The Big Show
United Fan Con 16
November 10-12, 2006
For those who love the technical side of productions...
PRE-SHOW
This year will be Encore's 11th season providing
technical services (Sound & Lighting) for this event. And this year,
the show is featuring 2 musical guests who will each perform a concert.
As a result, we are upgrading our entire sound and lighting system support to
full concert sound and lights. This means not only will we be providing
music for dinner, dancing and between guests throughout the weekend, but also
a full sound board with monitors, etc.
The event is a 3 day Science Fiction and, Fantasy, Comic Books, and now Rock
and Roll convention weekend. (Check out our calendar page and click on
the link in November for more details about the event). Encore is not a
huge touring concert sound company - We started primarily as a DJ company a
few years ago. As we accumulated more and more equipment for larger
events, spares, rentals, etc. it was only natural that we included other
services beyond DJ and karaoke parties. Thus the Live Sound division was
born.
Below is what we will be taking to this years event - we will commandeer the
grand ballroom of the Marriott from Friday until Sunday. Load in starts
on Friday, and load out begins after the last song of Sunday's concert, in the
afternoon. This web page is intended to be a "work in progress" of
our preparation for the show. The intent is to provide a little
insight as to what goes into a show when you hire Encore.
This event is over - but in the essence of keeping this page simple, the
bottom section has some info about what we DID at the show.
The full sound system will consist of:
SPEAKERS
- (4) 15" Folded horn subwoofers near the stage
- (2) Large full range 2-way main cabs (15" sub + horn)
- (2) Medium full range main cabs (15" + horn)
- (4) Small 2-way speakers "flown" over front of stage
- (10) Small 2-way 10" floor monitors
AMPLIFIERS (3400 Watts total)
- (2) 800 Watt x 2 channel FOH
- (1) 800 Watt x 2 channel FOH Sub
- (1) 250 Watt x 4 channel Monitor
LIGHTS (2800+ Watts)
- (16) Black PAR38
- (8) Silver PAR38
- (4) White Mini-moon flower
- (4) Colored Mini-moon flower
- (1) Nitro (rotating gobo)
We'll by using (2) 16x4 channel snakes to run from the mix position to the stage, providing 32x8 channels. We're using (4) monitor mixes. Lights will be controlled by a small (but versatile) 24 channel DMX controller.
Throughout the weekend event we will be providing full concert sound and lighting, dinner music, dance music and "on the fly" sound support.
Subs - part of large 2-way main
FOH speakers
FOH Mixer, FOH & Monitor Amp Racks
Some of our sections of truss
being rigged with lights
Click on the thumbnail below for a larger image
POST-SHOW
Now that the event is over - we'll update this section (a little at a time, as we have time) with the "aftermath" of the show (More to come as time permits...)
The venue was set up theater style with just under 700 seats. Our modest 10 speaker FOH system was adequate for the entire weekend, including the most demanding concert portions.
Due to the variety of entertainment we patched and re-patched our mixer a couple of times throughout the weekend. Friday's concert set up was for a 7 pc band, but Sunday's set up was only for a 4 pc band, so organizing our mixer inputs meant moving vocal mic assignments - and also wireless mic requirement changes. On Saturday the day time schedule used for the most part just 1 or 2 wireless mics. But the "cabaret" in the evening required ad DI box and one floor monitor.
Our lighting service included a follow spot, which was used for the concerts, cabaret, and single "acts". The spot is simple, but very affective.
Speakers - Stage Left
Follow Spot
Here we are, at the gig...
Come by and visit us!