Apologies for not having updated in a long time, the reason being, we were occupied with Gegar-U, a music competition sponsored by ICOM, scouting for Malaysia's finest youth band. The competition finals were held at PISA in Penang on August 17th which saw Wishing Well, a polished band from University Malaysia Sabah grab the first prize.

Since Gegar-U is now completed and ICOM was the music sponsor (technical & musical), I thought I'd share about the whole process involved in setting up for an event outdoor in relation to the Gegar-U. Live sound reinforcement needs a lot of planning and man power if you are travelling around and setting up for shows. Gegar-U is one example where bands all throughout Malaysia were competing and an ICOM band was playing too. Therefore, a crew with trained personnel is required for ensuring smooth production. Our crew consisted mainly of alumni, current audio production students and staff who helped out in various roles. There is an exciting feeling to it all i.e. setting up outdoor and travelling but at the same time it is also tiring and needs a lot of stamina.

I shall talk about the important aspects that surround any live sound setup and briefly explain their setup procedure.

ALL ABOARD!

Before the crew sets out on the road, the equipment has to first get to the venue for setup. A reconnaissance team or recce in short would normally have the venue checked for strategic positioning of stage, FOH and technical resources like power tapping, etc. either a few days before the event or for large-scale productions, months in advance.

Equipment being unloaded at a venue

The first team to arrive at any venue is the production crew since their job involves, at first, unloading the equipment and various pieces of gear. Unloading done, then starts the work of the assigned personnel, for example, laying out the snake, tapping power, stage setup, etc. These tasks involve personnel who are trained in the respective areas and can finish the task quickly and effectively.

Flights cases, racks, boxes towed under the stage

Any one personnel in the team who is slack or slow can stall setup. But this is the exciting bit, because everyone is working to an objective and to finish that within a specified period. The setup time for the ICOM Gegar U was around 2 to 2 and a half hours, sometimes, they could do it faster, some times slower.

WHAT'S GOT TO BE DONE?

Power

Power has to be tapped from a source, it can either be a gen-set on location or a three-phase unit where power can be provided for the entire production unit. Below is a picture of power being tapped from a three-phase point at a venue.

A three-phase, 62 amps power box would be suitable to accommodate the power amplifiers at least in the case of our ICOM Events setup and also the other power needs of the rig. These power boxes are connected with industrial size commando connectors which can be fitted to both ends, but in some venues there might not be the possibility of plugging into a three phase point. So in that case, power has to be tapped manually- meaning screwing the respective wires on the various points. There normally is a color code to follow when it comes to connecting the power leads. A three phase unit would have three main phases to be wired, ours is a European scheme and the color scheme is as follows:

Yellow: Earth
Blue: Neutral
Grey: Phase 1
Black: Phase 2
Brown: Phase 3

Commando Connectors

The box lying flat on the ground to the right is the power distribution box for ICOM Events