SonoCrafters provided live sound support for the Martin University "Up and Over" telethon, produced by WHMB TV-40 on December 1, 2018.  Martin University is Indiana's only predominately black institution (PBI) of higher learning.  This first annual telethon was highly successful and establishes a good foundation for allowing the university to thrive, not just survive.  SonoCrafters was honored to be included in the highly professional production team.

Requirements and Challenges

A live broadcast presents many challenges (technical and organizational) that go well beyond your average concert  or show.  Here are some of the complications, from the standpoint of audio support:

• This was a continuous 4-hour event with no opportunity to stop and adjust.  Everybody had to think ahead, anticipating and clearing problems in order to hit all the time marks.
• We had a live audience, and in some respects there ere different programs for the live house and the TV audience.  For example, we had a DJ providing energy in the house at times that pre-recorded material was broadcast to the TV audience.
• SonoCrafters coordinated all the sound sources inside the live hall, which included MCs, announcers at the phone bank, and in the audience, as well as a variety of live musical performances ranging from singers with sound tracks to a 50-voice gospel choir with live band.  SonoCrafters provided a live mix in the hall, while simultaneously delivering 12 raw feeds to the TV production truck, so that the TV crew could produce their own mix for the TV audience.
• In some cases, there were pre-recorded musical performances and messages that were delivered into the live hall via audio feeds from the production truck to SonoCrafters.

In preparing for this event, SonoCrafters designed a mixer configuration to accommodate all of the above requirements.  In addition, several of the musical acts provided backing tracks. SonoCrafters remastered each of these to produce consistent sound levels and comparable levels of energy and punch to give the event vitality.

We look forward to building on this success in the coming years.