OBS, ProTools, Vintage Instruments, Vintage microphones and limiters, mic-pre's, a few web cameras and a great engineer, a TV Director Operator to monitor the broadcast and you have your very own gorilla TV station. The technology is becoming the venue now. Social distancing has put a hold on "Live Music" as we once knew it, so how do artists go about doing their business? Some are basically a band in one and it appears the more savvy the internet/technologist, the easier it is to express yourself. My personal journey in this endeavor led me to investigate, query and otherwise, check out the plumbing and as I did, I realized how tedious and challenging just deciphering the code and trouble shooting your, "stream" is. My hats off to those folks who are light years ahead of my analog ass in this regard. You can go on YouTube and you'll see quite a few methods and devices to choose from. Some are very much Gorilla, from using cardboard boxes to build monitoring and well, all kinds of clever "urban warfare" solutions. Genuinely, this is the beginning of the home broadcasting business. Once I realized that the sound was still "Numero Uno" in this medium I started to decipher and parse through the YouTube vids, ask a lot of questions, until I came across OBS freeware tutorials out of the UK. In many instances, a simple iPhone will do the trick. You can just "Go Live" and fake it. Your sound will be what it is, an iPhone microphone and if your material is super simple and elegant, then, you're good to go. For guitar wankers and retread studio geeks like me, I am in search of "TONE" and professional sound with some sort of video platform that integrates both into the stream. OBS is that tool. Of course, you still have to have two "DA/AD" converters to accomplish the task and two MacBook Pro's. I was able to build a portable Gorilla TV blueprint that can be set up, "live" and deliver the goods. It will all fit into a bulky backpack. As for the engineering, it is a steep learning curve, but if I apply myself, I'll be able to do live streaming anywhere there's electricity and an internet connection. As for the future of "live concerts" it will include, "Pay-Per View" streaming and physically, "Drive-in's" where patrons park for $100 per car and go about there social distancing in the back seat or truck bed and that will require areas like, "Fairgrounds" and wide open acreage to start the ball rolling. Fairgrounds have the gates and the acreage and it will be big money. Do the math of $100 to $200 a car and 600 cars the numbers support the big acts. and now, include the streaming content and you got some hella' investment in the future of the concert business. What do you think? :-)
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