Thursday, March 12, 2015
Live Sound: The Vesuvius Effect
Pro Sound Web: Way back in ‘79 (79 A.D, that is), when some of our pro audio industry veterans were just getting started, Mt. Vesuvius erupted, completely destroying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and killing an estimated 16,000 people in the process. You’ve probably read about this in a history class or seen a documentary about it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
The wireless spectrum auction was a huge deal at the theater I used to work at, they had 50 some odd mics operating in the ~650MHz range and were forced to change over most of them the last year I was there, in 2013. There was only one time when we briefly picked up the McDonalds drive through radio down the street, but it was funny. The effect that he talked about, the Vesuvius Effect is a problem in theater in more than just the sound department. In TD world, safety is too often overlooked on account of “that’ll never happen to me, I know what I’m doing.” Sometimes they are right and they do know what they are doing, there is a reason some people are able to do things that others are not able to do. But still, most issues happen when you think they wont.
I liked the idea of the Vesuvius effect, and I think that’s it’s a concept that is super important to people working in the theatre world. The technologies that we are using are always advancing and the next big thing keeps happening. It’s important for us to try to stay on top of that, especially when it means that the way we work is going to be affected. Whether that’s old equipment no longer being usable or safety standards hanging, it’s important for us theatre people to keep up to date on issues that relate to us. I guess that’s the logic behind the green page and forcing students to write comments each week, and it works. I’m a sound major, but I didn’t know that amps should only last around 12 years or that there’s going to be another round of frequencies being auctioned off. As far as the frequencies go I know that for the Wiz the wireless mics used were probably around ten years old, but they were still working fine. I wonder how much rental companies are going to be hurt when the frequencies that are available are cut. They’re going to have to replaces hundreds of thousands of dollars of gear. And are the old mics just going to become garbage because they’d be illegal to use? How does that work?
Although this article is specifically addressing sound technicians and designers dealing with the loss of possible frequencies to run wireless systems off of, the same principle of this “Vesuvius Effect” exists in all industries in which updating technologies fairly frequently is important. Yes, in sound this constant updating occurs very often, and with growing restrictions on frequencies from phone and broadcasting providers ever few years perfectly good technology can become obsolete rapidly, but this need to be aware of your equipment and the current parameters of the industry applies to all disciplines. Although everyone wants to get the most out of their equipment and wants to mitigate unnecessary expenses it is crucial that a company stays aware of the status of their equipment in relation the greater field. Nothing lasts forever and all technology will ultimately breakdown, fail, or become obsolete, with that in mind its imperative to account for this so you don’t get screwed over when something falls apart unexpectedly. Realistically larger companies should keep a contingency for updating technology and readily grow it as profits accumulate in order to account for the unexpected.
Post a Comment