JSI have worked with Adams since 1980 and been devotees of BSS equipment since the latter’s formation at around the same time. Coincidentally, it was during Adams’ week long UK tour two years ago that front-of-house engineer Jody Perpick was first introduced to what was then the new wireless Remote for the FCS-926 Varicurve Dual Equaliser Analyser. "It was great for setting the EQs and delays and I wouldn’t give it back," remembers Jody. "I told them to send the bill to Jeff (Lilley) and used it right away ."

Lilley, who runs JSI, says: "Now you’d have to arm wrestle that thing away from him."

Jody Perpick uses the FPC-900 Varicurve Remote to do stadium walkabout EQing. Jeff Lilley says: "If all the zones are created the way you want them, often it should not be necessary to re-EQ from show to show but on this tour we have worked in such a wide variety of different arenas and stadiums that things change."

Jody has BSS Varicurve devices and remote control on the PA, with additional slaves and a further remote system in his effects rack for channel inserts and MIDI patches, using the Events system. This enables him to set up pre-defined sequences of programme changes linked to MIDI controlled equipment; each time the button is hit it throws out the MIDI patch changes to all the effects. Jody uses two Remotes : one anglepoise-fixed over his Soundcraft Europa desk to make those Events MIDI patch changes, the other to tweak the EQ during the show.

"The Remote works great," praises the engineer. "It’s changed my life dramatically. When you are using the walkie-talkies it’s just so tedious but this process is fairly immediate."

His field EQing is done via a portable wireless Remote, on which the analyser source can also be switched to a phantom powered mic. The four system zones are configured on this portable Remote, which gives Jody the chance to individually tune and mute them. Back at the console he reverts to his other FPC-900.

"This Remote has 50 Events programmes and I’m using 30 right now, with a global set-up for every song - a few songs have special effects to call up so I just put these in as individual global Events," says Perpick.

Varicurve EQs are inserted on kick, snare, bass guitar and Bryan Adams’ vocal - also operating under Events control from the Varicurve Remote. As Perpick points out: "This means I can change, say, the kick drum sound between ballads and rock numbers and also call up an Event which puts a couple of notch filters into Bryan’s vocal channel to stop feedback when he walks in front of the PA."

JSI’s PA itself is a five-way JBL-loaded system and the Soundcraft Europa utilises 64 channels, with all the gating on board. The system is zoned into left and right PA; Upstage Side Hangs; Front Fill and Ground Subs, with each of these four zones having its own dedicated FCS-920 Varicurve Equaliser. An additional Varicurve FCS-926 is used to make overall EQ changes during the show.

As for the Omnidrives, Jeff Lilley is unqualified in his praise. "They have made a bigger difference than I realised because by having one at home it allows us to do our research in the shop and put the results on the road by sending the crews a PCMCIA card. It changes your mindset between research and operations; it means we can send out way more sophisticated settings and the feedback we get is instantaneous. One of the most helpful facilities is the AB compare feature so we can instantly check any adjustments against previous settings and satisfy ourselves."

"We are totally spoiled by the Omnidrive and by the individual band EQ and delays, enabling us to do internal driver tuning and alignment. I thought people would hesitate to use it because of the amount of software but there’s been very little unease."

Jody Perpick’s outboard racks also feature an array of BSS processing modules, such as three DPR 402 dual comp limiter/de-essers, offering six channels, and two DPR 404 quad de-essers (offering eight), along with two DPR-901 II dynamic equalisers and a pair of FCS-916 parametric EQ/pre-amps. These recently-introduced mic pre-amps more than hold their own for JSI alongside some of the more illustrious names in the rack, and came into their own at Wembley when the action switched, late in the show, to the small ‘B stage’ bandstand situated in the middle of the pitch.

Jody explains: "We have to use so many inputs but didn’t want to set up two consoles, since a lot are duplicate inputs on the two stages and the EQs are basically the same. So we have the 916s doing Keith (Scott’s) and Dave (Taylor’s) vocal on the main stage via the Insert returns on the Europa input channels. I then switch out the Inserts to go back to the console inputs for the ‘B stage’."

In addition, JSI had DPR-504 quad gates, DPR-404 quad comp/de-essers and DPR-901s EQing bass and vocals for support act Melissa Etheridge, while Bryan Adams’ monitor engineer Glen Collett also used BSS Varicurves in his drive rack for in-ear monitors.

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