[ WM ] If the live sound industry in 2021 was a food , what would it be ?
Matt Lawrence : Layer cake .
Michael Lawrence : An overcooked grilled cheese sandwich . It could have been good , but ruined so easily .
Macpherson : Donuts , because you can ’ t eat just one .
[ WM ] What is the top trend you ’ ve seen in the live sound space in the last year ?
Brown-Cestero : I ’ m happy to see that Dante has become nearly ubiquitous . More clients are seeing that the flexibility it affords – if not now then down the road – makes it a “ no brainer .”
Michael Lawrence : By far the biggest trend that I ’ ve seen is a ‘ flattening ’ of low frequency tilt in system EQs . Having a more neutral tonality in the PA is a result of the huge increase of streaming and recording off of the console . When you take that bass energy out of the PA , you mix the correct tonality that you want in the console and that now translates everywhere you ’ re going to send that signal because the PA is not making the tonal contribution — the console is . We ’ ve seen PA tunings really flatten out .
Macpherson : Immersive audio — but approachable immersive audio . User-friendly and inspiring immersive audio is the future . We ’ ve been working to bring this kind of experience to concert goers , houses of worship , theaters , and live performances of all kinds .
McVeigh : Immersive sound seems to be getting traction with fairly strong possibilities of it growing with installs and some touring .
Sullivan : It ’ s been interesting to see an increased focus on new sounds and textures in the worship genre as the shift over to more streamed services took off . We ’ re all competing for attention with musical events like the Grammys and other world-class productions in some respect now . For instance , a simple piano sound might have sufficed before , but we ’ re seeing synth demand grow as folks want to be more creative and add new textures beyond the norm . And ofcourse , a trend to higher quality streaming mixes as built-in mixing tools in products like the Allen & Heath mixer line expanded and folks got their head around the new world of streamed services and events .
[ WM ] What technology is a must-hear for churches looking to upgrade their existing system ?
Brown-Cestero : I think line arrays are the way to go . Some of the smaller boxes on the market