We now live in a very ‘do-it-yourself’ kind of world. Need a wall knocking down? Grab a lump hammer. Need a website? Sign up to WordPress and make one. Fancy a nice dinner? Grab a Jamie Oliver book and get cooking. Easy.
There are instances, however, where this isn’t the best idea. Take the sound requirements at an event, for example. On the face of it, you’d be forgiven for thinking it might be fairly straightforward; a microphone, couple of speakers, mixer, amp… done.
In some circumstances, that may well work fine. Particularly if the event simply requires a voice to be amplified for a short speech or if some background music needs to fill what would otherwise be a clinical conference room. However, this week, we were reminded of the benefits of live sound engineers at certain events.
We’ve been doing a lot of work for the police recently, most notably by live video streaming their public meetings. This week’s event was very similar, although our focus this time was very much on the sound.
The event itself was being filmed and featured representatives from all over the world. You don’t get much more important than the police, and, when they’ve got something to say, people tend to want to listen. Thus, simply setting up a microphone, PA and leaving it to its own devices simply wasn’t an option – the results could have been disastrous.
Amplified sound has an awful tendency to be unpredictable and inconsistent. It can get louder, quieter (particularly if the person speaking isn’t used to using a microphone) and that wonderful high-pitched wailing sound known as ‘feedback’ may well attempt to make an untimely appearance. A trained sound engineer can completely avoid these issues and that is exactly what ours did this week. Those speaking at the police event were able to be heard consistently, cleanly and our good old friend Mr Feedback was nowhere to be seen. The result is a professional showing all round.
Employing the services of a sound engineer is indeed another expense to bear in mind, but the benefits of investing in one far outweigh the cost. As with so many things we do at Precise, they are unobtrusive yet perform one of the most important tasks which help make an event a success – they could be the best investment you make.