Blue Man Group gained national recognition after establishing a production in Las Vegas in 1999, and currently maintains long-running shows in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Berlin. The Blue Man Group team, led by sound designer and supervisor Ross Humphrey, who has been responsible for the sound design of all of the group's productions since 1999, originally specified another speaker processor. According to Radu: "Their own audio design team has a standard template for all their shows. We switched over to Lake units for our own use and we were really satisfied with them. So we decided to introduce the Blue Man Group audio design team to the Lake product."
Radu believes the group's one-of-a-kind performance is perfectly showcased by the Lake control system. "The show has a large dynamic shift in performance material throughout a very broad spectral range," says Radu. "The instrumentation of Blue Man Group is unique. The sonic transparency of the Lake control system really lends itself well to transient attacks associated with such instrumentation."
Radu indicated that he has been impressed with the Lake units. "The Lake equipment really lets you finesse the sound like no other processor," he said, singling out for particular mention the Mesa EQ Parametric Overlay, which uniquely offers independent control of a filter's slopes. "Sonically," he said, "I think the Lakes sound far superior to any other DSP speaker controller."Also of particular note, he continued, is the interface with SmaartLive, the network capabilities that allow for wireless tablet PC control.
At the state-of-the-art Panasonic Theatre, which was custom-built for Blue Man Group and is operated by Clear Channel Entertainment, one of the Lake Mesa Quad EQs handles the main left and right line arrays plus the subwoofers. The other unit controls all the front-fill, under-balcony, and under-balcony subs. A Lake Contour processes three levels of stereo rear speakers, which are used for surround effects.
The units, originally set up at the Panasonic Theatre using a PRAM serial server and wireless tablet control, are now installed with hard-wired computer control. Lake Technology distributes PRAM Technologies wireless data and control products, including the WSL-2E Wireless Serial Link, worldwide.
PA Plus takes a similar setup on the road with its corporate and broadcast clients and music tours, Radu explained. "We have a computer rack that we send out with our bigger shows. It has a hard-wired computer with a server, a wireless unit, and the tablet. The rack also contains controls for a Smaart system that is integrated with the Lake system via Lake's SmaartLiveController. We can run the system from the computer built into the rack, and we can also log on as a secondary controller with the tablet or use the tablet as the primary controller." For PA Plus, which has been in the business of audio production system rental, sales, and installation for 25years, the arrangement allows system engineers to bring control of more than one system onto either of the computers, the company says.
(Lee Baldock)
