Howdy Guys! Been a minute

[mixermarkb]

Life gets to lifing and I forget about my OAF friends, until it’s this time of the year-

Anyway, kind of had something cool I wanted to share. I’ve mentioned on here before that I do sound for concerts and events for a living- in a first for me, my two passions kind of collided this week. As I write this, I’m in my hotel room in Knoxville, where I’ve been hanging the PA system for the BASSMASTER Classic! 
 

I have to fly out tomorrow, I won’t actually get to run the console for the show, but it’s still pretty fun! Here’s a couple behind the scenes pics for those who are interested… I might add a few more tomorrow. 
 

I hope everyone has been healthy and doing well- 

Mark 

[mixermarkb]

If anyone is interested, the real MVP of modern concerts and events is the rigger.

All of those steel cables in the ceiling are attached to one ton electric chain hoists.
The riggers climb up into the building steel and use wire rope to wrap the beams and drop ropes to pull up the chains from the motors and shackle them to the steel. 80 feet of one ton chain gets pretty heavy when you are pulling it up into the air.
 

When the place where we need a motor to hang is between beams, they make bridles with wire rope and adjust the length of the legs to make the chains drop where we need them, which involves some math to make sure none of the bridle legs are pulling too much weight. On this show we have around 80 motors total, between gear and motors picking cable bundles to keep them out of sight. 

[Phil Lilley]

Looks like fun!  So how many people will fill that arena?

[mixermarkb]

29 minutes ago, Phil Lilley said:

Looks like fun!  So how many people will fill that arena?

Around 15,000

[Macsimus]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Ever thought about working on Tay-Tay's crew? I hear she gives some pretty nice bonuses. 👍

 

[mixermarkb]

1 hour ago, Macsimus said:

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Ever thought about working on Tay-Tay's crew? I hear she gives some pretty nice bonuses. 👍

 

I wish I was on that crew. She definitely took care of her people. 

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Que up Jackson Brown...   "Oh won't you Stay....   a little bit longer...."

[mixermarkb]

13 hours ago, Daryk Campbell Sr said:

Que up Jackson Brown...   "Oh won't you Stay....   a little bit longer...."

That song really does hit in the feels. 

[Champ188]

On 3/13/2026 at 5:53 PM, mixermarkb said:

That song really does hit in the feels. 

So just be sure you've got it all set to go
before you come for my piano ... 

Good to see you  back, Mark. Hope you get some fishing in soon. It's getting good. 
And thanks for the enlightening info about show setup. Very interesting.