The Verge: Patrick Baltzell has been the sound engineer for most of America’s most-watched events in the past few decades. He’s sitting alone in the convention halls of NAMM, a trade show for the music making industry. Though I instantly recognize his signature thin frame and curls of white hair, no one looks as Baltzell stands to greet me with unbridled enthusiasm. It’s likely everyone in this room has no idea who he is. But Baltzell was not only in charge of the audio for the past 19 Super Bowls (excluding this year’s) — he also currently designs and mixes sound for the Grammys, Oscars, and presidential inaugurations.
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The Super Bowl Halftime Show is one of the biggest, brightest, flashiest, most expensive spectacle existing in America at this time. It is so coveted by artists and designers, even Lady Gaga said in her documentary, “GAGA: Five Foot Two,” that her Super Bowl performance would be the biggest performance of her life, and that it would not get any bigger than that for her. That just makes this construction and deconstruction even more impressive. The set, lights, etc. are all so huge and complicated, but they are engineered to be set up and taken down in a matter of minutes. These workers look like ants in the video, a hive mind of people working together to quickly and efficiently accomplish this goal. Knowing how unpredictable lighting and sound can be sometimes, I can really appreciate the amount of work and planning I know it took for someone to make sure that the design would work without a doubt when it was put together that day.
I always love seeing how shows get assembled and the super bowl is particularly true of this because of their limited time. However, when I think about set up, my mind typically goes straight to scenic and then lights. I have never put much thought into sound and their set up and concerns. They are arguably the ones that make the most sense though. The whole point of concerts and other performances where singers come in is to hear the music. The lights and the stage and everything add so much more but personally I’m just there to hear the music. This article really pointed out that sound is so much more than many realize. He explains that things like placement, height, and other such factors are vital because of what experience it will give the audience. Speakers blocking someone’s view can be highly important because everyone wants to see the show but at the same time, everyone wants to hear the show too. So that compromise is so important and something not many really think about. On the other hand, everyone thinks about the lights as one comment that can be heard at any event nowadays is: “and those lights!”
It is unreal that the same person has been running sound for the super bowl for the past nineteen years. I mean, it makes sense that it’s been that way since the design teams seem pretty consistent, but now I’m wondering how he got into this job twenty years ago. I couldn’t find the information of how he got started in this article, but I can imagine his process for picking an assistant and protégé must be pretty intensive. I’m also interested in the different people he works with, like if the lighting person has been the same every year and if the same scene shops are commissioned every year. I’m also wondering if the impact of doing the super bowl the same way every year is at all hindering the advancement of the shows as time goes on. I understand they have a system and it works, but maybe some more flexibility should be added.
After watching the superbowl this weekend I was super curious how they were able to set up the entire stage, lights, and sound system for the show in such a short amount of time. I think about shows and the long process it takes to get to the final performance. There are months of design meetings and plans made before the concept is even created and then more months troubleshooting all of the possible problems and outcomes. Even then the show has to be set up a week in advance to make sure everything runs smoothly in place before exposed to the audience, and yet part of that process is eliminated by the six to seven minute set up time before the performer is out there for the thousands of present people and the 180 other countries watching through their screens. I can’t imagine how stressful and satisfying going through an experience could feel like.
20 years... WOW, Someone is either playing the job security card really well or the people running the Superbowl really aren't looking very far for new sound engineers. I refuse to acknowledge that there are people just as qualified in the world to be able to do that job. I get that after having done it so long he is able to understand the ins and outs of creating one of the most logistically challenging performance in the worlds but to also have the Grammy's and the presidential inauguration in his pocket makes it absolutely absurd. This looks to be one of the big issues in theatre and the entertainment industry these days the competition doesn't know how to necessarily separate itself people just stick to what they know and see from others so they don't tend to stray from the familiar and what they know. This is how young professionals then struggle to get to these levels and into these jobs because without someone stepping down there isn't a way for others to get these jobs.
I’m not a big sports person, so the best part of the superbowl for me are the commercials and the halftime show. And this year I’m just going to tell you that neither of them were that impressive (some people would disagree with me though). The one impressive thing about the halftime show this year was the load in and strike. It was cool sitting in a room with all DPs (the freshmen all watched it together) and seeing everyone’s excitement about how they wanted to be on the run crew for the superbowl. I think now that we have all seen a load in and a strike and have witnessed first-hand how much work that takes it is even more impressive that the super bowl team is able to accomplish the grand scale of that performance in only six minutes. The logistics and the rehearsal just for load in and strike must be insane.
There are two sides to that. The first is the site itself, the nuts and bolts. That starts in June for a Super Bowl in February. We make our first site survey in June [to] take a look at the big picture of the space. Where are we going to put broadcast trucks? Where are we going to put the audio compound where we build all the speakers? And we have to have trailers that are offices. We figure out inside the stadium where we’re going to ultimately put amplifier racks where we can store the speaker carts. We have to put the whole show on the field in six minutes.
When I was watching the super bowl with my non school of drama friends they were making fun of how amazed I was when the halftime show came on and the field had turned into a concert venue. In six minutes, the field was covered in staging, lights, cable, all of it. It was clear that the stage came in as huge chunks, but where do they store those chunks? Are they just sitting under the stadium waiting for halftime or is there some set up we don't see in this video or right before halftime. I was most impressed this year by the bridge JT walked out on from the second level. Not knowing that it just rolled in place as I do from watching the time lapse from this year, I was amazed at how they installed that thing and the ramp in no time at all. That was also a cool effect to begin with, having him walk out from the second level. Really some great engineering went into this project and I think it would be great to work on something like this some time.
I have heard people talk about how the set of the Super Bowls Halftime Shows need to go up in 6 minutes or less multiple times, but to be honest never considered what effect that this would have on the sound of such shows. Whether it’s my limited experience with sound or that I very probably have a biased towards the scenic elements of a show, it just never really crossed my mind. But this article is truly fascinating in just how they go about preparing for the Super Bowl Halftime Show and the level of detail that they go into. I really liked how he knew why some stadiums would not want to much sound treatment in them and while he said it’s difficult to work in those stadiums he understands it primarily a championship game not solely a concert. This article gives great insight on the work that goes into these shows even if this article focuses on just the sound aspect of the puzzle, it’s pretty damn cool.
Sound is a tricky situation. It’s temperamental and people only notice it when something goes wrong. I love that the article mentions that sound is the last to be thought about but the first to be criticized because that is completely true. Except in cases of music halls, most buildings are not built with acoustics in mind and sound designers and engineers are meant to just “deal with it.” For this reason, I will always appreciate the work that goes into audio. As for the Super Bowl, that is amazing that everything is set up within six minutes. Not just the sound portion but the sets as well watching the Super Bowl last Sunday made me appreciate production value even more and praise the people behind the scenes. Just to think that there is a person behind each speaker and platform makes me appreciate the magic of the transformation from field to concert even more.
I love hoe specific and detailed this interview was. I have always wondered about the size of the entrances, how much of the set and equipment can be pre-assembled, and how the whole process works, and this article answered all of my questions and more. I especially thought that the video was very cool to watch, actually getting to see the process of this huge event going up. Even in normal theaters, there never seems to be enough time for getting everything up and running, but in this case, there really isn't, but somehow they have to make it happen. I also really enjoyed reading about various artists and their preferences, and how they have to deal with outrageous or out-there requests. I also always wondered how much of the show is recorded versus live, and it was really cool to read about how that whole process works from someone that is actually right in the middle of it.
The Super Bowl half time show must be one of the highest stakes live performances in this country. I mean, can you imagine the pressure of doing the tech for a show that will only be performed once, to one hundred million people. Of course people noticed when she missed the first word to the national anthem. That is a big deal. It must be so difficult to make those calls as a sound engineer for that show. You only have one chance to get it right and then it is gone. I have always been really impressed with the crew's ability to set everything up and strike it so fast. It is really quite impressive how much orchestration that must take of such a large group of people. Their stage manager does not have an easy job either for sure. I can not imagine how difficult it must be to get that many people to work perfectly in tandem with one another.
It always blows my mind that the set-up crews for these shows are usually all volunteers, and I really wonder why a person would do that to themselves. I mean really, what do you get to do at the end of the night. You get to wait for half the game in a parking lot or maybe a cramped hallway with a metric shitton of gear, rush out and set up your particular reduced piece of gear at a very specific spot, then I guess you can be one of the crowd that is one the field and watches Justin Timberlake's underwhelming performance from a shitty angle? You don't even have the opportunity to become a meme like that kid with the cellphone next to Justin Timberlake. No, the real fun in this process would come from designing that rig, all the puzzle pieces that have to fit just so, very fast, with all the electrical connections done, nothing screwed up. I found myself looking for seams in the platforms, just hints at where they could be broken apart. I guess that's where i really get my kicks.
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