12-12-12 By The Numbers
What goes into putting on the show of the year? We went behind the scenes of the Concert for Sandy Relief to find out.
What goes into putting on the show of the year? We went behind the scenes of the Concert for Sandy Relief to find out.
Photo: Kevin Mazur / WireImage | Licensed to Alpha Media Group 2012
With just over 24 hours to go before Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band were scheduled to kick off the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief, the scene inside Madison Square Garden was chaos. Controlled chaos to be sure, but chaos nonetheless. That’s what happens when staging a show of this magnitude on such short notice. To get an inside look at the colossal undertaking, the crew responsible took us behind the curtain to see what it was all about. Mark Dittmar, VP of Design and Engineering for Firehouse Productions (the sound production company behind everything from Live Earth to the VMAs), Eric Friedlander of Crown Audio (whose amplifiers are used by the world’s biggest rock acts) and Paul Bauman, Senior Manager for Tour Sound at JBL Professional (which provides the sound not only for the Grammys and Oscars, but the Super Bowl and Presidential debates) took Maxim behind the scenes, and what a scene it was. All of them admitted that it was the biggest show of their lives. Here’s a look at what it took, by the numbers.
2 Billion: The total number of global viewers the broadcast reached
19.3 million: Total number of US viewers
Over $30 million: Amount raised for Sandy relief
$48,000: Price of floor seats on StubHub (face value was $2,800)
8000: Feet of fiber optic cables used in the production
9600: Feet of speaker cable used in the production
82: Total number of JBL VTX Loudspeakers that were used in the show
Over 6 miles: Total length of audio multicore cables used in the show
$8 million: Cost of the entire audio system
240: Number of Crown I-Tech HD Amplifiers used in the audio system
1.152 million: Watts of power running from the Crown amplifiers.
124: Total decibels used during Kanye West’s performance, the loudest of the night, which is approximately the same volume as a jet engine
400: Total production crew, including 50 for audio, not including the individual artists’ crews.
11: Main Performers
39: Number of US TV stations simulcasting the concert
Over 200: Number of stations simulcasting the concert worldwide
30: Number of websites simulcasting the concert
6 hours: Total length of concert
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