It’s not easy to get hold of Mike Scarfe, principal of MHA Audio in the Washington DC metro area and surrounding states, because he and his crews are always busy working.

Having completed the challenge of providing broadcast quality audio in a variety of different venues for the Bush campaign (see Sidebar), MHA Audio capped off the process with more high-calibre audio for A Celebration of Freedom, the opening celebration of the 2005 Inauguration outdoors on the Ellipse, just beyond the south lawn of the White House.

The star-studded event included American Idol winner, Ruben Studdard, who sang the National Anthem, CSI NY star Gary Sinise who introduced the salute to America’s space programme and the Apollo astronauts with moving testimonials from Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Musical artists included the Gatlin Brothers, Kenny Chesney, Patti LaBelle, Yolanda Adams with the Eastern High School Choir of Washington, DC and opera singer, Andrea Bocelli. After President Bush and Vice President Cheney addressed the audience, fireworks sparkled above the White House and the Washington Monument.

Mike Scarfe designed the audio system and worked as production manager for this event in conjunction with Blayne Candy and Ajay Patil, owners of Showcall, Inc — and George Schlatter Productions, the event producers.

The sound system was designed for an audience of 65,000 on the Ellipse and consisted of a full complement of Martin Audio line array with 40 x W8L cabinets in the main L/R hang and 24 x W8LC’s distributed in four groups of six for the delays.
Nine Martin Audio WSX horn loaded subs were deployed each side of the stage and used to great effect during the video segment saluting the Apollo astronauts. In addition, two Martin W8C enclosures were used for front fill.

All speakers were driven by Martin MA4.2s power amplifiers and controlled using XTA DP226 processors via XTA Audiocore. The delays received their signal via Lectrosonics Digital 400 Series wideband UHF systems. Monitor speakers were either Martin Audio LE700 or LE12JB, all Crown driven.

FOH engineers were Trueman Montfort, Jr. and Charlie Emmons; monitor engineers were Bruce Nelms and David Colella. Robert Bowers, Keith Suffecool and Chuck Wells were the stage crew.

Winning The Challenge of Campaign Audio

Charged with the responsibility of providing exceptional audio for both the broadcast feed and the live event in a number of widely different venues for the Bush campaign, MHA Audio in conjunction with Delicate Productions of Camarillo, CA provided Martin Audio sound systems for four teams, each with two semi’s.

The fact that the audio had to be clear and articulate was a given. The system was designed to cover venues ranging from town halls, city parks, airfields, arenas and football stadiums of up to 10,000 people inside and up to 20,000 people outdoors. Most of the events, which averaged two per week, were rally style, held outdoors with the speakers stacked four to six high on 6 ft. high platforms. The speakers were stacked on the ground initially and then lifted into place using a fork lift (being able to fit 20 x W8LC’s in 3 feet of the truck was also a bonus). Part of the challenge was to keep the speakers out of camera shot.

The standard procedure for the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) is for them to receive all incoming signals related to the President which consists of two Shure SM57’s from the podium, two from the Instant Replay (announcements and rope line music) and two for offstage announce. WHCA then sends two feeds, one main and one backup to the sound company. In addition WHCA sends feeds to the White House over a secure phone line, another one to the press room and one more to a monitor backstage in the offstage holding area.

“We couldn’t have done it without the Martin W8LC line array,” said Mike Scarfe.