DSS install at the CONSOL Energy Center

DSS recently contributed to the ambiance of the CONSOL Energy Center, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the city's National Hockey League franchise. Installing a theatrical lighting system, DSS supplied the Penguins with an opportunity to enhance the look of their game, player announcements and sponsorships. The Penguins will open the arena with a preseason game on September 22, 2010 against the rival Detroit Red Wings.


The new systems includes, custom Tyler GT truss, Lodestar motors, several Vari-lite 3000 Spot fixtures, Vari-lite 3500 Wash fixtures, as well as High End Showbeam 2.5 fixtures. DSS also included a Road Hog Full Boar Console, Whole Hog DP 8000 processor and a Lex Products custom pagoda distribution box.




The CONSOL Energy Center is an arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The arena is the second home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the city's National Hockey League (NHL) franchise. The arena was completed on August 1, 2010, and will be open for the 2010-11 NHL season. The arena will replace the Penguins current arena, Mellon Arena, which was built in 1961. A ceremonial ground-breaking ceremony was held on August 14, 2008. The arena is the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold-certified NHL arena and is named for CONSOL Energy, which purchased the naming rights in December 2008.

DSS Seeks Experienced Professionals

DSS is looking to expand the already successful crew in several divisions of their company. If you are interested in joining a fast growing company in any of the four sections, Integrated Systems, Lighting, Audio, or Video please submit your resume, and portfolio if applicable, to Amber Lammers, Office Manager at amber.lammers@digitalsoundsystems.com


Integrated Systems:

DSS, INC. is a full service event production company specializing in the installation of advanced, high-output performance systems, including but not limited to arenas, stadiums, amphitheaters and churches. DSS has uniquely structured departments delivering clients the most comprehensive and competitive solutions available providing design, support, installation and experience.

DSS is seeking an experienced Integrated Systems Project Manager to facilitate design and construction for their integrated systems installations. At DSS, Integrated Systems Project Managers work with our corporate clients to meet their design needs while understanding their potential growth in the future.

As an Integrated Systems Project Manager, we require experience with comprehensive system design management and sales, as well as full system installation, integration consulting and extensive customer service. Project Managers will work with all departments associated with DSS; audio, video, lighting and fabrication ensuring the most comprehensive plan for the client. Applicants must have knowledge in EASE, AUTOCAD, 3D renderings, acoustical analysis and the knowledge to determine the best installation and design plan for our client’s unique structures.

Applicants must have the ability to work in a fast pace environment, possess strong organizational skills, follow instruction proficiently, as well as have excellent communication skills. Applicants must be able to work a flexible schedule including weekends, evenings and holidays.



Lighting Director:

DSS is a fast growing company providing professional lighting equipment, installation and customer support services for memorable, high-quality event productions.

DSS is currently expanding our lighting department with an experienced Lighting Director who has what it takes to increase our success in our production department. We are seeking skilled individuals who are hands on and technically savvy as well as focused on high quality customer service. DSS takes lighting to the next level in Corporate and live Entertainment.

As a lighting director for DSS, we require experience with artistic evaluation along with the technical knowledge and skills to produce illumination that is appropriate for the performance. The lighting director will oversee all lighting, staging and roofing as well as work as a technical director during the performance to ensure lighting cues and changes are made properly. The DSS lighting director will manage all lighting technicians in their preparation and gathering of equipment and tools needed for each DSS event.

Duties will also include the set up and operation of high end equipment for large events. Applicants must have the ability to work in a fast pace environment, possess strong organizational skills, and have excellent communication skills. Applicants interested must have experience in the industry as a lighting designer or director in other productions, or as a lighting or technical assistant. Applicants must be able to work a flexible schedule including weekends, evenings and holidays.



Audio/Video Technician:

DSS is a fast growing company providing professional audio visual equipment, installation and customer support services for memorable, high-quality event productions.

DSS is currently expanding our audio and video department with an experienced Audio Visual Technician who has what it takes to increase our success in our production department. We are seeking skilled individuals who are hands on and technically savvy as well as focused on high quality customer service. DSS takes audio and video to the next level in Corporate and live Entertainment.

Responsibilities include operating audio and visual equipment, and providing technical support during live events. AV technicians must have the ability to install, operate and repair audio and visual equipment and ensure that equipment runs properly at all times. AV technicians with DSS must be familiar with microphones, speakers, sound systems, recording devices, mixing boards, projectors, video cameras and much more.

Duties will also include the set up and operation of high end equipment for large events. Applicants must have the ability to work in a fast pace environment, possess strong organizational skills, follow instruction proficiently, as well as have excellent communication skills. Applicants must be able to work a flexible schedule including weekends, evenings and holidays.



Video Director:

DSS is a fast growing company that provides professional audio visual equipment, installation and customer support services for memorable, high-quality event productions.

DSS is currently expanding our Audio and Video department with an experienced Audio Visual Technical Director who has what it takes to increase our success in our production department. We are seeking skilled individuals who are hands on and technically savvy as well as focused on high quality customer service. DSS takes video to the next level in Corporate and live Entertainment.

Responsibilities include planning and organizing the technical requirements for all video components in DSS events in a fast paced environment. Applicants must have the ability to lead and train a team, possess strong organizational skills, as well as excellent communication skills. The Technical Director would lead the audio visual technical personnel in delivering flawless service, products and equipment to our clients.

Duties will also include the set up and operation of high end equipment. Applicants should have at least five years working knowledge of audio visual equipment; be technically proficient with lighting, sound reinforcement, video recording, and data projection; and have direct large event audio visual setup experience. Applicants must be able to work a flexible schedule including weekends, evenings and holidays.

Treads and Threads 2010

A black-tie event for The University of Kansas Hospital

Join DSS under the stars and inside the oval at the Kansas Speedway, September 10, 2010. Wine and Dine, Dressed to the Nines for the ninth annual gala. Treads and Threads 2010 raises funds for patients fighting cancer. Proceeds will allow for new positions and equipment to aide in the treatment and continuing research for the cure for cancer.

For your entertainment, you'll hear successful band Huey Lewis & The News, known for their songs "The Power of Love," "Heart of Rock 'n' Roll," "Hip to Be Square," and many more. As well as the nationally recognized 10-piece group, Emerald City Band. You will also enjoy a gourmet feast, fireworks and good company.

DSS cares about the future of our community. Treads and Threads supports the mission of the region's premier academic medical center, enhancing care for cancer patients, and providing more lifesaving options to the people of Kansas City and the region.

Hope to see you there!

DSS, INC wants to congratulate their friends at the Sprint Center, Kansas City, MO, for the recent announcement in Pollstar Magazine’s 2010 Mid-Year Report. The Sprint Center is listed as the third busiest arena in the United States and the No. 6 arena in the world. Keep up the good work!

View Featured Story: NBC Action News.
View Full Publication: Pollstar Magazine’s 2010 Mid-Year Report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

shani@sprintcenter.com

816-949-7170

Sprint Center Recognized as America’s Third Busiest Arena

Kansas City Landmark Earns No. 6 Ranking Among World’s Top Arenas in 2010 Mid-Year Report

Kansas City, Mo. (July 12, 2010) – According to Pollstar Magazine’s 2010 Mid-Year Report, Sprint Center in Kansas City , Mo. has been recognized as America ’s third busiest arena. The leading concert trade publication, which hits newsstands this week, ranks Sprint Center at No. 6 among worldwide venues.

“It is unprecedented that as the nation’s 33^rd –ranked media market, Kansas City is home to the third busiest arena in the United States and the No. 6 arena in the world,” said Timothy J. Leiweke, President and CEO of AEG, operators of Sprint Center . “ Kansas City ’s ongoing success is a testament to the enthusiasm and passion of the fans throughout the Midwest and to Brenda Tinnen and Sprint Center ’s staff for the world-class guest experience they have become known for. We commend the leadership of the City Council for their vision and partnership which has led to establishing Sprint Center as a showplace of the Midwest where fans may enjoy the world’s most important concerts and special events.”

Sprint Center, Kansas City’s award winning arena, was one of three US concert venues listed among the Top 100 Worldwide Arenas -- trailing venues in New York City and Atlanta . Pollstar utilizes an extensive database to collect box office reports from nearly 100 percent of the world’s top-level artists, promoters and venues during the 2010 calendar year. The result is a series of eagerly anticipated rankings and industry outlook that are included in the magazine’s popular mid-year issue.

" Kansas City continues to set attendance trends as evidenced by the #3 ranking among US arenas,” said Brenda Tinnen, AEG Kansas City general manager and senior vice president. "In the 33 months since Sprint Center opened, Kansas City continues demonstrate that the Heart of America has a diverse and vibrant appetite for live entertainment. AEG shares this distinction with artists, promoters, agents and managers that have made Sprint Center the ‘must-play’ stop in the Midwest .”

“Six years ago, Kansas City united to take a calculated risk in deciding to build Sprint Center to attract major concerts and sporting events that previously deserted the city,” said Russ Johnson, Second In-District Councilman, City of Kansas City, Mo. “That calculated risk has paid huge dividends towards revitalizing Kansas City’s downtown, re-establishing the city as a hub for live entertainment and sporting events as well as creating jobs and economic benefit for citizens in every corner of the city. The City Council is pleased that under the direction of Brenda Tinnen, AEG continues to exceed expectations in both diverse programming and financial projections.”

According to Pollstar:

• The top 10 North American concert tours have visited or are scheduled to visit Sprint Center in 2010.

• Sprint Center will host 10 of the top 12 Worldwide tours including Elton John and Billy Joel, Taylor Swift, James Taylor and Carole King, George Strait and Reba, Bon Jovi, Paul McCartney, and Lady Gaga.

• Elton John and Billy Joel: Face 2 Face on Feb. 27, 2010, set the arena’s highest concert attendance and highest grossing one-event show to date only to have that record broken when 18,045 guests attended an evening with George Strait and Reba.

Opened on Oct. 10, 2007, Sprint Center ’s continued success garnered its third consecutive nomination as ‘Best Arena of the Year’ from both Pollstar Magazine and the Academy of Country Music . Sprint Center ’s success in FY08-09 resulted in unanticipated revenue of more than $1.8 million for the City of Kansas City through a provision in AEG’s management agreement. Rankings are based on tickets sold for live entertainment performances between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2010.

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About Sprint Center

Sprint Center is Kansas City ’s home for sports, concerts, family shows, collegiate competitions and special events. Anchor to more than $4.5 billion of reinvestment in a revitalized downtown Kansas City , Sprint Center is a unique public/private partnership between the City of Kansas City and AEG. Originally projected to host 90 events and welcome nearly one million guests annually, Kansas City ’s phenomenal reception of Sprint Center programming resulted in the venue exceeding attendance projections, as to date, with more than 3.5 million people attending over 350 events since opening in Oct. 2007. For more information, visit sprintcenter.com.

DSS, INC Lights Up Tech N9ne’s Strange Days Tour 2010

Kansas City’s own Tech N9ne, known from the New York Times as ‘pioneering new sounds in an off-the-radar hip-hop hub’ kicked off his tour rehearsals at the DSS, INC headquarters mid May. Rehearsals included artists Tech N9ne, Kutt Calhoun, and Krizz Kaliko among many others on the Strange Days Tour 2010. DSS, INC provided the tour with a lighting package and rehearsal space to critique their sound and synchronized dance routines. DSS, INC wants to congratulate Tech on a successful tour. Featured below is the Music Review in the New York Times, on June 16, 2010.





Music Review
Face Paint and (Playful) Fistfighting for This Tribe in Brooklyn
By JON CARAMANICA
Published Online: June 15, 2010

By the time the Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne closed his Monday night concert with “I’m a Playa,” a song that rips off Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus” wholesale, there was no room left for shock, or awe, or revulsion, or thrill.

For well over an hour at this show at Warsaw, in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, he had been upending hip-hop orthodoxies and splicing together reference points in disorienting fashion for an audience of a few hundred fanatics. There was intricate fast rapping, and there were party chants. There was grotesque subject matter and mundane subject matter. There were synchronized dance routines with his fellow artists Kutt Calhoun and Krizz Kaliko. There were post-G-funk slow beats and aggressive, nervous fast ones. There were the stripes of paint lining his face, giving the effect of a warrior staring down battle.

All together, it was certainly without precedent, and possibly without sense. It wasn’t wholly unlike watching hip-hop from another country, where the basic structural elements survive but are rendered unrecognizable by the manner in which they’re deployed.

Tech N9ne is a strong rapper, but that barely matters; it’s not even one of the half-dozen most important things about him, given how he’s pioneering new sounds in an off-the-radar hip-hop hub. On Monday, he was headlining the Strange Days Tour 2010, featuring acts from his record label, Strange Music, which has been in operation for a decade. Of late it has become a small independent powerhouse — he has sold more than a million albums, rather quietly — following in the model, and sometimes the mood, of Psychopathic Records, the imprint of the Michigan horror-comedy rappers Insane Clown Posse.

But while this traveling band of misfits was far from home, they were not unwelcome. For almost four hours, the crowd — mostly young men, several shirtless, many with their faces painted — was intensely engaged, rapping along to even the more obscure artists on the lineup. Periodically, a mosh pit swelled and subsided, but mostly swelled. A small young woman in full face paint punched a young man in the face, and he offered to let her do it again, repercussion-free. One person said she saw a fan punch a security guard.

And yet there was no prevailing sense of mayhem here: as rowdiness goes, it was orderly, perhaps because this was a rare area appearance for Tech N9ne and his brood. Between acts, the kids crowded the well-stocked merchandise stand, loading up on T-shirts and CDs. After all, who knew when this roadshow might make it back to these parts?

Brotha Lynch Hung, from Sacramento and the most veteran artist on the bill apart from Tech N9ne, told the crowd it was his first time in Brooklyn. He has been making sinister and often sadistic records since 1993, though his strain of bizarre is different from his label boss’s. (He signed to Strange Music last year, after years on West Coast independent labels.)

Thanks largely to his subject matter, Brotha Lynch Hung remains one of the great unheralded rappers, and his new album, “Dinner and a Movie,” won’t do much to change that: it’s characteristically sordid, and characteristically great.

Near the end of his too-brief set, one lanky young man began pushing others in the crowd around, and within a minute he had stirred up his own mosh pit: in the context of this night, it was the highest compliment possible.

Press Release: JBL VERTEC® Line Array System Selected By DSS Inc. To Upgrade The Midland by AMC

NORTHRIDGE, California – With decades of history in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, The Midland by AMC recently re-opened its doors after a renovation process that included installation of a new state-of-the-art sound system featuring JBL VERTEC® line arrays by systems integrator DSS, (Digital Sound Systems) Inc. The theater, a longtime fixture on Main Street since 1927, has hosted performances by top artists like Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, and Duran Duran. The newly revamped venue will continue to provide entertainment for the region with a wide variety of musical artists, comedians and family entertainers.

As part of the renovation, the theater’s permanent floor seating was removed to make space for standing room or optional table seating. Installers also placed a bar in the back of the main space, and removed the last 15 rows of seating in the balcony to install a second upstairs bar area. The new PA system is essentially divided into two separate systems—one for the balcony and one for the main floor area. Combined with the venue’s historical architecture, the building renovation resulted in unique system design and installation challenges. “Overall weight was an issue on this project because we had to keep our total working load under 2,500 pounds,” advised Tim Dressler, Systems Manager for DSS Inc. “We were able to come in underneath that with our system design using VERTEC, with no sacrifice in coverage or output power.”

Upper balcony coverage is achieved with a cluster of six VERTEC VT4888 midsize line array elements per side, supported by an additional four VT4882 midsize arrayable subwoofers for low-frequency reinforcement. In order to reach the bar in the rear of the balcony, the arrays were angled upward. “Initially, we weren’t able to get the trim height we wanted for the new loudspeaker arrays,” added Dressler. “However, with the easy suspension capabilities of the VERTEC speakers, we were able to extend the back hanging points of the VT4882 subwoofers so they are basically hanging flat, right where we wanted them.”

Similar to the system installed for the balcony, the floor level PA system features an array of six VERTEC VT4888’s per side, along with four VT4880 2x18” full-size arrayable subwoofers ground stacked on each side. Additional JBL VRX928LA compact loudspeakers are used as front fills while an additional four VRX932LA loudspeakers were installed for under-balcony reinforcement.

DSS chose JBL SRX712M’s for stage monitors, with JBL SRX728 and SRX715 loudspeakers in use as side fills. All of the loudspeaker systems are powered by Crown I-Tech 6000 amplifiers and were configured with Harman HiQnetTM System ArchitectTM software.

“An increasing number of well-established performance venues are renovating their facilities and upgrading sound systems to meet the requirements of touring concert artists,” noted David Scheirman, Vice President, Tour Sound for JBL Professional. “DSS’ choice of a modular, full-bandwidth midsize line array system for the Midland by AMC is representative of this trend. JBL is pleased to see the selection of our acclaimed VERTEC loudspeaker system products by a professional regional installer like DSS, Inc. for this application.”

For more information on DSS, Inc., please visit www.dsskc.com.

JBL is a unit of Harman International Industries, Incorporated. Harman International Industries, Incorporated designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment products for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. Harman International maintains a strong presence in the Americas, Europe and Asia, and employs more than 11,000 people worldwide. The Harman International family of brands includes AKG®, Audioaccess®, Becker®, BSS®, Crown®, dbx®, DigiTech®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson®, Revel®, QNX®, Soundcraft® and Studer®. Harman International’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “NYSE: HAR.”

Harman HiQnetTM is the world's first connectivity and control protocol that integrates all product categories in the signal chain for professional audio systems of all types, size, and applications. Harman HiQnet no longer requires the user to manage multiple disparate operating systems or be responsible for programming individual signal processors, speaker controllers, wireless microphone systems, and mixing consoles. HiQnet was developed by engineers from across Harman’s Professional Division and is coordinated by the System Development and Integration Group (SDIG), a team of dedicated systems specialists based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

DSS Rocks Out at Rockfest

From load-in to load-out, DSS, INC was involved in many facets of Rockfest 2010. DSS provided the main stage PA and lighting package, audio delay towers, video screens and full video package, and second stage video and audio transmission to main stage. Fifteen bands, twelve hours and 50,000 people make for a phenomenal rock show, despite the constant rain.

Thank you to our friends at AEG Live and 98.9 The Rock for another great year.