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Lucas Oil Thoughts


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To the "drum corps is an outdoor activity" argument:

Yes, it is. However, it sure seems like DCI is interested in pushing towards the indoor route for whatever reason - Finals in Lucas Oil Stadium, Atlanta in the GeorgiaDome, San Antonio in the AlamoDome. And my guess is you can bet on Minnesota being in the new thingamajig when it's completed instead of the UofM stadium.

Which will further muddy the waters. The new Vikings stadium will have a clear roof made from something called ethylene-tetraflouroethylene, which will allow the stadium to appear "outdoors", but for all intents and purposes, is an enclosed stadium, with all the reverb issues, etc.

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one good thing for Allentown is finals in Indy. lots of fans go there to see everyone outside at the end of the year

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Yup....too bad it's in Allentown and not the Linc or MetLife. I absolutely LOATHE Allentown. I actually enjoyed DCI East when they held it at Franklin Field though

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I'm little confused about the echo situation in the stadium. Listen to the 1st minute of 7th Regiment's video on Fan Network playback. It's a snare tap from the tunnel to the middle of the field. On every tap, there are TWO loud echos. Was this audible in the stadium? I'm assuming it was, because we could hear it so clearly on FN. On the Thurs or Fri show thread, a sound engineer said they use some electronic tricks to cancel the echo from the outgoing FN stream (and i guess the dvds, blue rays and audio downloads also?). If the tap has such an echo, what about the rest of the instrumentation? Can echoes be heard in the stadium during the shows? Does it depend on where your seat is?

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I'm little confused about the echo situation in the stadium. Listen to the 1st minute of 7th Regiment's video on Fan Network playback. It's a snare tap from the tunnel to the middle of the field. On every tap, there are TWO loud echos. Was this audible in the stadium? I'm assuming it was, because we could hear it so clearly on FN. On the Thurs or Fri show thread, a sound engineer said they use some electronic tricks to cancel the echo from the outgoing FN stream (and i guess the dvds, blue rays and audio downloads also?). If the tap has such an echo, what about the rest of the instrumentation? Can echoes be heard in the stadium during the shows? Does it depend on where your seat is?

We sat in a different section and level in LOS each of the 3 nights. The echo was present to varying degrees in every instance....an annoyance that muddies audible detail.

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Please. There are professional meteorologists that can tell you when there is a high pressure system around where there is literally a 0% chance of rain at any given point. People monitor these situations all the time at LOS, there is an NFL team that plays there regularly if you haven't realized. And with the ability to close the roof in just over 8 minutes, this is not life or death. You have to be really stupid to open the roof when there is a chance of a popup thunderstorm. There are atmospheric conditions that lead up to situations like that, and all of it is easily avoided with common sense.

The Colts have played games in 50 degree weather with the roof open, as they have with it being 88 (generally they use 80-85 as their maximum temperature though). The highest risk of heat being thrust upon spectators was on the north LOWER endzone, not the upper levels. This was due to the direct sunlight beaming down, while the upper edges somewhat blocked out the sun for the upper seats. Trust me, I worked for an Indianapolis News station at the time of the report that covered this story EXTENSIVELY. They interviewed folks in those lower sections, and while hot, it wasn't a magnifying glass or fishbowl effect like you might think.

Funny also, I also have Glassmen alumni as very close friends of mine (who are also band directors now), that were there that day and they'll tell you the exact opposite regarding the sound and that the experience was well worth it. Were you there? They all say the dynamics of the entire sound changed according to their reports. And they loved it. But you can believe whatever you want.

Back to the topic, we should at least attempt to rotate Finals out west or somewhere else once the Indianapolis contract is up. Keep Finals in Indy 2 of every 3 years if you have to. But at least give the west coast some love once in awhile. Rotating makes the most sense for growing this activity further IMO. That is all.

/rant :peek:

Sorry for igniting your anger. Sorry for confusing the upper deck with the lower deck on the heat thing. I am not DCI. I hate drum corps in domes and have no further interest in being there. I would also like to see DCI return to Cali but understand why most east and midwest corps consider it a money loser. I was simply attempting to answer Granny's question succinctly.

DCI--the top corps directors who control policy, not DCP members--has apparently moved on from this, to them, dead horse issue. They are designing shows for indoor forums with closed roofs. They like being in Indy and will stay as long as the numbers are good. Maybe someday they'll change their mind and open the roof, go west for finals, or leave Indy for good. Maybe someday we'll have G bugles again. You want to fight the fight, be my guest, and I wish you well.

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Don't think the open roof is ever going to happen. Video/Audio folks don't want it. Majority of the fans don't want it (because of the heat) and most of all...the corps do not want it. These shows are designed with LOS (and closed roof) in mind from day 1.

The majority of fans don't want it? I'd love to take a poll on that (and not just DCP).

Indy is HARDLY the Sahara desert. This year at 6:50 PM when the first corps stepped off at Finals it was 77 degrees outside and partly cloudy. At 10:30 PM it was 75 degrees outside and still pleasant. Definitely heat stroke weather, oh yes. Only ONE Indianapolis Finals stepoff would have been over 85 degrees the past 5 years. That's pretty darn good if you ask me. This is a summer activity where the other 95+% of the shows happen outdoors and often in SWELTERING heat in Kansas or Oklahoma during the peaks of mid-late July. This year obviously being an outlier with the cold push that hit both areas, but every other year I have been to those events it has been 85, 90, 95 degrees.

I'm just saying, to claim that fans don't want it because of the heat is a #### poor excuse, and a very lazy argument in my opinion. Where is the pure data on that?

That's so nice that the shows are designed for LOS from day one. Maybe that was why Crown was such an abject failure this year, considering only 3 weekends in the entire season consisted of indoor arenas. It didn't give the judges an accurate read of their show as intended I bet. Yeah, that's the excuse.

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P.S. I don't mean to be crabby about LOS, as again, I live here and I like it for indoor marching band when it's freezing cold outside. It is a "nice" stadium.

Maybe it's just the baseball or football fan in me that just likes to be outside even when it might be 5, 10, 15 degrees above room temperature. It's not a big deal. I'm not sure why after 42 years of Finals being outdoors we all have to succumb to the same opinion that being indoors is the greatest thing since sliced bread. To me, and I'm not even a dino really, I just love the outdoor experience of drum corps as it was intended to be. Sorry to be cliche with DCI's mantra, but Big, Loud, and Live. Something I don't get in LOS especially in regards to Big and Loud unless you're talking being in section 139, 140, or 141 where the thunderous goo can vibrate your heart and intestines.

Edited by IMcomguy
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The majority of fans don't want it? I'd love to take a poll on that (and not just DCP).

Indy is HARDLY the Sahara desert. This year at 6:50 PM when the first corps stepped off at Finals it was 77 degrees outside and partly cloudy. At 10:30 PM it was 75 degrees outside and still pleasant. Definitely heat stroke weather, oh yes.

AND THE AIR CONDITIONING WAS ON.....

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I'm interested in seeing the attendance figures from DCI when they release them. This seemed to be the largest crowd for Finals since moving to Lucas Oil. It seems like it is growing every year. Could still be more, but it's moving in the right direction!

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