sound systems is best highlighted by Level Control Systems’ CueStation cue-based automation software, acquired by Meyer Sound in 2005 and integrated into the Meyer ecosystem.
No relation, but Czech company CUE now applies the principle of automated sequencing to room and environmental management, showing what close cousins pro audio and AV really are.
Latterly theatre audio has been confused with rock gigs. Line array has invaded the space, and the amount and volume of music deployed to tell the story of this icon or that has spiked. Most of the buildings used were not designed for that kind of treatment, even the recent ones, and theatre continues its struggle to recognise its audio visual identity somewhere between town-crying and cinema.
Curtain call For 50 years, then, technology principles for show business have been adapted to the business of showing: presentation; advertising; and communications. It’s time audio got its fair share of the spotlight.
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