Production Sound Engineer

This production was unique in that the sound designer did not want to use the latest and greatest equipment that the department had to offer, but rather older equipment that may be encountered while designing freelance. However, with four other productions using the same stock of equipment, much of what was used was new equipment. The system consisted of four EAW JF290s in an upper ring catwalk surrounding the audience, three d&b E0 hidden on stage around a center pool to create the illusion that any underscore was always coming from behind the performers as well as a high upstage d&b E3 to shift the image and two subwoofers in the surrounding hallway. This show was entirely successful with no major issues or system failures. There was not even an issue with the ClearCom system (first time for everything).

Both the sound designer and I also wanted to test an idea of whether out-of-polarity subwoofers could make people uncomfortable in the same way that out-of-polarity loudspeakers make you feel like your brain is being sucked out. It turns out that for short exposure there is no effect, but that long exposure, 30 minutes or so, people started to feel uncomfortable. We do not know if this is because of sub-frequencies or because of the polarity difference. The audience was never exposed for any significant amount of time.