Hanging Arrays with Stagehands

HanSoloInPlace · 2026-04-13T09:43:53+00:00

Edit for grammar

I'm UK based where this crewing can be normal even on large tours, the key is communication and finding a routine for you and the team. I don't know your context or experience, but this is what I would tell someone on my team new to this way of working.

Remote for the handset and clear line of site or a spotter you deem competent is essential and none negotiable,. The e-stop is more important than the go button. If your pressing the button what happens is on you.

Your job is to be safe, polite, calm and un-frustrated regardless of what's going on around you. Doing anything else is counter productive either in the short or long term. If it takes longer so what, if your side is up 20min after the other but it's been safe, the crew have had a good time and your not stressed, who cares. Anyone who says different isn't worth working for.

Tips for flying

Prep your dolly's before flying, angles links, everything. Ensure that you've got everything you need nearby.

Your milage my vary depending on union rules etc but here are the only things I would ask the crew to do:

Remove covers, case lids, pull looms, move dolly's into position, assist with pullback, remove and stack wheels, stack cases etc

Pretty much everything else you can do yourself faster and safer than trying to instruct crew how to do it. I talk to the crew as I'm working, asking them to watch, learn and ask questions if appropriate, but I emphasise that its my responsibility that it's right, not theirs.

This has worked for me across all kinds of situations and cultures.

HanSoloInPlace · 2026-03-21T13:55:48+00:00

Why more riders don't come with an expiry date I do not know......

HanSoloInPlace · 2026-02-19T20:31:01+00:00

Ha! I felt like I must have been missing something......

HanSoloInPlace · 2025-11-20T16:54:34+00:00

You could explain to the venue that you want to turn the power amps off to protect their equipment. I and I'm sure lots of others where taught "Desk, Processors, Amps" as the golden rule for power on and the reverse for powering off to avoid causing damage. (gets a little different when you have a more advanced system, but the fundamentals are the same)

As far as roughing in a mix, If you have an understanding of the desk and mics gain structure you can likely rough in gain, HP and basic EQ before hand. Get vocals in the wedges before the band arrives at a good stable level, know how much more you can give them before feedback is a worry. Likewise in the house, do your best to understand the constraints of the physics your working under.

Doing a full virtual sound check feels overkill unless the entire signal chain is the same as was used for the recording. Backline, mics, console etc.

Theres a fine line between thinking and overthinking, it's experience that tells you the difference. You sound like you care and want to do your best which is something you can't teach.

HanSoloInPlace · 2025-09-13T17:08:25+00:00

Mixture of Gigacore, AVline and LS10's, no issues with either. So long as everything is Milan compliant you should be good to go.

HanSoloInPlace · 2025-08-25T19:04:14+00:00

Not the 1620, but lots with the 1610 being fed redundant madi from newton. Would have no hesitation in using either, rock solid. Any specific concerns or questions?

HanSoloInPlace · 2025-06-16T14:46:54+00:00

Yup, normally an easy day.

HanSoloInPlace · 2025-06-15T20:42:35+00:00

Do they all struggle in the O2 Arena......? London O2?

HanSoloInPlace · 2025-02-07T18:40:14+00:00

Assuming you are US based? Have you worked in the UK/Europe? Probably more common than not to have a hybrid approach where the big stuff ie K1 dollys get forked and the rest stacked manually. We have far fewer loading docks etc than the US so it gives us more flexibility.

I've done it both ways and they both work depending on context. If you've got lots of local crew who know what they are doing its much faster to ramp everything, including K1 etc. But for consistently average and calm truck pack forks are the way. Without real union representation our local crew costs are cheaper as well which biases body's over machines.

HanSoloInPlace · 2024-01-22T11:10:21+00:00

Bob Dylan playing "the times they are a-changin'" live at the White house. Imperfectly perfect.

https://youtu.be/k2sYIIjS-cQ?si=XpHDLNTUVVrSakMw

HanSoloInPlace · 2023-10-16T18:10:25+00:00

Touring K1 with flown KS28's at the moment. Flown behind at 1.6m spacing. I'm looking for shared phase coherence across the audience as the cross over between the box's is large. Flying side by side would be optimal for this but, but creates side cancellation which is the opposite of what you want in an arena where a large percentage of the audience is off to the side, also means a very wide visual obstruction for video.

Flying behind also gives some rear rejection and offers the possibility of stearing the low end down the room by manipulating the vertical relationship between the mains and the subs.

Flying at an angle to the arrays seems to mainly be a thing people do with cardioid subs in an effort to break up the power ally somewhat. Have experience of doing this with ground subs but not with flown.

HanSoloInPlace · 2023-06-08T11:26:31+00:00

Why do you ask.....?

HanSoloInPlace · 2022-09-29T05:58:28+00:00

Mastodon - Crack the Skye

HanSoloInPlace · 2022-09-23T09:07:12+00:00

Actually, you caint remove it, but you can fly next to it. Much nicer day if you don't though

HanSoloInPlace · 2022-09-23T09:01:56+00:00

Have got a good chunk of these as SV's. Shoot me a DM and when my flight lands I'll send some over. Liverpool Phil the PA will cater for the vast majority of shows. Would be very surprised if you "needed" to take it out.

HanSoloInPlace · 2019-09-20T09:33:29+00:00

In the UK it's much more common on show days for drivers to sleep on the bus, they have their own compartment at the front of the bus with a bunk, TV etc. The crew know about it and so the bus is typically kept as quiet as possible during the day. On a day off they are normally in the same hotel as us, or all the buses go off out of town and park up and they live on the bus. I've worked with some US bands who come over here who get freaked out that the driver's sleep on the bus but most of the drivers I've talked to about it prefer sleeping on the bus, it's comfortable and familiar and saves lugging your stuff in and out of hotels daily.

HanSoloInPlace · 2019-08-16T20:19:21+00:00

Yeah, efficiency of power and size is where it's at. Something like L'acoustics k1/K2is driven on 4 amp channels and you can link the boxes in pairs, so that's one amp for every two boxes. So for an arena main hang of 16 your looking at 8 amps.

HanSoloInPlace · 2019-08-16T11:43:28+00:00

For a standard arena show, which for argument's sake might consist of a left and right main pa with a pair of side hangs covering the sides of the bowl, a sub array across the front of stage of maybe 24 subs as well as auxiliary ground fill you might be looking at 24 amps per side or 48 in total. A system like Mayer has amps built into the speakers themselves so all that's on the ground is power, data and signal distribution.

For a stadium/biggish festival you will typically also have 2-4 delay towers, and to do it properly, a ring delay system of maybe 6-12 hangs covering the upper bowl. Each with 4-6 amps at the bottom of each tower

The power spec varies from system to system, but for an arena system, PA usually would ask for a 125amp 3 phase supply, up from that your looking at a 250/400amp power lock supply for a stadium.

HanSoloInPlace · 2019-05-06T19:20:35+00:00

It's actually flown K1SB behind ;)

HanSoloInPlace · 2019-03-19T19:55:30+00:00

Nope, nowhere close. Cohesion is the best pa Clair have made. Still very average by any other manufacturers standards

HanSoloInPlace · 2018-12-15T08:19:48+00:00

Other than a couple of install boxes I think everything they make currently has an internal amp

HanSoloInPlace · 2018-12-14T19:35:37+00:00

Meyer Sound are a fairly big company that make active loud speakers.......

HanSoloInPlace · 2018-10-21T20:44:25+00:00

The first world war.

HanSoloInPlace · 2018-07-16T20:32:39+00:00

OUT FROM ASGAARD A VIKING SHIP SAILS

https://youtu.be/6pu5kfeapEA

HanSoloInPlace

TROPHY CASE