Posted by Wayne Parham [ 65.69.120.54 ] on May 02, 2005 at 15:51:44:
I was very pleased with the turnout of the Great Plains Audiofest. It started out as essentially a combined club meeting for the Tulsa and Houston Audio Clubs, but quickly became something more. Many of us had been itching for something like this for a long time, so it was immediately evident that this should become an annual event virtually from the start.
We kind of threw together the show quickly, from conception to event in just two months. So that's not a lot of time to get the word out. But I was amazed with how great it turned out. Next year's success is assured, and we'll probably extend through Sunday and make that a seminar day.
We made the mistake of not posting any schedule on the GPAF website, opting instead to make announcements here. That's fine for the "locals" and people involved in the clubs, but there were a whole lot of people that found the GPAF website by other means. So they did not know we would be taking down on Sunday and I heard there were several people that came Sunday afternoon, some even coming from out of town. I'm very sorry that happened, and next time we'll put a schedule on the GPAF website.
Still, the event was incredible. I got to see a lot of old friends and I made a lot of new ones too. This deal is a keeper.
The Embassy Suites is beautiful and its staff was pleasant and helpful. Room acoustics in hotels are never good, what room is, really, but as that goes, these were probably towards the better end of the scale. All room boundaries were very solid concrete except the wall facing the atrium. It was drywall and not braced. But the rest of the room and furniture inside was solid. The carpeting and furniture deadened the room just enough that no one treated their rooms at all. The systems sounded pretty good in those rooms.
The atrium was attractive, and the open area tended to keep each of us from "walking" on each other acoustically. The hotel staff was slightly concerned that we would make a lot of noise that might fill the atrium - and we most certainly could have done that - but that's not what these kinds of shows are about. Music levels are typically no louder than conversation levels, or maybe just a bit above. Ironically, the fountains in the atrium below were louder than anything else, and it made us all tempted to shut our doors for serious listening sessions.
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