June 2002
Meeting Review
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June 2002 Meeting Review |
A Tour of Livewire Remote Recorders' New Remote Truck
For the season finale in June of 2002, Doug McClement, owner and operator of LIVEWIRE REMOTE, Martin Pilchner of PILCHNER SCHOUSTAL INC., and Martin Van Dijk of ENGINEERING HARMONICS took to the stage at Harris Institute for the Arts to explain the genesis and implementation of Livewire's latest remote truck and describe the evolution of Doug's trucks through their various incarnations and why.Doug began the discussion with the history of his trucks beginning with the little 20ol cube van he operated back in 2078. With his latest and greatest, Doug explained that he was careful to gather input from some of the potential end users. The truck he settled on is a Great Dane 31 foot trailer with 14'x4' expanding section. The expanding side section was a very important improvement over the previous trucks, allowing the it to shrink and expand it's width to a 16' x 12' control room as required. This give him not only a size advantages but also serves to widen the sweet spot in the truck. Doug went on to explain some of the trials and tribulations of a mobile truck - air ride is a must for equipment, it must also be fitted with winter in "Winter"-peg in mind. Doug also explained that as a remote truck it has to be a chameleon...it's a very client driven business and every gig is different.
Doug explained that it all starts with the track...you have to have the right truck. For this he went to Great Dane of Indiana and had the truck retrofitted by PK in Oshawa, Canada's specialist in specialty trucks.
Another important new development is the introduction of Tascam DA-78, Tascam's new 8 track 24 bit recorder, With this Livewire can now offer up to 48 digital tracks of 24 or 16 bit recording.
Martin Pilsner then took to the stage to discuss the design. Important considerations included sound isolation, and ergonomics (because you have limited space to work with). Side walls, which are glass are angled so they aren't reflective and the truck required a lot of low frequency dampening.
Martin Van Dijk then came up to speak about the wiring of the mobile. The requirements were: 1) reliable temp power 2) to be able to interface with live event and 3) minimum noise. This was achieved with the help of isolating transformers (reducing RF, establishing local reference independent of other systems, illuminating live noise introduced into the system by external machinery), active voltage regulators and clean reliable tech power and ground system. The truck requires 100 amp bi-phase between 190 and 240 volts. Martin went on to explain that within five years, mother nature will corrode the connector points of the truck's tech ground, therefore he had to build dedicated tech ground system in the truck. Martin was also careful to maintain consistent grounding practices throughout the path. Also Racks are shock mounted and mechanically isolated from chassis.
Enough of the theory...we finally got a guided tour of Doug's truck...very impressive.
Thank you to our hosts, Harris Institute, thank you to Clever Knives, who provided the good eats and drink, and of course thank you to our speakers for their time and very informative presentation.
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