Chicago’s legendary Park West Theater is primarily known to the general public as an amazing place to see a music concert.  The Park West’s less known alter ego is as a flexible, full service event room.  From personal events like weddings, bar mitzvahs, and private parties to larger functions such as political fund-raisers, fashion shows, television or radio broadcasts, and charity auctions, there are never two shows at the Park West that are quite alike.
This keeps the technical staff on their toes.  Each event has its own challenges and requirements.  No single gig is quite as unique from an audio standpoint as the International Shidokan tournament.  Shidokan is the triathlon of martial arts, consisting of a nine round fight, with the rules changing every third round.a
For the Shidokan (as well as the traditional boxing events also held at Park West), a ring is built on the dance floor, a trapezoidal area just in front of the stage.  Just to make sure you’re awake, we’re talking about a square ring on a trapezoid floor.  The ring is the same height as the stage (about 34 inches), which makes the stage an ideal place for VIP seating.  The seating throughout the rest of the room is as normal for a concert, with seats throughout the main floor placed on the remaining three sides of the ring.
This event is broadcast internationally, so there are certain audio requirements imposed upon the sound engineer by the video crew.  Additional sweetening through the house PA for the live audience also helps create excitement for the ticket holders.  A careful selection of Shure microphones have been chosen to meet these challenges.

Mic selection and placement:
The normal configuration for this event is two to four SM91s under the ring.  These are placed atop buckets or apple boxes to get them off of the dance floor and closer to the underside of the ring floor.  These mics pick up the impact of the combatants hitting the canvas when they fall, and with a bit of EQ, I can make the room shake with each impact.  When the audience hears the booming thud of a heavyweight becoming aquatinted with the floor, the reaction should be: “ooh, that’s gotta hurt”.  This reaction is even more dramatic with a little help from the SM91, but only if it is done with subtlety.  The audience should not be aware that there is any reinforcement happening.  I add just enough audio into the PA to make the rowdy crowd think that the impact was even more violent and earth shaking than it already was.
Similar effects with slaps and kicks are achieved by placing a Shure SM89 shotgun mic on two (or sometimes all four) posts of the ring.  I take the base off of a straight mic stand, and gaff tape it to the ring post.  I also gaff the mic to it’s clip - there is definitely stress on this assembly when a body slams into the post, so everything must be absolutely secure.
The SM89s pick up and accent the slapping sound of barefoot kicks to the head and other pleasant and wholesome activities.  I have also been known to play with effects at FOH to make the overall feeling more dramatic; a touch of a harmonizer (set an octave below) help the SM91s really rumble, and just a smidge of reverb is nice on the shotguns to enhance those slaps.
The MC gets a Shure U2/58 with a Shure U4D UHF receiver.  I have found this combination to be reliable and great sounding in a wide array of situations.
For the Shidokan broadcast (but not the American style boxing matches), there is a second personality at ringside, providing a running commentary on the fight.  He gets a standard SM58, which I find to be better for speech than the Beta58.  Since it is to be placed on a stand near a table only 20 feet in front of the PA, with the announcer rarely placing his mouth closer than eight inches from the mic, the astounding rejection and gain before feedback of the SM58 is vital.
There is a bell at the judge’s table by ringside, used to announce the beginning and end of each round. I sometimes put an SM57 on the bell so that it rings loud and true, waking people up as the local bikini gals prance around the ring between rounds.  The bikini gals are not mic’d; they’re the sole responsibility of the video crew.
Speaking of video world, if the video guys need audience mics for their recording, I will use SM81s, or just because they rock, I will go all out and use KSM32s or KSM44s.  Why not?

The soundman fights too!
The Park West has twelve boxes of Electro Voice MT series PA, stacked with three sub cabinets and three mid-high cabinets per side.  Given this configuration, it is very difficult to place mics with a wide pattern on the dance floor area.  unfortunately, at this event, all  of the mics ore on the dance floor.  My placement is selected as much for rejection of the PA as it is for coverage of the martial artists.  The warriors are never predictable in any way, so the entire ring needs to be covered.  Given the proximity of the mics to the PA (pointing right at it in some cases) feedback is a constant issue.  This keeps me in check when issues of good taste arise; I can never put too much SM91 or SM89 into the PA, even if I were inclined to!
We experimented with replacing the MC’s wireless SM58 with a Shure 55SH Series II on a pulley to give the event the feeling of a classic bout, but the pulley system required an extra stagehand to operate, and proved unreliable at best.  It looked great though!
Some venues might prefer to hang ring mics from the ceiling, rather than using the shotguns gaffed directly to the ring.  Unfortunately, the Park West’s unique and somewhat fragile vintage architecture prohibits doing this easily.

The Final Round...
The Shidokan Tournament at the Park West is a collaboration between several technical teams.  Lighting engineers are challenged with keeping the ring illuminated with light that will please both audience and video crews.  Video crews are faced with both simulcast on our twin in-house 16x20 foot projection screens, and with capturing the event for broadcast.  Audio world must manage all of the mics mentioned above, plus a DJ and occasional video playback.  The thing that makes this event really rock however, are the fighters, who spend their lives training, working hard, honing their skills, and striving to be the best they can be, and all for one purpose - the privilege of having their performance captured and immortalized with Shure microphones!

Tydirium Multimedia Left Orbit Temple Destination:Cocktails Big Stone Head Send e-mail to James Last updated on September 10, 2011

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