The following is a detailed look at some of the more substantial recent events I have directly designed or engineered:

Intel Keynotes

Over the past few years I have done a number of Intel keynotes supporting CEO Craig Barrett. We have taken this show all over the world, to places like Amman Jordan, Paris, Santiago Chile, Lima Peru, Sao Paulo, and many locations in the US as well. Some are simple presentations with demonstrations of cutting edge computer hardware and software, and some are more complex. An example of the latter would be at last year's CES convention: we had an Elvis presentation/performance with three actors portraying the legend, followed by demonstrations; some including the Flying Karamosov Brothers, a multi-media juggling presentation.

Microsoft Professional Deveolpers Conference

The Professional Developers Conference, or PDC, is a huge convention hosted by Microsoft. This year it was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is adjacent to the Staple's Center arena. Here, thousand of software developers came to hear about new products and changes made to products in the home and professional computing and electronics markets. We provided sound for the keynote speeches in the main keynote room of the convention center. This room seated approximately 8000 people for these sessions.

Animal Kingdom Launch

The Walt Disney Company's entertainment production department called me in to design two different, but integrated, sound systems to support the launch of their new Animal Kingdom theme park in Florida. The main part of this launch took part at New York City's Sheep Meadow in the southern section of Central Park. My task was to design a sound system that could cover the entire Meadow with full range sound. This took 46 long- and medium-throw concert-sized PA cabinets. Fifteen hundred high school kids had to move in time to a musical montage to create the aerial images of three different "wild animals." In addition to the playback, communication from the director to the choreographer to the field had to be established by means of wireless microphones, in-ear monitors, hard-wired "Clear Com" and Motorola walkie talkies. I designed a second system for pre-production rehearsals. As requested, this smaller system was designed so we could completely break down in one location and reset in another location across the street in no more than thirty minutes. I created full-scale CAD drawings of Sheep Meadow as well as stack specifications and detailed rack and system drawings.

The WB Network

For the past few years, I have been the Sound Designer for all The WB Network's special events, such as its annual Upfront and Affiliates meetings, Kids Upfront presentations, NATPE presentations and Promax presentations all over the country. The folks at The WB like their shows to sound like a big home stereo; I have consistently designed these presentations with extended frequency response and a particular emphasis on high fidelity. When pitching new shows like "Dawson's Creek" and "Felicity," impeccable sound heightens emotional impact which enhances audience experience.

Roland NAMM

The National Association of Music Merchants convention is held every year, and is a very popular event in the music business. Here, all musical instrument and professional audio manufacturers present their new models and inventions. Roland is a very large company that has produced the industry's finest keyboard and synthesizer products, and now virtual instruments of all kinds as well as studio audio gear are appearing in its repertoire. The pressure is on at this show, since the most important element for a musical instrument company is the sound quality. In conjunction with Audiotek, a proprietary C6 speaker system was installed into the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, covering the orchestra and balcony sections completely with full range sound. An unorthodox hang was employed to accomplish this with minimal room reflections. Fifty-six inputs (reduced from seventy-four, due to console and space limitations) were mixed on a PM-4000 from the front balcony.

Washington Mutual

This is a company that is growing fast. Their shows have been following suit, with sound as a very big part of their expansion. Sound effects, engulfing surround sound and a theatrical feel with multiple performers have been a focal point in past shows. The atmosphere is created from scratch in each city. The set, along with the rest of the venue, is built from the ground up in a shell of a space, usually following a "high tech" theme. These shows were very technically challenging, with lots of synchronized cues and effects. The Washington Mutual events were loud but very comfortable for the audience to listen to. I took some pictures from one of the shows.

JT Superproducers

Japanese Tobacco honors one outstanding record producer each year and asks him or her to host a concert in a few of Japan's premiere concert venues with a number of special guests. This particular year, Nile Rodgers was honored. We traveled to Japan with his band Chic, accompanied by Steve Winwood, Simon LeBon of Duran Duran fame, Sister Sledge and Slash from Guns & Roses. It was an absolute thrill, honor and pleasure to be working with such music industry pros. Rehearsals were held in S.I.R.'s soundstage in New York. Final production rehearsals were in Japan prior to the first show at Joe Hall in Osaka. We had about ninety-six inputs and about twenty monitor mixes with all the artists combined. Each artist performed a few of their own hits, then they all came out for the grand finale "Dancing in the Streets." The final show was staged at the legendary Budokan in Tokyo. They were all amazing shows and a great time.

Hercules Electric Light Parade

This was a tremendous project. I was assigned by Disney designers as the Front of House Engineer for the parade's kickoff street show on 42nd Street in front of the New Amsterdam Theater. The show included speeches by Michael Eisner and Mayor Rudy Giuliani followed by dance/vocal performances of songs from the film. But this was the easy part- for approximately 6 weeks prior to the big day, crews were laying 2.5 miles of fiber optic cable plus another 3 miles of copper audio multi-cable from 42nd Street & 8th Avenue to 42nd Street & 5th Avenue, then up 5th Avenue to 68th Street. I was brought in for the final 2 weeks to oversee the installation of the three "tech towers" which housed the fiber optic hubs and the timecode transmitters. Timecode needed to be transmitted to all of the floats to synchronize the PCM-CIA bin loop digital audio with the audio being sent via fiber to the seven zones of speaker poles. There were approximately 68 poles for a total of 136 concert-sized PA speakers with 136 small down fills.

Presidential Inaugural Gala '97

For this show I was the Sound Designer and Crew Chief. This was a particular challenge due to its scale, complexity, schedule and security. The Gala took place at Washington DC's Union Station, which is nearly 450 feet long and 120 feet wide with 50-foot ceilings. There were two performance/presentation days and two stages, each with multiple full-band performances peppered with speeches, presentations and discussions. The design of this event had to include filling the entire station with intelligible, full-frequency sound, while maintaining a remarkably clean system appearance (none of the nearly 4000 feet of cable could be on the floor). The system had to provide for subjects as diverse as President Clinton, Gloria Estefan and her huge band, and Hootie and the Blowfish. At the main stage, I had 120 channels at front of house feeding 28 zones throughout the massive stone train station. On stage, I had 120 channels and 22 monitor mixes. Despite the fact that our setup and testing time was cut in half due to last-minute budget cuts, the show went off without a hitch. All design was presented in the form of multiple, scale CAD drawings as well as maps of every patch routing the system. As a result of the smooth execution of this project, the White House Communications Agency presented me with a Certificate of Appreciation.

Dreamworks-Small Soldiers

Held at the Equitable Theater in Manhattan, this was a showcase for prospective merchandising companies. In addition to video clips and speeches, the highlight of this presentation was a previously unseen extended theatrical trailer for the film. For this purpose, I designed a full Dolby Digital® film system for correct "movie theater" presentation of the trailer; I placed left, center and right clusters along with the subwoofers behind the perforated screen and hung 20 surround speakers in stereo. In addition to the trailer, the production entailed video clips and speeches. For the speeches, I made use of the in-house speaker clusters that were downstage of the proscenium and thus the screen.

Batman Screening

This event took place in Atlanta's historic Fox Theater. This beautiful 4000-seat house with two large balconies posed interesting challenges for a premiere-style presentation of the action adventure film Batman & Robin, starring George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell. We took a film that was designed for a 250-seat cinemaplex and presented it in all its glory in a room 15 times larger. To do so, we assembled a Dolby Digital® 5.1 system that dispersed into 16 zones (there are typically only 6 in a cinema). The system received a full SIM® tuning and ran for three star-studded shows.

Christian Life Center

This show took place at Nassau Coliseum in Hempstead, Long Island. The show included a church service with a large band and gospel choir. In conjunction with New York-based ProMix, I designed a line array system utilizing the EAW KF860 vertical line array and filled in the sides of the arena with a KF850 conventional horizontal array. We used eighteen 860's, twelve 850's and eighteen subs.

Sequent

Sequent is a computer manufacturer that makes enormous computer systems. This particular show was a product reveal for one of their flagship systems. I needed to design a high-energy system that would fill Webster Hall (the former Ritz) with loud, rumbling rock music and sound effects while extreme athletes flipped, jumped and looped back and forth riding their BMX bicycles, skateboards and rollerblades on a "half pipe." The refrigerator-sized product was lowered via chain motor from the 25-foot ceiling. We integrated rented and in-house gear to accommodate the extremely difficult load-in and load-out (three flights of narrow marble staircases).

Others

In addition to the engagements detailed above, I have played an integral part in planning and executing sound system designs for countless shows around the country, ranging from the State Farm Annual Meeting at the Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas to tiny meetings in New York City. All of my designs incorporate the latest in audio technology, but only technology that is necessary for the particular show. I have been on many shows where designers have specified every bell and whistle imaginable, when only a few bells were really needed. Wherever practical, I spec the system to be pre-wired and multed before it leaves the shop. This saves time and money while increasing the reliability of the integral workings of the audio system. Technology that I often specify for accuracy and sound quality includes V'Dosc, Meyer, EAW or Apogee, BSS Varicurve and Yamaha or Soundcraft consoles. I use only the best in wireless microphone technology to maximize sound quality and integrity. All of my designs are supported as full services, including pre-production site surveys, CAD drawings, hookup charts, full system sound specification to equipment vendors before and after bidding, crew provision and full budgeting of the sound system and the sound crew portions of the production-it's one stop shopping. My goal is to make the audio portion of the production flawless and transparent, as well as cost-effective for my client.

Clients include:

A&M Audio Associates, Anderson Hannett, AVTS, Best Audio, Broadstreet Productions, Burson Marstellar, Canon, Caribiner Communications, Consumer Electronics Show, Children's Television Workshop, Democratic National Committee, Disney, Empire Entertainment, Epic Records, Estee Lauder, Friends of the UN, Galan Communications, Gillette, Gorman Multimedia, IBM, The Inner Circle, Kadan Productions, Kevin Crier/Kenneth Cole, Ketchum Productions, KVL-AV, Lehman Brothers, Mattel, Merrill Lynch, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Microsoft, Mike Tyson, MTV Networks, Oligopoly Productions, Party Planners, Patrick Wall Group, PAX TV Network, Ray Bloch, Roland, Scharff Weisberg, Seybold, Sony Music, Stagecraft, Staging Techniques, State Farm, STG Entertainment, Tibet House, United Digital Artists, VH1, Warner Brothers Network, Washington Mutual, William Morrison, and Young and Rubicam.