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In this eNews:
2010 Summer Highlights:
- Dia de San Juan
- Left Coast Live
- Yerba Buena Gardens Festival
- SF Jazz Summer Series
- World One Festival
- Big Bands and BBQ
- Foothill Musical Theater
- Peppertree Ranch
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New Venues
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DeAnza College
Visual & Performing Arts Center
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Peppertree Ranch
Tech Report
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Shure Wireless;
Networking Solutions for Musical Theater
Broadcast Audio
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Election 2010
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APG On The Move
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This summer was a busy time for artists, promoters and production companies in the Bay Area. With hundreds of Art and wine Festivals, concert series' and musicals, APG was constantly in the mix. A couple of new venues in the area also provided the public with new entertainment choices.
APG's experienced and reliable staff has expanded and remains a crucial asset to making all shows successful. Looking ahead to the fall and winter and on to 2011, Audio Production Group is still the best choice for live sound and location recording.
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(650) 631-1072
info@audioprogroup.com
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2010 Summer Highlights
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above: Bakan performs at the WRPC Dia de San Juan
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Dia de San Juan
The 2010 Dia de San Juan at Kelley Park once again featured a great line-up of local Salsa bands with the addition of the headliner from Los Angeles, Pedro Conga. APG provided a Monitor Split with 8 mixes and flew Yamaha YST mains. The line-up also included Avance, Orquesta Bakan, Conjunto Alegre and Orquesta Saboricua.
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Left Coast Live
The streets of Downtown San Jose have been a a great venue for shows over the years. Left Coast Live is the newest concert festival to arrive. In the second annual event, APG was chosen to provide the sound system for the main stage. Headliners included National Acts OK GO and Yo la Tengo. APG provided the Nexo GEO D line array system and Yamaha M7cl consoles for Monitors and Front of House.
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above: The Main Stage @ Left Coast Live
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above: Saxaphonist Yosvani Terry with YBGF Director Linda Lucero
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Yerba Buena Gardens Festival
With the close of another amazing season at Yerba Buena, APG would like to congratulate the organizers Linda Lucero and Steve Cho on outstanding programming and coordination of the largest free outdoor music festival in California. With 100 performers a year coming everywhere from Europe to South America, YBGF continues to put on only the best quality entertainment for the public. For the thrird year in a row, APG has been the in-house audio crew for YBGF and Jessie Square providing staff, equipment maintenence, rentals and other production support. This years line up included Los Terry's, Orquesta La Moderna Tradicion, the Jenny Lind Operatic Tribute, enCayapa, Irene Jalenti, Marcus Shelby, the Afro Solo Jazz big band, Wayne Wallace, John Worley, The Nice Guy trio featuring members of Turtle Island, The Latin Jazz Youth Summit, Maria Volante, and many more.
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SFJazz Summer Fest
With the last outdoor series extending into the fall, the San Francisco Jazz Festival (SF JAZZ) has been providing quality free music concerts to the public all summer long. APG provides the sound systems for the Stanford Shopping Center Series, Union Square and Levi's Plaza. These great summer festivals continue to be a success. Some of this years artists included Doug Beavers y su Conjunto Rivera, Chris Cain, Lavay Smith, the Van Wageningen bros., Nice Guy Trio, Rumbache and many more.
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above: The VW Brothers
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above: Rocky Dawuni performs at World One
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World One
Promoter and DJ Corey Mason, has been organizing the World One 4th of July festival in El Cerrito for 12 years. The multi-cultural line up of acts is always a great way to celebrate Independence Day. APG (formerly as Location Digital Recording) has been providing excellent sound reinforcement for the festival for several years. Performances from the 2010 festival included everything from Bluegrass to Reggae to Soul Jazz. APG provided the Nexo Geo D Line Array system for mains and a split with the Crest LM40 in monitor world and Yamaha DM1000 at front of house.
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Big Bands and BBQ
Downtown Campbell set the stage for the Big Bands and BBQ festival this year. With 4 stages and a great line up of acts, the festival added to the growing Downtown Campbell scene. APG provided the sound for all four stages. The Bingtones headlined the main stage and put on a great performance. Luckily no BBQ sauce got into any of the gear which included Yamaha YST mains and DM1000 console at the main stage and Yamaha YST mains with a Crest X8 console at the second stage.
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above: The Bingtones perform at Campbell's Bing Bands & BBQ
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above: Foothill Musical Theater
production of "Anything Goes"
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Foothill Musical Theater
This year Foothill College put on "Anything Goes." With a great cast and crew plus an impressive set design, APG did their part by once again providing great sound. A total of 12 wireless units were used, and the new Nexo sound system installed by APG in Smithwick Theater proved to be a great asset.
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Peppertree Ranch
Hollister, CA has hosted some big name performers this summer. From the "Shoreline style" grass amphitheater, the audience has a great view of the mountains. Some fantastic musicians from Nashville were flown in to perform. Little Texas, with a career 7 million albums sold, drew an energetic crowd to the brand new venue. APG provided the sound with the Nexo GEO D line array system and monitor split with large format Crest Century consoles in monitor world and front of house. The winery's own "Attitude" brand of wine and local brews on tap were also a big hit with concert goers. (more below)
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above: An Old Western facade makes the lighting truss for the stage at Peppertree Ranch
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Tech Report
Shure Wireless; Networking Solutions for Musical Theater
Ever wonder how the engineers for a theater production can keep track of all the wireless units floating around the stage? This is always a big technical hurdle especially when considering the RF engineering to isolate units. With 12 units, programming receivers and transmitters can be tedious and frustrating.
For this year's Foothill Musical Theater production of "Anything Goes," APG co-owner/engineer Andy Heller worked out a solution with the networking capabilities of the Shure UHF-R wireless systems. Using Shure Wireless Workbench Control/Monitoring Software, Andy was able to monitor and assign all 12 wireless units from his laptop at front of house. This proved to be a crucial tech decision to avoid taking any hits (outside interference), avoid overlapping frequencies within the venue and to generally monitor which cast member was on what channel. UR4S and UR4D units are connected with IP protocol over CAT-5 which offers a common standard solution in almost any venue and makes 802.11 (WIFI) connectivity possible as well. Since no audio is actually traveling over this network, there is no issue as far as stability. With IP networking capabilities coming in at full speed to the audio world, APG techs stay up to date and continue to find new solutions to old problems in these CAT5 times.
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New Venues
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Guerra Cellars Presents
Hollister Concerts on the Green at Peppertree Ranch
Before the 1980's the Pepper Tree Ranch was just a cattle farm in Hollister. After it's purchase by the Guerra Family, it became the Guerra Cellars. Upon entering the dirt road toward the newly built amphitheater, visitors will get a drive by look at the 20+ acres of vineyards. After passing, they will arrive at a "Shoreline style" grass amphitheater that looks down onto an old Western Facade which makes up the lighting truss over the stage. Evening Concerts before dark will also afford concert goers a great view out to the mountain range around Pacheco Pass.
APG has been working with owner Al Guerra and producer Ryan Jones this past summer providing sound systems and production planning. The Nexo GEO D system was in all it's glory in the 3000+ outdoor amphitheater. APG co-owner/engineer Gary Wood used the Nexo Geosoft software system to calibrate the mains which provided almost a perfect representation of the mix, even the far corners of the grass. With its stunning amphitheater, hospitality, wine and of course great sound, Guerra has a high potential to be a major concert venue in California.
above: A view of the stage at Peppertree Ranch
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DeAnza College
Visual & Performing Arts Center (VPAC)
APG has been a reliable vendor for the Foothill DeAnza College District for over 10 years. Last winter DeAnza opened the doors to it's impressive new Visual & Performing Arts Center (VPAC). The VPAC has already provided a venue for some solid acts ranging from Indian cultural shows to Big Band Jazz. The 400 seat theater features some very modern approaches to audio with the Mamba digital snake system and a Yamaha M7cL at Front of House. For events at the VPAC, APG has been providing additional support by supplying equipment and engineering staff for the venue.
The DeAnza College Visual and Performing Arts Center is available for booking events by contacting DeAnza College.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS
above: inside the VPAC
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Corporate Presentations
Located in the middle of Silicon Valley, the new VPAC at DeAnza is a potential hub for large corporate conferences and presentations. Recently APG provided support for the LiveOps town hall style conference at the VPAC. In addition to the Shure wireless system, the tech rider included a Telos phone bridge and audio interfacing for LiveOps' streaming webcast.
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Nexo GEO D Series Line Array System
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Exacting Dispersion: Nexo GeoSoft 2
One main feature of the Nexo GEO-D line array system is the ability to accurately calculate sound system setup with mathematical precision.
Before flying the boxes, the venue dimensions are input into the Nexo GeoSoft 2 software which calculates the angles, amount of boxes needed, throw and dB levels. The program allows the engineer to simulate dispersion before setting up the loud-speaker arrays. After the computer crunches the data, audio engineers at APG can set up the Array towers exactly to spec.
NEXO's proprietary GeoSight Inclinometer System is a laser alignment instrument that makes it possible to exact the setup of the mains in the particular venue based on the GeoSoft2 simulation.
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Broadcast Audio: 2010 Elections
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above: a view from behind the scenes at the California Senate Debate
left: SDTV/HDLA High Def. production truck parked on location at St. Mary's
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U.S. Senate Debate
September and October were big months for campaigning in California. With millions of people watching the upcoming elections, audio, video and satellite broadcast techs have been hard at work delivering signals. On Sept 1, St. Mary's college in Moraga hosted the first televised California Senate debate between Boxer and Fiorina. With over 20 years experience in broadcast audio, APG co-owner Andy Heller was chosen to work as a member of the audio crew for the debate. The crew worked on the SDTV/HDLA High Def. production truck which featured a Calrec Zeta audio console.
Californa Gubernatorial Race
Other election broadcast work for Andy Heller included the production of a 60 second radio spot for Gubernatorial Candidate / Attorney General Jerry Brown. Mr. Brown also filmed a television commercial at MediaOne Studios in San Franciso where Andy has been working as audio engineer for several years.
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AES Convention in San Francisco
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November 4-7 the Audio Engineering Society Convention comes to Moscone Center in San Francisco. APG staff will be on hand to check out new gear and some of the great courses offered this year.
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