299. Jim Reed, RCF USA Manager of Installed Sound and System Design

In Episode 299, the hosts are joined by Jim Reed, RCF USA’s Manager of Installed Sound and System Design, for a wide-ranging conversation that includes pivoting from a career as a musician and front-of-house engineer to a job on the manufacturer side in live venue installations, as well as sharing advice for production folks who get asked to help consult on installations, and those who might be looking to make a shift away from freelance/touring work as life and priorities change. This episode is sponsored by Allen & Heath and RCF.

Jim also shares stories about RCF’s work on the massive PA overhaul for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including designing a custom loudspeaker to meet the unique needs of the project, and then turning that loudspeaker into a widely available commercial product.

From the start of his time with RCF in sales and products support, Reed has drawn upon a history in the audio industry that includes work as an A1 audio technician, front of house engineer, and installation project manager for several A/V companies. With a primary focus on the installation and larger production company markets, he developed a range of training and instructional materials, including videos and in-person training seminars, covering topics from basic audio theory to system design. His work also extends to on-site product demonstrations and sales training seminars for some of the largest A/V retailers in the U.S.

Over several years with RCF, Reed has designed and managed more than 1,500 sound systems for a range of applications, from community theaters to Broadway productions, chapels to cathedrals, and community sporting facilities to professional stadiums and arenas.

Episode Links:
RCF USA Case Studies
RCF USA Product Catalog
“Why Churches Buy Three Sound Systems, and How You Can Buy Only One,” by Jim Brown
Episode 299 Transcript

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The Signal To Noise Podcast on ProSoundWeb is co-hosted by pro audio veterans Andy Leviss and Sean Walker.

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Transcript

Episode 299 - Jim Reed of RCF

Note: This is an automatically generated transcript, so there might be mistakes--if you have any notes or feedback on it, please send them to us at signal2noise@prosoundweb.com so we can improve the transcripts for those who use them!

Voiceover: You’re listening to Signal to Noise, part of the ProSoundWeb podcast network, proudly brought to you this week by the following sponsors:

Allen & Heath, whose new dLive RackUltra FX upgrade levels up your console with 8 next-generation FX racks – putting powerful tools like vocal tuning, harmonizing, and amp simulation right at your fingertips. Learn more at allen-heath.com

RCF and TT+ AUDIO.... Delivering premium audio solutions designed for tour sound and music professionals for over 75 years.  Visit RCF at RCF-USA.com for the latest news and product information.

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green

[00:00:54] Andy Leviss: Hey, welcome to another episode of Signal to Noise. I'm your host, Andy Levison. With me as usually the Earl to my gray, Mr. Sean Walker. What's up, Sean?

[00:01:04] Sean Walker: What's up, dude? How's things?

[00:01:06] Andy Leviss: They're they're good. Sha Sean gave me this look like, huh? That wasn't as like out there as they usually are. You were caught off guard by how

[00:01:12] Sean Walker: no, that look was I don't drink tea, man. Get a coffee reference going.

[00:01:17] Andy Leviss: Got it. Understood. I mean, it could, it also could have been a Star Trek reference. You know, Earl Gray Hot? No. Nope.

[00:01:23] Sean Walker: right over my head. Sorry bud.

[00:01:25] Andy Leviss: Got it. Cool.

[00:01:25] Sean Walker: Just swinging a miss.

[00:01:27] Andy Leviss: We, we've hit about the limit of my Star Trek references at that, so, so now we're caught back up.

[00:01:32] Sean Walker: Fair enough, dude. Fair enough.

[00:01:33] Andy Leviss: But what, what's going on? I feel like it's been a little bit since I've seen you.

[00:01:37] Sean Walker: Yeah, man. We're, uh, you know, we're crushing shows here and, uh, surprisingly got some pretty good corporate action happening in the summer, which is, which is rare, which is nice. That's always nice.

[00:01:47] Andy Leviss: That's, that explains why you're so, so busy and running around like crazy if you got that on top of the, the usual summer jams.

[00:01:53] Sean Walker: Dude. Totally. And we're right in the middle of, uh, the concert we did last time you were here. So we got, you know, everybody out in the field sweating and getting sunburnt and having a good time making, making the rock show or actually country in this case. So that'll be super fun. I'm heading down after this to go, uh.

Deploy, espresso and, and, uh, bribe the front of house, the touring front of house guys with coffee and whiskey just to make sure everybody's happy.

[00:02:15] Andy Leviss: As you do.

[00:02:16] Sean Walker: Not that I would promote drinking, but shots for everybody who's involved. You know what I mean?

[00:02:22] Andy Leviss: Nice. Uh, yeah, I've been, um, I'm settling back down after I, you know, for a theater nerd like me and a corporate audio nerd like me. Sure. Been doing a lot of sports lately. Not complaining. Don't entirely understand it,

[00:02:37] Sean Walker: What do you know about sports ball, bro?

[00:02:39] Andy Leviss: I, I mean, I know they do gigs and they pay Well

[00:02:41] Sean Walker: Copy that. All right. All

[00:02:43] Andy Leviss: now I did. I had, let's see,

[00:02:45] Sean Walker: So home runs and goals and stuff. You're all in.

[00:02:47] Andy Leviss: something like that. Go, go. Local sports team. Uh,

[00:02:51] Sean Walker: Go team. Go. Yay. Team

[00:02:52] Andy Leviss: I, yeah, no, a couple weeks ago I was doing the day two of the NBA draft, uh, with my buddy, uh, Killa, Rob Kien Berger, who we still have to get you on the show. Rob, um, who's, who's a friend who's been like a touring front of house and monitor guy forever and has kind of been pivoting a little more into like corporate event stuff lately.

As, as we do, as we start to get old and a little tired of waking up on tour buses. Uh, so we did that out in Brooklyn that I did, uh, Netflix was doing the big Taylor Serrano Women's boxing last week at the Garden. And they, in the lead up to that had an open workout with, uh, both of those boxers and a bunch of the other boxers from the matches where they turned the mall at the Oculus at World Trade Center into a boxing ring for, for a day and like had like a, the jib and everything and shout out to bagels.

The jib operator who is. Is one of the most badass jib operators

[00:03:44] Sean Walker: I'm sorry, did you say bagels?

[00:03:46] Andy Leviss: Bagels is the dude's name.

[00:03:48] Sean Walker: like the bakery item.

[00:03:49] Andy Leviss: Yep. Yep. I, it's New York, man. What do you want?

[00:03:52] Sean Walker: Uh, yeah. Bagels, I

[00:03:53] Andy Leviss: I mean, if, if you

[00:03:54] Sean Walker: and pizza apparently.

[00:03:55] Andy Leviss: if you Google bagels camera jib, like he comes right up. Like he's, he's a, he is a,

[00:04:01] Sean Walker: is a bad mother foia.

[00:04:02] Andy Leviss: oh man. Some of these shots he was doing like, particularly in this like cozy little mall, were just like, dude, that is some of the finest camera work I've seen in a long time.

[00:04:11] Sean Walker: Dude, killer Plus, I mean, you turn a mall into a boxing ring. What a cool event, dude, that's

[00:04:15] Andy Leviss: yeah, yeah, it was, it was a,

[00:04:17] Sean Walker: the fight good?

[00:04:18] Andy Leviss: um, yeah, so I didn't, so we weren't doing, we were just doing the workouts, so there were, there were like three or four, you know, like workout matches, which were all, like, some of them were pretty, like they could, they could have been headline matches themselves and then, you know, it was just like an intro, like, you know, each, like did like a seven minute or whatever workout for each of the two, you know, the, the title fight.

[00:04:36] Sean Walker: No. Cool.

[00:04:36] Andy Leviss: And then, so that was like Tuesday, and it's, and I think you can still watch it, it's on Netflix's, uh, you know, YouTube account and on, um, uh, MVP, which is Jake Paul's, uh, like promo company. They're the ones who did the fight and it's on their channel too. And I haven't had a chance to watch the whole thing, but I was mixing front of house for it.

So if anybody watches it and sees me, send me the timestamp.

[00:04:58] Sean Walker: Critique harshly. Critique harshly. 'cause he's, he's got the shirt on right now that says real MVP, that his wife bought him and she's the one that thinks he's the real MVP. Everybody else is like, I don't know, man. Critique harshly.

[00:05:12] Andy Leviss: Uh,

[00:05:12] Sean Walker: I'm sure. I'm sure it was great. Dude, I'm just busting your

[00:05:14] Andy Leviss: yeah, no, I mean, I was doing the front of house mix, so as long as you don't hear echo for me in the, in the, in the stream, I'm, I'm, I did my job.

[00:05:22] Sean Walker: Yeah. Fair enough.

[00:05:23] Andy Leviss: That's always the balance of you've got, 'cause we're doing, it's a boxing promoter, so I've got them to louder, louder, louder. I've got a mall being like quieter, quieter, quieter.

And then I've got my buddy actually Killa again on, on broadcast mix being like, can you pull it back a little bit? It's coming into the broadcast and trying to keep all three of those happy. And you reach that point where like when the guy from the promoter and the producer comes over and is like, hi, I'm so and so.

I'm the one you answer to. I'm the only person who gives you level notes. If anybody else comes to you, have them talk to me and don't do anything till I tell you to. That is what you do. So like I at one

[00:06:00] Sean Walker: Whoever that was. Yes sir. Yes,

[00:06:01] Andy Leviss: I at one point had folks from the mall coming over and being like, it's too loud. Turn it down.

And I just had to be like, that man is so and so. He is my boss. If I do anything that he doesn't tell me to. I will get fired. So go have this conversation with him and then he can come over with you and tell me like, I understand, I respect your request. It needs to go to him,

[00:06:21] Sean Walker: Word

[00:06:22] Andy Leviss: and it got sorted. Um, yeah, so did that and then from there, hopped straight out to Atlanta to do our f coordination for the the All Star Village fan experience for, uh, the MLB All Star game.

[00:06:34] Sean Walker: Dude. Fun

[00:06:35] Andy Leviss: Yeah. So it was, it was a wild little, little whirlwind of, of eclectic sports and sports ball adjacent gigs.

[00:06:43] Sean Walker: dude. That's awesome. How cool Dude. What a fun, what a fun change from changing diapers.

[00:06:49] Andy Leviss: yeah. Although, right, right back to that too. Um, and, and, and our, our guest is smiling 'cause our guest and I were commiserating over over, uh, daycare, uh, schedules earlier. So, uh. With, with the fact that we both are on schedules and such, why don't we introduce him and, and we can get rolling.

[00:07:06] Sean Walker: Word.

[00:07:07] Andy Leviss: So,

[00:07:08] Sean Walker: go ahead.

[00:07:09] Andy Leviss: oh, do, go ahead. If you wanna intro, I'm talking enough.

[00:07:12] Sean Walker: Oh, I was just gonna say we have the man, the myth of the legend, Jim Reed from RCF talking about install stuff today. Also, you know, fellow father and schedule coordinator of tiny little chaos, Muppets. Jim, how are you buddy?

[00:07:26] Jim Reed: Uh, I'm actually here for the coffee and whiskey you

[00:07:29] Sean Walker: Yeah, hunter,

[00:07:30] Jim Reed: Yeah,

[00:07:31] Sean Walker: totally, dude.

[00:07:32] Jim Reed: if you want to talk audio, that's fine.

[00:07:34] Andy Leviss: am not saying I have a beaker on my desk, but I might have a 60 notes beaker on my desk right

[00:07:38] Sean Walker: For the coffee or the whiskey or depending on the time of day? Both.

[00:07:41] Jim Reed: Both,

[00:07:41] Andy Leviss: I don't understand the question and I refuse to answer it.

[00:07:44] Sean Walker: totally.

[00:07:48] Jim Reed: Yeah, we were trading, we were swapping war stories, you know, diaper war stories and all that stuff. So

[00:07:52] Sean Walker: Oh yeah. My, my kids are outta that phase. The day I, the day we got to throw away the diaper genie was like a victory dance and back flip for, for us, for sure.

[00:08:01] Jim Reed: that's what I hear. Looking forward to it.

[00:08:02] Sean Walker: Yeah. Right.

[00:08:04] Andy Leviss: Yeah. Um, so, so Jim, you are, you're in charge of US installs for RCF, but why don't we rewind a little bit, uh, how, how'd you end up there? Like how do you get into audio? What did you do before that?

[00:08:16] Jim Reed: Uh, oh, wow. Well, uh, I wore, you know, like everybody or a lot of people in this industry, you have to wear a lot of hats. Right. Um, and it's, it's a long not straight ladder. You have to kind of weave around. I've been around for. Uh, close to 30 years now in the industry, starting as a team. And my, my initial, you know, love for it was being a musician, um, which is still a passion to this day.

Uh, and I was very proficient at it being a session player, um,

[00:08:47] Andy Leviss: your instrument?

[00:08:48] Jim Reed: bass, but I also am also proficient at, uh, guitar and piano and among other things as well. But that's my love. Um, I, I, you know, I love. Figuring out when being in a band or any type of musical setting, how the role of everybody, which is why I was interested in learning multiple instruments.

I like to. The, uh, limitations of the people I'm playing with because I could play myself. Not that I'm better than them, but you could learn a lot by just hearing the people that you're with, um, and understanding their style and their limitations. Are they be, you know, and maybe they're doing stuff better than you, that you're, you're gonna learn off of.

And I think I carried that same mentality into the technical side of things too, in our industry. And I realized that there was a silent musician. It was the engineer in the recording room, um, that was sculpting the sound, the end result of the album that you were trying to make, or the album that you loved.

I'm like, huh, that's a whole nother instrument over there that I don't know how to play. So I started getting into the technical side. Very young age. You know, I'm dating myself here. So there I am in Radio Shack, buying my first ca scam, multi-track cassette recorder. And, um, and then it kind of took off from there.

I jumped around, uh, doing, uh, studio work. Um, I, I dabbled in, uh, retail for a number of years, um, which is how I got my introduction to the install world. Uh, and started just doing side jobs, doing installs. Turned out to be. Good at it. Turned out to be, um, a good team leader and, uh, and, and leading teams of guys and girls to, uh, on, on the job sites.

And, uh, it just kind of took off from there. And then, you know, like I said, 30 years later, I've, I. Pretty much sat in every chair, whether it's on the, you know, recording side of the glass, uh, playing or the recording side of the glass, recording, um, front of house engineer, monitor engineer, uh, you know, everything from loading the trucks, um, all the way to cl you know, climbing underneath the stages and, and dirty attics.

And, uh, and then here I am, about 10 years ago, RCF wept me up and, and away I went.

[00:11:08] Sean Walker: Sweet dude. That's awesome. Now I got one more person in my stable to call when I need base tracks on a record.

[00:11:14] Jim Reed: Yeah, please. Yeah. Throw it on there. But yeah, it's been, it's been a wild ride. Like it's been about 10 years now, I've been with RCF and it's, um, it's opened up a lot of new doors, of course, uh, being the size of the company that they are. And it's been a great learning experience for me. Um, and just, you know, just saying yes to everything that came at, that's been coming at me and, and, and, and just figuring it out.

[00:11:40] Sean Walker: Totally. What? What is the all uh. What does the install side of RCF look like, man? Is that a pretty sizable operation?

[00:11:49] Jim Reed: It is, I, uh, not to toot my own horn, but in the US I pretty much formed it when I first came on the, the, the number of employees for RE RCF was were, were still a small outfit. Um, but it was even smaller back then. And, uh, I noticed that there was a. A hole in our machine where we were getting phone calls from integrators wanting to use our, our stuff, but they didn't have a lot of support on the technical side that, that say that everyone in our production market was getting, um, they were just getting the same degree of attention.

And I said, you know, there's a lot of integrators out there who need, who need help, who are calling us. We're just kind of throwing them in the deep end. So I kind of took the reins and just started taking every phone call and every email regarding installations and, um, building relationships with all those integrators out there, forming new relationships.

Uh, within a matter of a few years, I have, you know, I built a whole system on, uh, on how to manage the amount of projects that we were getting in, uh, and, and providing design support. For each project, uh, now to the point where, you know, I have a team of designers under me, um, and working alongside me, uh, fulfilling all these requests.

[00:13:12] Sean Walker: Dude. Cool.

[00:13:13] Jim Reed: Yeah. Yeah. And to date, I mean, just with RCF alone, I keep track. Um, I'm approaching about 2000 designs for RCF.

[00:13:26] Sean Walker: Dude, that's awesome.

[00:13:27] Jim Reed: Yeah.

[00:13:28] Sean Walker: Over the last 10 years or so,

[00:13:29] Jim Reed: About nine years. Yeah.

[00:13:30] Sean Walker: dude, that's fricking, that's a lot of designs. And are those, you know, large scale, medium scale, small scale, all of it wrapped in together.

[00:13:38] Jim Reed: Everything from,

[00:13:40] Sean Walker: support all kinds of sizes of, of installs.

[00:13:43] Jim Reed: everything from your, from your small local parish to a mega church, uh, to your local, you know, rock club, uh, all the way up to, you know, full-blown arena shows. Uh, stadiums, giant nightclubs, you name it, doesn't matter. It's one of the benefits of working with a company like RCF is because our menu is so large, we have so many different products, it's kind of a blessing and a curse.

Um, but you know, we, we. Almost have a solution for every application, um, which makes it hard for the people interested in our product to navigate. Uh, but which is, which is why I'm here though. You know what I mean?

[00:14:26] Sean Walker: Yeah. Yeah. I,

[00:14:27] Jim Reed: give me the parameters.

[00:14:28] Sean Walker: when I first jumped on board trying to go through the website, I was like, what in the heck am I, like, how do I get through all this? It was,

[00:14:35] Jim Reed: Yeah.

[00:14:35] Sean Walker: a lot, dude.

[00:14:36] Jim Reed: Yeah, there's, there's a lot, you know, everything from, you know, the retail side of things, the production side of things, um, installations, you know, indoor outdoor columns, liner array, you know, it just, it, there's, there's a lot raw, raw drivers, everything.

[00:14:52] Sean Walker: Totally.

[00:14:53] Jim Reed: it makes it, you know, it makes it that much more interesting.

'cause I, I get the opportunity to, um, you know, participate in many different venues and applications because of that.

[00:15:04] Sean Walker: That's cool dude. And it's cool. I, I'm sure some of those designs, some of those challenges are the same when you're doing, you know. Events as, as it is doing installs where you're like, some of the small ones go a lot easier and faster and you can knock on a bunch of those. And then the large, more complicated ones take longer, but they're kind of fun to dig into all the problems and challenges that you're gonna face, but you're not, you know, you can, you can kind of do 'em all simultaneously where you're not like just living in one project for.

Years or months or whatever and not seeing anything else. Is that kind of the same for you, where you can like work on let's say a stadium install or a mega church that's got a bunch of complicated things to do and then also have a bunch of other little, little things going where you're like, oh yeah, we can do this, this, and this.

That'd be great, and back to what you're doing and keep it interesting so you're not getting bogged down and just the one thing where you wanna like bash your head against the desk.

[00:15:50] Jim Reed: You know what, believe it or not, the ones that I scratch my head on most often are the smaller ones because it's those smaller venues, most typically, they're not designed to, um, cater to a, a sound system. Um. You know, smaller venues that maybe are, they're, they're asymmetrical the room, so the room shape is asymmetrical.

Maybe the, the stage is in the corner of a room.

[00:16:19] Sean Walker: Ceilings are low,

[00:16:20] Jim Reed: Ceilings are low. Uh, you know, it's, there could be a, you know, a big structure or a wall closet, wall. On one side of the room and not on the other side. Uh, balconies, you know, all these little nooks and crannies that you're trying to accommodate for. I'm, I'm thinking maybe like a small nightclub, for example, or something like that, or, you know, breweries.

Breweries are big right now. There's breweries just popping up all over the place and they love hosting live shows. So, but you know. They don't design breweries with the intention of putting in a stage or a live act. And, you know, these breweries, they're tall ceilings, lot of reflective surfaces, uh, like I said, asymmetrical.

And next thing you know, they wanna put on a, you know, a band in there or something like that. And it's like, oh, well what are we gonna do?

[00:17:02] Sean Walker: First snare drum hit since everybody running for cover, dude,

[00:17:05] Jim Reed: Yeah, exactly. You know,

[00:17:06] Sean Walker: just without the PA on.

[00:17:08] Jim Reed: exactly. You know, I hold back from saying, are you sure this is a good idea? But you know, they gotta sell beer.

[00:17:16] Andy Leviss: I mean, so, so much of, so much of installs is, yeah, d damage control and, and expectation management.

[00:17:23] Jim Reed: Expectation management is huge. Absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah, it's those smaller, it's those smaller designs that that get you thinking, because you know, you have to really think outside the box when you get to the bigger stuff. You know, theaters, stadiums, arenas, they were designed with the intention of these types of applications.

So, you know. More or less. So, you know, you could pretty much just walk in and be like, okay, it's gonna go over there. That's gonna go over here. You're gonna need some speakers over there. It's pretty much all laid out for you. Then it's just a matter of working within, uh, the parameters that the client gives you as far as, you know, budget and system requirements and things like that.

But, you know, the design part is pretty straightforward. I've gotten to the point now where I could just take a quick look at a theater and, and give you a, a. Pretty accurate guesstimate within a matter of seconds of what's gonna be needed. You throw me into a brewery on the other hand, and I might stand there scratching my chin for an hour going, I'm not sure yet.

Let me, let me think this over.

[00:18:20] Sean Walker: Totally, because they're all unique spaces,

[00:18:22] Jim Reed: 'cause they're all, because they're all unique. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:18:26] Sean Walker: Theaters are kinda like small, medium, large, kind of a deal. And you, you breweries are like, what were you thinking? Building this thing?

[00:18:32] Jim Reed: Yeah.

[00:18:32] Andy Leviss: the building we got.

[00:18:34] Sean Walker: Yeah. Right.

[00:18:35] Jim Reed: Churches are another, have their own challenges as well too, because that's, again, that's another venue. Uh, typically not designed to have an audio system in it. Um, where, you know, aesthetics is paramount in a, in a, in a church. Just I'm talking about the ones that were built older, you know, decades ago.

The newer ones, of course, are accommodating for sound systems and video and all that. But if you're doing a, a retrofit on a hundred year old church. You have a lot to think about, a lot of considerations that, you know, the client didn't think about. Whether it's structural limitations, uh, sight lines. You know, this church that was designed for one purpose decades ago now wants to put a full band in there with subwoofers.

Where are you gonna put subwoofers when there's no stage and it's just, just, and everything now has to fly. And they have, you know, 40 foot cathedral ceilings. And you have to get structural engineers in there. And there's just a lot, you know, it's, it makes, it keeps things interesting, I'll tell you that.

[00:19:36] Andy Leviss: And also we'd really prefer they don't see the speakers, if that's okay.

[00:19:41] Sean Walker: Can the sound just come outta nowhere and be perfect please.

[00:19:44] Jim Reed: Exactly. And I have a, uh, a 25 foot room and I want to get the biggest line array you have to offer. And then, like you said, damage control.

[00:19:57] Sean Walker: Totally.

[00:19:58] Jim Reed: But it keeps it interesting. It certainly does.

[00:20:01] Sean Walker: That's awesome. What kind of, what kind of solutions do you, do you have or do you find when you have those interesting spaces, like breweries or other things? Is there some like go-to products you've got? In the lineup that solve a lot of those problems. You know, we've got, we've got listeners that definitely do installs like that.

What are some of the things that would help them navigate those challenges and, and, you know, solve some of the problems they're coming up against too?

[00:20:23] Jim Reed: Yeah. Well, I mean the concept, Carrie, you know, I'm not here to plug. RCF As much as nice as this is, as this is, thanks guys. But you know, the concepts on designing systems for say, like a small, we'll use the brewery as an example. Again, the concept carries over to any manufacturer. Um, you know, as far as what we have to offer, you know, it's gonna be, I would probably approaching.

Be approaching venues like that with distributed, a distributed sound system, a point source, uh, depending on the quality of sound that we're after. You know, I have a couple different models and series to choose from, like the compact media or the compact C enclosure if we want a little bit more impact.

Um, the Compact Media series is nice 'cause we have a lot of different formats. They sound awesome, great price point. They're wooden enclosures and it fits the bill on a lot of, on a lot of permanent distributed audio systems.

[00:21:13] Sean Walker: Is that the little, the little ones that look like bookshelf speakers kinda deal?

[00:21:17] Jim Reed: yeah, exactly. Yeah. And then we got them from like, you know, four inch.

12 inch. And of course we can go bigger if we need to go to go, to go that route. But yeah, it's, it's a great one and I'm excited. We're gonna be launching a new amplifier series, uh, probably like September, October, uh, which we're gonna call the KPS series and it's gonna be multi multichannel digital amplifiers from two channel all the way up to eight channel amplifiers.

Um, so, you know, we could. More or less be more of a, a one-stop shop, and I'm not, I'm not having to recommend third party options and, and amplifiers and distribution when specing my speaker systems, I can pretty much give 'em a whole package.

[00:21:57] Sean Walker: Dude, that's sweet. Is that gonna have RD net built into it to control them

[00:22:01] Jim Reed: Not the first gen, not the first generation, but the next generation will. We're moving quickly to, to get the product out because we find that there's a, there's a strong need for it. But to implement RD net into the, into the, uh, infrastructure is gonna take a little bit more time. So we're probably looking at a 2026 release for an RD net capable.

[00:22:18] Sean Walker: Cool.

[00:22:18] Jim Reed: But you know, it's, we don't see it as too much of a, a compromise because the types of systems that will be utilizing that kind of amplifier, typically don't call for RD net, our proprietary software, you know, it's more of a plugin and go turnkey. You're not gonna have a front of house engineer sitting around monitoring the software and making, you know, checking how much headroom you have.

That's more of a production, um, level. Tool that we use, and of course we use it in installs as well. But, um, it's, you know, it's a set and forget type of situation. And, uh, for most applications, our net's not even required.

[00:22:56] Sean Walker: Copy that. See, that's my production background, Sean. I don't, I don't, I don't know much about install, so that's cool. That probably significantly simplifies and, and reduces the expense not having to have that DSP and technology on board. Right.

[00:23:09] Jim Reed: Yeah, well plus it makes it easier for everybody. 'cause you know, we're, of course within the DSP you're gonna have preset profiles for all of our enclosures, you know, so the tuning and commissioning of the system is just gonna be that much faster. Um, and you know, you'll have, we will. Uh, the integrator will have, you know, support from just one phone call.

Um, so, uh, if they have to talk about the speakers that they're installing and the backend, uh, as far as the processing goes and amplification, we could handle all that now.

[00:23:38] Sean Walker: That's cool. Then it's all sold in-house and you're not like, oh yeah, you gotta talk to so-and-so over there about the amps and so andSo over here about the control and me about the speakers

[00:23:47] Jim Reed: Yeah. Yeah. I don't have to be like, oh no, that's Alan Heath's problem.

[00:23:51] Sean Walker: Totally, totally. Although it does, like I've done a couple of those, a hms, those are pretty sweet dude to have

[00:23:59] Jim Reed: Uh, that is my go-to processor, um, for a lot of, in, for a lot of installs is the a HF great product, great price point. Um, and it, it's, yeah, that's, that's been very, I'm very glad it's on the market.

[00:24:14] Sean Walker: it's much easier for, for guys like me to figure out how to program those than it is to start from scratch with the, uh, with the fully non programmed versions from other manufacturers

[00:24:23] Jim Reed: Oh yeah. It, it's, we needed it. The market needed it, you know, it, it went from a very inexpensive, you know, underwhelming processing processors, and then it just jumped to like the pro level stuff, which was, you know, just exponentially more expensive. And we needed something that falls in the middle. And that Allen and Heath product just checks all the boxes.

It's a.

[00:24:42] Andy Leviss: Yeah, that's like, it threads of the needle really well, like below jumping into like a Q sys or symmetric or

[00:24:47] Jim Reed: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:24:48] Andy Leviss: there's a time and a place where that's what you need,

[00:24:51] Jim Reed: Uh, absolutely, but not, but

[00:24:52] Andy Leviss: time and a place where it's not,

[00:24:54] Jim Reed: every middle school gym needs qis,

[00:24:57] Sean Walker: Totally, totally. But it does need something.

[00:25:00] Andy Leviss: isn't programming q sys. Two, two years ago, I would've argued otherwise for my own sake.

[00:25:08] Sean Walker: Yeah, but it does need something. Right? And the fact that you got, you know, you got now a cost effective solution where you don't have to have a, you know, 10,000 hours worth of programming experience to be able to do it. And also. Speakers that sound great and you got amps built in. This is gonna be, this is gonna be awesome for people to have another option.

You know, when doing installs at small, medium, and sounds like even the largest levels, you know,

[00:25:32] Jim Reed: Yeah, absolutely. We could tie, we could tie these smaller amplifiers of ours into larger systems as well for whatever additional zones that need to be covered in breakout rooms and, you know, concession stands and entrances.

[00:25:46] Sean Walker: so like when you've got a, a. Kind of a medium to large house of worship. You can have like the sanctuary on its own rig, and then you can do all the little ceiling speakers in the cry rooms in the other rooms. And the foyers and all that stuff can just, it can all come from one place now, basically, which is great.

[00:26:01] Jim Reed: exactly. That's exactly the

[00:26:03] Sean Walker: Yeah. That's awesome dude. How cool. And can you, uh, are you guys making a. DSP to control all that? Or are you still thinking that it's your speakers and amplifiers, but still probably an a HM in front of all that to zone it out and have touch panels on the wall and that kind of a thing? Or what, what's the, what's the workflow look like for you guys on, on, let's say like a medium house of worship where they got a sanctuary with a band and you know, PA and kinda stuff, and then everything's wrapping around it with all the other stuff that has to go into those kind of things that is not just a rock band, pa.

[00:26:37] Jim Reed: Yeah, I always recommend a processor upstream from the system despite say even like, like our systems have having RD net. Um. Where you do have a lot of control in routing and processing, that's, it's not a good tool to use as your primary system distribution. So I always, you know, dis even if the customer is buying a product of ours that has RD net and you have all those tools at your fingertips, I will still recommend, hey, we should have a processor upstream handles all the distribution, it'll make the whatever, if we have to do any type of zone control, um, available to the.

End user. The client who knows nothing about audio and just wants to walk up to the wall, push a button, and it mutes that room, you know, that's the kind of thing that you need management for. Um, and to answer your question, we are working on developing our own standalone processor. I, I hope to see that in the coming months as well.

[00:27:28] Sean Walker: Oh, do it.

[00:27:29] Jim Reed: Yeah.

[00:27:31] Sean Walker: That'll be super sweet to tie all that in. Then you have the one, kinda the one stop shop for all that stuff, which would be great.

[00:27:37] Jim Reed: Yeah, I'd like to make it turnkey. That's, that's the goal here is, you know, RCF has been, has been doing great on the production, on the, uh, mi and production markets, uh, with the success of, you know, like our art speakers, the point source stuff, the, the self-powered stuff, EVOX, uh, and then of course our, our self-powered liner is the whole HDL series, you know, which put us on the map probably.

Um,

[00:27:58] Sean Walker: got those in droves here at the shop. I'm, I'm with you.

[00:28:01] Jim Reed: yeah, exactly. You know? There's, there's plenty of support. We have plenty of, of, uh, support f for, for those products. And now we're refocusing our efforts on the install market right now and really expanding the product line, making sure that we could offer something like, you know, like I, we've been discussing this whole time, something more turnkey.

You're not just getting the speakers from us and then getting all the other components from somebody else. We are, you know, especially if I'm the one designing it. It'd be nice if my head was in the entire ecosystem, if the whole system start to finish, um, from the, you know, from the processing, uh, distribution amplification.

And then at the end result, the, the speakers themselves.

[00:28:41] Sean Walker: Dude. Totally, totally. I get it. That's, that makes a lot of sense. What are some of the projects you're working on right now that you're stoked about, that you, well, the ones you can talk about, don't, don't get yourself in trouble.

[00:28:52] Jim Reed: Well, we have so many, and like, there's a lot of exciting ones. I mean, on average over here, we're probably doing

four to six designs a day. Um, we have, we're, so we're turning out a lot of projects and a lot of 'em are so unique. We're doing a lot of great work in Nashville right now. Um, uh, we just, we just finished outfitting jelly rolls, uh, private CL nightclub in Nashville. Uh.

[00:29:20] Sean Walker: You guys have done two or three there, right? You do like Morgan Wallens, this bar

[00:29:23] Jim Reed: We did, yeah. Morgan Wallens, uh, we did jelly rolls. We did Jason Aldeans, although I think Jason Aldeans is in Vegas. Um, yeah, there's a few out there. And then a couple more on the way as well. I can't talk about. Um, probably the largest one that I could boast about right now would be the Indy Motor Speedway that's been going on for a few years

[00:29:44] Sean Walker: What like, like the Indianapolis 500 Indy Motor Speedway.

[00:29:47] Jim Reed: that's the one.

[00:29:48] Sean Walker: Dude, tell me about that. I, I love car. I love race

[00:29:50] Andy Leviss: than a brewery.

[00:29:51] Sean Walker: Yeah, I love race cars. Let's talk about that. Let's go. What, what are you guys doing there? I.

[00:29:55] Jim Reed: Well, a whole bunch. We're pretty much outfitting, uh, the entire facility with new speakers. It's essentially going to be an entirely RCF house of speakers there. I've been working on this for a little over five years, and because of the size of the venue, it's has to be broken up into phases.

But yeah, I mean everything from the covering the grandstands that surround the track itself, uh, to the infield. Uh, where they also have a lot of seating. There's the pagoda, which is the multi, uh, level tower that overlooks the whole, the whole track. Uh, then of course, like, you know, there's concession stands and garages and administration buildings and, you know, all the gates just to enter the facility.

Have, you know, paging speakers and uh, parking lot speakers. There are literally thousands of drivers being deployed in that facility right now.

[00:30:49] Sean Walker: Dude, how cool.

[00:30:51] Jim Reed: Yeah. It's, it's been, it's been a, that's been a real fun one. Um, because of its size, its complexity, and of course the application itself. I mean, I

[00:31:01] Sean Walker: Dude, race cars.

[00:31:02] Jim Reed: freaking race cars.

[00:31:03] Sean Walker: Yeah, dude. Race cars bro. Plus you get to get your nerd on and design something. Cool. Um, did I mention race cars? Like. Dude, that's awesome. Is that project underway now? Is it like in, in installation now or when Is that still slated to start or, or be wrapped up or wherever you guys are at in

[00:31:21] Jim Reed: We started about three years ago, and I'd say we have about two more years to go before it's complete. Um, the, the first pass at it was, um, a lot of the smaller format stuff, the distributed stuff around like the parking lots and the infield, you know, just little one-offs here and there, kind of getting the, the ball rolling.

Um. Then to conquer the grandstands, the bulk of the audience. Uh, the first phases were, uh, going over the infrastructure of the whole system. So all the amplifiers had to be changed out, switching over to, uh, sys as the backbone for everything. And that, you know, that took two years just to, just to take care of the infrastructure of how we're gonna drive the system.

Running new cable, there are literally miles of copper. Run all over this facility to

[00:32:10] Sean Walker: Dude, I bet that place is huge.

[00:32:12] Jim Reed: It's giant. It's, it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's kind of hard to explain, but the end result, the largest event they have there, of course, is the Indy 500. They have events there all year round, but that's the biggest one.

And there's roughly, uh, close to about 500,000 people there for that event.

[00:32:29] Sean Walker: That's a lot of people, dude.

[00:32:31] Jim Reed: Yeah. So when it's all said and done, just for the grandstands itself, there will be. About 325 full range enclosures and about 150 dual, 19 inch subwoofers deployed.

[00:32:50] Sean Walker: That's a lot of speakers, man.

[00:32:52] Jim Reed: Yeah,

[00:32:53] Sean Walker: And

[00:32:54] Jim Reed: we'll be breaking a couple records, so I gotta look into that.

[00:32:56] Sean Walker: are those all flown or? I, I've not, I've not been to Indy. So is it a covered area where those are flown? Like a, a outdoor stadium would be, or is it like all ground supported stuff or how do those all work?

[00:33:07] Jim Reed: Well, there's a, there's a, there's a catch fence that goes around the entire track that protects the, the audience from the, from the cars. And on that, on that fence is where we will, where we pull 'em out, our speakers that go around the entire perimeter of the track, almost the entire perimeter.

[00:33:23] Sean Walker: Dude. Cool. And then subs on the ground

[00:33:25] Jim Reed: Subs. Subs on the ground, correct. Directly. Be directly below.

[00:33:30] Sean Walker: How fricking cool dude.

[00:33:32] Jim Reed: So we designed a speaker specifically for this application, um, and it turned out to be such a good performing enclosure that we're actually gonna introduce it to the market, uh, next year so that anybody could use it. Um, it's essentially gonna be a, a, a dual 10 inch.

Uh, enclosure with a four inch high frequency compression driver. Uh, completely waterproof. Of course. We went through a lot of trouble making sure that it could survive the elements, the extreme elements on a racetrack in the middle of, you know, Indianapolis.

[00:34:06] Sean Walker: It goes like from hot to snowy and freezing, right? Like it's,

[00:34:09] Jim Reed: oh, it's, yeah, it's.

[00:34:10] Sean Walker: ways, right?

[00:34:10] Jim Reed: Crazy. Crazy. And a lot of direct sunlight, which is a big one too.

You know, more than more than water UV will destroy your equipment. Um, so we had to look a lot into that. Um, as well as, you know, just the, the little things like, you know, making sure that, you know, birds and, and bees don't nest. You know what I mean? And figuring out ways on how to avoid that. Um,

[00:34:32] Sean Walker: Interesting. I

[00:34:32] Jim Reed: the way down to like little details of like, okay, as the water is running over and through the enclosure, there's all channels within the enclosure that directs the water of how to flow it through.

Um, we use only one screw type on the entire enclosure. So you're only using one drill bit to take the thing apart if you need to.

[00:34:51] Andy Leviss: Bless you.

[00:34:52] Sean Walker: Right, you're hired.

[00:34:55] Jim Reed: Um, and. The screws won't fall outta the cabinet as you're un, as you're unscrewing them. So if you're up there on the fence and you're, you know, 20 feet up there and you're trying to take the grill off, there's no more, oops, I dropped the screw and it fell all the way down the ladder.

I gotta go, go get it. So a lot of little attention to detail like that, but more about the enclosure. The wave guide is asymmetric. So the, uh, bottom half of the wave guide, I believe is around 110 degrees wide, but it narrows down to 60 degrees at the top of the wave guide. So if you could imagine the speaker pole mounted on a fence pointing towards the bleacher area, obviously the near field, the, the, the seats in close proximity will be getting a wider dispersion.

And as you sit further away from the enclosure, the dispersion pattern tightens up for, uh, for a farther throw.

[00:35:45] Sean Walker: Dude, that's genius.

[00:35:47] Jim Reed: Yeah, and it came out and it's, you know, it's typically very difficult to design an asymmetrical wave guide, but we, we really hit it outta the park here. It sounds, the, the transition on the vertical plane moving from, you know, standing right in front of the speaker all the way up to the top seat as you walk.

It's, the transition is super smooth. We're really proud of it and which is why we're gonna, we're gonna release it to the public so that anybody could use it.

[00:36:11] Sean Walker: Yeah, dude. I was just gonna say, when do I get that in the Powered L? Powered NXL or TT lineup, so I can just. Be smashing those. Right now we're using NX W 40 fours and those are awesome, but I would love to have a dual 10 and four inch horn version.

[00:36:23] Jim Reed: Yeah, it's a, it's a pa. This will be passive and weatherproof. So this is the kind of speaker you're gonna be putting at, you know, not just race tracks, but, um. You know, small to mid-level sporting venues, even if it's like a, you know, high school level or college level, football field, baseball fields, things like that.

I mean, there's tons of applications we could think of to put the speaker in.

[00:36:43] Sean Walker: So you're, you're not gonna make a a portable event production version. It's just install only.

[00:36:48] Jim Reed: Well, I mean, it is modeled off another enclosure in our pro line from the GTX line. So if we, we, uh, we make a, a line array, uh, called the GTX 10, uh, which has the same driver configuration, two tens and a single four inch, and we're using the same components from that enclosure in this. Uh, passive outdoor enclosure.

Uh, so the, it, it does exist and it's, we are gonna be having, we are gonna be releasing a point source version, uh, or a near field version of that GTX 10 as well. So you could incorporate a point source enclosure along with your, your line array system. Front fills out, fills, side fills, things like that.

[00:37:28] Sean Walker: Totally. And for those of us that you know, like to keep in the same ecosystem, then you have a little like speakers, a rock and speakers on stick version with the same amp package you've got for your big line array and you can

[00:37:40] Jim Reed: It is essentially,

[00:37:41] Sean Walker: and dual purpose 'em.

[00:37:42] Jim Reed: exactly. We're taking, we're taking the line array enclosure, which was designed to just to be a line array and we're. Just transforming it to be also a point source enclosure.

[00:37:53] Sean Walker: You just turn it on its side to make it, make it a point source and

[00:37:55] Jim Reed: change, change the dispersion pattern. You know, there's a couple of things that go behind it, but the, you know, the, the important thing that we're after here is maintaining coloration of sound between the line array itself and the fill enclosure that it's, uh, being,

[00:38:07] Sean Walker: Totally.

[00:38:08] Jim Reed: paired with.

Yeah,

[00:38:09] Sean Walker: Totally there. There's a couple manufacturers that do something very similar, super successfully right now. That's an awesome, that'll be an awesome ADD addition to the GTX lineup, and I'm stoked to go to India and hear that now. Now I gotta go check it out when it's done. Dude, that's gonna be great.

[00:38:23] Jim Reed: Oh

[00:38:23] Andy Leviss: what we'll do for like three 50. We'll just go see a race.

[00:38:26] Sean Walker: Yeah,

[00:38:27] Jim Reed: worth it.

[00:38:28] Sean Walker: what'd you, how much of the tickets.

[00:38:29] Andy Leviss: I said, oh no, I was, I was saying that that's what we should do for episode three 50. We'll just get everybody together and go to indie.

[00:38:34] Sean Walker: Yeah, we'll just go to the Indy 500 next year. No, no problem. Yeah, I, I wonder how much tickets are, I've never actually looked into that. Is it like a couple hundred bucks or a couple hundred grand, or like what, what does it cost to get tickets to the Indy 500?

[00:38:44] Jim Reed: Well, uh, you know, I never really looked into it either. I've never, I'm, I'm fortunate to not have to pay for a ticket. Um.

[00:38:52] Sean Walker: Yeah, right. Totally.

[00:38:54] Jim Reed: I've, I've been to every race since I've, since I've teamed up with them over there and it's, it never gets old. Uh, but from what I understand, it's very affordable. Uh, especially the bleacher sections and, uh, and other sections.

It's not, you know, I don't think it's, it's not gonna be hundreds of dollars. It certainly can be hundreds of dollars. It could also get up to, uh, thousands and thousands of dollars depending on where you wanna sit.

[00:39:15] Sean Walker: Fair enough. Fair enough. I took my son to Vegas for nascar. Last year. Tickets were like $17, you know what I mean? We spent more on cheeseburgers than we didn't the tickets to get in. And then I went and looked up, this is in Vegas, and then I went and looked up Formula One. I was like, oh, volume one's coming.

This would be sweet. And I got sticker shock when I saw those, I was like, oh man, that's not something to take my 7-year-old to,

[00:39:33] Jim Reed: No, no, no. Yeah, that's different.

[00:39:36] Sean Walker: I was like, those are mortgage payments to buy those. Holy crap. I was like, send me back to the $17 seats, please.

[00:39:45] Jim Reed: Yeah, I guess we're NASCAR fans again.

[00:39:48] Sean Walker: Yeah, right. Totally. Apparently Formula One's too rich for our blood. Oh, that's funny,

[00:39:53] Andy Leviss: there there's a formula shortage, so.

[00:39:56] Sean Walker: Say what? Andy?

[00:39:57] Andy Leviss: president, I said I was making a bad dad, Joe. Just, just ignore me.

[00:40:00] Sean Walker: copy that.

[00:40:02] Jim Reed: I found it funny, Andy.

[00:40:04] Andy Leviss: Yeah. That was for me and

[00:40:05] Jim Reed: Yeah, that was for, for the

[00:40:07] Sean Walker: All right. You, you know, you can solve that pretty easily. Dude. Your, your whole situation came with a formula maker built in.

[00:40:15] Jim Reed: It's, how's that?

[00:40:18] Sean Walker: Oh, I can't expand to that on a podcast bud.

[00:40:21] Andy Leviss: Sean's like slowly stepping back from the

[00:40:23] Jim Reed: Uh,

[00:40:23] Andy Leviss: getting himself to trouble with all the moms out there.

[00:40:26] Jim Reed: go ahead. No, go ahead Sean.

[00:40:28] Sean Walker: Yeah, right.

[00:40:29] Andy Leviss: on. Go on.

[00:40:29] Sean Walker: just, just so we're clear, Jim, I'm absolutely the one that's gonna get us all canceled. I'm sorry in advance, dude.

[00:40:35] Andy Leviss: Look, uh, on a, on a scale of one to the, to that CEO at the Coldplay concert the other night, you're still fine.

[00:40:41] Sean Walker: Wait, what happened at the Coldplay concert

[00:40:43] Jim Reed: Uh, the bar, the bar was risen. Sean, the bar has been

[00:40:46] Sean Walker: challenge accepted? Let

[00:40:47] Andy Leviss: There was the, there was there, there was a kiss cam incident at the Coldplay concert in Boston the other day where A CEO and his new head of HR were caught, uh, snogging on the, on the KISS camera.

And, uh, they're both married to other folks. And it very quickly became the me of, of the week this week.

[00:41:08] Sean Walker: That's fucking super lame,

[00:41:09] Andy Leviss: yep. The, the getting caught or being at a Coldplay concert.

[00:41:14] Sean Walker: Oh, no. Just cheating on your significant other. You know what, dude? I bet, I bet Coldplay is probably a killer show. I don't, I don't know much of their music and I'm, and I'm, that's not a slight on them, but any band at that level or artist at that level, dude, they're, they're killing it. I bet it's a good show.

And if you're into the tunes,

[00:41:29] Andy Leviss: No, that, that's, I would've made that

[00:41:30] Sean Walker: cheating on your significant other is fucking lame, dude. That's garbage.

[00:41:33] Andy Leviss: yep.

[00:41:34] Sean Walker: They shouldn't

[00:41:35] Andy Leviss: Although the irony of it, it being the HR exec is

[00:41:38] Sean Walker: Yeah, right. I guess I, that was lost on me,

[00:41:40] Andy Leviss: Yep. Yep.

[00:41:41] Sean Walker: it's not. That's pretty

[00:41:42] Andy Leviss: Yep. Yep. That's, yeah. The CEO and the head of hr, it's like the, you're okay. Okay.

[00:41:47] Jim Reed: That's, that gave it the, uh, entertainment level.

[00:41:50] Sean Walker: Yeah. Right. Totally.

[00:41:51] Jim Reed: Yeah.

[00:41:52] Andy Leviss: Um, but get, getting back on the rails with, with the audio fgm. Maybe I've got sort of two related questions for you. Which are we? Lots of us who work in the live and production side. Um, well, I guess the, the first, the smaller scale question is the, we're often the folks like that somebody will reach out to when they've got an install going on and they're like, well, you know, you know, like, live audio help us redesign it.

And, you know, there are some folks who very quickly understand, uh, this is enough out of the realm of what I normally do, that I, you should talk to somebody who specialize in this. But there's also cases where it's reasonable or it's just what's in the budget for, you know, somebody who knows live sound to come in and consult.

I'm wondering if you have any. Like thoughts, advice, pitfalls for folks to watch out for if they're doing that, like I'm helping out with a redesign of like my local church or the school or whatever, and are used to the production side and not the install side.

[00:42:46] Jim Reed: Uh, well, uh, any advice? Well, one thing I would

[00:42:49] Andy Leviss: A aside from just call you, which, which is advice number one.

[00:42:54] Jim Reed: Well, I mean. One pitfall that I see often when, uh, a production guy, you know, gets caught up in that is they try to approach it like it's a live gig and they'll, they'll use the equipment that they would bring to a live gig where it's not appropriate, uh, whether it's just, you know, just choosing right from down from the wrong format of speaker, uh, to, uh, the console that they're using.

Um, you know, putting on a show is one thing, distributed audio through a building. Is is something else. And not all production equipment is designed to do distribution at that level, um, on a permanent basis. That's maybe, you know, also user friendly. You know, a lot of guys will just walk in and be like, oh, I got this great, you know, analog console.

I'll give you this. And it's like at, you know, the client doesn't. Analog. They can't, they don't, they don't understand. They're, they're not gonna take the time to learn the signal chain here. They want a button or two to push and that's it. Um, so I guess, you know, just approaching it with a non-production mentality is the first step.

Um, as far as design advice goes, it all stems from communication with the client. Um, figuring out everything else down the line is easy. That's when you could just call guys like me. You know, I mean, you, you don't have to understand and learn every single product and, and manufacturer's product line. What you really need to do is, is, is build up enough information to bring to the manufacturer so you give them as much detailed and accurate information as possible.

Uh, leading, you know, going into the design process so that the first design is gonna be. The most appropriate at the end. And you're not redesigning, you don't wanna find out after you spent hours designing a system that you just went over budget by, like, you know, you just doubled their budget. Had I known what the budget was to begin with, I wouldn't have designed this.

Um, had I known that the ceiling was made outta plaster and we can't drill into the plaster or run new cabling, I would've designed something different. So it's, like I said, communication with the client is. Is, is pretty much the foundation of any design, uh, and understanding what their needs are, what their expectations are, uh, whatever restrictions that they may have.

Like I said, structural restrictions, budget restrictions, things like that. Site line issues. If we're working in a church or, or something like that, you know, uh, you don't wanna be putting up a, a subar array when you're blocking the crucifix that's hanging, you know, upstage. Um. Are there chandeliers hanging, you know, people, just little things like that.

People don't take into account, Hey, do we know where the air ducts are in the room? So, um, yeah, that is, I think if I could most broadly give any type of advice to somebody who's dabbling in, in, in integration or looking to get into it, it is being able to communicate to the end user. Of what the expectations are and what the restraints are.

And by, and by asking the right questions to get the right answers, that's 90% of the job right there. 'cause then all you're doing is just narrowing down the product line out there, um, to pick the ch, the speaker or the system that's gonna, that's gonna check all the boxes for the application.

That makes sense.

[00:46:15] Andy Leviss: Yeah, totally. And, and that I, I think you've, you've kind of touched on a couple of the things that have, that I would sometimes encounter. 'cause as, as most listeners know, I spent a, a number of years, uh, in the last decade working in installs too. So, um, yeah. And there's, that's. Yeah, you've, you've kind of touched on a couple of the things that I, I would see folks on some of the, like one-off projects get tripped up on.

Um, and I guess the other question I had is, if, you know, if. Say, folks have done that a couple times and they're reaching that point, like we said, of the, eh, like doing the gigging thing is like, it's starting to like wear on me a little bit and I'm looking for something more like steady, like do you have any advice or guidance on, on folks who might wanna look at a pivot towards like working full-time in that installs market?

Coming from the live and production?

[00:47:05] Jim Reed: Well, yes, I do, because I, I understand that I, that's something that I went through. Um, I, I come from, you know, like I said, many, a few different worlds in our industry. Um, and I, I learned. Fortunately, I learned at a relatively young age that, uh, you know, being a, a front of house engineer, um, wasn't for me.

Um, and there's not, and, and, and accepting that there's nothing wrong with that. Um, it's, that's not the pivotal role of being in this industry, is the guy behind the console necessarily. Um, and, and then I was also being in installs. I was getting older and I started getting some body aches that didn't allow me to, you know, climb up ladders with a speaker on my shoulder, uh, or crawl around on my hands and knees, and I needed to make a change.

It was a life change, and I think that, um, recognizing your interest and your limitations, um. As early as possible to set you on the right path for success is, is very important. Um, I'm, I didn't just chase the, the dream of being the best front of house engineer in the world. I, I knew where I wasn't. I knew what lane I should be in.

Um, and I think it's, um, there's nothing wrong with that and I encourage everybody to, to, to look at other avenues, um, and, and find what makes you happy in this industry. 'cause there's lots of different doors.

[00:48:32] Sean Walker: Man, if only I was smart enough to figure out what my lane was, then I could just drive straight rather than swerve it all over the road. Jesus.

[00:48:41] Jim Reed: Yeah, there's my, my car's got a couple things and dents on it too, that's for sure.

[00:48:46] Sean Walker: Don't we all buddy? Don't we all? No, nobody just woke up one day and was like, all right, man, this is, this is the path. Like we're all just figured out as we go along, but.

[00:48:56] Jim Reed: Yeah, I mean, stop and look around at what you know, because you're not the only player when you're at a, when you're at a gig, you know, look what everyone's doing, um, and, and try to understand what everyone's role is and, and, you know, find, just figure out which, which one to think will make you happy. You know what I mean?

Um, some people, you know, live to be on the road. Um, some people need to be in bed by eight. You know, and you can't force yourself to do something that you can't do. So, um, or you're just gonna be miserable and it's gonna be that much harder to get out of that role as years go on.

[00:49:28] Sean Walker: Dude, totally.

[00:49:29] Andy Leviss: Yeah, and I feel like there's a certain, like there's a certain vibe of that, like old gris. Old, like road person that like sees it like, oh, I'm, I'm going to the old folks home, you know, working on a, I'm taking a steady corporate gig. And it's not necess like, it's not like a failure to make that pivot if that's what fits your life best.

Like, in whether you're doing that at 25 or doing it at like 45 or 50. Like there's value in all these different corners of the industry, I think. And it's, you know, I think it's, it's healthy to be aware of what all those options are and figure out what makes the most sense for you broadly and where you are at any given moment.

[00:50:03] Jim Reed: Yeah, and I think it's become a lot easier to make those changes over the past recent years too. Um, where, you know, we have a new guard of engineers coming in now, super smart, uh, super tech savvy, um, but also a lot more open-minded to quality of life. Um, and, and working that, that, that work life balance, uh, which I, you know, I've always valued and, you know, but I came up in a time where that was, that was always secondary, you know what I mean? Just, just deal with it, get up, do it. Like, just whatever it takes. And, um, you know, and it's, it's, it's, it's not a, it's not a healthy way to go through life mentally or physically.

[00:50:43] Andy Leviss: Yeah, there's, there's a lot of good and bad about, you know, having gone through the pandemic and everything, you know, but I think that's one of the like silver linings that came out of it with so many folks kind of reevaluated. All those priorities and all the possibilities there, and I mean, a lot of companies have become more open to remote work, which opens up options for folks.

[00:51:04] Jim Reed: Yeah, and the ability to, you know, take a breath. Is actually way more beneficial. I'm actually more productive when I could separate myself from the mayhem just for a minute, you know what I mean? Or a couple days, and then get, and then get back into it, um, and not get stuck in that rut where you just have to feel like you have to work 18 hour days in order to succeed.

That's not the way to do it. It, it calls for it, of course. Occasionally, sometimes, you know, of course you gotta belly up sometimes when, you know, uh, in, in mission critical type of jobs and, and venues. Of course, there's those long days where you have to give 110%, uh, but you shouldn't have to live your life like that.

[00:51:50] Sean Walker: Totally, dude. Totally. I, I built a company like that. It was really hard. I, I, one star Do not recommend.

[00:51:57] Jim Reed: Yeah.

[00:51:58] Sean Walker: Like, it's, it's all good now and I'm definitely more on your page of a, a little. Are balanced, but that's, that's 'cause other people are doing, doing the majority of the onsite work that requires those hours.

And, uh, we, we try to take care of 'em accordingly. You know what I

[00:52:11] Jim Reed: Yeah.

[00:52:12] Sean Walker: it, there's, there's lots of hard work to be done and you just gotta figure out where your highest and best use case is. You know?

[00:52:18] Jim Reed: Yeah. You know, I, I, I saw, you know, coming up through the industry, I saw so much of that, of just, you know, it was just a revolving door of employees never really sticking around a company for more than three years at a time. Um, because they're just getting, they're just getting burnt out, you know? And, uh, and I think that's slow, that's slowing down people like longevity, they like, um.

You know, they like the structure, um, and the security of having, you know, being, having a position with the company that they enjoy working for. Um, and there's nothing, there's, there should be nothing shameful about going after that whatsoever.

[00:52:57] Sean Walker: Dude. Totally. And as life gives you more responsibilities. Having the ability to have that steady work and that steady paycheck and, and much lower stress about things that may stress you out. You know, like, how do I design this sound system is a way different stress than how do I feed my kids? You know what I mean?

So having a steady, a steady gig that that pays appropriately and has the kind of environment you want to be, that's, that's a gold standard for a lot of people. Man, that's killer.

[00:53:23] Jim Reed: Yeah. Yeah. And, and just allowing yourself to, like I said, stand back and evaluate you. You're, it's, you, you could be way more productive, make better decisions, and even I could take on more responsibilities that would probably have stressed me out 10 years ago, but because I have a health, you know, because you take a healthier approach to, to living your life, you could take on those extra responsibilities and make right choices.

[00:53:48] Sean Walker: Totally, dude. Totally. As we're coming up to an hour here, is there things we haven't asked that you'd be. Like us to ask or that we didn't ask and we're like dying for us to ask. Otherwise we're going straight to food and coffee.

[00:54:00] Jim Reed: I thought it was whiskey.

[00:54:01] Sean Walker: Yeah, sure. True. I mean, it's not, it's 10:00 AM here for me. I'm, I'm not on with the whiskey flop yet.

I'm at coffee, but you guys have fun with that over, you're in the east Coast, right, Jim?

[00:54:09] Jim Reed: That's right.

[00:54:10] Sean Walker: Yeah. Yeah. So you and Andy are neighbors. You guys can fire up the whiskey now, but I, I'm still at coffee.

[00:54:13] Jim Reed: All right. I'll have one for you.

[00:54:14] Andy Leviss: I mean, it is afternoon on Friday.

[00:54:16] Jim Reed: It's true.

[00:54:17] Sean Walker: Yeah. But I, I gave up drinking years ago, dude. It's, they don't mix with me. I'm either on or off on all things. And, uh, drinking never turned out pretty for me.

[00:54:25] Andy Leviss: Yep. Fair

[00:54:26] Sean Walker: I thought I was in Motley Crue for a more than a decade, and it turns out I was not actually in Motley Crue,

[00:54:31] Jim Reed: You were in cold. It was,

[00:54:32] Sean Walker: but I sure partied like I thought I was

[00:54:34] Jim Reed: were in cold play.

[00:54:37] Sean Walker: right. Totally, totally.

[00:54:41] Jim Reed: I don't know why we're, why, you know, I don't mean to shit on Coldplay. They actually write good songs and I'm sure their show is awesome. But it's funny.

[00:54:50] Andy Leviss: Yeah, like I said, it's the punchline that's there. It's not actually 'cause they

[00:54:54] Jim Reed: Of course. Yeah. Sorry guys.

[00:54:57] Sean Walker: Well, they were gonna take a GTX rig out, but then they heard this interview and now it's over.

[00:55:01] Jim Reed: Yeah, no, please call me. Call me.

[00:55:06] Andy Leviss: I mean, look, if I had a time for every time we like made a joking criticism of like a microphone and suddenly that the new version of the microphone showed up on the doorstep.

[00:55:15] Jim Reed: Right.

[00:55:15] Sean Walker: enough. Fair enough. Thank you. By the way, those new microphones are awesome.

[00:55:19] Andy Leviss: Yep, yep. Thanks to everybody.

[00:55:23] Jim Reed: No, I think we, you know, we, I think we touched, uh, you know, we talked about a lot more than I expected, so, yeah. I'm good with this.

[00:55:30] Sean Walker: Awesome. Andy, any other questions you got about installs nerdery and distributed audio?

[00:55:36] Andy Leviss: I don't think offhand, I mean, I know like, we'll, you know, have your info in the show notes, so folks are looking at installs and, you know, want to look at, you know, what RCF could do for them. You know, they'll know where to reach you, which, which is good.

[00:55:47] Jim Reed: Ultimately, I run a support team over here, uh, just helping out our, our, our dealers, our integrators, and end users. So if, uh, yeah, if you do, uh, if you think RCF is the right fit. Uh, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We offer a whole design service, um, all the way from the design to the final commissioning of a system.

[00:56:06] Sean Walker: Dude, that's awesome.

[00:56:07] Jim Reed: Mm-hmm.

[00:56:08] Sean Walker: Cool. Well, I'm gonna absolutely invite myself to the next Indy 500, and I will buy the whiskey and dinners for you this time.

[00:56:15] Jim Reed: Nice. I'll get you, I'll get you to front rows.

[00:56:17] Sean Walker: Right. Perfect. Thank you to RCF for sending Jim over and hanging out. Thanks Jim for hanging out. Thanks to Al Heath for sponsoring and letting us Yap. About Audio Nerdery.

Thanks Andy for, you know, putting down the baby for five minutes and showing up. That's, that was cool. You did. I appreciate you. That's the pod y'all. See you next week.

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green