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TECHNICAL FOCUS: INSTALLATIONS

Brad Paisley’s setup for Live from the Drive-In.

Drive Up, Plug In, and Play

By: Dan Daley

Drive-in and parking-lot concerts bring The very first drive-in theatre was a hybrid: a cinema auditorium in Las a semblance of normalcy to a COVID- Cruces, New Mexico seated 700 moviegoers, but parking spots for as disrupted concert industry many as 40 automobiles within the n a m e e r F

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p o T Above and opposite: Outside Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

68 • September 2020 • Lighting &Sound America grounds were positioned to allow occupants to also comfortably view the films. This was in 1915, so sound was not an issue. Fast forward a century or so and sound is a huge issue for drive-ins, as this quintessentially American institu - tion, which had seen its numbers dwindle from over 4,000 in its mid- century heyday to fewer than 350 or so today, finds itself literally at center stage as a primary venue for live music in the midst of a pandemic. As clubs and music halls shut down to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the live-music sector, which had become the main moneymaker for the music business as recorded-music sales and royalties were decimated by streaming and other online distribution The parking lot at Ruoff Mortgage Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. modes, found itself scrambling for any form of revenue it could find. Zoom and Facebook Live shows from artists’ ered. Then on May 14, country star In fact, it was that performance, at basements and front porches quickly Keith Urban showed that a drive-in the Stardust Drive-In Theatre in proliferated but simply didn’t have the theatre was just what the doctor Watertown, Tennessee that’s now con - impact that an in-person concert deliv - ordered. sidered the foundational performance

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of what’s become the drive-in concert rig comprising five K2 tops and four mix was on a matrix, so we had PA phenomenon. That show, kept a SB28 subs per side, stacked on either control and FM control,” Demonbreun closely held secret ahead of time, had side of the flatbed trailer. “There was explains. “The real challenge with that a limited audience of doctors, nurses, no rigging,” he says, “so we had to was, at what point to delay the FM to and other front-line medical workers stack them, and we were going to go the PA? What Roz and I did was delay from Vanderbilt University Hospital in with six boxes per side but there was the FM transmission to where the PA Nashville, about 40 miles to the west. a limit to how high we could go with coverage started falling off. That way, But the ad hoc spectacle was some - just the three of us moving the boxes people in the back could tune in and thing that would have been familiar to onto the trailer.” not have too much of a time Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in smear. We figured most people in the their classic lets-put-on-a-show-in- Tuning the drive-in middle to front would be outside of the-barn! musicals. Demonbreun, who had been sched - their cars in their sectioned-off area. In “It was put together on the fly, so uled to go on the road with Rage a perfect world, we would have been last minute—I’d never heard of anyone Against The Machine earlier in the year able to fly a system and then have doing a concert at a drive-in movie followed by a fall tour with Urban prior some delays around the venue, but theatre or even thought about it until to touring’s global shutdown, says the the drive-in did not want to block the COVID came along,” recalls Chris drive-in venue posed some chal - big screen that was behind the stage.” Demonbreun, system tech for the lenges, including adjusting the sound- scaled-down L-Acoustics K2 system area coverage to account for any Driving up supplied by the Nashville office of reflections from the parked automo - Parking lot shows—a “drive-up” Sound Image for the concert, which biles. “What helped, though, was that instead of a drive-in—are also was itself a scaled version of Urban’s we were on grass; it might be different becoming popular during the pan - stage show. Originally with just the in a [hard-surfaced] parking lot,” he demic, such as the one Brad Paisley artist and ProTools engineer Jeff says. “If I could do the show again and did in the Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Linsenmaier onstage managing back - could do whatever I wanted, I would Stadium parking lot in July. With plen - ing tracks on a flatbed trailer in front of have a flown PA with some delays ty of sports venues as empty as the the theatre’s outdoor screen, Urban’s around the parking area.” music venues, they offer the opportu - second guitarist and keyboard player Demonbreun says predictive soft - nity for a big stage with a flown PA Nathan Barlowe joined in at the last ware helps lay out coverage designs— and video walls flanked left and right, minute, all standing 10' apart. It he uses Soundvision for L-Acoustics Demonbreun says. In many ways, caught the imagination of a nation PAs—and in this case each box had these concerts are business as usual, starved for live music and would its own amplifier beneath it, so he though often scaled down in certain become the template for what Live made extensive use of the LA Network ways. When singer Jon Pardi did his Nation, the world’s largest concert pro - Manager’s Air Compensation EQ tool, Live From The Drive-In show from the ducer (and thus the company bearing designed to provide a single gain set - parking lot of the Ruoff Music Center the brunt of live music’s sudden shut - ting to control the shape of a linear- near Indianapolis in July, front-of- down, with its Q2 2020 YoY revenue phase FIR filter, re-establishing the house mixer Colin Street had a falling by a heart-stopping 95%) would original frequency response of loud - respectable 24-box L-Acoustics left- quickly formalize as Live From The speaker enclosure. “In long-throw right K1 system to work with, provid - Drive-In, a limited-run concert series applications, high-frequency propaga - ed by Mid-Sound America, with as made for social distancing that includ - tion can be strongly affected by air many smaller K2 boxes for two rows ed shows by Brad Paisley, Jon Pardi, absorption,” he explains. “The Air of left-right fills, necessitated by the Nelly, Darius Rucker, and others at Compensation tool smooths it out so widely spaced array of cars that com - drive-in theatres and other various that no one close to a box gets annihi - prised the audience. What was differ - venue parking lots in Nashville, lated by the high end, because you’re ent for him was the Midas M32 con - Indianapolis, St. Louis, and elsewhere. not overworking the high-end drivers sole Pardi’s crew brought to this Working with front-of-house mixer in the PA.” (Demonbreun has meas - show and one in the Nissan Stadium Roz Jones and monitor mixer Joe ured these shows’ volumes at about parking lot, another in the same Calabrese, Demonbreun (a descen - 99dB, A-weighted, peaking around series, instead of the larger Yamaha dant of one of Nashville’s 18th-century 101dB.) PM7 he usually uses. founders who shares his often-mispro - But in true drive-in fashion, the “The actual shows aren’t very dif - nounced surname with a main thor - audio was also being delivered, via an ferent to mix,” he says, and are made oughfare in the city) used L-Acoustics’ FM transmitter that radioed in the even less so by the fact that many of Soundvision software to position a K2 audience’s cars. “The front-of-house these shows aren’t using FM trans -

70 • September 2020 • Lighting &Sound America e n i l e g a t S f o y s e t r u o C

: o t o h P Mobile stages, such as this Stageline SL100, have become popular with Christian music tours, Kordyjaka says.

missions to car radios as they are tanced as much as possible, and we recalls of the abbreviated Live from when done in actual drive-in theatres. made sure hand sanitizer was every - the Drive-In shows. “Keeping every - “What is different is that we’re trying where. We all took as many precau - one socially distanced isn’t that hard, to scale back the production we tions as possible.” considering how few of us there are.” carry, to bring our overhead costs While seemingly every crew mem - Live Nation’s protocols for the audi - down, so everyone can get paid.” (A ber on tour has a second and some - ence were also comprehensive: As reminder that these unique kinds of times even third backup on the road attendees drive up to the gates, shows are not being done for the during normal times, the role of crew they’ll scan their tickets through sake of novelty, and that musicians safety supervisor has yet to be for - closed windows; cars and their tail - and touring AVL crews have largely malized. Kevin Freeman, Brad gating zones are in a checkerboard been without work since the spring.) Paisley’s longtime front-of-house pattern, giving each party at least 9' Street says the smaller console isn’t a mixer and production manager, had of separation from one another. problem; the band has cut its stage taken on that task to some extent for However, in the wake of recent back to 32 inputs, and he uses a drive-in shows, though he says Live shows that have drawn attention of Universal Audio UAD-2 Live Rack to Nation has done a very good job of the wrong sort, such as country artist keep his processing at the level he having sanitizers, masks, and other Chase Rice’s mostly mask-less con - needs it to be. “We’re just making the salubrious items on hand ahead of cert during which the tightly packed most of what we have,” he says. time, along with frequent touchless crowd was singing and jumping as temperature checks. The fact that the Rice urged them on from the stage Keeping it safe company has also provided sound, (eliciting pointed criticism from peers What is common to all of these drive- lights, and video at most of those such as Kelsea Ballerini), and EDM in and parking lot shows is the need to shows also meant that Paisley’s crew duo the Chainsmokers’ now-notorious keep musicians and crews safe. “The numbers were significantly reduced. Long Island drive-in fundraiser that challenge we faced was, first and fore - “We had just our front-of-house and drew Governor Andrew Cuomo’s most, safety,” says Demonbreun. monitor mixers and techs and just the Twitter ire, artists themselves have “Everyone wore a mask, we social-dis - LD and the video director with us,” he become more aware of their responsi -

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bilities in the effort to keep everyone Brothers Drive-In Concert , with the but instead it was ‘an evening with,’ so healthy. Freeman points out that while band set up on the speedway’s back - they were onstage immediately,” he Paisley’s scaled-down crew of about a stretch straightaway on a custom recalls. “It made me realize that these dozen already had plenty of room stage into which SES integrated light - kinds of shows may have to be aboard their two buses, the artist nev - ing. There wasn’t a conventional PA approached more like festivals for ertheless added two more crew system because, he explains, the lighting,” which, for him, included coaches to the convoy. “Brad is depth of cars in the lots would require more blinders and strobes to compen - adamant about keeping everyone a slew of delay towers that could sate for the daylight, along with the healthy,” he says. impede sight lines to the video wall. usual complement of washes and “And at these distances, you’re basi - spots. “Just more eye candy and twin - Drive-up shows getting cally watching the show on the screen, kle. And I’ll have to be ready to adjust bigger so the synch issues for live sound as the amount of daylight changes The rapid and radical shift from con - would have been way too much,” he during the show.” ventional music-performance venues says. “An FM broadcast is the best Video is also finding its ways of to parking lots and drive-ins has been solution for this. But at least it’s live accommodating the drive-in/drive-up jarring at times, not unlike the way music again.” concert phenomenon. Travis Walker, music’s own standard equation went director of operations at Nashville’s from touring to support a new album Lights and video Moo TV, says image magnification to using that album to promote con - While many drive-in/drive-up concerts remains the cornerstone shot for cert ticket sales. At the same time, are kicking off during the summertime music shows, but that as the audience there have also been more than a few cocktail hour, that seminal Keith Urban is spread further apart in cars, more of similarities. Jeff Cranfill, a founding concert at the Tennessee drive-in the - the big picture finds its way to the partner and VP at Special Event atre waited till dusk for its downbeat, main screens. “More wide shots,” he Services in Winston-Salem, North which gave Anthony “Geddy” says. “It’s becoming more like a TV Carolina and Nashville, muses that the Kordyjaka, design manager for Premier show production.” Added delay FM transmission SES was in the Global Production (PGP)—provider of screens around the parking lots to process of setting up for the Avett staging and lights for the show—a supplement the 45'-by-200' Hox 3mm Brothers’ August 29 show from the chance to do some actual lighting. He screen used at the Nissan Stadium Charlotte Motor Speedway wasn’t set up four small towers in front of the shows help viewers who have to park much different from the way they’ve trailer stage hung with ETC Source on the fringes of lots, or if the terrain used FM radio to propagate sound for Four LED Lekos and SGM P-10 lumi - elevation isn’t cooperative. large outdoor church services. And naires focused on the band, with sev - Media crew sizes have been smaller much of the video and lighting is eral Chauvet Professional COLORado in the age of COVID-19; often, just the already in place in these venues, such 2 Zoom LED washes facing the audi - video director and server as the 200'-wide-by-80'-tall 720p ence and six Portman Lights P3 fix - technician/playback operator for the Panasonic video wall that was the tures that provided what Ross Carbonite switcher and Green backdrop for the Avett Brothers’ show, Kordyjaka describes as a “nice tung - Hippo Amba media servers. Ironically, filled with IMAG images from multiple sten look,” adding a sepia tone for the Walker says that means in some cases cameras by the band’s regular video acoustic numbers. PCP also provided they have to use larger tents for video provider. SES was retained as the pro - three robocams on stage that were production—their work space at the duction provider for an actual drive-in switched using a disguise media serv - Nissan Stadium parking lot shows was theatre, the Drive at Winston-Salem er, which was routed on fiber around a 10'-by-30' tent, half again as big as Fairgrounds, a recently opened, social - the perimeter of the drive-in property they’d usually bring to space people ly distanced bespoke outdoor cinema to the theatre’s own projector and then and workstations further apart. created by and for the pandemic. “We onto its screen. “It was a small kit, but get calls all the time to do lighting and we got a lot out of it,” he says. An uncertain future projection, to bring power distribution, Jacob Mueller, Jon Pardi’s lighting Drive-in theatres were experiencing a bit and align and weatherproof a projector and video director for the last four of a revival in recent years, a renewed for outdoor video,” he says. “We just years, worked on both the Nashville novelty along with vinyl records and old- never got asked to do it for movie and Indianapolis Live Nation parking- school denim. But the pandemic has night.” lot shows. However, the Nashville shed a new light on them as music ven - Cranfill says while many of the skill show in the Nissan Stadium parking ues. The question is, will this application sets are similar, the scale is different. lot began at 8pm, which, in midsum - for them disappear with the arrival of a The Charlotte Speedway show hosted mer, means there’s still nearly an hour vaccine or will they establish themselves an estimated 1,800 cars for the quickly of daylight to go. “What surprised me as alternative music venues? Only time sold-out and prosaically named Avett was I was expecting an opening act, will tell, but some of those who have

72 • September 2020 • Lighting &Sound America used in conjunction with their installed enue generators. “We’ve had three projection systems. But the trend Christian-music tours out with our seems fleeting, he feels. However, the [Stageline] SL100 mobile stages doing reduced crew sizes and tighter logistics drive-in shows, so it’s something, any - that it entails will likely be with us for way,” he says. “Personally, I’d rather some time to come. “Budgets are stay home and pay to watch a going to be reduced, at least for the livestreamed concert and turn up the short term,” he believes. “We may also stereo as loud as I want.” get used to working with more local Mueller expects that crew health crew members, like stagehands, concerns will outlast the pandemic, instead of taking them out with us, and with wipedowns of consoles and other we may be asked to do the same level high-touch surfaces being a routine of work with fewer people.” protocol for years to come. But the Kordyjaka, at Premier Global current environment will also be a time Production, which has partnered with for learning new skills and systems— a remote-production broadcast com - venues and producers like Live Nation Colin Street, front-of-house mixer for Jon pany to turn its Nashville warehouse have been providing far more of, and Pardi. into a live-streaming studio, also often very different from, the audio, doubts the economic sustainability of video, and lighting packages for these found themselves working in these these kinds of shows long-term, noting shows than the artists typically carry. unlikely concert halls wonder what their that many promoters, who are the “You have to adapt when that hap - lasting effect might be. event impresarios, seem less than pens, and that means changing your Walker says he’s had inquiries about thrilled by their ROI even as many thought process,” he says. “And that drive-in theatre shows, mostly asking artists look to them more to maintain can be a good thing.” about camera packages that would be visibility during lockdown than as rev -