259. Summer Concert & Event Fun From The Great (U.S.) Northwest

Summer concert and event season is in full swing, and Sean’s company (Audio Engineers Northwest) has been running full steam with some exciting gigs the last couple weeks. Two of his regular freelancers, Kyle Shaw and Matt Ratza, join the show this week to talk about what it took the last couple weeks to pull off a huge open air concert on a dockside barge with audience both landside and on boats, and then flip the same PA over in 24 hours to cover a 50,000-attendance Fourth of July fireworks show. This episode is sponsored by Allen & Heath and RCF.The episode also touches on the freelancer versus sound company relationship, and managing and handling negotiating rates and schedule conflicts and changes.Matt Ratza is a FOH/monitor mixer and production manager with years of touring experience for bands covering a wide range of genres, ranging from TECH N9NE to The Stylistics to Dennis Edwards and the Temptations. He regularly freelances in the Seattle area when not on tour.After graduating from the Blackbird Academy live program in 2017, Kyle Shaw worked in installs and as an A2 for professional sports venues before pivoting to freelance work in the corporate and rock and roll markets.Episode Links:Precision Audio Services Case Study: The PA Design For The Gas Works Park Fireworks EventEpisode 259 TranscriptBe sure to check out the Signal To Noise Facebook Group and Discord Server. Both are spaces for listeners to create to generate conversations around the people and topics covered in the podcast — we want your questions and comments!Also please check out and support The Roadie Clinic, Their mission is simple. “We exist to empower & heal roadies and their families by providing resources & services tailored to the struggles of the touring lifestyle.”The Signal To Noise Podcast on ProSoundWeb is co-hosted by pro audio veterans Andy Leviss and Sean Walker.Want to be a part of the show? If you have a quick tip to share, or a question for the hosts, past or future guests, or listeners at home, we’d love to include it in a future episode. You can send it to us one of two ways:1) If you want to send it in as text and have us read it, or record your own short audio file, send it to [email protected] with the subject “Tips” or “Questions”2) If you want a quick easy way to do a short (90s or less) audio recording, go to https://www.speakpipe.com/S2N and leave us a voicemail there