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YAMAHA FLAGSHIP PM1D IS A WINNER AT 43rd ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS —Large Format Digital Console Passes the Ultimate Test; Two PM1Ds Replace Previous Year's 14 PM4000s— BUENA PARK, CA (March 8, 2001)—Without a doubt, the GRAMMY Awards is the most high profile live music event in the world, for both the music and audio industries. Multiple acts. Unforgettable performances. Hundreds of inputs. Millions of global television viewers.
The 43rd Annual GRAMMY Awards, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 21, was not all about controversial performers or the unlikely pairing of artists. Anyone familiar with the sound reinforcement requirements for a live, multi-act broadcast—let alone such a major event—knows that equipment must perform flawlessly, under all circumstances. So when Madonna, 'N Sync, Christina Aguilera, Destiny's Child, Eminem & Elton John, U2 and a host of others took the stage, it was four of the new Yamaha PM1D digital mixing consoles that provided their critical stage monitor mixes, heralding the most important application of the flagship board to date. "All the complexity you'd expect with this type of a show was easily handled by the PM1D," explained Scott Harmala, crew chief/systems engineer and vice president of engineering for Burbank (CA)-based Audiotek, who has had the elite duties of handling sound reinforcement for nine GRAMMY broadcasts. "We chose the PM1D because a multi-act show such as this has unique technical challenges that the board can really simplify. You can have it in your shop for days, but will never know how it will perform unless its in a show situation. "The industry has been waiting for this technology for years," he continues, "and has been anxious for it to become a 'real' piece of gear. As for a first-time application, we [Audiotek] tried to determine what show would not be 'mission critical,' but none of our shows will accept failure, no matter how graceful. The GRAMMYS has the highest requirements. Plus," he adds, "it's live television. You can't rewind and fix mistakes."
To expedite set changes, the show setup consisted of two complete stages, left and right. "Both had two PM1Ds," explains Harmala. "They were set up as redundancy, with a main and a backup; each was loaded with 96 analog inputs and 32 analog outputs. Once the artists finished their rehearsals, the operator could then take the PCM-CIA memory card of the PM1D and write the settings to the main console. Then, the settings went to the backup and were duplicated, or 'flashed,' so the boards were in sync. The artists brought in about half of their own monitor mixers; Audiotek personnel covered the rest. Logistically, they really simplified things. At last year's GRAMMYs, we used 14 PM4000-52Ms, to do the same job that two PM1Ds covered. Fortunately, the backup boards were never needed but provided assurance that in the case of any problems, the show would go on." He continues, "The boards were so clean and quiet, it was shocking. The engineers got to use all the capabilities of the board: the inputs and mix busses, the on-board effects. Sometimes they really didn't have a choice. For instance, one of our first acts, Christina Aguilera, required a full console, right off the bat." The front of house area included a mix of analog and digital consoles, with a Yamaha PM4000 as the main production hub. "For music, we had an Amek Recall and a Innovason as sidecar, per stage," he continues. "Those boards landed into the 4K, which drove the PA system through its matrix." Effects at each front of house area included a selection of Yamaha SPX990, Lexicon PCM90 and TC M5000. The size of the Staples Center required a main PA and delays that consisted of a total of 7 line array clusters, 13 conventional clusters and two sub clusters. "There were four clusters of VDOSC across the front," he continues. "The outer set was 12 high, the inner 10 high. To the left and right of those clusters were two strips of EV MTL-4 sublows, each strip being 4 boxes deep." Three clusters of 8-high JBL Vertecs provided intermediate delay, while an upper deck ring delay system consisted of 13 clusters of Audiotek proprietary C6 3-way cabinets, each cluster having two boxes. All cabinets were driven with QSC Powerlight series 4.0 amps for mids and highs, with 9.0 providing power for the lows and subs. "We're in love with line array," he adds. "It solves so many 'TV' issues: less hardware in the air, better sightlines, lots of gain before feedback." System processing was handled by 13 XTA DP226, networked together via RS485, which allowed settings to show up on the systems engineer's laptop computer. "We controlled those with XTA AudioCore systems software," he adds. "This year, we had a wireless interface, utilizing a PenTab touch screen PC tablet, networked with the host computer, which allowed us to make final adjustments via wireless link from any seat in the house." Each stage's monitor setup consisted of an Audiotek drum sub (double 18") and 16 wedge mixes, a combination of Audiotek M5 (2 x 12-in. with a 2-in. horn) and M2 (single 12-in. with a 1-in. horn), all driven by Crown MA1200 and MA3600VZ. "We also had 14 sets of Shure 600 and 700 series wireless ears and 8 channels of hard line ears," Harmala adds. Audiotek provided over 150 microphones, including two Schoepps capsule combos and a Countryman omni for the production truck, all on custom mounts. Onstage multiway splits fed an Effanel truck for music, and a Denali Silver production truck, with Ed Green at the helm as production mixer. "Because of the large number of artists performing, Yamaha had the opportunity to demonstrate the PM1D to many of the industry's top engineers," added Larry Italia, national sales and marketing manager, Yamaha Commercial Audio. "We were pleased at how quickly the engineers got comfortable with the work surface and software on the PM1D." Representatives from Yamaha US and Japan were on hand to assist. "Everyone was pleased with the consoles," adds Harmala. "We're anxious to use them again and again." Configurable in both 48- and 96-channel versions with 48 mix busses, 24 matrices and 12 DCAs, the Yamaha PM1D system utilizes top-quality 28-bit A/D and 27-bit D/A conversion. Dual inputs on each channel provide 96 inputs for the 48-channel system (192 inputs on the 96-channel version). If more channels are required, adding a second digital engine (DSP1DEX) can expand the PM1D system to 384 inputs on 192 channels with 96 mix busses, 48 matrices and 24 DCAs. With a control surface at slightly over half the weight of comparable analog consoles, the compact configuration provides easy transport and positioning. Features include: total recall, undo, off-line programmability, central control, graphic parameter readout and an advanced user interface. Up to 1,000 scene memories can be stored. In the event of a control surface disconnect or power failure, the system will continue to pass audio. Console-to-stage audio and control signals are carried via one 68-pin cable and two Ethernet cables. Head amp gain trim settings are recallable and may be controlled via remote control. In situations where multiple control surfaces are used which share I/O (e.g., monitors, FOH and remote truck), the main DSP1D mix and processing engine may be configured with a simple switch to select which surface will control head amp gain. Additional channel features include a powerful virtual channel, four-band fully parametric EQ, dynamics processing on every channel, user-definable number of aux sends, effects processors and graphic EQs.
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