The live events industry has grown massive, driven by a confluence of factors. The music industry continues to rely heavily on concert touring to replace revenues lost to digital distribution and piracy; sporting events are getting bigger and more global, with branded spectaculars from ESPN's X Games to a year's worth of run-up games to the World Cup adding music, lights and projection video; and corporate extravaganzas put on by edge brands like Red Bull and Nike are becoming more AV-dependent as they try to attract press and spectators. Every event uses some combination of audio, video, lighting and -- increasingly -- live streaming via the Internet.

And that's not all. Here are some trends to keep an eye on as this season gets underway.

Wireless Squeeze

Spectrum reallocation will make using multiple channels of wireless microphones for an event even more of a squeeze play. It's not that professional users are gobbling up more spectrum; rather, mobile devices are devouring the stuff — smartphones alone use 24 times more data than a traditional cell phone, and tablets can consume 122 times more data than old traditional phones, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The agency is working on ways to free up additional spectrum, including wresting it from other government agencies and working with TV broadcasters to develop incentive auctions that will allow TV stations to put their unused or underused spectrum up for sale and get a cut of the proceeds. The goal is to free up an additional 500 MHz of spectrum for wireless broadband use by 2020.

In the meantime, several spectrum-management databases are now (mostly) in place. The first TV Bands Device Database, operated by Spectrum Bridge went live a year ago; Google's and Key Bridge Global's went into trial in March. Since three to 15 wireless microphones (depending on model) can operate in one 6MHz TV channel, the TV channels currently reserved for pro use will accommodate the needs of most wireless users. Users of larger numbers of wireless systems may register in the TV Bands Devices Database to protect additional TV channels during a specific event. Unlicensed wireless microphone users must request database protection from the FCC, while licensed users may register in the database directly. Until the FCC registration system is fully operational, unlicensed users must submit registration requests directly to the FCC Office of Engineering Technology at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Resurrecting Deceased Performers?

Don't look for Elvis anytime soon. The stunning holographic effect of Tupac Shakur strutting around the stage at last year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival prompted the promise of more dead celebrities showing up at shows and events. They reportedly include Presley, Jim Morrison of the Doors and Marilyn Monroe. Digital Domain, the visual effects house co-founded by director James Cameron that produced Tupac, flirted with bankruptcy late last year before being revived with $30.2 million in financing from new Chinese and Indian owners. No digital ghosts have been announced yet, but we may see more of the visual effects used on the band Primus' fall 2012 "3D Tour," which saw fans receive 3D glasses so they could see the three-dimensional imagery projected from screens behind the band. When it comes to holograms and 3D imagery, jam bands may yet succeed where ESPN and others have floundered.

MADI Migration Continues

MADI is the acronym du saison. The Multichannel Audio Digital Interface is an AES-standard communications protocol that defines the data format and characteristics of an interface for multiple channels of digital audio. We first saw MADI in recording studios two decades ago as a way to move multichannel digital audio between consoles and digital tape machines (remember those?). From there, MADI migrated to broadcast, where it's used to move multichannel digital audio between routers. Lately, MADI's been making its presence felt in live sound applications, where instead of being the central matrix for what can be hundreds of audio signals, digital mixers are becoming the GUIs for routers capable of potentially thousands of endpoints, with signals carried over fiber. This simplified matrix arrangement of console and router using MADI over fiber allows more signal paths to be sustained and managed in a single show. For instance, the All-Star Jam, a music event that was part of the NBA All-Star Weekend in Houston last February, let multiple digital consoles share routers in different locations.

Flat-Panel vs. Projection Walls

Projection video, long the mainstay of large-scale events, may be sharing the spotlight with flat-screen displays this season. "While the use of large video projection systems by corporations and business entities for training and presentations have been in place for many years, the new generation of LCD, multicelled videowalls offers many advantages over traditional front- and rear-projection systems," says Paul Allen, president of Adaptive Video Walls & Displays. "One significant difference between the two technologies is picture clarity in environments with strong ambient light. Projection systems need darker room environments to deliver clarity, while an LCD videowall will shine through normal room lighting, allowing audiences to be able to review very detailed materials during a presentation. With the advent of extremely narrow bezels on professional LCD screens, visual segmenting of an image is greatly reduced, while the size of a video wall can go from modest to giant to accommodate any installation setting." Allen cites other flat-screen advantages, including elimination of the need to replace bulbs, and lower power consumption.

Speaking of Videowalls

Expect to start seeing a lot more videowalls at events where they might not have been considered a year ago. Thanks to the plummeting costs for processing and displays, videowalls are more accessible by more event operators than ever. Rick Seegull, vice president of sales & marketing at Aurora Multimedia, says its newest processor costs $1,800 per unit, allowing the processing for a 3x3 wall using nine displays to cost about $16,000, plus the cost of the displays. "And those can be consumer-grade LCDs; the processing is agnostic," he says, putting the videowall concept within the reach of the typical indie touring band or local charity fundraiser. "A couple of years ago, videowalls were the mansions on the hill," says Seegull. "Now they've gone mainstream."

Insure It!

In recent years, fatalities, injuries and losses from damage due to winds and storms at live outdoor events have put new emphasis on insurance coverage. But even those who escape direct weather problems may still pay a price. Scott Carroll, executive vice president and program director of Take 1 Entertainment Insurance, says that at the very least, coverage terms will become more restrictive. For instance, higher deductibles may be required; engineering sign-offs for stages and trusses may need to be submitted to the insurance carrier as part of the trigger for when coverage applies; written processes and procedures may need to be provided to carriers regarding who is responsible for calling the show or lowering the roof truss structures when high winds or bad weather are forecast.

"In other words, insurance carriers will be looking for more proactive approaches to potential and sudden changes in the weather, rather than an after-the-fact approach, as was seen in so many of the stage accidents in the past," Carroll warns.

Speaking of Weather

Staging companies will be looking for their own weather prognosticators, as they seek to avoid liability for weather-induced damages. And they'll have a few options. On the DIY end, there are more and more websites that offer real-time, moving Doppler radar images that can drill down to a matter of meters to show the location of storms and in which directions and how quickly they're moving. Taking periodic, time-stamped screen shots of these in the hours before an outdoor event can document a company's efforts to monitor conditions, if that kind of information is ever needed. A more elaborate solution comes from Weather Decision Technologies (WDT), which sells dynamic, Web-based and mobile interactive mapping solutions to media companies and high-profile concert-touring clients, including classic rock band Heart. WDT clients receive per-show, event-specific meteorological data under WDT's event venue safety information service, WeatherOps.

A Definitive Safety Guide

The Event Safety Alliance (ESA), a group of about 600 industry members ranging from manufacturers to riggers and touring production managers, is now in the final six-month stage of review for the U.S. Event Safety Guide, a 300-page compendium of best practices for all aspects of live event operations, from rigging to sound to lighting and pyro/special effects. ESA executive director Jim Rigby says August 5 is the target date to close peer review, with publication expected before the end of the year. While that might be a little late for this year's live-event season, Rigby says the lengthy and comprehensive review process underscores the fact that the safety of workers, performers and audiences is now a primary concern. "The Guide takes into account all of the experiences, good and bad, of the last several years," he says.

Google Docs — Yes, Google Docs

As live events become more complex, entire forests are denuded of trees as scripts undergo countless revisions. Increasingly, AV supervisors are turning to Google Docs to create paperless management systems that allow for revisions of scripts distributed through personal laptops, tablets and smartphones. That's how audio supervisor Michael Abbott has been managing the information flow for the Grammy Awards show for the past two years. He and his crews use Google Docs to create scripts and convert them to .PDF files distributed throughout the show's backbone. New versions are pushed through to everyone instantly, and individual user revisions can be made. Abbott says he uses this system to move scripts, audio I/O lists and stage plots around the cavernous Staples Center for the Grammy Awards and other shows.

"A typical one-week show will generate a 7- to 8-inch pile of paper," he says. "Multiply that by two hundred people and you see why we have to move to iPads for scripts."

4K — Almost

Well, maybe 4K resolution imagery won't go mainstream for live events this year, but it will soon. Technology is already in place that to project 4K resolution — approximately quadruple that of current 1080p — at 48 frames per second to a 70x30 film screen. That's 55,000 ANSI lumens, if you're counting. It's going to be bright, certainly bright enough for outdoor use. Hollywood is looking hard at 4K, and historically formats that become successful in cinema migrate to other commercial venues, including live events, such as corporate product launches. So if you're anticipating the live events trends for 2014, add 4K to that list, too.

This column was reprinted with permission from InfoComm International and originally appeared here.

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The world of commercial audio visual, the world of shows and installations, is a world that is increasingly multilingual. But it's not just the languages that we people speak -- it's happening in our inventory as well.

Think about this: Only twenty years ago, virtually all AV equipment was controlled through switches or relay closures, if it was remotely controllable at all. Over the last two decades, we progressed from relays to serial and then to network control. But it has largely remained a world of different, proprietary control software, even when the connectors and transport systems began to merge.

Whether you are in the sales or the rental and staging end of our industry, it is likely that a big part of your job is to create working systems from components from many manufacturers. These devices use different types of control ports, and different software protocols and systems. Often, these are components that were not designed to work together, so the integration is our job.

In the integration portion of the industry, we use hardware control systems with many types of ports, combined with custom software, to make these devices work together in a coordinated system.

The principal difference between creating these systems for installation, and creating them for rental, is the speed with which it has to be done. Often, complex systems have to be created, and run, onsite. That speed says that it will usually be impractical to create truly "custom" control code, especially when the system may be (probably will be) used only once in any specific configuration.

So how do we accomplish control of these systems in a show situation? Lets break it loosely into three types of control:

Uncontrolled (or “Directly Controlled by Dedicated Human Being”): I was raised in the business this way. Every station, and nearly every complex device, had a human operator in a headset, waiting for cues. In a way, it's the earliest form of voice control.

Split control by discipline: As show control became more common, we began to work our way into “Control by Department.” Lighting went first, largely due to an accepted, open control protocol called DMX, which brought together equipment from multiple manufacturers into a single control “universe” (no pun intended, lighting folks). Audio followed suit with a variety of control systems, both open and proprietary, and video came along with serial and network control of a number of varieties, leaving three distinct points of control, organized by department, for many shows -- with the common bus between them once again being ClearCom.

Unified control: As soon as it was possible to control most equipment remotely, a number of different control systems manufacturers came to market with show control systems that worked a lot like Integration systems -- a software/hardware platform that combined disparate control ports and standards into something cohesive. There are, and have been, any number of these systems on the market. My personal favorites have always been Dataton’s, beginning with its Mac-based, timeline-oriented system called Traxx, but there have been similar systems from a number of manufacturers. However, like their counterparts in integration, they take a lot of time to learn, and operators are always having to add and develop driver software and adapter hardware for new systems. But they have been the standards whereby we controlled large shows that required a high degree of precision and repeatability. So they have traditionally been used for high-dollar shows that required that set of characteristics.

Now, however, we enter a world of increasing labor and equipment costs in the rental portion of the industry. As it becomes more and more difficult to maintain profitability, largely because of the cost of personnel, a simpler and more open standard of control could lower our costs of producing and staging shows.

Short of a true show control system, we are left with very few choices for remote control of gear and the resulting reduction in crew labor. Mostly, that choice revolves around manufacturers’ dedicated control programs that ship with the gear. And, as most of you know, these are of varying quality and level of control.

Personally, when it comes to low-end control, I like working with devices that generate a webpage internally. While this does not often give me combined control with other devices, I can at least stack my devices in browser tabs and page between them as necessary. Provided, of course, that these devices don’t specify differing browsers, or differing plug-ins. Other varying types of network and serial control programs can be made to work, but may be more effort than a small show is worth.

So let me give the manufacturers some ideas on improving their dedicated control programming.

First, stop specifying a particular browser, and in particular stop specifying Internet Explorer. It’s a declining browser even on the Windows platform, and open standards have become the norm. I should be able to control your device with Safari, Firefox, etc.

Then, Web-based software should also be platform agnostic. And so should your dedicated control programs. The rental industry in audiovisual uses a lot of different platforms, among them, the Mac. Many of you claim to accommodate the Macintosh by requiring the use of Windows under Parallels or Fusion. If I wanted to run Windows, I would not have invested in the Mac in the first place. And I do assure you that for me and for many of my colleagues the availability of native Macintosh-based software over Windows software does indeed make a difference in the device we will choose. Emulation is a lot like artificial respiration. It will do in a pinch, but I’d much rather have the real thing.

Then, take a look at your control interface. If it is nothing but a replication of the unit’s hardware remote control, it is insufficient. If I wanted to use a remote, I wouldn’t have bothered to bring a computer. Manipulation of your GUI via a graphical interface just doesn’t cut it.

Plus, those of you who don’t document your APIs -- many of us can do simple macro-based programming, and if I need to add just a single command could do it if I’d had documentation on what that command is.

What is needed in this arena? A common, simple, open standard for network-based software for device control. But it looks like will be a long time coming with that one. In the meantime, control manufacturers should look at their offerings and consider offering a stripped-down, configurable rather than programmable interface. Something I could use to control two or three devices during a show from one control position, without having to do dedicated programming.

Any takers?

rAVe Rental [and Staging] contributor Joel R. Rollins, CTS, is general manager of Everett Hall Associates, Inc. and is well known throughout the professional AV industry for his contributions to industry training and his extensive background in AV rental, staging and installation. Joel can be reached at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it



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This week, I had a talk with Scott Tiner  on THE WEEK on rAVe Radio. This interview followed Scott’s column in rAVe ED [Education] about safety and the tragedy in Alabama. We talked about safety in our industry, which, judging from the news, is declining. Since then, I have done a lot of thinking about why that might be. During the interview, which I would suggest that you listen to (if not for my comments then certainly for Scott’s), I posed a number of questions.
 
Now I’d like to pose them to all of you.
 
(Please note that I do have an opinion about all of these things, but I’m not necessarily right. So I really would like feedback from all of you on what I perceive to be a growing issue in our industry.)
 
Are there more accidents, especially injury accidents, happening in our industry than in years past?
 
Two theories were proposed for this: first, that there are not more accidents happening, but that we tend to hear about them more because we are all so connected today. It is certainly possible that these accidents were happening all along, but until we were also connected via the Internet, many of us never heard about them.
 
Or, is our business in fact getting scarier?
 
Personally, I think it may be a combination of the two.
 
The connectivity side of this we may not be able to change. And we certainly may not want to. In fact, the news of these kinds of accidents may serve to remind us that we do in fact work in a dangerous business. Thinking back over my years in Staging, one thing I'm certain of: no matter how concerned we all were about safety every day, we were never more openly so than after we had heard about (or even witnessed) an accident. So maybe the fact that we now hear more about them is actually a good thing.
 
Or maybe we actually ARE having more accidents, and, if so, it is necessary for us as professionals to ask ourselves why. And then to do something about it.
 
Let’s say, just for a moment, that we are in fact having more accidents than in years past. In that case, it would be incumbent upon us to look at causes:
 
Lack of proper training?
 
One of the first things any industry would look at would be training. We would need to ask ourselves if we are still offering proper training to the people who are doing our work in the field. One of the things I have noted over the past years is an increase in training classes offered for the administrative and planning portions of our industry. We have courses in project management (many of them), in team supervision, in networking, in computer and design skills. But much of the training that we offer has moved away from direct hands-on, at least in the kind of training that is available outside weeklong formal academies. Managers, think back over your careers. Were we offering more hands-on training in the past than we are now?
 
Standards slipping?
 
Another question we would need to ask is whether or not we are letting our standards for workmanship slip. We’ve seen this happen in the past in other industries, with Detroit in the ‘70s coming to mind. During a time when industries are changing, as the American motor industry was due to the onslaught of Japanese cars, standards often slip as we accustom ourselves to new technologies and new ways of doing business.
 
Lack of proper background?
 
Another thing that can happen when new technologies enter an industry is that we focus on them so closely that we allow our skill set in other areas to decline. In the past 15 years, in our industry, we have focused to a very high degree on bringing people into the industry from the computer and telecommunications fields.
 
I entered the industry at a time of great change. It was my great fortune. I was the first we had a “computer guy” in the audiovisual company I worked for. But because it was a time of such great technological change, and nobody had any advantage of long experience over anybody else, many of us were entering the industry from many different fields. We came from rock ‘n roll, from facility management, from construction, from video production and from radio. We brought into the industry skill sets that became useful in a peripheral way. In a time when we are so focused on recruiting from one industry, are we losing those additional skills?
 
More dangerous equipment or technology?
 
Another place we would look for new industry accidents is in the technology that we work with. Has it in fact become more dangerous? Personally, I don’t think this is it. Most of what we work with seems to run on lower voltages, produce less heat and even accomplish its task with fewer components than in the past. But to be honest, it is also one of the questions we still need to ask.
 
Insufficient oversight?
 
Another place one would look for these types of causes would be the failure of management to exercise sufficient oversight over the field, or to have the knowledge and skill set necessary to adequately supervise fieldworkers. Frankly, we need to examine the idea that an aging management population supervises less.
 
Background knowledge:
 
One of the places that I suspect is a cause of at least part of these accidents is a lower level of necessary background knowledge in new field-workers. I am constantly astounded by applicants, even applicants with degrees, that seem to lack skills and fundamentals such as math without a calculator or smart phone in their hands. When I got involved in rigging on the show side, and in installation on the sales side, I was actually afraid of killing people. Twenty-five years later, I still am. So in addition to my calculator, when I am working with physical construction, I am constantly also doing the math in my head, just in round numbers, as a check against what I get from a computer. Is basic education failing us to the point that we will see an increase in industrial accidents because of the installer’s inability to argue with the computer in their head? In other words, are we still able to “check our work?”
 
I don’t have all the answers, yet, although I will keep looking. But sometimes introspection is a good thing, and I think in a time when our industry is evolving, our business is changing and our mix of skills is being redefined, it is important that we ask ourselves the questions.
 
Because as our friends on all the cop shows on television say, the most important thing is to go home at the end of the shift -- alive.

rAVe Rental [and Staging] contributor Joel R. Rollins, CTS, is general manager of Everett Hall Associates, Inc. and is well known throughout the professional AV industry for his contributions to industry training and his extensive background in AV rental, staging and installation. Joel can be reached at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Add a comment

BEHRINGER's new EUROLIVE B207MP3 is a multi-purpose, 150-watt, active loudspeaker designed for vocal and/or keyboard monitoring, multimedia, press conferences and other applications where space is at a premium. The B207MP3 includes a built-in, four-channel mixer that accepts XLR, TRS and RCA inputs; it also includes phantom power for an external mic.

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Behringer's new iP40PRO is an all-in-one portable PA system with full Bluetooth connectivity. The iP40PRO can handle gatherings of up to 250 people and features a 40-watt, Class-D amplifier; a powerful 8” woofer and high-resolution tweeter housed in a rugged self-contained package, integrated wheels and a convenient retractable luggage-style handle for ease of transport. To further enhance portability, a rechargeable internal battery provides up to 12 hours of operation. A so-called “Planet Earth” switching power supply (100 - 240 V) makes it worldwide capable. It also offers noise-free audio with superior transient response and lower power consumption, according to Behringer. Two microphone inputs with mic preamps and individual volume controls are provided, as well as an auxiliary input for connecting external audio players. Here are all the specs: http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/iP40PRO.aspx

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