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Pete Erskine Biography
Pete Erskine has provided RF and communications design and operational services to clients around the world, ranging from the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), Walt Disney Productions, The National Football League, nine Olympic intercom systems, Lotte World amusement park in Seoul South Korea, Discovery World amusement park in Taiwan and many of the major broadcasters of the world. Recently, Pete was the frequency coordinator Working for Clair Bros through Wireless First for the CMA Music Festival IN Nashville, TN. Four days of 6 to 8 bands a day -- over 200 frequencies with 130 changing every day. Interesting that it occurred around June 12 when the Analog stations stopped broadcasting. (They actually didn't turn off their transmitters though) As the old analog slots get filled with digital it's going to get harder and harder to use wireless mic outside. We maybe have a year or two of respite but then, invest in cable. In January 2009, Pete was again working with Larry Estrin on the Inaugural Balls, this time for President Obama. Larry Estrin was the technical director for all 10 of the Balls and Pete did frequency coordination for the Balls. With White space becoming scarce it was a challenge. Strangely enough the press was well aware of the possibility for conflict and for the most part did not use RF. During November and December 2008, Pete was the RF and comms coordinator for Clair Brothers on the first Arena tour of the Radio City Christmas spectacular -- 19 cities, over 100 shows, in 2 months. A huge production traveling in over 30 trucks, 13 tour busses and a crew of close to 100 not counting the endless number of Rockettes and other cast and production stage managers, wardrobe, props, sets, automation, Foy, and pyro. End of September 2008, right after the Beijing Olympics, Pete joined Larry on the four city tour for the three Presidential debates and one VP debate. This was the fifth set of debates by the Commission on Presidential Debates that Pete had worked on, the first being in 1992 with Clinton, Bush and Perot. Our systems and the production staff for this tour (see them here) were substantially the same. Take a look at the layout used in 2004, HERE.
During the summer of 2008, Pete traveled to Beijing to work on the Olympics. He worked for Riedel Communications as the wired Comms Manager along with sixteen other crew, all working on the communications for the opening and closing of the Olympics and the Paralympics. He was the sole person responsible for programming the Artist Digital comm system It was probably the largest intercom system ever assembled for an Olympic opening ceremony. Look at the system summary in the sidebar on the right and see some of the pictures here. Pete began his work in the audio industry while attending Columbia University. In 1966, he started as an audio engineer for WKCR-FM, the college radio station. The year's project was rebuilding the master control room. After Columbia, Pete was sucked happily into the entertainment industry, hired by Bob Tourkow who managed the audio shop for Robert Kiernan. Robert was the audio designer for Simon and Garfunkel on the "Bridge over Troubled Waters" tour, Frank Sinatra, the Rheingold Central Park Music Festival produced by Ron Delsner and Joe Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. Talk about trial by fire. In 1970, Pete became the head engineer of the new, in-house, audio department for the festival. There he designed the sound systems and produced the audio tapes for many of the theater’s productions.
Pete opened his first company in 1972 with Louis
Shapiro who was also a key designer
in the audio department of the New York Shakespeare Festival.
The new company,
Erskine-Shapiro Theatre Technology developed into an audio rental shop, recording studio,
engineering and design firm that prospered for almost a quarter of a century.
In 1990,
Pete and Lou expanded by joining Laurence Estrin who was then sole owner of BEST AUDIO in
Los Angeles. Together they formed a joint venture company that was called BEST AUDIO EAST. The goal was to create wider opportunity and ease for providing audio and communication
services to both the east and west coasts. During his years with
Theatre Technology, Pete
spent much of his time designing, installing, operating, and mixing sound for live
industrial events, New York City celebrations, theater productions, and national
celebrations. These productions include the opening of the South Street Seaport in N.Y.
and the Centennial Celebration for Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia.
For the "Brooklyn Bridge Centennial,"
Pete designed the sound systems for theatres on
both sides of the river and produced and mixed the
16-track tape for the multimedia show held
under and on the bridge. For the opening night, his
partner, Lou Shapiro, created the audio for largest musically synchronized
pyrotechnic display ever done by a single company,
Grucci Fireworks Over the years, Pete has developed a reputation not only for excellent design, audio engineering, and communication systems skills, but also for his ability to rescue the show under the most adverse conditions and under great pressure. He demonstrated this ability when he mixed the sound for the 1992 Presidential Debates between Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Ross Perot, when tensions virtually wafted through the air. Pete Erskine has worked on debates in 1988, 1992, 1996 and now, in 2004, was in charge of the engineering for the communications systems, Riedel Digital intercom programming, the infamous timer buzzer and also operated the backup audio console .Pete has been audio designer for countless industrial shows and installations. In 1986, as sole designer for the new permanent sound system in Carnegie Hall, Pete was an integral member of the historic reopening of the hall. He designed a speaker system that could easily be removed for acoustical events. In 1987, Pete collaborated with Peter Wexler, the designer and producer of "Search for Life". Pete designed and implemented the fully automated AV system exhibit incorporating hands off computer control for sound, lighting, projection and moving sets. It operated automatically without fault for two years, when the exhibit closed. The exhibit opened in the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and was later installed at The Cold Spring Harbor Genetic Research Laboratories on Long Island.During his years with Erskine-Shapiro Theatre Technology, Pete co-designed Rental software with Production Arts Lighting. It became known as "Rent control" and was the basis for the final incarnation written by Michael Rhodes for all rental scheduling and billing for Production Arts Lighting and Pro Mix (now PRG), Production Resource Group companies until 1999 when they switched to Oracle. Pete continues to consult on computer software. In 1991, Pete began working with Select Productions as they created Fantasy in Lights, a spectacular Christmas light show at Callaway Gardens , Pine Mountain Georgia. Callaway Gardens is a 2500-acre resort with miles of car, bike and walking paths. Select Productions annually provides a thematic light and sound drive through experience for visitors coming to Callaway for the Christmas Season. This annual event is recognized nationally as the first of its kind.Pete's first collaboration with Larry Estrin initially began in the early 1980s when Pete worked with Larry on several major New York events, including the 50th anniversary celebration of the NBC Television Network, the revitalization of Radio City Music Hall and the celebration commemorating the reopening of the Statute of Liberty and Ellis Island, Liberty Weekend. In 1995, after 23 years of successful partnership with Lou Shapiro, Pete retired from Theatre Technology to devote his time exclusively to BEST AUDIO to focus on the large, complex, high visibility international projects. During the period of 1998 through 1999 Pete worked with BEXEL to develop their audio and communications rental facilities at their New York office. During that time he also worked as an account executive for the broadcast video department and greatly expanded his knowledge of professional video equipment. In 1998, Pete and Laurence Estrin decided to make BEST AUDIO more of a consulting company. They sold or transferred a significant portion of their unique hardware rental inventory to two companies, Bexel and Pro Mix, a PRG Company. By this maneuver, Pete now has more quality time to devote to providing consultation and engineering design to BEST AUDIO clients. BEST AUDIO has retained items that it has developed that are of a proprietary nature. These items, available only through BEST AUDIO and the vast experience the company brings to the table has greatly enhanced its desirability with clients.Each year from1991 through 1997, Pete was the principal sound designer for one of New York City's favorite seasonal events -- the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center which is broadcast live on NBC. After 2003, he came back to the Tree Lighting with Wireless First to supply the communications systems. The Riedel Intercom system provided not only superior Computerized intercom matrix stations but was a key route of AES/EBU audio between the site and the TV truck over 2000' feet away by fiber. In 1991, with Theatre Technology's purchase of the first digital intercom system in a rental company ever from Clear-Com , Pete firmly established himself in the field of production communications. He designed and supervised its' use at such events as the Superbowl and the Barcelona Olympics and Paralympics. At the Barcelona Olympics, Best Audio laid down over nine pair-miles of cable and constructed the worlds' largest production intercom system for a single show to date. The system connected several venues as well provided communication for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. During the actual shows, the system interconnected over two hundred people in eighteen different departments, including the producers, the stage managers, and the technical crew. Afterwards, "Sound and Video Contractor" magazine published a highly acclaimed article written by Pete outlining the system and the highlights of the event. You can read a reprint of this article, here on this web site. Pete has also given several seminars in the Digital intercom's use including at the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society in Brooklyn.In 1994, when the world turned its attention for four weeks to the U.S.A. as it hosted The World Cup, BEST AUDIO managed the audio for the nine venues across the country. Pete was the general manager for the project and also venue manager for San Jose.
Another annual event that Pete has worked on since 1984, is the "People For The American Way" Spirit of Liberty awards banquet. Working with the producer, Jules Fisher, Pete designs, coordinates and installs the sound for this dinner party. It is usually held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel but occasionally tries other offbeat venues. 2004 marked the 18th anniversary of the event and it was held at Roseland on 52nd street. Pete has always donated his time and effort to the event. The performers at the dinner on December 9, 2002 were Pete, Paul and Mary as well as The Smother's Brothers. Usually there is only one musical act in the event and since the entire job, from load in to rehearsal to show to strike takes place in on day, proper and accurate audio mixing was imperative. In order to facilitate the smoothest operation of this live event, Pete specified the Yamaha PM1D console, a totally recallable console, perfect for instantaneous changes in the show. It was provided by Pro Mix and the operator was Mac Kerr.One of Pete's primary projects since 1989 through Super Bowl XXXI, has been his annual involvement in the NFL Superbowl. He first worked with BEST AUDIO as audio supervisor, later as communications engineer, and then, as over all business manager, spending several months each year in the planning and managing of this national event. In 1999, the National Football League and the Society of Broadcast Engineers began a pro-active program in every NFL venue to coordinate radio frequencies. For the first four years of the program, Pete was the primary NFL Frequency Coordinator for the NY Giants or NY Jets. He still is a backup coordinator. In the process, he has developed a series of RF coordination tools which can be downloaded on the Best Audio website.At the Olympics in Sydney Australia during the fall of 2000, Best Audio, was in charge of the communications systems for the opening and closing ceremonies. Pete designed, specified and operated a massive intercom system for the event as well as an optical and cat-5 data infrastructure system. The CST Group, a sound and AV contractor in Australia, was tapped to provide the equipment and purchased the first Clear-Com Matrix in the country Clear-com showcased the installation in an article. Pete has been the co-designer, with Laurence Estrin, and principal installer on several "electric parades" in Asian amusement parks. The parades all had multi track audio playback with music background and base line played through the park sound system and specific float oriented melodies transmitted via multi-channel RF to the parade floats. Pictures of the installation in Seoul, South Korea at the Lotte World amusement park can be seen here on this website. Other installations were at Farmland in South Korea and Discovery World in Taichung, Taiwan.
In May of 2002, Pete designed and installed the audio and radio transmission equipment for a synchronized music parade at Discovery World in Taichung, Taiwan. The parade has 12 floats with sound systems. Each of the floats gets its audio from a radio receiver. All 12 floats and the park sound system have synchronized music for the parade. Over 80 dancers and actors work on the parade every day. At the Paralympics, in Salt Lake City during 2002, Pete was in charge of the communications system for the Opening Ceremonies. The intercom system was a hold over from the Olympics and was supplied by Keith Hall from Audio Specialties Group. The main component was a digital Matrix intercom system made by Riedel intercom from Germany. During the Paralympic Closing Ceremonies, Pete Was Technical Director of TV Audio and also provided the TV mix for the event. In September of 2002, Pete was hired to program a massive
Peavey Media Matrix system at the Nan
Shan Insurance company training center in Taichung, Taiwan. Best Audio was the
equipment supplier to the contractor, Linfair Engineering and Trading, LTD. The
system had three mainframes and controlled portions of the audio for 7 theatres and a
master AV control room. During 2003, Pete designed and setup the intercom communications systems for Wireless First, the pre-eminent RF microphone and, now, intercom equipment supplier in the US. Central in their rental stock is the Riedel Digital intercom system and a custom 2-wire dial-up system. In 2004, Pete was the engineer for communication and Riedel digital matrix intercom system operation on the CPD's debates between the Bush / Cheney and Kerry / Edwards candidates. After weeks of planning, the debates started loading in September 30th and had the last of 4 debates on October 13th, 2004. The primary transport of audio was Pete's main job with the all digital Artist S system. The candidate's and moderator microphones and the infamous Buzzer audio were carried digitally on the system's single mode fiber. Check out the system drawing HERE .Riedel was selected to provide all of the intercom for managing the sporting events at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. This consisted of over 30 digital matrix Artist S systems with several having multiple nodes. Pete managed the Olympic stadium system. With three nodes, eighteen desktop DCP-1016e 16 channel panels as shown above, sixteen channels of the new digital C3 two channel belt packs, and three Riface Motorola radio interfaces, it was the largest of the systems. Two nodes were located in the sport control booth and one at the TV compound almost 500m away. All three announcers, Greek, French and English, used the DCP-1016e panels as their main stadium announce microphones. With AES/EBU digital quality audio feeding the house PA and communication with the sports event stage managers all in one system the cueing of the events was smooth.Since the introduction of the new Riedel digital matrix intercom system, Pete has been conducting training sessions in it's use and programming. Atlantic Video's studios in Washington DC and their Manhattan center studios in New York have new Artist intercom systems and have had several training sessions. The hardware is not only a sophisticated digital intercom system but provides full AES/EBU audio transport within each facility and soon between them via fiber.
At the Torino Italy Winter Olympics , Pete Erskine was the design and operations engineer for a massive Riedel Digital intercom system. It included 2 fully loaded Artist M nodes and 3 Artist S Nodes for a total system size of 352 ports. Over 40 master panels, almost 100 of the digital C2 beltpacks and 24 radio channels were used on over 60 separate PL channels. This was the largest winter Olympics intercom system ever assembled. Look at the system design HERE.From March to September 2006 Pete worked on the Soul 2 Soul tour with Faith Hill and
Musical tours were a new experience for Pete. At 58 years old when When Peter started the 2006 tour, he was among the oldest of the crew. His job in 2007 was the same. This year, however, he was involved in advance to split up the system frequency bands to separate the 40 frequencies across the available spectrum. One of the many industrial shows Pete works on is the GM Car show held in Las Vegas each October. He coordinates wireless frequencies (About 70) and programs the Riedel Digital intercom system. The challenge for the comms is to give consistent levels between rehearsals and actual shows when the ambient noise is greater. The only way is to mix the comms just the way you would mix PA. The PA company is On Stage Audio and the system design is by Kelly Epperson of Easy Live Audio.In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI came to visit New York. Best audio was in charge of all communications and media coordination. This not only included the production comm systems by Riedel and RTS and the production radios but also the 500+ Sprint Nextels which were used for city wide communications. Peter designed the comm systems for Ground Zero site, the St. Joseph Youth rally and the Yankee stadium Mass by the Pope. Wireless First supplied the comms and Production radio Rentals the radios. Read more about it and see some pictures HERE. 2009-06-26 01:16 AM |
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