in these times of atomic catastrophes, these times of political instability and poverty, I am asking myself: Is it really in the sense of our ecological balance that I am working in the big-ass live sound industry?
As much as I love it and have worked hard for it to succeed and finally got my first tour (if you remember my last post, I was a bit pissed off for not getting one so far and now scored a major one directly), is it really a good idea to support such an energy- consuming job? If you ever want to know: Our average-scale PA, plus digital amps (that's the gear that boosts an electrical signal from a mixing console to match the output to a speaker), plus the digital console and a back-up console, a monitor console, etc. (you get the point- heaps of stuff) uses so many watts I can't even tell- I'd actually have to go and calculate this. But the power that the whole system draws, at maximum output of all the gear and maximum SPL (sound pressure level- that is how much power a signal draws and transfers if in "normal" human language to loudness in a lot of cases- it's not really true but to give u a little idea about it), is immense and should we be supporting this? I care about our environment, I try not to switch on unnecessary lights at home or at work, switch my computer off during the night or when I really don't need it within the next hour (my bosses are more concerned about the bills rather than the environment, but be it, it somehow works out, I don't care why or how), switch off the heater during the night (I'm under my duvet so I'm really not cold) or when I'm not there, try to save on hot water, etc. It's all the small things that count but then, I go to work and we leave the system running during the night, at least it's still on the power, you never switch off the RF rack (in case people forget it the next day and what would happen if the lead singer goes on stage and their wireless mic...

in these times of atomic catastrophes, these times of political instability and poverty, I am asking myself: Is it really in the sense of our ecological balance that I am working in the big-ass live sound industry?
As much as I love it and have worked hard for it to succeed and finally got my first tour (if you remember my last post, I was a bit pissed off for not getting one so far and now scored a major one directly), is it really a good idea to support such an energy- consuming job? If you ever want to know: Our average-scale PA, plus digital amps (that's the gear that boosts an electrical signal from a mixing console to match the output to a speaker), plus the digital console and a back-up console, a monitor console, etc. (you get the point- heaps of stuff) uses so many watts I can't even tell- I'd actually have to go and calculate this. But the power that the whole system draws, at maximum output of all the gear and maximum SPL (sound pressure level- that is how much power a signal draws and transfers if in "normal" human language to loudness in a lot of cases- it's not really true but to give u a little idea about it), is immense and should we be supporting this? I care about our environment, I try not to switch on unnecessary lights at home or at work, switch my computer off during the night or when I really don't need it within the next hour (my bosses are more concerned about the bills rather than the environment, but be it, it somehow works out, I don't care why or how), switch off the heater during the night (I'm under my duvet so I'm really not cold) or when I'm not there, try to save on hot water, etc. It's all the small things that count but then, I go to work and we leave the system running during the night, at least it's still on the power, you never switch off the RF rack (in case people forget it the next day and what would happen if the lead singer goes on stage and their wireless mic doesn't work because some idiot forgot to switch the receivers back on? Yeah, you guessed right: YOU'RE FIRED and your company looses the tour or gig and gets bad-mouthed- HUGE faux-pas), you leave the amps for the PA running, etc. So all this consumes a massive amount of energy and I could give you heaps more examples where we all use so much that it seems ridiculous to be still doing this job.
But then again: Doesn't the world need a bit of entertainment? Doesn't music connect all ethnicities, all different social statuses, all different points of views? Doesn't it bring us all closer and let's us forget all of our problems for a while? Indeed it does and I think that this world would be a darker place and a colder one if it wasn't for music.
Maybe a solution to this problem would be to not press on having the latest gear, not so much video, not so much lighting on the tour- maybe we should go back to basics and stop pretending as engineers that it's about us. It's about the music, the people who enjoy the concert, the emotions and I know that even lighting and video have their saying in it and play a big part in these emotions, we should start thinking about future generations, invent energy-saving gear and base our new power ratings on green power instead of using other. Wouldn't this be great? But maybe I'm just a dreamer but I really hope that one day, I can invent amps and PAs that use less energy, including amps that are more environmentally friendly than they're now- this industry has to change quickly which it usually always does but engineers have to re-think their point of view and take themselves less serious because the real big people, I mean the real huge audio folks, they remain humble and have respect for everything and everyone around them; it's the wannabes that create the chaos.

So folks, try to re-think your energy consume and even switch at home to a provider that offers green power.
GO GREEN AUDIO!!!