Consolidating Stage FOH Consoles

If you ever make the mistake of stepping into the console area during a stage show these days, you would not be faulted for thinking that all those screens and headphones were coordinating an alien invasion.

If you glance across onto the stage you will probably see a stage lit bright enough to be spotted from those alien skies. All you $200,000 dollar space flight types - please confirm.

And if you are a peaceful alien who asks politely without threatening to “EDM HAS FALLEN” our world - I am sure our boys could patch you a 24 track, crystal clear sound feed, in real time with the sparkling led screen.

As a kid, during less security conscious times I was allowed to peep into an air traffic control room just to be impressed by all the radar scopes and blinking CRT tubes. Later as an events guy I was lucky to walk through one of those telecom centers that you see in the movies. Massive maps with more blinking lights and more trailing information. Cheekily I asked how anybody could keep track of all that info. Was patiently told that each section was looked after by one team, but all the teams needed to see how their section connected within the larger network.

These days I can’t help thinking that is what today’s visual designers are after. Information Overload.

Todays designers throw terms like visual variation, schematic progression, upload time lag, horn punch ups, wandering elevator arms. How does it all hang together?

Each trade is wandering off into its own space. The digital world has opened so many possibilities. By breaking down sound signals into impossible fractions, it possible to tweak almost each note into whatever space and shape you choose. To further complicate life in our multimedia world each media unit requires the sound altered to fit into its specific signature. The band wants to hear themselves in a certain way. The PA engineer want to amplify and the fill the stadium with a lively sound in every remote corner – so the producer can rub his hands and claim ‘there are no cheap seats!’

The TV crew, today the stars of any live show of any significance, need their feed doctored to sound great on both the lowly TV set as well as the multi lakh home theater system so that the opinion forming critic can say stuff like ‘…. While the 5.2 mix is little subdued, the 7.9 mix gives an unfair opportunity for the third horn to play over the third guitar….’ Yup I still read those reviews in some aficionado magazines.

Further down the food chain the radio guys and the web feed guys tweak the sound feed for their own purposes. I am told that the Global Initiative otherwise known as ‘Coldplay is Here’ had 6 massive sound desks . Each for a specific task. Everybody was happy so mission accomplished. Pat on back sound team.

That’s only covered sound. Ten years ago, the sound guys ate up 60 percent of console space. Lights got 30%. Remaining 10% fought over by the Live Video feed guys, Pyro team, Stage Turntable operator etc etc. Invariably the director would show up minutes before the show and hastily some cables were moved aside, a flight case was placed behind the CD operator, a torch was found so he/she could read his excel sheet script and we were away.

The first time I saw a laptop on the console was for a world class Rock Band on its India tour. All of us who had just started using DMX were super impressed and spent a good bit of an amazing concert wondering what role the laptop played in the amazing light display. Afterwards I was both crestfallen and tickled to learn that the laptop was open on a word document displaying the bands song list. Midway through the set, the laptop died as its insides could not function under the onslaught of the dust raised by Mumbai’s frantic rock fans.

Today there are at least a dozen laptops bluing the faces of as many operators. Either the dust has settled or they are just building better Mumbai resistant laptops. Progress.

But seriously. There are so many elements to the visual design of a show. The Stage lighting has been overtaken by the Giant LED guys. Today the media servers take up more space and electricity than the audio amplifiers. Elsewhere in this issue I am sure you can read all about the amazing equipment in use.

As Stage mechanics gets more complicated, it just a matter of time before that is overtaken by the Robotic arm operators who will lift impossible weights into geometry defying shapes, all the while throwing off flames and steam and confetti. How long before that catwalk Chris Martin ran down with A. R Rehman will be replaced by a hover stage lit by hovering light battens as we Harry Potterise (to coin a phrase) the next gen stage shows.

Will FOH consoles keep growing the way Stage Sets seem to be?

That’s where our electronic geniuses need to look next. To build multi function consoles that can control or trigger cues to all the moving parts. Home Automation allows you close curtains, drop screens, arrange room lights and switch on AV consoles all from a single screen. How long before Stage FOH consoles consolidate into those aforementioned Telecom Control like touch screens. Each team has control of one section, and can see how its piece fits into the whole Visual experience to produce ONE indelible image encompassing an impressive array of moving parts. Soon I hope.