Interview with Thomas Winch
Sound Engineer and Head of Audio for Dolby Theatre
Meet SoundHuman, Thomas Winch, who is the Head of Audio for Dolby Theatre and a Sound Engineer who has been in the live sound industry for 40 years. Thomas has worn many different hats in the industry from being a FOH engineer, touring manager and now his role as the Head of Audio for Dolby. We loved talking with Thomas and learning more about his role and what it's like working for a big theater.
How did you get started in the industry?
There wasn't a single factor that led me to the live audio industry. In the early '80s I was just out of the Marine Corps where my job was to set up and operate communications centers, which gave me a lot of relevant training in electronics and electrical power as well as cable routing and troubleshooting issues. I was working at a company in Ft. Lauderdale, FL installing and servicing marine electronic equipment on yachts and ships when a good friend of mine who I had jammed with in garage bands in high school asked me to help him with a PA he owned that he had installed in a club in Miami. That led me to meeting a promoter who promoted punk rock and metal shows. He had an idea for this club where any band could play, as long as they played all original music. It didn't matter what genre or style of music, as long as it was all original, he'd book you there. That led to me mixing many different bands and some of those bands asked me to do van tours, etc. By the mid '80s that led to me working with some local Florida sound companies and my career just grew from there.
If you had to name one what would be your favorite tour or show and why?
After nearly 40 years in the business, that's not such an easy question. I have so many memories of great tours with many different bands and artists. I would say my most recent favorite tour would be the two tours I did in 2017 and 2018 mixing Cyndi Lauper when she toured with Rod Stewart. Such great people in both camps and everyone is a seasoned veteran of many tours. My favorite single show is tough as well. My most recent favorite would be the 2018 Festival D'ete De Quebec, again mixing Cyndi Lauper. Nothing compares to the vibe of mixing an open-air concert on a huge l'Acoustics K-1 system with 90,000 people singing and dancing, enjoying a great show. I can't wait until we can all get back to doing it again..
How long did you work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers?
My time with RHCP was brief. It was in the spring of 2003 that I got a call from Dave Rat asking me if I'd be interested in going out on tour as the audio crew chief. I needed a gig and jumped on it as I really liked the band and heard great things about Dave and Rat Sound. That summer the Peppers were touring in a novel fashion, three weeks doing shows, then 10 days off per month. During my second month with them I was contacted about another gig as Tour manager/FOH mixer for Macy Gray. I couldn't say no to the money and retainer they offered so I left the RHCP tour after the second month.
How long have you been the Head of Audio for Dolby Theatre and what led you to that position?
That was the result of an unlikely turn in my career. In 2006, during my time with Macy Gray, a friend of mine called me to say that the local IATSE union needed sound engineers and that I should go with him to sign up, which I did. I was on retainer with Macy at the time and looked at it as something I could do to make some extra cash because I wanted to buy a race car and my wife (now ex) was totally against it because of the cost. In the ensuing years with the union, I was interviewed to be the audio department head at a few different venues, including the Dolby Theater more than once. I always made it to the final cut, only to not get the gig because of concerns that I'd leave to go on tour. Then, after being denied the gig at Dolby for the second time, I got a call from them to save a show because the person they hired really wasn't up to the task. Sometime after that I got a phone call from the technical director saying if I wanted the gig it was mine. That was in October 2018.
What gear are you most frequently using at Dolby?
The Dolby Theater has two different, distinct in-house audio systems. One is for concerts and Broadway type shows and the other is for movie premieres. The concert system main hangs are Meyer Sound and consist of 1 - 600HP, 10 Mica, & 6 M'elodies per side. On the deck there are 3 - 700 HP subs, 2 UPA-1, and 2 UPD-1 per side along with 10 M1D spread along the downstage edge for front fill. The first and second mezzanines have Meyer under balcony fill and every box has its own Meyer speaker. All Meyer main hang and deck speakers are self-powered and driven by Meyer Galileos. The under balcony and box seat speakers are driven by MP-88s which receive signal via BSS Audio Architect software. The third mezzanine has a separate fill system consisting of 3 hangs of 4 JBL 4888 driven by Crown i-Tech 4x3500 amps. The FOH console is a Digico SD-10. There is no in house monitor system. If a show needs a monitor system and isn't carrying their own, a system to match their rider will be sourced from a local audio company by the promoter.
The movie premiere system is an entirely different animal. The house PA system is flown out and the ground stacks removed in order to install the Dolby Atmos system. Behind the huge movie screen that takes up the entire proscenium we fly five clusters of 12 JBL Vertec 4886. Across the deck behind the screen are 10 Dolby proprietary 2x18" subs. This system is powered by JBL amps. Overhead of the audience we hang two trusses, each holding 26 Meyer downfill speakers. We install surround speakers and rear fill, hung from the box seats on the side and in the rear of the mezzanines. There are also rear and side fill subs. This is all fed from Dolby Labs processing that originates in the projection booth. The Dolby Sound Lab engineers come in to oversee the install and tweak the system.. After they perform their voodoo, it's really remarkable just how good it sounds.
What are some of your main responsibilities and most frequent issues that you deal with as the Head of Audio for a big theater?
My main responsibility is ensuring that the house systems are functioning to their highest capabilities and to maintain that function. Second to that, my main responsibility is to assist visiting productions and their engineers to have the best experience possible doing their show at the theater. My third major responsibility is the mundane administrative tasks associated with staffing and payroll.
Were you able to work at all during the pandemic? How did you spend your extra free time during?
During the pandemic, the only shows we've been able to do at Dolby were TV gigs without a live audience like American Idol Hollywood Week. From the time everything shut down in mid-March, I only worked around ten weeks for the rest of the year. That's not saying I worked ten whole weeks, only that there were ten weeks that I earned income. The extended unemployment benefits as well as the programs to extend assistance to homeowners have been a vast help in keeping me afloat. As for what I did in my free time, I botched a few home improvement projects enough to know that I should stay in my lane and stick to audio. And I've been getting some bike riding and exercise in to avoid packing on the dreaded Covid fifteen.
How do you think the pandemic will shape the industry going forward?
It's so difficult to say and it would only be conjecture on my part. In the near term there will adjusting to having an audience! Of course, there will be a higher degree of attention paid to properly cleaning and disinfecting gear, especially vocal microphones. Audio companies will probably be investing in equipment to properly perform some of those tasks. But as we get past the pandemic and things get back to normal, I think that as time goes by that people will go back to their old habits. If anything, this should show everyone in the industry that you need to have a plan B... and C, D and so on.
What is the best sound tip you have ever received or would give to another Sound Human?
Some sound advice? Stay in school... oh, you meant about sound? Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty and do the work. Learn all aspects of the job, from prepping the gear to loading the trucks to flying PA, teching the monitor rig, etc. In other words, be a knowledge sponge and soak it all up. I would also give them this mixing tip that wasn't really applicable to my situation coming up in the analog age. Learn to really listen and mix with your ears and not your eyes. With today's digital consoles being little more than a workstation with a built-in computer, too many engineers get locked into looking at a computer monitor or their worrying about the settings on that really cool new tube compressor plug-in.
