Cast of hundreds tore it up, once again, bringing the music of GRAMMY® Awards to our homes. studioexpresso went behind the scenes and got close with the producers, engineers, directors and technical staff during rehearsals on February 13. We talked to the capable men and women behind the scenes and learned just what it takes to produce the 58th Annual GRAMMY® Awards Telecast.   According to our fabulous tour guide, Doug Mountain the set up begins by hanging over 150 tons of rigs, positioning 23 HD cameras to start.
The set up continues for 5 days and it only takes one day to tear it all down.
This year the six trucks parked outside in the parking lot got upgrades with new JBL speakers. During the broadcast, Truck A handles the live broadcast. while Truck B handles line checks for the act about to come onstage and serves as a backup should something go wrong with Truck A. The entire setup is run off generators, so it will continue even if there's a Super Bowl-style power outtage. If the generators fail, too, there's an Uninterruptible Power Supply that should keep sound going for 30-45 minutes!

Backstage we met up with DGA stage manager, Alissa Hoyo who has been doing this type of work for 22 years. There are total of 20 stage managers. The biggest change for her in recent years has been replacing paper with IPAD with new scheduling software. She and her assistant are in charge of every change that occurs in the schedule (and there are many) and to keep all the performers and their agents informed in real time.
If you're on this show, you have lot of live experience. Take Pablo Munguia (below) for instance.
Pablo works in the ProTools playback truck equipped with 10.35 operating system and Mac 10.7. He controls and mixes pre-recorded digital source music coming to him in 48kHz files for 20 acts, all of 42 songs. 
Like in the years past, every wireless microphone is organized by artist name and stored in assigned bins with the act's gear --drums, keyboards and microphones-- set up on moving mini stages that get rolled in during the show.
 
Each band comes with their own music director. But, when asked about the show's MD everyone was pointing to Greg Phillinganes who also performed this year with Miguel on Michael Jackson song: "She's Out of My Life," (the original keyboardist) from Off The Wall album.   Did you know there are 28 stand ins? They all have to learn the songs, in case someone is needed to take the stars' place during rehearsals!
While this was a year of great tributes by Lady Gaga and Bonnie Raitt, backstage, it took a village to run the  award show. This crew keeps busy all year long and for most of them it's the Oscars next!   

 

Gwen Stefani's new single, "Make Me Like You," was born on live TV during Grammy® Awards on Feb. 15.  The video came to life as thousands of fans watched it unfold from different angles on Periscope, Facebook Live and Instagram.  Just who was behind the ad for Target? 40+ performers.