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Concert Systems Comes Back From Katrina With Yamaha's Help

— Provides Gear, Tech Support for Gulfport-Based Sound Reinforcement Company —

BUENA PARK, CA (January 20, 2006) — Between casino shows in the Gulfport, Miss. area and a regular gig with KC & The Sunshine Band, Randy Frierson’s Concert Systems USA, Inc. was doing quite well in August of 2005. “We had just upgraded the Sunshine Band’s monitor console to the Yamaha PM5D RH digital console and had added more NEXO boxes, including Alpha, Geo S and T SeriesSeries,” he says.

L. to R.: Kelley Gifford, sales manager/lighting designer and James Burgoyne, production manager, flank one of the companys three Yamaha PM5D consoles in their Tampa Bay warehouse, backed by NEXO CD-18 subwoofer cabinets and NEXO Geo T cabinets.

Concert Systems had purchased three Yamaha PM5D RH consoles, and the additions to the NEXO rig not only gave Frierson the muscle to handle outdoor shows of up to 30,000, but with the ultra-compact Geo S tangent-array cabinets, they could handle intimate corporate events as well. “The Geo S is the most incredible ballroom PA on the face of the earth,” says Frierson. “And with our large Alpha series inventory – one of the largest in the country – we’re able to hit all the venues. To my mind, Alpha still is the best point and shoot box, period.” Four NEXO NX242 digital processors are also part of his inventory, with power provided by CAMCO high-specification amplifiers.

According to Frierson, the company had established itself in Gulfport over the past two years. “The casino work was growing and the tour package with KC had turned into an important part of our business mix,” he says. “For KC, we were using a PM5D for stage monitors, and we were going to add a PM5D for front of house. Our NEXO Geo T rig toured with the Celtic Women for about 10 weeks. We were staying ahead of the competition by being just a little bit better. Then Katrina hit and everything went to hell.”

Gulfport’s casinos were wiped out. KC & the Sunshine Band took a three-month hiatus. Frierson’s home, which he had just built, was destroyed, along with the homes of some of his oldest employees. “I didn’t want to lose employees,” he says. “They’d lost their homes, and I did not want them to lose their jobs, if I could help it.”

Concert Systems had just taken on the Yamaha dealership the week that Katrina hit. “Yamaha Commercial Audio was the first company to contact us and ask, ‘what do you need?,’” explains Frierson. “I said, ‘do you really want to hear what I need?’ They listened and sent us the gear I asked for. I really don’t think we would have been in business if it weren’t for them. I’ve never dealt with a company like that in my life. The relationship has actually changed my whole way of thinking about how I want to run this company.”

According to Frierson, Concert Systems needed a monitor console for the Sunshine Band with the ability to do multiple acts. “We needed sound quality and we needed dependability,” he says. “The PM5D gives us all that and much more. We’ve added two more to our Tampa inventory.”

With a small warehouse in Tampa, FL already established, Frierson began moving over what hadn’t been destroyed to that location. “I contacted Scott Gartner at Fantasma Productions [West Palm Beach]. He’d always liked our work, so I told him that we were relocating and ready to work.” Fantasma Productions produces concert events at the Carefree Theater in West Palm and numerous venues in West Palm, Pensacola, Tampa, and Boca Raton, among others.”

While Tampa will become Concert Systems new headquarters, Frierson is determined to maintain a presence in Gulfport – with warehoused systems and two full-time employees, waiting for the market to come back.

For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Commercial Audio Systems Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or http://www.yamaha.com/ca/home/0,,CTID%3D560522,00.html.