This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
OPINION


Sign up for your digital AM at www.audiomedia.com Supporting Sound Design


Consulting editor Jim Evans on the Tony Awards audio controversy, sound problems for World Cup broadcasters, and a fond farewell for Monty Python.


T e ASD said: “We were disappointed to hear of the decision by the Tony Award Administration Committee to remove the categories of Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical from their roster.


ASD hits back over Tony Awards


Good news that T e Association of Sound Designers (ASD) has issued an offi cial response to the announcement that the Tony Awards is to drop the two Sound Design Awards from its future programme.


“In 2008, Howard Sherman spoke on behalf of the American T eatre Wing and Broadway League to introduce the inclusion of these new categories, saying ‘We want to refl ect an evolution of the understanding of the sound designer’s role, both among artists and in the community at large. T is is not an award for placing a microphone somewhere. It’s about the creation of an aural environment that impacts our relationship to a production, just like any other design’. “Sound design has evolved further


T e FIFA World Cup Opening Ceremony was plagued by poor sound quality Credit: Danilo Borges/Portal da Copa


since 2008 and now is an integral, if not utterly essential, part of every show playing on Broadway. To absent sound designers and their work from the awards is a failure to respect the contribution that sound designers make as core members of a show’s creative team and the artistry that they bring to a show.


“We strongly encourage the Tony Awards Administration Committee to reconsider their decision.” An online petition to reinstate the Tony Awards for Best Sound Design, started by Tony-nominated sound designer John Gromada, has already attracted over 27,000 signatures and can be found here bit.ly/1hUseIR. Get writing!


World Cup Audio Own-Goal


Maybe we should rephrase this item as ‘Been T ere Before’. T e World Cup got off to a faltering start when poor sound quality left many television viewers unable to enjoy the opening ceremony. When Jennifer Lopez took to the stage to sing the offi cial FIFA song We Are One (Ole Ola) those inside the stadium were able to enjoy her singing, but the experience of many at home was hampered by ‘appalling’ sound quality. T e voices of Lopez and fellow singers Pitbull, the US rapper, and Claudia Leitte, a Brazilian pop star, sounding faint and ‘tinny’, according to the Daily Telegraph. A source at ITV, which broadcast the ceremony in the UK, said that it had ‘no control’ over audio levels because a single feed was distributed around the world. An ITV spokesman said: “T e sound problem... was caused by a technical issue with the host broadcaster, which provides the


12 July 2014


coverage of all the action at this year’s World Cup.”


Older readers may care to ease back 28 years to June 1986 and the World Cup Finals in Mexico, noted more for the fi rst appearance of the phenomenon dubbed the Mexican wave than for the quality of the football. It was, however, the poor TV sound quality that attracted the attention of both the national and trade press. It was all blamed on the ‘incompetence’ of the local broadcasters. Plus ça change.


Always Look On The Bright Side


Glastonbury and all the other summer festivals aside (Metallica headlining indeed!), this summer’s live list is topped by Monty Python at the O2 Arena. T e fi nal reunion show is to be broadcast live on television. Monty Python Live (Mostly) will be screened on comedy channel Gold on 20 July, marking the end of the group’s 10-night run. T e three-hour event will be preceded with a live backstage programme.


“We are very excited that not only do we get the chance to screw up on stage, we get a chance to screw up live on TV too,” Python’s Eric Idle said. “What could be fi ner at the end of a long life in comedy, than a chance to reunite with old pals and say goodbye to all our fans in one fi nal mad musical show.”


Gold will also screen a fi ve-part series later this year celebrating Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the eff ect it had on the comedy world. If you haven’t got tickets for the O2, tune in to Gold. I want a licence for my goldfi sh, Eric... 


www.audiomedia.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44