View Unit : Live Sound Engineering: FOH

Produce a sound reinforcement plan for a professional Front of House PA system for a specific event with a minimum of 2 bands/acts detailing the following:

a. the nature of the venue and the impact that has on the requirements of the rig;

b. available power supply;

c. FOH system specifications, components and placement;

d. time frame and scheduling, taking into to account venue accessibility on the day;

e. crew outline and their job roles;

f. stage specs/requirements of the acts;

g. an equipment inventory detailing outboard, leads mics etc.;

h. assessment of health & safety, risk assessment and public liabilities.

Manage the set up, and power down of a professional performance-level ‘front of house’ PA system at a specified event, in accordance with H&S regulations and safe working practices.

Run a ‘front of house’ system and outboard to provide live sound for at least two contrasting music acts meeting the following requirements:

a. effective communication with the musicians/acts during soundcheck, using monitor talk back facility where available, assessing the requirements of the musicians and responding appropriately;

b. sound check a full drum kit using a variety of microphones;

c. assess and apply compression/gating to control dynamics and limit bleed and feedback;

d. effective use of DI boxes to connect appropriate instruments e.g. bass, electro acoustic instruments etc;

e. mic-up electric guitar amplifiers where appropriate;

f. sound check vocals and any acoustic instruments using appropriate mics;

g. use of sub-groups to control multiple parts via one fader for example a full drum kit;

1.3 continued...

h. assess and apply different effects to aspects of the mix based on communication with bands or acts;

i. effectively refine the mix throughout the performances;

j. record an example of the mix each act as a 2-track soundboard mix;

k. adhering to safe working practices.

Evaluate the success of the event in relation to 1.2 and 1.3 using feedback from the musicians, other technical crew (where used) and audience and assess strengths and areas for development.