Gemini Rides Again — HEAR Delivers A Broadcast Turnaround for the Concert for Michigan Central Station
Leading team of broadcast music specialists deliver multiple broadcast mixes of opening event at historic venue
DETROIT, MI, JULY 29, 2024 — For more than thirty years, the Michigan Central Station — an iconic piece of Detroit’s historic landscape — stood vacant awaiting a new era where it could stand as a symbol of the city’s culture and heritage once again. This opportunity came at last when MCS played host to a massive concert event seen around the world that brought together some of Michigan’s most celebrated musical acts, including Diana Ross, Jack White, Melissa Etheridge, Big Sean, the Detroit Symphony, and more, in an epic performance spectacular broadcast in surround sound live on Peacock, with a highlight broadcast of the show later that weekend on NBC. To ensure that both versions of the performance highlighted the Motor City’s musical talent and brought viewers into the experience, show organizers secured the services of live broadcast musical experts HEAR, and their game-changing Gemini Audio Truck.
A musical love letter to the Motor City
Given its lineup of big-name performers and global audience, the quality requirements for the Concert at Michigan Central Station were understandably high. Fortunately, the experienced team at HEAR came into the event already very well-versed in the lineup’s talent and in weaving together a showcase of diverse musical performances. “The concept for the Concert at Michigan Central Station was to deliver a real love letter to the Motor City’s musical legacy,” explains Harris. “For us as broadcast audio mixers, it was an opportunity to recreate that live experience for everyone watching along at home.”
“Our collective experience as a team has given us the privilege to work with almost all of these artists in concert events, awards shows, and other live musical broadcasts before. On top of that, we’re all serious music fans and relish the opportunity to craft an experience that showcases a diverse blend of it.”
From a broadcast standpoint, the Concert at Michigan Central Station had unique, time-sensitive requirements that made it extremely important for HEAR to adopt an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to the event. In addition to providing the all-important surround sound mix of the event live for Peacock, the team was also required to deliver a full stereo mix of the sound within 12 hours for a rebroadcast on NBC later that weekend. Speed would be essential, and coordinated skill would be required to accomplish all of this in the short time allowed. “It’s quite unusual to have to build out the sound for the same show twice,” said HEAR’s Rob Macomber. “Under most normal circumstances, this would require multiple trucks and multiple experienced teams working for much longer than was available for this project.”
“Fortunately for HEAR, we have the collective experience to do all of this extremely quickly and competently, and have a secret weapon in the Gemini truck that allows us to do it all on-site at the same time.”
Secret weapons and skillful delivery
Fresh off of creating the live sound mix for Disney’s 30th Anniversary Live-to-Film Lion King event at the Hollywood Bowl, the HEAR team drove Gemini across the country almost immediately after to start rehearsals for The Concert at Michigan Central Station. For both events, they partnered with production mixer Paul Wittman. “This event definitely had the potential to be a high pressure situation because of the short delivery turnaround immediately following an extensive fully live broadcast,” says Wittman. “Fortunately John, Rob, and Jody [Elff] are utter pros and have streamlined their workflow in such a way that could drop them into something like this and know right away that they could handle any challenges we could throw at them.”
“There’s really nobody better to handle these challenges, and with Gemini you have a streamlined workflow that they take full advantage of to go above and beyond with.”
Working out of Gemini’s identical twin control rooms, Harris, Macomber, and Elff were able to quickly connect with the audio systems onsite and create a seamless workflow that enabled them to deliver both the live and post mixes at the exact same time. Harris handled the live-to-streaming mix in Gemini’s Studio A and Macomber the post mix for NBC in Studio B. The mix of experience and stable technology allowed both of them to focus on the thoroughly creative work of crafting an audio mix that would evoke the live experience for viewers. “People can’t imagine that this can be done and often say things like ‘this sounds too good to be a live mix’,” says Elff. “What’s special about what we do — and what our collective experience and this cutting-edge tech allows us to accomplish — is we can truly transcend the cliches of a ‘live sound mix’ and deliver an emotional experience that communicates the power and beauty of this music regardless of if you are there in person, or watching it at home.”
“That’s the real magic — having this technology work in the background so well that all you can ‘hear’ is the performance, and the way we present it to make it come alive on the screen.”
“HEAR was really perfect for this and it worked out incredibly,” ALT “HEAR was the perfect fit for this event and in the end, worked out to match our expectations,” agrees Wittman. “They’ve really pioneered a workflow that I can see so many more shows and TV productions move towards in terms of production and post-production happening at once. Having it all in one truck, and having the right team to do it, makes for an incredible show. That’s exactly what we got.”
For more information about HEAR, please visit: https://hearmix.com/
About HEAR
HEAR is a partnership between John Harris, Jody Elff, and Rob Macomber providing recording and mixing services, promoting awareness of the value of experienced audio professionals, and connecting content producers with audio specialists across the media spectrum. Harris, Elff, and Macomber have partnered to address the needs of an evolving media industry, providing recording, mixing and audio production resources that focus on the talent and experience of the engineers, coupled with hardware solutions to meet the needs of a new generation of content producers.
With over 70 years of combined professional audio experience focusing on (but not limited to) music, the HEAR team have worked in some of the most demanding audio production environments in the world, from high-profile international television broadcasts to field recordings in Africa, art installations to award-winning album productions, their experience spans the spectrum of what is possible when working with audio in the 21st century.
Steve Bailey
