Over the summer the Sonoran Plaza Ballroom was brought into the 21st century! Per the August issue of Grand Lifestyles Magazine (pages 8 and 9,) the $1.6 million “audiovisual and lighting” project was completed in early August, in time to kick off the Grand Music and Drama Club fall seasons. It seems to be unanimous that the behind-the-scenes tools and technologies now installed will make our performances sparkle.
Key members of the team as listed in the article are: Nick Scovill, representing the Music Club, Patrick Watts, for the Drama Club, and Tom Gruzs and Jerry Diedrichs representing “performing arts clubs.” Jerry explains that the latter has “...the goal of supporting both drama and music events, both large and small.” All these folks are included in the Music Club directory, so technically all deserve to be highlighted here.
Per Jerry Diedrichs, Sonoran Mainstage music events are mainly supported by himself and Bill Linville. “We have great help,” he adds, “with stagehand support from the community. Nick Scovill supports the Grand Singers and we all pull together as a team when help is needed.”
Drama events are mainly supported by Patrick Watts, Larry Dirksen, Victoria Frank, Christine Helton, Ove & Linda Jakobson (who also support the Salty Dawgs,) and more.
”Drama Club presentations are inherently complex,” Jerry adds, “with wireless microphones directly tied into the digital audio system, the need for compression and effects, etc. as well as the need for rehearsing with cues for sound effects, and more.”
To paraphrase comments from Nick Scovill, the A/V 2026 Project here was not a culmination of efforts in just the last 12 months. It actually started back in 2019 with “a group of active Audio and Lighting members” approaching the members of the Board of Directors and CAM staff. “We probably had over 20 different discussions, presentations and submittals, trying to get attention to the technical difficulty with the existing A/V. It finally happened in 2026 under the leadership of Paul Heying, CAM Community Manager, and Allison Adams.”
Backing up a little, Nick explained that he started working in Sound in 2018 with a number of seasoned Sound and Lighting folks who had been around for 20+ years. He said “During those early years we had many, many technical problems with the equipment, which had not been updated since 2014. The A/V vendor had really provided old A/V (outdated Technology) as well as second class installation and training from a technical aspect.” (Sounds like Nick is being kind here!) “Consequently,” he continues, “we had many performance and technical problems with the quality of sound, the physical connections and the equipment itself. Since we had so many problems our Technical Team made corrections to the equipment (work arounds) to get the best A/V for our audience.”
Nick adds a glowing assessment: “The vendor the Grand chose for this project was very knowledgeable with ‘Live Performances’ for our needs and capabilities. With this new upgrade we have significant - and I can’t emphasize enough - significant improvements in the Sound, Lighting and Video quality with capabilities that are, frankly, well beyond our present needs. It is fair to say we have planned for the future in terms of the capabilities of our Sound, Lighting and Video system.”
As Tom Gruzs, Electrical Engineer and “lighting lead” on the project, puts it: “A big part of this upgrade is a complete revision of the lighting systems. The existing lighting system had evolved over at least the last 25 years and included many incandescent lights that are not only hot, but not very controllable. He explains that a number of remotely controllable (moving) light fixtures have been installed, so that it is “...no longer necessary to climb a ladder or use a ‘hook’ to re-aim light fixtures.”
(I have never forgotten the sight, just a few seasons ago, of Earl Greenberg scurrying up the tallest ladder I’ve ever seen, all the way to the top to adjust a light fixture. Most of us guys, even when we were younger, could never do that, or would never want to!-TZ)
Per Tom Gruzs, all of the light fixtures have either been replaced or upgraded to LEDs, which are cooler, use less power, are much more flexible and have much longer life. The new lighting system includes 33 moving lights for both wash and effects. They allow illumination to be provided wherever the director wants, eliminating any troublesome dark spots on stage. And there are lights in the rear of the Sagebrush room to light areas in front of the stage, such as the choir director or performers on the floor.
“A new lighting control console was provided,” says Tom, “to facilitate controlling all of the additional lighting capabilities. Now it will be up to the lighting techs to learn all of these fancy new capabilities to enhance the Music and Drama Clubs’ performances!”
Some 30 or so Grand Singers tested out the sound system, per Director Pamela Weir, and ”it sounded like 130! And the quality of the sound – not just the volume – was improved by “gobs and gobs,” as she put it, adding that that is an extremely technical term. The audience will apparently have monitors to see us better, too – even those farther in the back. It sounds like we will need to look our best, smile and sing: No matter where we are on the risers...they’re gonna see us as well as hear us!
Patrick Watts sums it up: “Well, the early reviews are in and they are very High! When the pros from TAD arrived to set up for last week’s Steve Miller Band show and heard recorded music play through the new speaker system, and thumping subwoofers, the sound guy said ‘Wow, this is one bada** venue now!’ Guess you can’t use those exact words in your article. But the wireless mics, speakers, and monitors are all state of the art. We finally have a first-class sound system in the Sonoran Ballroom for Drama Plays and Music Concerts!”
Just in time for our:
Nov 13, 14 & 15: Celebration of Music, Music without Boundaries
December 10: Rockin' Christmas
December 12 & 13: Grand Singers Holiday Favorites!