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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => SR Forum Archives => Archived Threads => Topic started by: Doug Fowler on January 05, 2009, 11:18:16 AM

Title: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Doug Fowler on January 05, 2009, 11:18:16 AM
Tom Young wrote in another thread:


Quote:


So far there is no definitive "history of live performance sound" (book, website, whatever) and clearly this needs to be remedied.


I have registered historyofconcertsound.com (and .org, .net, etc) and have chosen to undertake this project.

There is nothing there yet, merely a parked domain.  Over the next few weeks I will get a skeleton web site up and begin a 'call for papers', or photos, or whatever anyone can contribute in an attempt to document this.

Yes, Donnie is sorely missed and would be on this like a junkyard dog IMO.

So, there it is.  I will be soliciting companies, manufacturers, and individuals in order to get this done.  I don't expect it to mature immediately so don't hold your breath.  Hopefully, some manufacturer will take it over at some point with a permanent place to live.  I have the domain(s) currently registered for five years.
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: John Roberts {JR} on January 05, 2009, 11:59:42 AM
I don't know if you want to cut this off at only musical performance, but large scale speech sound reinforcement goes back much earlier for large public events, etc.

My father worked in the early sound-for-film industry and I have a old book from his papers that was published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of moving pictures and 20th anniversary of pictures with sound.  This book was printed 2 years before I was born, so it's been a while. This book dates sound reinforcement in theaters back to the late 1920's.

In case folks don't know, the movie industry and need to outfit theaters with sound playback equipment was the engine that powered the modern sound reinforcement industry. Movie theaters needed relatively wide bandwidth and higher SPL sound reproduction that speech reinforcement.  Surely folks recall the  "Voice of the theater" loudspeaker design popular a few decades ago for early R&R SR.

Large arena musical sound reinforcement is a more recent phenomenon, but old enough that some of those pioneers are dying off, so timely now to start accumulating first person accounts whenever possible.

I recall my disappointment when the magazine editor I was lobbying to interview the older Rudy Bozak dragged his feet and Rudy died without a documented first person account. RIP.  In hindsight I should have interviewed him myself.

If you are friendly with any one connected with the early days, consider collecting some of their personal stories. It could be as simple as carrying a voice recorder to dinner the next time you see them.  

JR
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Bob Lee (QSC) on January 07, 2009, 02:27:23 PM
Excellent, Doug! I'll try to get in touch with Ted Leamy, Ken Lopez, Jim Gamble, and others for material.
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Doug Fowler on January 07, 2009, 03:23:33 PM
Thanks, Bob.  We will need all the cooperation we can muster.

I hope to be able to archive photos and other material, with credits, rather than put up a 'linkopolis' (thanks RA folks :-)

J.R. - that's a good point about speech reinforcement.  I will take anything relevant that comes my way.
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Tom Young on January 07, 2009, 05:02:09 PM
Great, Doug !

Let me know if I can help out.

We need this.
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Bennett Prescott on January 07, 2009, 10:29:32 PM
Doug,

Do you think that you could maintain a less-in-depth Wikipedia entry, too? There could be a link to your site in the supporting material, but that's the first place I always look when I want information.
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Chimene Stewart on January 08, 2009, 02:54:28 PM
Hi,

I'm the PR Manager at Meyer Sound and would be happy to help you as well with this project in any way I can.  Please let me know what you're looking for or need and I'll do all I can to help.

Thanks,

Chimene Stewart
PR Manager, Meyer Sound
chimene@meyersound.com
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Larry Robbins on January 11, 2009, 04:00:19 PM
The Second from the bottom pic is definitely Hanley gear and the guy on the right without shirt is Sam Baroda.  The Stadium Bleachers and the big front loaded bass cab and HF horn probably make it another gig.  I remember doing a Yankee stadium gig with Hanley using similar speakers in the mid 60's.
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Doug Fowler on January 12, 2009, 11:11:31 AM
Larry - Thanks for the info, and thanks for the PM.

Everyone: let's hold whatever info we have, or have access to, until I can get it up and running.

I am open to suggestions re: format for documenting this thing.

A Wiki might be very useful.

Ideas?  I think there should be a timeline, at the very least.
Title: dot ORG
Post by: Doug Fowler on January 12, 2009, 01:08:07 PM
I will make this a dot org site.  Dot com and dot net will redirect to dot org at some point.

fwiw (not much)

historyofconcertsound.org is the domain....
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Joe Shambro on February 19, 2009, 12:13:45 AM
Great idea, Doug!  I would definitely include both Bob Heil (we all know his background) as well as Marty Garcia at Future Sonics (the inventor of in-ear monitoring and a really brilliant problem-solver in pro audio).  They're two people who have some stories that all of us could benefit from.

Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Doug Fowler on February 19, 2009, 10:40:29 AM
Joe -

I will absolutely ask Bob to contribute.

I have not had time to do much of anything on the site.  Hopefully that will change down the road.  Mostly I wanted to get the thing started and hopefully generate some interest.

More later...

thanks
Title: Update
Post by: Doug Fowler on March 13, 2009, 10:31:37 AM
Bob Heil has agreed to give me access to his large collection of photos from 'back in the day'.

He's traveling right now, but when he returns I will get the photos and either put them on the web site, or link to his web site if he chooses to make them available there.

So far this thing is looking like a portal.  

I'm not sure exactly how to go about this.  I am open to any and all suggestions re: how to proceed.  I am wary of a Wiki because I feel it would be difficult to 'control', and could easily veer off into unintended directions.

I think everyone will be pleased with Bob's contributions.

FYI....
Title: Re: Update
Post by: Ben Franske on March 13, 2009, 10:45:57 AM
As someone who contributes quite a bit to Wikipedia I would really appreciate it if you could get Mr. Heil to release these photos to you under the Creative Commons Atrribution 3.0 or Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license so some could be reused on Wikipedia, especially by the Professional Sound Production editing group.

Photos like these are an important resource for learning about the history of sound production and it would be really nice to share them with as large an audience as possible.

Thanks for all your work on the site!

*edit: fix urls
Title: Re: Update
Post by: Doug Fowler on June 02, 2009, 04:08:59 PM
Yet another update:

My Joomla install fell over somehow and can't be recovered.

The site is back up as a blog, with new content courtesy of David Scheirman.
Title: New content online NOW
Post by: Doug Fowler on June 04, 2009, 12:01:55 PM
A big tip of the hat to David Scheirman for supplying the tip of the iceberg- many thanks.

Check it out at

http://www.historyofconcertsound.org
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Frank Schreiner on June 16, 2009, 05:14:21 PM
there's a photo pool on Flickr about vintage pa/concert sound equipment:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/586326@N24/pool/



Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Doug Fowler on June 16, 2009, 05:23:29 PM
Thank you Frank, I will include a link to this collection from my site.

Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: TrevorMilburn on July 28, 2009, 10:27:41 AM
Doug, here are some of my collection (many are the same as those on Flickr from the aerlier post) but I shall upload as many new ones as I can when I can.

http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t144/Jazomir/Speakers/
http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t144/Jazomir/ASS%20Speake rs/
http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t144/Jazomir/Knebworth/

Regards,
Trevor
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Doug Fowler on July 28, 2009, 02:52:23 PM
Thanks Trevor, I will update the web site soon.

cheers
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: TrevorMilburn on July 29, 2009, 07:10:06 AM
Doug some useful links - some of which are probably already listed.
Altec Lansing Professional Audio - Vintage Speakers
http://www.altecpro.com/products/vintage/index.htm#cabinets
St
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: James A. Griffin on July 30, 2009, 09:48:51 AM
John Roberts  {JR} wrote on Mon, 05 January 2009 10:59

I don't know if you want to cut this off at only musical performance, but large scale speech sound reinforcement goes back much earlier for large public events, etc.


Check out the "History" thread on Rupert Neve's site.  He was building portable PA systems used by Princess Elizabeth and Winston Churchill in the 30's and 40's.

http://rupertneve.com/company/history/1940/

Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: John Roberts {JR} on July 30, 2009, 10:20:45 AM
James A. Griffin wrote on Thu, 30 July 2009 08:48



Check out the "History" thread on Rupert Neve's site.  He was building portable PA systems used by Princess Elizabeth and Winston Churchill in the 30's and 40's.

http://rupertneve.com/company/history/1940/




Coincidentally my dad was sent over to GB in 1936 (by ERPI) to work on the newsreel film of King George VI 's coronation.

I think pioneering work on electrically amplified  SR may date back to circa WWI.

JR

PS: Interesting factoid.. I have a copy if the receipt and his steamship passage cost $375 round trip, not cheap in 1936 dollars.

Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Dave Unger on August 24, 2009, 01:56:14 PM
How about electro-mechanical and pneumatic amplifiers:

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/mechamp/mechamp. htm#ec

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/auxetophone/auxe toph.htm#path
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Leo Melkote on September 28, 2009, 04:52:28 PM
http://www.ashly.com/images/relics/hres/concertsound2.jpg

Ashly's history page also has some nice info

http://www.ashly.com/historicparade.htm
Title: Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: historyofconcertsound.com
Post by: Liam Halpin on January 09, 2010, 01:42:58 PM
Hi Guys, This idea is one that definitely needs some help!

I am audio technical manager for Entec Sound and Light, one of the oldest production companies in the UK, formed as a result of the owners running the marquee club and starting the reading festival.

My journalistic skills are somewhat limited, however if anyone wants to get in touch I could speak to our owner about an interview, Don't think she'd mind but I'd have to check first!

Drop me a message if its of interest

Liam