:-)

PANORAMA 1999 Steelband Competition Trinidad & Tobago

National Panorama Steelband Finals 1999
CONVENTIONAL Steelbands

Final Results - Conventional
Posted - 14th February 1999

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   The National Steelband Panorama 1999 proved a disaster for Fonclaire, who were disqualified and with repercussive effects for BWEE Invaders; and an embarrassment to both Pan Trinbago and for Trinidad and Tobago in general. Comments later.

   The show however produced some exquisite steelband music and Clive Bradley's showmanship, together with his superb arranging talents, won the day for Desperadoes whose performance was nothing less than outstanding. Nu Tones could probably have done better had Bradley been able to spend more time developing the first half of their tune with them; but there are only so many hours in a day for an arranger. Exodus and Tropical Angel Harps were both in a class of their own, with dynamic and constantly developing themes. Renegades were all music with an example of one of Jit's best to date, but he showed here his only weakness; in that in his joy and eagerness to reproduce in musical notes what may be wantingly described as a Carnival of music, he forgot to put in a few spaces, to allow the tension to fall a little before taking it again to even higher places. Of the rest, more later.

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CONVENTIONAL Steelbands
Event - 07:30 pm Saturday, 13th February 1999
The Grand Stand, Queens Park Savannah, Port of Spain, Trinidad

RPO = Rescheduled Play Order
PQ = Pre Qualifier for Finals Nu Tones - Last years winners who did not need to play at the Semifinals
Top Rank & Points = Final Top Rank and Points
FPO = Finals Play Order by Draw
S-Rank = Semifinals Rank with Points
SPO = Semifinals Play Order
Zone & Z-Place = Preliminary Zone and Zonal Place Ranking
Rank & Points = overall Zonal Rank and the Zonal Points shown
DIS = Disqualified

   www.tobago.org apologises for late posting of these results as ISP suffered a server malfunction and has lost Internet connectivity, and it being carnival time, probably will not be back on-line till post-carnival. Yes this is Trinidad!
   Alternate methods have taken time to be set in place.
 

Improve sound of Pan in Grand Stand

By JOHN SCHMIDT
© Daily Express, Thursday 18th February 1999; pg 13

[Abridged; Additional and supplementary notes and graphics (not to scale) by tojo]
Posted - 20th February 1999

   TWO EDITORIALS in the last few days have decried the acoustics in the Queen's Park Savannah Grand Stand, particularly as they relate to steelband performances.

   While the Grand Stand certainly has its acoustic problems (which were made much worse when the new permanent forecourt structure was built several years ago), the immediate difficulty is the abysmal performance of the sound system during the past few Panoramas.

   This is an area where I feel qualified to speak as I am a registered professional engineer, and I design audio systems for one of the major television net-works in New York.

   A properly designed, installed and operated sound system could compensate for many of the acoustic deficiencies of the Grand Stand. The existing system suffers from insufficient and poorly-aimed loudspeakers, marginal power handling capability, no bass reinforcement, and a miss-located mixing desk. Worse, it appears that the operators are not properly adjusting the microphone channels used during Panorama, as the CDs or records played back before the steelband performances sounded reasonably passable, but whenever a steelband was performing, the sound resembled that from a 1940's AM console radio.

   This was further confirmed when the sound for Dimanche Gras on the same PA system, including the mix of the police band, was not bad, even considering the design deficiencies of the system. The sound engineer had to work hard to make the steelbands sound as awful as they did.

   Trinidad can do better. Most fetes and calypso tents have better sound than the Grand Stand. Some specific suggestions:

• Move the mixing console to the middle of the Grand Stand, possibly in one of the box seat boxes. This way the sound engineer would be forced to listen to his mix as the audience hears it.
• Add a second row of speaker "boxes" located immediately behind the fascia of the original Grand Stand to [provide sound] cover [for the audience in] the upper stand[s].
• Re-aim the existing row of speakers to point down towards the rear of the forecourt instead of straight back, so their output does not reflect off the roof of the forecourt and the front of the [old] Grand Stand fascia. This will eliminate much of the excessive reverberation in the forecourt.
• Install some bass boxes to extend the bass response of the system to better reproduce the range of the bass pans.
• Make sure that the sound engineers are fully trained in mixing music, particularly in the use and abuse (possibly over-use) of the equalisation on the microphone inputs, and adjusting the gain trims properly.
• Finally, look at the inventory of microphones available to make sure it is adequate for Panorama-size steelbands.

   Pan Trinbago should also insist on having its own representative to guide the sound engineer in making a pleasing mix.

• A sound rehearsal held a few days before the first preliminary (with a steel-band performing) would also be worthwhile.

   Don't let anyone try to tell you "pan is very difficult to amplify/record well". That is an old wives' tale told by those who don't know how to do it or don't want to spend the money to buy/rent the proper equipment.

   Steelbands are no more difficult to amplify or record than any other orchestra of similar size. Proper equipment operated properly will provide quality sound. There are several engineers right here in Trinidad who have successfully recorded/amplified large steelbands. Use their talents to improve the sound at Panorama.

   This is not to say that Trinidad doesn't deserve a properly designed large performance space. The only well-designed performance space I have seen in Trinidad is Naparima Bowl, and that venue only holds a few hundred people.

   For a country with so much artistic talent, that is a sad situation. But until a proper Panorama venue is built, at least use the one you've got to the best of its capabilities.

Additional comments
   tojo

• Similar treatment and additions should be made to the speaker systems of the North Stand.
• Sound engineering solutions should also be applied to the steelbands preliminaries venues at Skinners Park, San Fernando; the Expo site, Trincity, Piarco; and Shaw Park in Tobago.

   Sound checks are a standard and necessary feature of concert presentations abroad, but this being Trinidad, some vexing idiosyncrasies arise.
   The sound mixing system seems to be changed for each series of performances (wouldn't it be nice if it were a permanent fixture - but no such luck and not perhaps practical) and is set up early[!] on the day of the event.
   Then the logistics of finding a full steelband ready to play for the sound test, prior to the event. This could possibly be sorted in either of two ways, but requires a quick witted sound engineering team together with this willing[!] band.

• In a simple and fair world; an invited and non-competitive steelband would start all the events and suffer the consequences of the sound test. [Which at the moment happens to the first performing band anyway; and is one of the major reasons why 1st position play, at any event, is seen as sudden and certain death to any band that draws it; particularly for the semi-final and final rounds.]
• In a less fair world; the first band could be expected to play a warm up tune for the sound test, and then get on with their competition presentation next. [Ironically, this could force bands to learn a second presentable tune prior to Panorama; but other issues could torpedo this idea.]

   Whatever the choice, we must insure that sound quality is a matter of formality, and not an issue, in the new Millennium.

1999 Conventional Finals Results

© 1999: tobagojo@gmail.com - 19990214 - 1m20071228 - 2m20151016 Historic Update: 20 February 1999; Last Update: 16 October 2015 24:00:00 TT Processed by: Jeremy G de Barry