It sure feels great to come to work in our new home. We still have a few finishing touches to complete but I thought it would be a good time to show a few pictures to show our progress.

Tags: technology gallery, new showroom

The Carolina Chocolate Drops were the headline entertainers for the annual Heritage Day at Blandwood Mansion which is the kick off event to the Fun Fourth Festival in celebrated in downtown Greensboro. Making this 4th as even more memorable is that it also celebrates the Greensboro 200th anniversary. The festivities will continue on Thursday night with headliner Black & Blue performing at the Kick-Off Block party and then after a full day of activities in downtown Greensboro will conclude with the Greensboro Concert Band fireworks finally at the Grimsley HS Football Stadium were CareySound will once again provide the audio for the event. We look forward to seeing you all on the Fourth.

Tags: Heritage Day, Blandwood Mansion, Carolina Chocolate Drops

CareySound offices will be closed on Friday. We hope you join us for the fireworks concert at Grimsley HS Football Stadium along with the Greensboro Concert Band. We will reopen on Monday the 7th as usual. Have a safe Independence Day.

You know when summer is just around the corner when the new schedule for North Carolina's longest and most successful summer music program, Music for a Sunday Evening in the Park (MUSEP), is posted. Hosted by the City Arts division of GSO Parks and Rec, this years festival brings a great mix of returning favorites along with some great new acts. The full schedule that begins the fist Sunday in June, along with maps to all of the locations, can be found on their official web site www.MUSEP.info. CareySound is proud to once again be chosen to provide the audio production for the series and sponsor the MUSEP website.

April first and its time to celebrate. Not only is CareySound officially 30 years old this next week but both Tommy and Ken have wedding anniversaries to celebrated. So Ken and his beautiful wife are headed to Disney Word and Tommy and his beautiful wife are headed to Los Vegas this next week. Although the sales department will be shut down next week John, David, and Mike will be holding down the fort at CareySound.

"Ok - So enough about the move already. We get it . You've moved" This is my last last update on our move to Pomona Drive. Although the dust hasn't settled yet and we are still finding a place for everything, we are now functional in our new building. We are cleaning out the last remnants of our stay on Church street the rest of this week. All business, sales and rentals are happening in the new location. You can find an interactive map to the new location by clicking here.

Just a little taste of what 1,500 dancing party goers experienced at the hottest new nightspot in Greensboro at Rumba DCache. CareySounds own John Carey was the guest SoundMan for the evenings festivities driving the clubs 20,000 watt EV Manifold system.

With over 3,000 in attendance, it was standing room only at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Greensboro, NC tonight for a city wide celebration of Martin Luther King Day. The service held tonight was the culmination of a full day of community activities celebrating Dr. Kings life.

The power-packed event featured special guest artists Phillip Bryant, Lil' Mo and multiple 2008 Stellar Award winner, Dewayne Woods backed by a one hundred member community mass choir. Dr. John Guns of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida was the featured guest speaker.

The event also marked the debut of Mt. Zion's new sound system to the community at large. The sound system was designed and installed by local systems integrator CareySound. Company owner, Ken Carey, along with Tommy Martin, VP of Sales and John Carey, HE, were on hand to handle the engineering duties for the evening.

System designer, Ken Carey of CareySound and Stuart Schatz of BOSCH Communications faced several challenges in designing the new system. "The 10 year old sound system we just replaced had never really addressed some very serious issues in the room" Carey said. "This sanctuary is not only very wide but is was built completely backward to the way auditoriums are built with the tall part of the room in the front and the short part of the room in the rear end with a balcony. This arrangement effectively funnels all of the sound down into the back rows and presented many more reflective surfaces in the process. This was in addition to a very loud HVAC system" Carey explained.

The original system consisted of a very large, tightly packed, Left-Center-Right trapezoidal speaker system with overlapping conical horn coverage. Additionally, multiple smaller cabinets had been added to the space to try to compensate for the very patchy sound distribution in the auditorium. "With the seat-to-seat variations in coverage and the loud HVAC system they were driving the system hard to try to cover the imperfections in sound distribution in the auditorium and the high sound levels very quickly swamped the room adding to the already complicated acoustics of the space," continued Carey.

The solution to this unique combination of issues was the installation of a precisely focusable Electro-Voice Xlci loudspeaker line-array. Dual 13-element Line Arrays, each consisting of eight Xlci127DVX boxes hung under four Xlci215 subs, flank the stage powered by eight Electro-Voice P3000RL remote supervised Precision Series Amplifiers. "Utilizing the great sounding, high performance, Xlci loudspeaker system with the aid of EV's powerful LAPS computer aided aiming software, we were able to design a verifiably accurate system with complete confidence. All of the issues created by the original 32 box, 29 amplifier system along with the oddly shaped room and loud HVAC system were overcome with the new system. Everybody in the sold out auditorium tonight had the best seat in the house." Carey concluded.

In addition to the new EV house system at Mt. Zion are new monitor speakers utilizing the new Dynacord VariLine loudspeakers. The new wireless microphone system is the EV REV UHF System with RE-410 mic capsules.

Celebrating it's 30th year in business, CareySound takes great pride in offering it's clients the highest degree of expertise and customer service in both sales and specialty audio production services. For more details please contact us by phone at (336) 379-1943 or by email at ken@careysound.com.

At the risk of stating the obvious, CareySound will be closed for the holidays beginning today with the exception of Monday December 31 from 1 to 4 pm for New Years Eve rental pickups. We will return to our regular schedule on Wednesday January 2.

We will be adding content to CareySound.com during the next week however. We have a lot of great announcements to make and a special offer for our loyal web family so be sure to slide on over to CareySound.com after all the presents have been opened Christmas morning.

We hope you enjoy Christmas with your loved ones. The following musical interlude is presented by none other than the SoundMans beautiful wife and the members of Guilford Park Presbyterian Church.

Friday, November 30, 2007, McCrary Theatre, 7:30PM
Department of Music presents élan  
Elon University’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble will perform music  from the Manhattan Transfer album entitled Brasil. Accompanied by rhythm section and percussion, the concert will feature student soloists and is open to the public without charge. Just tell them that SoundMan sent you and don't forget to say hi to Rick Earl (he runs the joint) while your there. Oh and don't forget to admire the truss sculpture provided by CareySound.

CareySound will be closed Thursday and Friday and will return on Monday full of turkey. Stay safe over the holiday weekend.

John is still roaming around Europe and is loving it, but life here at home must go on. Aside from all of the shows and installs he is missing out on by being away on holiday (that's a vacation for us here in the US) he has also missed the international release of A Drop In Silence, the latest release from HIS band by the same name. So far it can be found through CD Baby.com and it has just been released on iTunes.

Event planner, marketing specialist, DJ and now husband. Our good friend Desmond Sharpe and his beautiful new wife Shayla tied the knot yesterday the Pine Lake Pavillion just outside of Mebane, NC and the SoundMan was invited to attend. Here are a few pictures from the big day.

The guests arrive.

The vows.


The reception and after party.

Truss sculptures provided by CareySound.

Even though I hear that the fishing is great in Minnesota there will be none of that for Tommy who is attending the BOSCH Communications Systems Academy for the week getting his IrisNet/NetMax certification. BOSCH provides these intensive training sessions throughout the year at it's corporate headquarters in Burnsville, MN. CareySound continually trains so you don't have too.




From the introduction of the first IRIS (Intelligent Remote Integrated Supervision) software platform for amplifiers in 2002, EV has been developing a robust audio control protocol and new innovative audio hardware. The first was the RL line of remote controlled amplifier products. These amplifiers offered an amazing level of user control and monitoring, which brought reliability and ease of use to a wide range of users. Now EV is introducing the NetMax™ N8000, a comprehensive digital audio system controller — the next link in the IRIS-Net audio processing chain. IRIS-Net is EV’s answer to the ever-increasing complexity of audio system designs. It is a comprehensive software platform, which encompasses a huge array of control options. All aspects of the audio chain are under its supervision and control. The key areas of signal processing, supervision and signal routing are all manipulated under its shell.

The new NetMax N8000 is the central player in the IRIS-Net solution. It offers an extremely flexible hardware platform that allows for field level customization of the unit to nearly any application. This customization goes far beyond what is available today from other platforms. Everything from the matrix size and configuration to the processing power can be customized in the field, making it easy to design the best solution value for the customer.

Distributed vs. Central processing – The N8000 and IRIS-Net gives you both!
Now you don’t have to make the choice as to where your processing power resides. IRIS-Net gives you the ability to choose BOTH! IRIS-Net enables you to process all or part of the audio signal in a central component like the NetMax N8000 or to conduct the processing and supervision remotely at the amplifier. This gives the system designer incredible flexibility in designing the system. You can now design the system for the ultimate in reliability or design for efficiency and value. The IRIS-Net solution gives you all the hardware and software pieces to accomplish both objectives.

Open Architecture – Extensively Tested
The IRIS-Net software platform has been extensively tested in a variety of venues. Even prior to its introduction the system hardware and software underwent extensive testing and scrutiny. The software interface and hardware component design were made with the user and designer in mind. The open architecture of the hardware and IRIS-Net user protocol allow for the seamless functioning of external devices within IRIS-Net and its hardware components.

The nationally recognized Eastern Music Festival will produce over 100 events between June 23 and July 28, 2007 – everything from Grammy-winning classical soloists with symphony orchestra (three resident orchestras to choose from) – to one of America’s most innovative and eclectic schedules of alternative programming, as part of EMFfringe. Principal conductor Gerard Schwarz heads a distinguished list of participating artists scheduled for 2007, including Sir James Galway, Hilary Hahn, Sarah Chang, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Lynn Harrell, Vladimir Feltsman, Julia Fischer, Anonymous 4, Barry Douglas and many others.

CareySound will once again provide the audio for the series. This series is always the highlight of our year. Don't miss a single event. No matter what your musical tastes are you will not be disappointed by any EMF performance. It's just that good. We will be featuring articles on the technical aspects of the shows throughout the month long series. Click here to download a schedule of performances.

It's that time of year again. The annual Music for a Sunday Evening in the Park (MUSEP) summer concert series began this last Sunday in Center City Park. O.K. so that's not entirely true. As seems to be a growing trend, every time Allison King is scheduled to perform in the new park it rains and this past Sunday was no exception. But have faith, MUSEP will return again next Sunday continuing to wind it's way around Greensboro parks throughout the rest of the summer bringing beautiful music to the faithful. As always CareySound will be there to make sure you can hear every note.

A complete schedule of concerts and directions to all of the parks can be found at the official MUSEP.INFO website that is maintained and sponsored by Twistedsun.net and CareySound.com by CLICKING HERE.

In the North Carolina mountains, against the backdrop of lush gardens, marble statues and the palatial estate that is The Biltmore, the soulful music of country superstar John Anderson filled the unseasonably cool night air. The private event was held on the terrace next to the mansion. Once again the Dynacord Cobra System proved to be the perfect audio solution for what can be a tricky acoustical environment. The 60' by 120' tent used for the event posed no contest for CareySound Productions Cobra System.



Tommy Martin (HE), Randy Hart (ME), Ken Carey (LD)

CareySound has set the stage once again for Thirsty Thursday at First Horizon Park in downtown Greensboro. Thirsty Thursday is an ongoing promotion of the Greensboro Grasshoppers baseball team. We'll meet you in the stands.

The opening event for Signal Southeast Electronic Music Festival started with a bang tonight in Chapel Hill in the Great Hall on the campus of UNC-ChapelHill. The legendary Derrick May was tonight's featured performer. Derrick, one of the Belleville Three from Detroit, is credited with developing the futuristic variation on house music called "techno".

You will find CareySound with an exclusive assortment of Dynacord and Electro-Voice gear throughout all of the festival venues as it continues through the weekend. A complete schedule can be found by clicking here.

It was a beautiful day Tuesday for UNCG's rescheduled Earth Day Celebration an once again CareySound was there to provide the sound. The amazing Dynacord D-LITE 2000 System was the centerpiece of the system we provided along with other Dynacord and Electro-Voice gear. The D-LITE system is very sophisticated compact high performance satellite system. It is on loan to us for use on one of the venues at SignalFest in Chapel Hill this weekend and John couldn't wait to take it out for a spin.

Flanked by six F-16 fighter jets and a fly over by a B-2 stealth bomber, CareySound's newest addition to their production arsenal made it's debut performance in Lakeland, Florida at the annual Sun 'n Fun® Air Show. The week long event is host to 160,000 participants with over 3,000 volunteers and 4,000 aircraft. What began in 1975 by The Lakeland, Florida chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association has evolved into one of the premiere air shows in the United States.

In a first for the air show, a concert, featuring pilot, longtime air enthusiast and national country star Arron Tippin was held at the heart of the flight line and outdoor display aircraft area. CareySound of Greensboro provided the staging, lights, and audio for the concert.

Event season is upon us and CareySound and our audio visual partner Sterling AV were busy last Friday providing production for the American Heart Associations fundraising gala held this year in Landmark Aviation's airplane hanger at the airport in Winston-Salem. The technical problems associated with providing audio reinforcement in a building built for housing planes and not for great acoustics were easily handled with our versatile Dynacord Cobra System. If not for the planes on display, gala attendees would never have known they were being entertained in a hanger.

Greensboro experienced no exception to the bad weather that plagued the east coat this weekend. We set up for the Allison King Band concert between rain outbursts and packed up several hours later in the rain with threats of tornado's without even one note being played. This concert, part of the Center Center Live events scheduled for Center City Park this week, was originally scheduled as the last concert of the 2006 MUSEP Concert Series but was postponed because of construction delays. It was shame that nobody got the hear Allison and her band yet again in the new park. Maybe next time. They would have sounded fantastic through our Cobra system.

Center City Live Series began on Saturday. The day of activities started with Grimsley High School's Blue Steel drumline, continued with the Pink Flamingos (shown above), and finished with the Nutbush Ramblers. The weather was great and the meager crowd (however small) was enthusiastic. As part of CareySound's partnering with Grassroots Productions (the event coordinators for the park) we were there providing sound for the event. A significant part of the proceeds that CareySound collects providing production at the park is returned directly to the park to help with it's operation and upkeep.

This is just the first in a week long series of events being sponsored by the park so be sure to show your support by making time to attend the remaining activities. You can find a complete schedule of events by clicking here.

First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro held a special Lenten series of music and a message every day at noon downtown in Center City Park this week. CareySound was there providing audio support.

The Hispanic League of the Piedmont Triad hosted Spanish Night 2007 in the Grand Pavilion Ballroom of the Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown Winston-Salem Saturday night. CareySound was there with partner Sterling AV of Clemons to provide technical assistance for the event.

The event is held annually to award scholarships to excellent Hispanic students to help them continue on to higher education.

The Dynacord Cobra made a second appearance last week at Love & Faith Christian Fellowship in Greensboro.

And ok, it was cold inside too, but the music was hot.


I told you McCouls was going to have the hottest St. Patrick's Day party. John and I had a great time (as did several thousand party goers). Sorry to here that the News and Record didn't get free ticket's to the party. I guess that means this is a CareySound.com News EXCLUSIVE.

Here are a couple of suggestions for a place to go on St. Patrick's Day.

This may look like nothing more than a parking lot right now, but on Saturday, this spot, at the corner of Elm St. and McGee in downtown Greensboro, McCoul's Public House will one again hold their annual St. Patrick's Day Festival. CareySound will also be their again to help with the audio chores. Don't forget to stop by the sound board and say hi to John and I.

The street party begins at 11 am and goes to midnight. This years lineup of bands includes:
Mulligan's Banned
Matt Hill Blues Band
Irish Dancers with CD music on stage
The Holy Ghost Tent Revival
Bagpipes on stage
Molly McGinn
Limerick Competition
Urban Sophisticates
Evan Olson & Walrus



CareySound was busy tonight setting up staging at the Grimsley HS auditorium for The Church Has Left The Building Renewal Weekend 2007. This event is being presented by Westminster Presbyterian Church of Greensboro. Saturday evening from 7:00 to 8:00 PM their Worship Band Concert and Fellowship is being offered free to the public at the auditorium and they will hold worship there on Sunday morning from 10:00 to 11:00 AM.

When is the last time you preformed any preventative maintenance on your audio, video and lighting systems? Do all of your wireless microphones work? Have you cleaned the filter and checked the lamp hours of your video projector? Have you checked to make sure all of you system settings are back to peak performance since Youth Sunday? Easter is just around the corner and that is one of the times of year we receive lots of requests for emergency service. It's not to late to sign up for our Maintenance Program. (Click here to see details)

Do you need extra equipment?

A lot of churches are hosting special services for Easter. Our Rental department is fully stocked with everything you might need. Spotlights, wireless microphones, portable light systems and for those who might be having a sunrise service outside, battery powered sound systems.

CareySound was there for the groundbreaking August 2003.


CareySound was there for the first big concert (MUSEP) June 2004.


CareySound was there for the official park opening December 2006


And CareySound is here now.

CareySound is honored to announce that it has entered into an agreement with the park to become its production provider. Being a longtime patron of live music in Greensboro, CareySound has been a major sponsor of many downtown traditions throughout the years including Plazzaz, City Stage, Friday at Five, Fun Fourth Festival, Music for a Sunday Evening in the Park, Eastern Music Festival, WUAG Presents Concert Series and Festival of Lights.

This newest chapter of involvement with our beautiful new downtown Center City Park, continues that tradition of giving back to our community by returning 20% of the rental fees to the park for it's ongoing service to the Greensboro community.

Come meet us Downtown. Were there.

CareySound brought in the new year at a special event sponsored by Love & Faith Christian Fellowship of Greensboro in the special events center of the Greensboro Coliseum that featured a performance by gospel recording artists The Williams Brothers.

Final preparations for the 4th annual Style in Stereo rock'n fashion show presented by WUAG 103.1 FM are in progress NOW for the show tonight at the Flying Anvil in downtown Greensboro. It starts promptly at 7 PM and the price of admission is $7 at the door. There are still tickets available but this show has always sold out so come early. It's part Rock concert - part fashion show.

This is CareySound's 4th year as a sponsor of the WUAG Presents Concert Series. We finally have an excuse to take a Dynacord Cobra into the Flying Anvil. They are in the middle of sound check right now and for all of you that thought that the Anvil was a terrible place the HEAR a show you need to make sure you come tonight to hear the difference a Cobra makes. The score: Cobra - 100 Yorkville - 0 Sorry Yorkville - you were the weak link.

WUAG Presents
The 4th Annual "Style in Stereo"
Saturday, December 9th
@ The Flying Anvil
Doors Open @ 7pm
Tickets are $7
Tickets can be purchased at The Flying Anvil

This event gets bigger and bigger every year.  This year's extravaganza will feature over 20 models wearing student made conceptual designs and walking to the sounds of three very diverse but gifted musical acts.  Performing will be Health (Good time folk rock from Greensboro), The Royal Sun (tight knit jazzy indie pop with electronic elements), and Nicolay (Hip Hop producer extrodinaire from the Netherlands.  He is the man behind the critically aclaimed overseas collaboration The Foreign Exchange).  Nicolay will also be performing at the After Party which will also occur at The Flying Anvil.  For more information about this WUAG fundraising event please call 336-334-4308. 

CareySound is proud to be a sponsor of the WUAG Presents concert events.

Cobra, Carolina, Christmas, CareySound

Festival of Lights 2005 - 32° F

Festival of Lights 2006 - 72° F

Last year the temperature was 32° for the Greensboro Downtown Festival of Lights and it was celebrated outside in Hamburger Square. This year it was 72° and it was held inside the Carolina Theater.

Outside - Inside - Cold - Hot - Snow - Rain. Whatever the circumstances CareySound is there to help celebrate the season.

Let It Rain, Let It Rain, Let It Rain

Nothing was going to stop the rescheduled ribbon cutting ceremonies of the new City Center Park in Greensboro on Friday. Not years of planning, construction delays or unseasonable December rain storms. As if on cue, the rain stopped and the clouds parted as several hundred Greensboro citizens participated in the ribbon cutting ceremonies.

CareySound was there for the groundbreaking two years ago and was there again for the opening ceremonies. The CareySound Cobra System provided the audio system on stage while 14 delayed EV Sx300's ringed the park.

You will just have to take our word on how gorgeous the park is because the SoundMan was the first victim of the new park when his camera was stolen and all of his pictures of the event disappeared along with the camera.

A little friendly advice from the SoundMan. Don't let his experience there discourage you from enjoying the park, just don't take valuables with you as you watch the new fountain. If the thief is reading this, please at least have the dignity to at least give us a copy of the pictures on the camera.

Christian comedian Chonda Pierce preformed to an enthusiastic sellout crowd last Thursday night in Fletcher, NC at the Lelia Patterson Center in a benefit concert for Park Ridge Hospital. The