On the heels of mixing the powerful documentary In God We Trust and the feature film Lily for their Tribeca Film Festival debuts, Heard City Mixer Cory Melious has collaborated with Director Jeremy Saulnier on a stirring feature film that premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Blue Ruin is the tale of a mysterious beach bum who performs a botched act of vengeance in an effort to stand up for his estranged family. Saulnier approached Melious with the incredible task of creating a mix and complete sound design in just two weeks. Heard City’s elaborate production pipeline was equal to the task, systematically working its way through the mix and edit.

“I was instantly captivated when Jeremy sent me a screener of the film,” noted Melious. “While I knew the production schedule was tight, I was confident Heard City could handle it, and I knew I wanted to be part of this project.” After premiering to enthusiastic response, Blue Ruin was promptly acquired by RADiUS-TWC, which called the film “one of the most exceptional discoveries [in] years.”

About Heard City:

Heard City is a boutique audio post-production company located in New York’s Flatiron district servicing the advertising, motion picture and television industries.

Visit Heard City
View Media

Expert Team Hits the Sand to Provide RF Coordination for the Nation’s Largest Beach Party

GULF SHORES, AL, MAY 22, 2013—As some of music’s biggest names came together for the fourth annual Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, Professional Wireless Systems (PWS), a Masque Sound Company and experts in supplying and supporting wireless systems for live and broadcast events, was busy providing frequency coordination for all the artists and media outlets in attendance at the event, the nation’s largest beach bash.

Billed as the first and only event of its kind, the Hangout Festival is a three-day music party staged on the white sand beaches of Gulf Shores. For this year’s event, the PWS team of experts was responsible for monitoring the RF spectrum to ensure there were no issues with the more than 600 frequencies in use. This marks the second consecutive year PWS provided frequency coordination for the festival.

“From an RF coordination standpoint, one of the great things about this event is its location,” says Jim Van Winkle, general manager, PWS. “The stages are literally on the beach, right on the Gulf of Mexico. Although there is a fair amount of DTV present, it is still a pretty clean area, with no other major RF congestion from outside sources.”

At the start of each day of the musical celebration Van Winkle and his team made sure that the media and first few bands scheduled to perform were coordinated and ready. “We start the day off acting on what we already know and then spend the rest of the day reacting to any last-minute media or crew requests or unregistered users,” adds Van Winkle. “Toward the end of the day, our team begins preparing for the following day. Preparation is essential for the success of these multi-day events, and each member of our team knows what it takes to get the job done right.”

The 2013 Hangout Festival’s diverse lineup of artists included Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, the Trey Anastasio Band, The Shins, The Black Crowes, Bassnectar, the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and The Roots.

“We are excited to have once again participated in this special celebration of music,” adds Van Winkle. “Our experience in handling large-format frequency coordination for music festivals has proven to be a valuable resource in ensuring shows of this size go off without any hitches. This year, the PWS team did another fantastic job with this.”

For more information, visit www.professionalwireless.com.

“We wanted a console backed by a manufacturer with a solid reputation and years of broadcast experience”

TULSA, OK – KOTV and KQCW, owned by Griffin Communications as CBS and CW affiliate stations respectively, recently opened a new 57,000-square-foot, broadcast facility that relies on a Solid State Logic C10 HD Compact Broadcast Console to cover audio for news, weather and specialty programming. The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based production facility houses both stations, but also has dedicated fiber lines between it and sister station KWTV in Oklahoma City to streamline production resources for statewide news coverage. The C10 HD was chosen for its advanced features, compact size and sound quality, in addition to SSL’s industry reputation for building high-quality products.

“For our new production facility, we wanted a console that was very capable, but was also cost-effective and backed by a manufacturer with a solid reputation and years of broadcast experience. That led us to the C10,” says John Quesnel, director of production for KOTV and KQCW. “Several of our engineers have had good experiences freelancing with the larger C100 HDS and we even had the SSL C10 Broadcast Equipment Demonstration Vehicle visit our facility for an extensive hands-on session. We are an HD, AES-embedded house and the C10 gives us the kind of flexibility and capability that we need to support a large news set.”

The new production facility has one large 5,525-square-foot studio with associated production and audio control rooms. The expansive news set in the studio is broken down into subsets to accommodate different programming needs. For example, one of the largest subsets is for weather forecasting. Additionally, the studio features a large news anchor area, three smaller news presentations sets, an interview set and speciality sets for entertainment presentations or commercial production. The C10 is used to produce over seven hours of news and speciality programming per day.

“We use the one-touch setup recall on the C10 to streamline our workflow through the different news and non-newscast programs we produce,” continues Quesnel. “Because we are located in tornado alley, weather is a very important element for us, so that particular area of the set is very large and comprehensive. We have a standard microphone setup for the area that we can easily call up for breaking emergency weather coverage. Beyond news programming, we also have a full kitchen set for cooking segments and a stage set for presentations ranging from live music and fashion to the DIY hardware guy. The C10 has been an excellent choice to handle audio for this type of multitasking facility.”

The compact design of the C10 was also a factor as the console is essentially self-contained, without the need for a mainframe in a climate-controlled machine room. The C10 is supported by three Alpha-Link 8RMP remote mic-pre units and five Alpha-link Live-R I/O units and was ordered with the Dialogue Automix option. As the station relies on many people to run the console, having a user levels system that tailors the features available for control to the skill set of individual operators is a key component for the team.

“We have engineers operating the console that have varying degrees of experience, so the C10 offers us the opportunity to lock out certain features when a less experienced person is scheduled to run a preset program,” concludes Quesnel. “This console gives us big board power at a reasonable price.”

Solid State Logic is the world’s leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast and post production professionals. For more information about our award-winning products, please visit: www.solidstatelogic.com.

With songs by rocker girl Cyndi Lauper and story by celebrated actor/playwright, Harvey Fierstein, Kinky Boots has Broadway on its proverbial feet. Based on the 2005 British flick about a struggling shoe factory that reinvigorates business by making fetish footwear for drag queens, the show opened to rave reviews—and a TONY award nom on the horizon. In keeping with many award-winning shows on the ‘Great White Way,’ sound designer John Shivers opted for a DiGiCo SD7T to handle the production, after becoming familiar with the system on his previous productions for Bonnie & Clyde, Sister Act and The Lion King overseas. The SD7′s powerful system and diminutive size made it a perfect fit for the new show.

“A few years ago, I saw a brief demo at Masque Sound when the SD7 first became available,” he recollected. “Seeing the feature set and the redundant engine and power supply all onboard got me interested. When designing The Lion King for Singapore in 2010, part of my negotiation involved suggesting that we swap out the Cadacs with SD7s in New York and London for both creative and financial reasons. Before I knew it, I’d gotten an email telling me to move forward. Within 6 weeks of that conversation we were implementing the SD7s on the New York show and a month after that we were doing the same in London. I’ve been using SD7s pretty much on every show since.”

Shivers says the console offers a lot of flexibility, especially with the new “T” software, which he says brings features and functionality specific to our needs on theatrical productions as well as a solid sounding foundation in a very compact package.

“The SD7T software has added these very beneficial features thanks to [award-winning sound designer] Andrew Bruce’s involvement in the development. Having onboard compression, gating and delay—along with the programmability and recallability of those parameters on every channel—opens up possibilities that you just can’t have with an analog console. It’s definitely been an upgrade for us from that standpoint. A positive byproduct has definitely been the size of the console, which allows you to get into smaller spaces and require less seats and has served as a large financial windfall for producers. For me, from a purely creative and design standpoint, it’s about the capabilities of the console. I’m not one to follow the crowd necessarily, but the SD7 has become a standard of our industry and the reason everybody’s using them seems clear. It has proven itself to be a very capable and reliable console.”

“The SD7 with the ‘T’ software option has indeed proven to be a very good investment for Masque Sound,” says Masque’s Scott Kalata. “It has near-universal client acceptance, unlimited flexibility and its small footprint make it the ideal choice for today’s theatrical sound designer.”

The show’s Associate Sound Designer & Production Sound Engineer David Patridge has mixed on virtually every make and model DiGiCo has offered since the D5 in his two decades on Broadway. He, too, raves about the increased functionality that the Theatre Software offers.

“This is the number one reason for using SD7 in my opinion,” he offers. “We really appreciate all of the work that DiGiCo has undertaken, in tandem with Andrew Bruce, in developing a purpose-built version of the SD7 software for the theatrical market. DiGiCo has been very responsive in listening to end-users and new features are added and perfected constantly along with the elimination of oddities and bugs.

“I could fill pages on all of the features and how we use them. Specifically, the Auto Update is a great feature on its own but when it is employed as part of the theatre software it is really powerful and allows the desk to remain automated to a much larger degree than other types of desks. Typically, when using a recallable desk, you would need to dumb-down many of the features in order to avoid constantly recalling entirely new settings each time a scene is recalled. With the theatre software, you can expect the desk to operate in a ‘manual’ way but with full and selectable recall ability from moment to moment. On other productions such as The Lion King, we have enjoyed using the Gain Tracking ability of the desk in a creative new way. There is no other desk that I know of where you can assign headamps to a redundant set of control channels dedicated to band monitoring and then have the digital trim of those redundant channels track changes to the headamp. DiGiCo has really stepped up by providing a console that provides us with the greatest creative freedom when doing theatrical sound designs.”

“We use the onboard processing extensively for band reverbs and dynamics, which really cuts down on the real estate at the FOH position. The only outboard gear we’re using is a couple of Avalon Tube Compressors for our lead vocalists to fatten up their vocals. We also have a TC6000 System and Eventide H3000 for Vocal Effects/Reverbs etc. We are not using Waves yet, but I am interested in doing this in the future.”

The show’s system inputs total 116 analog and 6 AES, in addition to 60 analog outputs and 14 AES outputs. The production uses a pair of DiGiCo SD Racks along with the local I/O and MADI for the QLab playback system. They took advantage of the onboard MADI Split on the SD Rack in order to provide audio to a Yamaha PM5D monitor console. “The new racks offer a host of features positioning them well for use where audio is being split to a number of places like OB trucks etc., without needing to tap into the topology of the SD7 audio engines.”

By its very nature, Patridge explains, the SD7T solves many of the issues that crop up when dealing with a theatrical piece. “The cuelist structure, MIDI implementation, onboard input and output dynamics, the desk footprint and the Auto Update features not to mention the desk’s excellent sonic characteristics make choosing an SD7T a no-brainer. And in terms of flexibility and ease of use, I would say that DiGiCo is at the top of the ladder. There is no other digital desk that offers the same degree of theatrical features. The desk is also designed in such a way that it is very simple and intuitive to explain it to a new operator. Sonically I would say that that DiGiCo is on par with the top of the marketplace. Often the weakest link in any sound design is things like the content, mic positions or the room architecture. I don’t get the sense that any of the available top-of-the-line digital consoles add much of a sonic signature, although certainly you get what you pay for. We have been very pleased with the results that we get from DiGiCo desks.”

Billy Talent crew

Canadian “melodic punk rockers” Billy Talent recently wrapped up an arena tour in their home country with Delicate Productions providing the main PA, which consisted of Martin Audio’s MLA system, and the band’s long-time collaborators Metal Works in charge of monitors and FOH.

The eclectic four-piece who’ve been together since 1993 starting out as Pezz and later changing their name for legal reasons, consists of Ben Kowalewicz (lead vocals), Ian D’Sa (lead guitar), Jon Gallant (bass) and Aaron Solowoniuk (drums).

Opening acts for the tour included Sum41, Hollerado and Indian Handcrafts while the band, Metal Works and Delicate maintained a positive collaboration for what proved to be very successful tour.

The main PA was comprised of 14 Martin Audio MLA cabinets and one MLD (downfill) flown on each side of the stage with 12 W8LC per side for left and right side PA, 12 MLX subs floor-stacked and eight W8LM cabinets along the downstage edge for in-fill/out-fill. Martin Audio MA 4.2 amplifiers were used to power the side and infill/outfill systems.

Crew for the show included Bob Strakele (FOH engineer) and Matt Blakely (Production manager/monitor engineer) from the band, Al Woods (Audio crew chief), Kenny Kaiser (MLA tech) from Delicate and Luke Purchase (FOH/monitor tech) from Metal Works.

Asked about MLA’s performance during the tour, Woods said, “The MLA is a fabulous system, super easy to fly and extremely powerful. It sounds great and amazingly even throughout the venue. We get so used to other systems tailing off in bigger venues, but this fella’ never ceased to surprise.”

Photo Caption (left to right): Kenny Kaiser, Luke Purchase, Al Woods, Ben Kowalewicz (lead vocals, Billy Talent), Bob Strakele

Photo credit: Dustin Rabin Photography

For more about Martin Audio, please click to www.martin-audio.com.

Doug Doppler’s inspirational guide to the goods, the gear and the gifting for the worship guitarist

Montclair, NJ (May 21, 2013) – With the release of The Worship Guitar Book, acclaimed guitar talent and music industry expert Doug Doppler has written the most comprehensive guide for today’s worship guitarists. Being an accomplished musician and a true worshipper himself, he understands the challenges that worship guitarists face every day, and provides answers and help for those who want to express their love for God through the gift of music.

The book offers practical advice on spiritual, musical, technical and practical topics for beginning worship guitarists and seasoned worship pastors alike. Doppler demonstrates practice routines and rehearsal techniques designed to mold readers into excellent guitarists while showing them how to blend high musical standards with a heart that’s pure and ready to worship God. Today’s most influential and experienced music ministers, such as Phil Keaggy, Ben Kasica (Skillet), Jeffrey Kunde (Jesus Culture), Kendall Combes (Charlie Hall), Keith Gassette (Deluge), Michael Guy Chislett (Hillsong), Ray Badham (Hillsong), and others share their insight, not only in regards to leading their congregation, but also on how they have achieved success and managed to keep their humility by staying close to their faith and their church.

The Worship Guitar Book also features interviews with equipment manufacturers to provide in-depth information on gear and technology best suited for Houses of Worship, and conversations with musical heavy-weights such as Rob Lewis (Musical Director for Babyface, Christina Aguilera, P. Diddy, and Patti LaBelle), on how to create masterful music and lead inspired teams.

Each chapter ends with a consideration, some spiritual and some practical in nature, as well as a short list of questions inviting the reader to think through the subject on his own terms and to apply the learned to his unique situation.

The Worship Guitar Book is nothing short of the “bible” for its field. Written content is brought to life via the included DVD-ROM which features over two hours of video and audio content. The text also includes numerous QR Codes, further allowing the reader to experience visually and audibly the exercises and technology explained in the book. Doppler doesn’t leave anything on the table and delivers musical and technical knowledge as well as the inspiration to serve both God and your congregation better than ever before.

About the Author
With his Bible in one hand and his guitar in the other, Doug Doppler embodies Christian heart and soul combined with musical passion and fire. Known as a true worshipper, he is also an acclaimed guitar talent. Doppler has an album out on Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label, and he is also a highly regarded studio musician, most notably for his work on the Guitar Hero video game series. He also specializes in producing audio and video demos for manufacturers, including Dunlop/MXR, Line 6, Orange Amps, and Tech21. GearTunes.com is his latest project, featuring demos for hundreds of pieces of gear. Doppler is a member of Bay City Church in the San Francisco Bay Area. More information about this book at Halleonard.com

The Worship Guitar Book
$19.99 (US)
Inventory #HL 00333866
ISBN: 9781458491206
Width: 8.5″, Length: 11.0″, 312 pages, accompanying DVD included

Hal Leonard Books is an imprint of Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group www.halleonardbooks.com and www.onstageandbackstage.wordpress.com

BUENA PARK, Calif.—Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC) in Canandaigua, New York has a very active music program with classes ranging from classic and modern, to jazz ensemble and chamber wind ensemble, topped off by audio recording and sound reinforcement and live recording programs. Theater consultant, Seth Waltz at AVL Designs, Inc. in Penfield, New York, known throughout the upper New York area as the Yamaha AFC (Active Field Control) aficionado, was brought in to capture the pure acoustics of the newly created performing arts venue at the college.

Along with designer Geoff Nichols who assisted with the Yamaha AFC and professional audio design and Stan Jordan charged with stage rigging and lighting (provided by BMI Supply of Queensbury, New York, the 400+ seat space, was designed by JMZ Architects and Plannners, P.C. of Glens Falls, New York, and engineered by M/E Engineering, P.C. of Rochester, New York. In addition to the AFC system, A/V contractor, Platinum Sound & Communications of Victor, New York, under the direction of company V.P. Alan Clayton, installed the entirely new audio and video system.

“FLCC’s new auditorium was designed for a very active music department, community and concert use, and theatrical productions,” states Waltz. “Originally conceived as a recital hall, the venue grew in scope to become a full-fledged performing arts facility.” A bit different from many community colleges, it has a distinguished recording arts program with staff including engineers with some very impressive resumes. “The staff was part of the reason Yamaha AFC was implemented, as they understood the capabilities of such as system,” Waltz says.

Early discussions took place to use the AFC system for its overall reverberation capability, as well as being used as a stage shell system. The FLCC faculty visited a project site where AVL had previously installed an AFC system, and were very excited about having it installed in their new auditorium. “AFC allows us as designers to design for a reverberation time that is appropriate for theatrical use, lectures, and other lower RT60 needs,” notes Waltz. “When chamber music, choral, orchestral, and other concerts are held, the AFC accommodates the required RT60 and tonal balance for those uses in a very transparent manner.”

Active Field Control is a reverberation enhancement system that adjusts and enhances the acoustic characteristics of a facility while preserving the natural characteristics. The system can be used to add spaciousness to under balcony or stage areas so all audience members and performers can enjoy the same sense of connection to the music and a greater shared experience. AFC systems can also be used to add early reflections or as crowd enhancements systems.

The AFC at FLCC also implements an early reflection voice lift system, which allows many public-speaking uses to be accomplished with no sound reinforcement required. It also supplies increased early reflection content when used in a musical setting with the reverberation side of the system.

“This particular Yamaha AFC system is a dual system with both a Reverb enhancement system and an Early Reflection system and a bit of combining of signals for the speakers on the stage for the performers—an excellent example of what can be done with AFC2,” states Joe Rimstidt, Systems Design Engineer for Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. The system configuration consists of one Yamaha AD8HR mic pre (eight microphones were used, four for the REV system and four for the ER system), five AFC2 processors; five XM4080, four XM4180 and four PC6501N Yamaha amps; 22 S8AFC speakers; 16 Yamaha IF2205 speakers and eight IS1112 subwoofers.
AVL also designed sound reinforcement, AV presentation systems, stage rigging, theatrical lighting, and a Crestron control system. Sound system components consist of Danley SH64i/SH95i main speakers, Danley TH112i sub woofers, DB Tech FM15 stage monitors, Ashly NE series processors, Lab Gruppen C series amplifiers, Sennheiser EM 300 wireless system, assorted mics: AKG C414; Beyer M88TG; Audix i5, D2, D4, SCX1-hc, F90; AT AT897; Shure SM58. The intercom system is by Theatre Projects.

“We’re a small company, and this is the first time we attempted a project of this scope,” states Alan M. Clayton, Vice President, Platinum Sound & Communications. “Some unforeseen problems in the construction process made this a very challenging project for everyone involved, which made us extremely pleased to be working with AVL. Our Project Lead, Pat Whitbeck, was constantly challenged with changing field conditions. With AVL’s patience and collaboration, Pat was able to rise to the occasion and produce a quality installation.” Clayton said this was the fourth or fifth Yamaha AFC system that the company installed. “All of the systems have been easy to install and sound fantastic. Yamaha is always great to deal with; it’s obvious they take pride in their work. Everything is so well thought out. Looking back on all of the challenges we faced, the install of Yamaha AFC system was the easiest part of the project and stands out as a major success!”

Lighting system components include ETC Sensor Dimming, ETC S 4 Fixtures, Sea changer CMYK, ETC Ion Lighting Console, and ETC Vivid LED Fixtures. Stage rigging consists of motorized Vortek and JR Clancy J Guide counterweight systems. Platinum Sound & Communications also installed Crestron DM Control and distribution and a Christie Digital® DHD800 HD DLP Projector and Digital® L2K1000 for video projection.

“Upon final set up and demonstration, the music staff was very pleased with the result,” adds Waltz.

For more information on AVL, visit www.avldesign.com.

For more information on Platinum Sound, telephone (585) 742-1280.

For more information on the Yamaha AFC System, visit www.yamahaca.com.

-END-

Burbank, CA… Royer Labs, a leading manufacturer of high quality ribbon microphones, is pleased to announce the availability of the 15th Anniversary R-121 Limited Edition Ribbon Microphone. Drawing upon the strengths that have catapulted the company’s original R-121 Studio Ribbon Microphone into one of the most sought after ribbon microphones available, the 15th Anniversary R-121 Limited Edition Ribbon Microphone celebrates Royer Labs’ fifteen years as a leading manufacturer of ribbon microphones.

Royer Labs was founded in May 1998 and the R-121 Studio Ribbon Microphone was the company’s first product. Of particular note, the first one hundred or so R-121 microphones shipped with a black version of the Royer Labs logo before changing to the green logo that has been a fixture on all R-121’s since that time. The 15th Anniversary R-121 Limited Edition Ribbon Microphone celebrates its unique status in the company’s history by donning the original black logo. more

Pat McConnell New VP of Sales, Ed Capp Named Global Sales Director

REEDSBURG, WI, MAY 21, 2013 — Sound Devices, experts in audio and video products for field production, is pleased to announce two internal promotions. As the company continues to evolve in the professional audio and video markets, it has named Pat McConnell Vice President of Sales and Ed Capp Global Sales Director.

At a time when the level of technical expertise required for successful sales is paramount, the pair has demonstrated leadership in the specialized audio and video production markets. In their new roles, Pat and Ed will oversee the Sound Devices sales team to further promote the company’s entire range of products globally, while continuing to strengthen the Sound Devices reseller and distributor network.

Pat, who joined the company last year, brings his deep experience in audio, systems sales, and sales management to the company. He also continues on with the tradition of single-syllable first names for Sound Devices officers. Ed, a 10-year veteran of the Sound Devices sales team, has been instrumental in significantly expanding the reach of Sound Devices throughout the world. Ed has developed Sound Devices strength in Asia as well as the important Southern California markets.

“Ed and Pat are a great sales team and together they manage Sound Devices presence throughout the world,” says Matt Anderson, President of Sound Devices. “As the Sound Devices product lines become more and more technical, it is critical that our sales team is led by knowledgeable individuals who are immersed in the changing audio and video technology landscape. We are very excited to continue to grow our sales force and look forward to both Ed and Pat’s future contributions to the company.”

Sound Devices, LLC designs and manufactures portable audio mixers, digital audio recorders, and digital video recorders and related equipment for feature film, episodic television, documentary, news-gathering, and acoustical test and measurement applications. The fourteen-year old company designs and manufactures from their Reedsburg, Wisconsin headquarters with additional offices in Madison, WI and Highland Park, IL. For more information, visit the Sound Devices website, www.sounddevices.com.

— Massive amounts of RF and microwave interference make the New York City Police Department’s headquarters in downtown Manhattan a difficult environment for a wireless microphone system, but an A-T SpectraPulse® system solved all of the interference issues —

STOW, OH, May 20, 2013 — The New York City Police Department’s headquarters building in downtown Manhattan is understandably a challenging RF environment. Inside, the 500-plus-seat auditorium is used for all manner of presentations using wireless microphones, as well as video teleconferencing, for applications that can range from officer graduations and assemblies to large-scale counter-terrorism strategy and information exchanges with other police and security agencies around the world. As good as the sound components in the auditorium are, the existing wireless microphone systems had been experiencing RF interference, feedback and other problems as a result of being mounted on a pair of movable podiums. These are necessary to make the auditorium as flexible as possible, but it made the wireless audio system vulnerable. The solution was the installation of a SpectraPulse® Ultra Wideband (UWB) Wireless Microphone System from Audio-Technica, a leading innovator in transducer technology for over 50 years. The system, which incorporates four drm141 Digital Receiver Modules, one aci707 Audio Control Interface, one rcu104 Receiver Coordinator Unit, two mtu201 XLR Desk Stand Transmitters, and two ES915ML MicroLine® condenser gooseneck microphones, completely solved the RF interference and feedback issues the auditorium had been experiencing. The SpectraPulse system was installed by longtime A-T users Monte Bros. Sound Systems of Dobbs Ferry, NY.

Steve Minozzi, Co-Director of Monte Bros. Sound Systems, says the A-T SpectraPulse technology cleanly addressed what he called a “wireless nightmare.” “The problem is too much interference, just too much going on in the building, and it’s in lower Manhattan, which is already a crowded RF area, so we weren’t able to get a clean dependable signal from the previous wireless system installed there,” he explains. “So we went to the SpectraPulse, which is UWB – ultra wide band transmission by packets – which is not subject to interference. And considering the sensitive information that the NYPD may be discussing, the SpectraPulse’s high level of data encryption was an added plus.”

Despite the dense RF environment around and within the auditorium, and the large steel beams used in its construction that can also hinder RF communications, the SpectraPulse system came through, thanks to the Ultra Wideband technology at the heart of SpectraPulse that avoids the RF interference issues associated with conventional VHF, UHF and 2.4 GHz wireless systems. Further, since no frequency coordination is required for all 14 channels to operate simultaneously, SpectraPulse is easy to both set up and operate. “There was literally nothing else that could have addressed this as well as the SpectraPulse system,” says Minozzi.