Radio and Television Today (Jan-Dec 1940)

X SOUND FOR PAGEANTS Typical Installation No. 9. Outdoor and indoor opportunities for every PA specialist. Many pageants will get under way in the next few montLs— both outdoors and indoors. Sound installations for this type of work can be profitable and easily handled by the average sound man. The size and complexity of the job need not hold back the aggressive PA specialist. Here is a typical example of how it is and can be done. During the 1939 New York World's Fair the gigantic historical pageant, "Railroads on Parade," employed a 350 watt sound system which was rented for the season. When preparations were being made to repeat this spectacle at the 1940 Fair some time was spent in convincing the management Showing how one of the two pairs of speakers (woofer-tweeters) are mounted in permanent "sets" at sides of the stage. that a system especially designed to meet the rather unusual requirements of this show, and purchased outright, would be more practical than rental of more or less stock equipment. Ultimately the selling effort was rewarded with an invitation to submit a complete proposal and quotation. Relatively few sound men realize the advantages to be gained by establishing closer business relations with the manufacturers of the sound equipment which they use. There are many advantages in the form of design cooperation, when it comes to special equipment, assistance in preparing cost data for formal bids, and so on. Martin L. Green, owner of Universal Sound Labs., Brooklyn, N. Y., recently completed the job involving power of 350 watts and cost running well into four figures; a job which aptly demonstrates these advantages and one which it is likely would not have been obtained if it were not for this cooperation. GETTING STARTED One of the services provided free to its distributors by the Transformer Corporation of America, New York, is the design of any special equipment called for in a proposed installation, and the preparation of complete cost data on all equipment for the job. When the opportunity to quote on Hi is job was obtained, company engineers were consulted and they worked out the equipment requirements, price quotations, etc., to serve as the basis for the proposal to the management of the show. The only obligation assumed was to employ Clarion equipment exclusively throughout the installation. SELLING THE JOB Armed with these plans and quotations, which were expanded to include Universal Sound Labs, profit, Green was able to win the contract. Six weeks from the date of signing the dotted line, the equipment had been delivered, the installation completed and accepted, thus winding up this sound man's largest installation to date. It is by no means an admission of inability on the part of a sound man if he accepts this sort of cooperation from a manufacturer. When it comes to a matter of special equipment a department set up for such work can do it more economically than an individual, in both design and actual manufacture. It is the manufacturer's business to be familiar with shortcuts and economies. This is likewise true of practically all large installations even though they do not necessarily involve much special equipment. GET THE BIG ONES With such cooperation available the average sound specialist can go out after really big jobs without fear of sticking his neck out. The knowledge on the part of the prospect that the sound distributor has the facilities of a large manufacturer at his service creates confidence. The manufacturer's definite quotations on equipment costs permits a precise cost foundation on which to figure bids, and there RADIO TODAY