Blake Shelton at CMA

Here’s a look at a project I completed a few months ago for Suite Spot productions.

The job itself was rather difficult… it really required different gear than I had, and as A1, I was responsible for both the recorded tracks AND the live sound. I did have two A2s with me, Will Taylor and Bob Toves. Will is my boom operator and assistant here in Chattanooga… you can just make him out in the top still image, probably checking out a wireless.(Just above Blake’s right shoulder, next to the cameraman.) Bob is a sound mixer in Nashville, he was operating the house PA. I was tucked away in a corner… probably tearing what little hair  have left out of my skull as I tried to solve the eternal mystery of why wireless mics that work flawlessly during multiple pre-show checks suddenly drop a signal seconds before going live. In the old days, for a job like this, I’d be in the remote truck, where I’d have multiple backups for everything. But thanks to the Brave New World of broadcast production, you get the same challenges as before, but with a fraction of the budget. The resources that I used to take for granted just aren’t there anymore… or put more correctly, I have to BUY whatever resources I’m going to use… so I don’t have nearly the amount of hardware that I’d like, especially for a job like this, which combines live sound and audio for video. Both are critical, and while it looks easy on paper, there are a pile of details that have to fall into place for the show to come off successfully.

Even though it added several more grey bits to the little patch of stubble that what was formerly known as my hair, I think the finished production turned out OK. The crowd could hear what was going on, we captured Blake’s audio, and the web production looks good. It reminded me of my live TV days, but without the TV station (or their assets).