PNW Section April 26, 2011 - Honorary AES Member is awarded to Frank Laico (seated). L-R is Dan Mortensen, past AES President Bob Moses, Dr. Mike Matesky, Bob Smith, Greg Mauser, Ivan Tashev, Rob Baum, Dave Franzwa, Steve Malott and Rick Chinn.
The PNW Section conducted a dual purpose meeting April 2011, to both discuss practical aspects of doing live sound, and to honor a very special person in the recording industry. Frank Laico, for many years a New York recording engineer at CBS Records, and now a Seattle-area resident, received a rare recognition - that of Honorary Member of the AES. Unable to travel due to health problems, the PNW Section held a local presentation ceremony for him.
Former AES President Bob Moses gave a brief history of the AES, and how Frank was nominated for this award, his career in the industry, and his participation and sharing with the PNW Section.
AES President Jim Kaiser gave a prerecorded greetings, and a multimedia montage of images and music Frank helped record, made by Dan Mortensen and Bob Smith, was shown, followed by the list of other AES Honorary Member awardees. The PNW Section officers gathered on stage with Frank for the presentation. Said Frank,
"I feel very blessed that I'm part of this nice lineup of beautiful people. And those pictures that were shown reminded me how lucky and how happy I have been because I've worked in music. It was a blessing, and I thank God for it. And this (award) of course, is something I had never even thought of, but I'm honored to be part of your group and to hear all the nice thoughts that you all have. I didn't write a speech because I don't know how to do that — I only recorded, I never spoke! So thanks a million, all of you!"
A champagne toast completed the presentation.
After a brief respite, the tech portion of the meeting commenced. Local sound veterans Dan Mortensen (Dansound Inc) and Rick Chinn (Uneeda Audio) steered this segment. Fittingly, the venue was a theater with a Dansound reinforcement system installed for an upcoming event. They shared ideas and experiences in doing sound reinforcement collected over a combined 80+ years of work in the field. Included was a look at the personal tools and support items they take to every show, as well as discussion of the zen of doing live sound. Audience members asked questions about challenging situations they had faced and the duo did their best to provide helpful answers, as well as providing examples of how similar problems had been addressed in the past.
