AudioMedia - March 2009 - (Page 19) The Recording Academy held its second annual Grammy Week event at The Village Recording Studios in Los Angeles coincident with the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. Celebrating the work of legendary music men Tom Dowd, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, Arif Mardin, and Jerry Wexler, the event was put together by the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, P&E Wing Senior Executive Director Maureen Droney and Co-Chair Glenn Lorbecki, along with the Village Studios CEO Jeff Greenberg and Co-Chairs, Producers Nile Rodgers and Jimmy Douglass. Shown are (l-r): Lorbecki, Droney, Joe Mardin, Rodgers, Douglass, Cheryl Dowd, Dana Dowd, Paul Wexler, Jimmy Jam, and Greenberg. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE RECORDING ACADEMY®/ WIREIMAGE.COM © 2009. PHOTO BY RICK DIAMOND and more clear, with every award show that I watch, that this is such an exceptional show. They don’t allow track performances; there’s no lip-syncing – hallelujah! It just sounds better and better every year.” ∫ Last year was the first time that the telecast was produced in 5.1 without a dedicated stereo mix, to dovetail with the infrastructure at CBS as the network made the digital transition. But, Neuberger noted, “For anyone listening in 2.0 on two speakers on their television, which at any given time is about 90 percent of the audience, that 2.0 mix is derived from the 5.1, which happens at your set-top box. So we have to transport a surround soundtrack from here to New York, to the satellites, to the cable head ends, to the home. But we have to have some confidence that the way we’re monitoring the downmix here is the way it’s getting to your home.” same crew, and the tried-and-true method. We were successful beyond expectations last year, both with the show and with awards that the show garnered, and we have the usual high expectations,” he said. Glenn Lorbecki, the Academy’s P&E Wing Co-Chair, was equally bullish: “It becomes more Music mixers (l-r) John Harris and Eric Schilling mixed alternate performances on the Digidesign ICON in the XM/Effanel L7 truck during the Grammy Awards telecast. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE RECORDING ACADEMY®/ WIREIMAGE.COM © 2009. PHOTO BY: JOHN SHEARER. “Despite the overwhelming number of performances this year, said Audio Co-ordinator Michael Abbott before the telecast, there’s no reason why the show shouldn’t be as good, if not better, than previous years.” Assistance from Dolby Labs was critical: “We are so lucky with the commitment Dolby has made to support this show. We really rely on Dolby and its engineers to set this up and match the CBS metadata parameters,” he said. Dolby also provided its LM100 measurement tool for each mix position, so that mixers could get an accurate view of the show’s dialnorm settings. That added one more level of confidence to ensure a more uniform and accurate signal, said Neuberger. Despite the over whelming number of performances this year, said Audio Co-ordinator Michael Abbott before the telecast, there’s no reason why the show shouldn’t be as good, if not better, than previous years. “It’s pretty much the This year, broadcast production mixer Tom Holmes also controlled the levels of the audience microphones, which were submixed separately in previous years. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE RECORDING ACADEMY®/WIREIMAGE.COM © 2009. PHOTO BY: JOHN SHEARER. AUDIO MEDIA MArch 2009 19 http://www.WIREIMAGE.COM http://www.wireimage.com http://www.zaxcom.com http://www.wireimage.com http://www.zaxcom.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.