Page 6 - SPIRE Apr-Jun 2022 2nd Issue DIGITAL

SPIRE SPOTLIGHT
GARY
SJOLIN,
THE SPIRE'S
PRODUCTION
MANAGER/AUDIO
ENGINEER
Gary serves as the Spire’s Production
Manager and lead audio engineer. He
is a graduate of the Berklee College
of Music and brings over 35 years of
professional performance and
production experience to his role at
The Spire. Gary oversaw and
collaborated on the design and
installation of The Spire’s sound
system and acoustical treatment. We
spent a few minutes with Gary
learning about The Spire’s
transformation into a performance
space and what a show day typically
looks like.
What were some of the challenges
faced when The Spire was being
transformed into the space it is
today?
Well the challenges were many
including much beyond the scope of
my responsibilities, but speaking
solely from a production standpoint, Since our building was originally a Tell us about a typical show day.
it started with constructing a large church built in 1886, the acoustics For the technical crew show day
stage which is necessary to produce
the variety of shows we present. A
truss and various hang points were
installed to support our lighting and were built prior to amplification and tuned, and audio and lighting
speaker systems. Much time and
effort is involved in determining what organs and other acoustic
equipment was best for our venue
and the types of shows we present.
As to the installation,
0 4 | T H E S P I R E C E N T E R
of what makes a great show. If we’re lucky, we get a Any closing comments?
for the next few hours. Following the show, equipment is Just a request. If you’ve attended an event at The Spire
dinner break after sound check and at 8PM, we are LIVE
and enjoyed the experience, please spread the word
packed and stored safely away for the next show. There
among your social and professional circles. We are a
are several hours of hard work before and after each
non-profit and rely upon the support of our community. I
show. The short time frame in between is the pay off for
am also fortunate enough to sit on the Spire’s Board of
us…presenting a great artist to great audiences. I would
be remiss not to send a shout out to our fine technical Directors and can say they are a truly passionate group
of professionals dedicated to the improvement and long
staff. I love working with them and we couldn’t do what
term sustainability of this gem of a venue. In addition,
we do without them. They are:
they have always been very supportive of me in my
efforts to bring the best audio and visual experience we
Woody Bavota - Lighting
Ed McGee - Audio
Brandon Martin - Audio/backline tech can to our patrons. For that I am grateful.
Dot McDonough - Audio, Lighting, Video, basically
everything
This team is talented and most importantly, passionate
about what they do.
From left to right; Kevin Shanley, Gary Sjolin, Sal Baglio (of The Stompers),
Woody Bavota, and Dot McDonough. Gary working FOH; Bottom photo:
setting the Spire's stage.
hundreds of labor hours and much not work well unless your programs
“tweaking” (highly technical term) are primarily classical. The Spire was
was done in order to get where we no different. I brought in David
are today. For the sound system we Coate, a fine acoustician located here
made sure to install a system capable on the South Shore, to conduct tests
of very high fidelity and intelligibility, and design a solution that would
while providing even coverage in work for us. You can spend all the
every seat in the house. We’re quite money in the world on a sound
happy with how it sounds these days system and if you install it in a poor
and I have Rik Washburn of sounding space it is like throwing
Middlehouse Systems in Carver, as money into the wind. David’s
well as John Farrell, a lead engineer solution, along with some more
at MHS, to thank as they were critical recent additions, have our venue
to the install and ongoing sounding quite nice; at least that’s
maintenance. We all worked together what our artists and patrons tell us.
closely to accomplish our goals.
were not a good fit for today’s shows. starts several hours before the artists
Old churches usually have a fair arrive. The stage is meticulously pre-
amount of reverberation since they wired, microphones are set and
designed for speech, choirs, pipe consoles are pre-programmed so
when the artists arrive we are ready
performances. However, for today’s for them and everything works. From
performance venues, overly that point on all of our actions are
reverberant environments do focused on the artist and their vision
M A G A Z I N E