Indian Show

Well today was kind of a rest day, the Indian Show was last night it went really well considering how many people there were on stage on any given time and how many mics were in use... We had all 16 Channels of Wireless in use along with 4 drum mics for the large Indian Drums.

Today the stage crew has been hard at work preparing the stage for the Theme Show tomorrow night, I am mixing FOH for it so its my big show. The first rehearsal is tonight at 7pm. I just hope its finished in time for the HoDag and the Arrowcorps5 reunion party.

Now, finally, here are some pictures :)

This is what it looked like after the first day of hanging truss and lighting


Opening Show!!!
Mic World and Stage Right Amps
Me taking a break while hanging the arrays

Array going up....
I guess we are qualified persons now!! :)
Christian was very excited to see the Vertec Arrays Arrive

This is about an 1/8 of the road cases we have. haha

Race your WheelChairs this way to the Show :)

Recognition Show

Well today is a very busy day becasue we had to strike the set from the opening show this morning and get ready for the National Recognition Show this evening. It was a little crazy but we got it done. The stage edges changed from Blue to Red and we helped the lighting guys install giant LED lit Cubes.

Now we are just running through tech rehersal. Just got back from church, met up with Daddy and Christopher there. The pyro guys are still having issue... its not pretty.

All is going well even though we are running on like 6 hours of sleep. We got out of here at 11:30pm last night and we were drilling holes in the stage for podium mics at L30am after breakfast.

Cheers,

Patrick.

P.S. Pictures Tonight!!! I promise!!

Wow, long day!! Opening show went great. Pyro was a little much; and there were several misfires, but all and all nothing blew up that wasn't supposed to... Goodnight. Regognition show tomarow. Ill keep you updated...



Cheers,

Patrick

Saturday - Arrival and Opening Show

Ok, well today has been very interesting yet not as busy as the past few days... It also helps that I have the first show off, we have 5 people and 4 positions so everyone gets a day off... I still help out a lot but I don't have a specific place to be or a special thing to do... I am doing wireless management for the next show, then pre-show music and then finally I'm mixing the final theme show on Wednesday night. :)

So Im just helping out where need be I finished running the 500 foot communication lines up to the follow spots on the roof this morning and now I'm just helping with tech rehearsal,and analyzing the rf frequency available for use in the area. Then we have a dress rehearsal after lunch.

We've just had a few minor issues here and there. MSI forgot a couple power cables so we had to make do with what we have, we also had a whole amp rack have an issue but we worked around it. Rob left at 10 today so that was sad... He was a really cool guy.

But anyway, all is good here, looking forward to seeing Daddy and Christopher this afternoon and finally being able to post some pictures for everyone to see. ITS AWESOME!!!

Well the RF analiysis is done, so I have to close the blog and program the wireless units. Love the battery life in this laptop but iyts having serious issues... haha.

ttyl,
Patrick

Busy Busy!!!

Wow, thats all I can say. The last two days have been a blur. I'll start with yesterday and try to get through as much of today as I can. I also activated mobile blogging so I should be able to post from my phone by texting a certain secret number... So ill have to give that a try. Maybe I can post some pictures through that too.

Well yesterday we started work around 8 and worked until 10pm or so... We started by pinning all the vertecs together, and then the riggers lowered the chain hoists down and we attached the arrays and hoisted them up. They are amazing!! we also have JBL VRX 932 as front and side fills both flying and ground stacked. and Apogee AE-5's hanging as foldbacks/monitors. Then came the amp racks with all of there soco cables and NL-4 and NL-8 breakouts for the vertec arrays. We are running the main arrays with Crown Macrotechs and we are running the fills with Crown Xti's

Rob is our buddy from MSI (the company we rented the equipment from ($27,900 worth in case you were wondering)) He is AWESOME!!!! I mean we walked in after he had been tuning the system during lunch and it sounded like a Meyer sound mica array. It was amazing. So after we had blasted some DMB just to check the system out I went back to do some work on the amp rack and thought I was in a dream because I was holding the NL-4 cables for the subs in my hand yet it already sounded amazing... So it goes without saying that after we hooked the subs up it sound really really good.

In other news we have 16 channels of Shure UHF Wireless with Beta 87A capsules. Yamaha M7CL Board and 4 Christie Projectors Projecting on a 87 x 150 foot screen... In HD of course :)

So just to clarify, We have the same board that Dave Matthews Band is on tour with...

The same Speakers Bruce Springsteen is on Tour with...

The same Mics Coldplay is on tour with.

I wont even get into lights tonight....... :)

ttyl,

Patrick

P.S. Im off to the Staff Show tonight. Then rehersals for Opening Show and then finally sleep :)

Afternoon Activities

Well after heading over to Assembly Hall to work on whatever had to be done we were assigned an ultra special secret mission that cannot be revealed at the current time. After working on that for 2 hours or so, we are now exhausted from a fun filled and strenuous day of travel. Now we are just laying in the dorm room with the A/C cranked way up. Dinner is in our building so that is a nice feature. We are headed there soon and then its off to bed. We were tracking the truck online and it is like 5 hours behind schedule, so load in will start at 8am.

I'll update you on the food in the morning.

Cheers,

Patrick

WE'RE HERE!!!!!

Well, we finally made it. After getting Christians checked baggage which was not an issue so I cant complain too much :) we proceeded on to the registration transportation table in the airport where we checked and waited for the van. Chevy Express 15 Passenger, with 8 people and a lot of luggage. It was about an hour and a half drive from the airport to the campus. After we got all checked in and received our tags and swipy card :) we went up to the beautifully air-conditioned room and dropped our stuff. Then we walked over to the assembly hall which is a short walk from our room. Our swipy card can get us into any building and our staff tag means we can eat at any dining hall at any time :) We went into the assembly hall where we were meeted with a whole bunch of union people hanging lights and trussing and nailing down staging... after a while we walked around to find the sound people. We met Berry and some other guy whose name I cant remember... They are AWESOME guys!!! after talking to them for more than an hour we found out alot about the ways the shows are run and I finaly got the list of equipment :) JBL VERTEC Arrays, VRX Arrays for side fills and Crown amps and a Yamaha M7CL Digital Console :) I am soooooooooooo excited!!!! So anyway, we kinda found out that we are the first two sound people here and we just have some time to hang out and help the union guys with the lights if we want which of course we will do. The truck with the Video and Audio stuff should get in around 9pm tonight so we will unload it and then go to sleep so we can get up and start helping the union guys with rigging and hanging in the morning. So right now thats the plan, both me and Christian are starving, so we're going to try to find something to eat and then we are off to help the union people.

-Patrick

P.S. Ill try to post some pictures.

Plane from Detroit to Indianapolis

On a DC-9 headed to Indianapolis, flying time is just under 45 minutes but they were doing construction in Detroit so there was a 15 minute delay or so… I feel better now because I bought a $7 sandwich and a $3 cookie… Now I’m just waiting to get my apple juice on this plane, which I really hope they still give out even though it is a short flight. Once we land in Indianapolis we will have to go to the baggage claim so Christian can claim his checked bag… no comment… but anyway, we are both sitting together on this flight which is good. And we have an empty seat in the row. I have been very very happy with the northwest flights on the way so far. The landing from Albany to Detroit was very smooth and the flight crews have been very nice to talk to. There is one other guy on this plane that is going to NOAC but he doesn’t have a uniform on… probably going out for old guy’s staff.
I’ll update again when we arrive in Bloomington.
-Patrick
P.S. No apple juice  just water, and I almost just dumped it on the laptop. Haha.

Plane from Albany to Detroit

Well, as I sit here on a plane crossing over Syracuse and write this I am kind of tired and VERY excited, So I guess the excitement outweighs the tiredness  We left right on time it’s about an hour and a half flight on an Airbus A320-300. I have 2 empty seats next to me… that’s right, a whole row to myself… Christian has an empty seat next to him too so neither one of us really wants to move…
After we land in Detroit we have about an hour layover so we’ll find something to eat and I’ll attempt to post this somewhere where everyone can read it.
Oh and one last note, If you ever want to see a priceless look on a TSA agents face just try to go through security with two people and, 2 laptops, 4 sets of headphones, 3 radios, 50 feet of random cables and connectors, an SPL meter, a couple microphones, a telex headset, a couple iPods and a boy scout uniform on  ha-ha, it was quite funny when she had to take everything out of my bag and hand search it and then Christian walks up behind me and she’s like “do you have a bag full of this stuff too??” ha-ha.
I’ll keep you updated.
-Patrick

P.S. I’m about to get my juice  And Peanuts!!! It’s been a long time since I’ve had peanuts on a plane.