Not the typical show aftermath

S

Simon Coffin

Sophomore
Mar 2, 2011
133
1
18
State College, PA
www.medianengineering.com
Greetings,

Provided audio for an outdoor wedding with fireworks this past Saturday. Beautiful setting on a farm, rolling hills in the background, a cluster of trees with a pond in the foreground. The uneven ground made leveling speaker tripods and equipment cases a challenge, but wooden blocks and landscaping spikes took care of that. The wedding itself went very well, 4 channels of wireless, a couple of beta57s on violins. Even recorded the whole thing.

After the service I had to reset for the fireworks, brought out some subs, swapped to the main amp rack, struck the wireless racks and utility amp, was just about ready when the skies opened. And it poured down, for hours... Got everything back into the trailer while they pondered what to do with the fireworks. At 8:15pm they announced the fireworks were going off rain or shine.. So reset everything in the pouring rain, got a feed from the fireworks launch controller, played the audio track while the fireworks went off, very well done I might add, then carried everything back into safety in the trailer. Keeping things neat and tidy was no longer the goal, just get things in the trailer....

Got home and unloaded everything, wiped off the worst of the water and let it all sit in the garage to dry. Today's project is to clean off the cables and pack everything back into the shop. On the positive side, no harm done, everything works.

2015-06-22 08.35.11.jpg2015-06-22 08.34.31.jpg

Ciao
 
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Re: Not the typical show aftermath

When we have to do events that are rain or shine if there is any threat of rain we setup all of the electronics in the truck and just run the speaker lines out. And if it rains we bag the speakers. Either tarps or plastic garbage bags just don’t tighten them (or the plastic will buzz) and it doesn’t sound as bad as you would think. And with wireless control of a small digital mixer you can stand out in the bad weather and control it while getting wet. It is still not fun but it works.
 
Re: Not the typical show aftermath

I got caught in the same storm.Band started playing,rain came during first set.They finished the set and talked to the fair committee,it was decided to close.Luckily there was a hole in the storm and we got to pack up.Half hour later,all hell let loose.Wind and rain for 2 hours.Was back the next day and everything worked and the weather was great.
 
Re: Not the typical show aftermath

Sounds like every outdoor show here in Florida. I own quite a few tarps and rolls of visqueen for this exact reason. Fans and sunlight dry the covers at the shop on Mondays. Have I mentioned I prefer indoor gigs?
 
Re: Not the typical show aftermath

If you're doing outdoor shows, do yourself a favor and invest in some weatherproof covers from UnderCoverNYC.

http://www.undercovernyc.com/protection_ranges#fs_w

I use these covers for ANY outdoor show I do. You never know when it's going to rain, and having the speakers covered before it rains means nothing gets ruined when there is a surprise. It also helps keep the dirt and dust off of the cabinets as well. It looks WAY more professional than slinging tarps over stacks, or garbage bags, or whatever you can scramble to come up with. Put the covers on, and let it rain!

Best investment I think I've ever made.
 
Re: Not the typical show aftermath

Hey Brian,

Nice find. All of the blue covers in the pictures are by UnderCoverNYC, but I didn't know they had a rain proof version. Very cool.

The covers I have are at least 8 years old and have stood up to steady usage very well. Can't speak highly enough about their quality.

Simon
 
Re: Not the typical show aftermath

Hasn't been an outdoor gig in a company I work with in 5 years that we haven't seen moisture. And I say moisture do to a gig last year where it snowed

Sent from my XT1060
 
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