In-Venue Tech: Analysis Of Trends In Tech (Pollstar Live! Panel Recap

Moderator
Lawrence Nicols | Director National Sales, Oak View Group

Steve Carlin | CEO, AiFi
T.J. Sagen | Director of Live Entertainment Sales, Cast & Crew Live Entertainment
Jake Henricksen | Project Support Manager, d&b Audiotechnik Corporation (Americas)
Jaclyn Lash | Senior Vice President of Special Events, San Diego Padres
Kacy Fletcher | Vice President of Automation and Digital Sales, Xerox Corporation

In Pollstar Live!’s In-Venue Tech: Analysis of Trends in Tech panel during the live music industry’s foremost annual conference, fan experience was at the top of mind. With tech quickly advancing, creating new products each year that can make lives more convenient, the panel focuses on the imporatance of integrating tech into venues. AiFi CEO Steve Carlin noted Intuit Dome’s advancements, the newly-opened venue utilizing facial recognition that allows fans to simply grab and go with food and beverages, minimizing the amount of time they have to wait in line so they can go watch what they paid to attend.

Jaclyn Lash, Senior Vice President of Special Events at the San Diego Padres, noted that Petco Park recently renovated Gallagher Square for music concerts, with renovations costing $40 million. The baseball stadium aims to keep up with tech and modernization.

“Petco Park is 20 years old, so we weren’t able to start from scratch in terms of tech integration,” Lash said. “But we want to make sure it remains no older than five years in terms of tech integration and aesthetics. When we did Gallagher Square, we were able to install new soundsystems. One thing that was really important to us was to install a soundsystem a touring act would utilize, so we went with the new L Acoustics. I think we were second in the country to have these. It’s been really incredible to see how artists love using it. We also have a 70-foot LED board. Everyone’s excited because of the new technology behind it to integrate into their shows. It’s a big thing for us as we do have a few different venues. Obviously, the huge stadium itself doing shows on the playing field, Gallagher Squrae, we have a few different parking lots we active for. Making sure the connectivity of wifi, LED boards – with the push of a button we’re able to integrate it.”

d&b Audiotechnik Corporation’s Jake Henricksen noted the importance of having a system that artists can easily comply with for their own shows. “We can take it a step further now with some of our technology where you have these big arenas and you bring in the soundsystem, and you park your stage at one end then they augment the house system,” Henricksen said. “You’d spend hours trying to time and align these loudsypearks to sound like it’s coming from the stage. And,w ith some of the current technology d&b offers, you can literally just click and drag a mouse and place this object where that stage is, and it automatically retimes that whole system.So one littel thing where it used to take half a day to get that system aligned. It’s really important to save that time and helps everybody.”

Henricksen and Lash both noted the importance of sticking to brands that touring crews are familiar with, as they’ll trust the brand and will have an easier time knowing how to best work the system.

T.J. Sagen at Cast & Crew Live Entertainment noted the importance of having reliable systems for payroll, noting employees won’t often think about payroll so long as they’re getting paid, but are quick to catch on when something’s wrong and payments are delayed. “Technology plays a key factor when you talk about payroll,” Sagen said. Especially on the touring side, you’re talking about 50 states all with different taxes. You’re having to report those taxes in those states. Scheduling, timekeeping, all that fun stuff none of us want to do or deal with. I was on artist management for a long time and payroll was the biggest thorn in my side.So, finding companies that can help you through your process, free up your time and make your life easier is a key factor.”