Trans Siberian Orchestra tour time again!!

[Coo-mo-d]

This show is as real as it gets, everything is in fact 100% live... They attempted time code this year for the lighting on a few songs but ended up dumping it. Stuka is correct, there is an east coast and west coast tour which was a split of the original artists once the tour became so big and this year its probably become the largest touring rig in the world ever.

[mliptack]

I'll let you into a little sound guy secret from Broadway... yes the real Broadway. I know quite a few audio engineers who have done shows like the Producers and Spamalot. Everyone on stage who has an active role will have a microphone. If they don't speak but only sing along with the chorus, chances are they wont have a mic. When there are 'solo's' per-say only that microphone will be on. Watching these guys run shows like this is pretty intense. They have to follow along line for line bringing up certain channels at the exact right time in order for dialogue to work. The other reason for this is that sometimes if you have two actors speaking right next to eachother one person will get picked up in another microphone, one that has not been adjusted to sound good with his voice.

The other crazy thing is that in a day, a touring version of the Producers would go through about 200 AA batteries a day.

Basically where I am going, is sure some of it might have been pre-recorded, but I am willing to bet the majority of it is not. Synchronization is a lot easier when you have a Master clock. It can set the beat for the orchestra etc., there is a lot of technology that can indeed make it happen totally live.

[mliptack]

Stuka is correct, there is an east coast and west coast tour which was a split of the original artists once the tour became so big and this year its probably become the largest touring rig in the world ever.

Largest touring rig in the world... ummmm I HIGHLY doubt that... of course probably is the key word... I assure you it is not the largest touring rig. Just to satisfy that I'll talk to the local 18 (IATSE Stagehands Union) here in Milwaukee, I am very good friends with most of them, and I'll let you know just how big the touring act really is.

[Coo-mo-d]

Don't bother....I'm on the west coast tour...I deal with it everyday. lol

[QUAZAR]

Another person wishing they'd come to the UK.

IIRC Pink Floyds Pulse tour was the biggest, for amount of equipment used.

[mixedgas]

I stayed with a family friend in Manhatten a few months ago. head of household is a stage manager on a major broadway show, and calls the cues. All cast memebers have a lifetime supply of AA batteries and give 20 pound bags of them away as gifts. Every show, every mic, every LED fixture, all new batts. Industrial grade AA. Actually Industrial Pro grade. A IP grade 9V is 5$ each. At the start of the show the PSM signs a log that she/he has personally witnessed them changed.

They have to co-ordinate mic freqs with the other shows, and many of the mics are spread spectrum or ultra-wide-band. The mics are custom made in many cases and are freqs that would not normally be used, often on dark TV UHF channels.

Cues are done verbally and then excuted by a light on the Ops panel.
"Ie the SM says on the clearcom, "warning, lighting 28, then hits a button that trips light 28 OUT on that op's panel". Its more accurate and consistant then "warning 28, cue 28, go 28"

Trust me, the word "go" sounds like noise on a long and busy intercom channel. Been there, done that, missed the cue and went early on a laser down cone on a Pink Floyd tribute band. You catch hell for it. Next show, I had the script in front of me and the LD no longer called laser cues. He was too busy trying to be PSM, and LD, and Show Op on the lighting board all at once. If I ever do it again I'll have front of house video.

Click track was only used for one effect, when all the dancers have to be synced with strobes so they are all airborne at the same time at the same height when the strobes fire. Since the dancers cant hear the clicks and the strobes are so disorienting, there are cue lights for the dancers. Only part of the orchestra need the clicks.

All major singers have the show audio on talkback channel in their ear, the chorus gets stage monitors. I was in row three center orchestra and I couldnt hear the monitors.

They had IR video of all stage and many backstage areas plus the fly.

The mike channels are ducked or gated by hand to eliminate the breath sounds.

That tech crew could, if needed, go onstage and do the show. They have it down that cold.

It wasnt very very high tech, but a lot of industrial PLC controllers were used, the main computers were three running in redundant parallel, and all three have to agree before a command goes out. The commands show up in sequence, but the OP stll manually inputs the go. The union and state rules on automation are very strict and a mistake is costly in terms of safety. If needed, any two can be switched out and the third pulls the show.
for those who don't know, PLCs are very skilled at running short "ladder logic" loops, and
checking logic states of interlocks, other then that, they are not very smart.

What amazed me, is they can rescript the show if a cast member doesn't show up or if a given piece of equipment fails. There were two of everything, but if both go down, the script and dance numbers change. The audience never even knows.

There seems to be a golden rule on broadway, live theatre is live theatre. No lipsync. A few shows use pre recorded orchestra, but the vocals are live. I asked.

meanwhile, back to fixing my adat.

Steve

[Stuka]

Cool info, Steve -

Other than the flying gig, high-end stage techie would have been the other career path that I really would have enjoyed!

Hmm...now that I mention it, I find myself potentially available for the "other career" -
I wonder if successfully running a beam show using a Pangolin system with an RGB projector could get me a techie audition with TSO?

[mixedgas]

Don't quote me on this but, If I had a sig on my emails, it would read:

"You know your a show laser tech when you keep a taser to stun the intercom wiring, the lighting designer, or both."

besides, properly used, one pangolin with DMX could run just about every show I've ever seen, save for a few big shows like Roger Waters etc.

The other one would read:

"You know your a rave laserist when you have to videotape the gate sales to get paid."

Swonce upon a time, a teenager or college freshman aged kid told me and the lighting lady that we were not gonna get paid at a rave. BIG mistake. Lighting lady had videoed the show and the stream of kids coming in from 8 Pm to 4 am. We told said youngster that we could stay in town till monday and take the video to the IRS office, and they would invite him and his parents in for a little chat. We got paid!


The last one would read:

"You know your a research associate at a major college when you eat lunch with the dean and quietly ask him to send your professor on sabatical and his students to a conference so you can get some work done on the project that funds the group"


Steve

[mliptack]

This show is as real as it gets, everything is in fact 100% live... They attempted time code this year for the lighting on a few songs but ended up dumping it. Stuka is correct, there is an east coast and west coast tour which was a split of the original artists once the tour became so big and this year its probably become the largest touring rig in the world ever.

Don't bother....I'm on the west coast tour...I deal with it everyday. lol

First, I would like to apologize, if I came off as being a prick with that comment. Of course I didn't mean to. However, the only reason why I said that I doubt that it is the largest tour probably in the world is because I have seen many shows! Many of them I have been either directly or indirectly a part of. Roger Waters tour was actually TAME with 9 or 10 53' semi trailers compared to many of the country acts I have seen come and go with 20-30 trailers. Although I am not a huge fan of country music... if you want to see what Rock and Roll once was, and ironically could have been today - go see a big named country act.

Then once you get into touring Broadway shows... youre talking insane amounts of gear. Money flying around like david copperfield on a good day.

The tour I was on had 28-35 wireless mics being used at a given time. Even if they weren't planned on being used we changed batteries in them 3x a day - like Steve said Industrial grade batteries are the way to go. Many of them dont even lose a bar before we changed them again. They still worked great for camera's and MP3 players.

We had a 1/3x1/4 pack case (22.5"Dx30"Wx30"H) full of batteries - the thing weighed a TON! We went through them all by our 3rd week on tour. We ordered quite a bit more. Once the tour was done, we had many left over, it was great! I think I am set for my smoke detectors for life!

[dream beamz]

"You know your a rave laserist when you have to videotape the gate sales to get paid."

Quoted for truth