BUENA PARK, Calif. — Every Friday morning at 8:30 AM throughout the summer, ABC News and "Good Morning America" (GMA) broadcast a live concert from Bryant Park at 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan.

Every week, the show asks the musical question of its Bryant Park audience: can you really enjoy an outdoor concert at 8:30AM by Prince, Mary J. Blige, The Beach Boys, or even the Pussycat Dolls? The answer is yes. The shows routinely fill half the park, about 2,000 people, while a larger crowd of approximately 4.5 million watches from home.

For the morning broadcast, production setup starts at midnight. The AV crew doesn't get stage access until 3:30 AM. Line check is at 5 AM (with an hour break) and sound check at 7 AM. "We can't make noise until 7 AM," says "Good Morning America's" head music mixer, JC Convertino.

Convertino mixes the live broadcast feed in the OSR truck (from Effanel/XM Satellite Radio) on two Yamaha DM2000 digital audio consoles, strapped together, giving him access to a 48-fader control surface. That mix feeds the ABC HD production truck and another Yamaha console, a PM5D.

"Using two DM2000's, I have a couple of layers of 48-channels each to work with," says Convertino. "That served me very well when I mixed Bruce Springsteen in Asbury Park [April 25th show]. He must have had 60 or 70 inputs. But it was easy to organize; I had Bruce's vocals right under my hand and the really important instruments right there and could easily toggle between both layers without missing a beat. I thought it might be challenging, but it wasn't at all. The ability to set up a basic template to match a particular way of working is very cool also."

The advantages of a digital console extend beyond extreme convenience of setup and operation. "We run fiber from the stage to the [OSR] truck," says Convertino, "and that cleans up a lot of problems that you'd have coming through copper."

ABC / "Good Morning America" employs two Yamaha PM5D's for the FOH outdoor mix and monitor mix. The equipment is provided by Wireless First [Mt. Vernon, N.Y.] in conjunction with Solotech, a Montreal-based sound and lighting company who also supplies all PA gear for the Summer Concert Series. ABC staff mix engineers drive the PM5Ds.

Mary Falardeau has been audio coordinator for GMA events outside the studio (and in New York City) for the past six years, the last two for Wireless First ( www.wirelessfirst.com).

Falardeau and her crew have been doing the Summer Concert Series long enough that operations are fairly routine. "We have a base package of equipment that, with some variation, is there every week," she says. "The biggest variable is the wireless portion, which changes week to week. Half the acts want monitor wedges, and half of them want in-ear monitors. For Mary J. Blige [June 23], there were no monitors on stage at all, except for the drum sub. No bass amp, no guitar amps, no side fills. Nothing. Everyone's on ears." Ten of those in-ear monitors were hard-wired, with the only person on wireless ears (Sennheisser G2's) being Mary J. Blige.

"The PM5D has become a standard for touring because it's so flexible," says Falardeau. "From the touring engineers' perspective, it eliminates a lot of guesswork. They don't have to worry about what processing racks you're going to give them because you're not going to give them any. The processing is all in the desk. And this makes things a lot more consistent from show to show. Half the monitor engineers we work with now come with their monitor settings on a card that they plug into the PM5D. That's a huge advantage for these guys, especially on a show like this where we have so little time. Engineers don't have to deal with levels and assignments. They just plug in their card and we're good-to-go. Because the PM5D has become such a popular desk, more and more engineers are likely to do this." Mary J. Blige's engineer, Ramon Morales, requested a PM5D and had his settings on a card.

Convertino adds that easing the burden on the FOH and monitor mixers also makes his life easier: "As you can imagine, from 7 AM until show time I'm in the truck mixing like crazy, so there's not a lot of time to get a good balance between monitors and front-of-house. So if these guys can bring a card with their settings, that's a great advantage for me too since I'm not waiting on them."

Convertino controls what he says is always a collaborative effort between the GMA guest artists' production staff, FOH personnel and the artists. "I've had the opportunity to work with so many people now, from FOH guys to the artists themselves, that when they appear on GMA they know they're in good hands. The FOH guys mainly just sit back and enjoy the show."

If guest artists and production staff feel secure in Convertino's hands, Convertino has his own security system: Yamaha Commercial Audio District Manager, Bob Quinones. "He's standing by us," says Convertino, "right there whenever we need anything."

The artist lineup for GMA's Summer Concert Series is available online at www.abcnews.go.com/GMA.

For more information, write Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc., 6600 Orangethorpe Ave., Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; email infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamahaca.com.

About Yamaha:
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. offers a complete line of professional audio products for the commercial recording, production, broadcast, project studio, live sound, and sound reinforcement markets.