Joe Foglia relies on Lectrosonics
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Joe and his own remote mobile production company, Southeast Audio ADR, have travelled the country to work on hits like Marley and Me, Scrubs, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. A lifetime Lectrosonics user, Foglia has recently adopted the all-digital D Squared line, including five DSQD four-channel receivers, two DCR822 compact dual-channel receivers, M2T transmitters for IFB, and an arsenal of all-digital and Digital Hybrid packs - the latter being receivable by the D Squared systems.
Foglia first entered the music industry a computer background. “I hooked up with a guy in technical school, Peter Yianilos, and later we found ourselves working at a firm building computers for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” he recalls. “We left at the same time to go work for MCI - not the phone company but the one that made 24-track tape machines and recording consoles. They were eventually bought by Sony, but Peter and I decided we wanted to put together a remote recording truck.”
This not only gave Foglia kung-fu-master expertise in listening, but also launched him into production and broadcast sound mixing in a practical sense. “When I worked at Criteria, they built another truck, and we did some live remotes for CBS, who were introducing live music into their New Year’s specials,” explains Foglia. “That’s where I first got experience in the different signal needs of different ‘customers’ - our own recording, broadcast, the live concert sound in real time, and so on. Some of what I already learned translated well.”
Foglia first switched to Lectrosonics equipment after wrapping his work on Miami Vice. “I had been using Sony through Miami Vice because it was state-of-the-art at the time. I had four channels and that was it,” he reminisces. “When Peter and I started moving over to other shows, we switched to the Lectrosonics 185s. Fast-forward to going to L.A. to do Scrubs. It was Glen Trew [of Nashville’s Trew Audio] who first got me to move to the original Venue system. We took over an actual hospital building for Scrubs, and the Venue worked flawlessly in that environment throughout the entire series. After we wrapped, I upgraded to the Venue2. At one time or another, I’ve had almost everything Lectrosonics makes.”
These days, the Dante compatibility of his DSQD receivers is just one Lectrosonics feature he finds indispensable. “Let’s say a scene is on top of a building and for some reason I can’t be up there,” Foglia explains. “My receiver rack is set up so that I can pull it from my main cart, send it up, and have them throw me one Ethernet cable to feed my Cantar Mini recorder and the laptop I run Wireless Designer on.”
Foglia, who upgrades his gear approximately every five years, recommends that young and beginning mixers seek out “the good stuff” on the pre-owned market - the good stuff being Lectrosonics. “Lectro is serious about what they do, but also one of the more accessible companies out there,” he praises. “They also almost never obsolete their products and stop supporting them - nearly all of their competition does that more much often. You’ve gotta take care of the people who take care of you, and Lectrosonics does. It turns on and works properly every day. What else can you say that about, besides a refrigerator you still have from 1979?”
