The dividing factor between audio engineers and a lot of other engineering factions is their devotion to the arts. Those with a penchant for engineering could easily choose more family and lifestyle-friendly sciences, but only a certain few choose to spend their lives on the road or earning studio tans from countless hours behind a recording console; Derrick Zieba is proud to be one of the latter. After walking away from university training as an electrical engineer, Zieba embarked on a career as a system designer that has led to work on high profile events including The Queen’s Golden Jubilee, the Brit and MTV Awards, Concert for Diana and the world’s largest film premiere, Prince Caspian at London’s O2 arena.

While recent jobs have found him working predominantly with live television events, Zieba has a strong background in sound reinforcement for orchestral, pop and rock n roll. He has also developed surround systems for numerous UK premieres for Disney films at tricky venues such as the Royal Albert Hall.

Premier Sound Systems
“In developing surround systems for film premieres you have a standard to produce that cannot be set at half measures,” Zieba states. “Even with the premieres at the Albert Hall I could not just say, ‘Oh it is the Albert Hall and it has tricky acoustics’. It is something that a company has put millions of pounds into producing and engineers have spent many months mixing. I have to make sure I can make it sound as good in any venue as it will in the Odeon Leicester Square.”

A similarly tricky task was the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian premiere at the O2, which required the installation of a surround sound system to broadcast the film’s sound to 10,000 spectators in the arena and a line array system to project presentations made during the event.

“The premiere of Prince Caspian at the O2 took a lot of work on lip sync testing to shorten the delivery time between the front and back seats. In the end it was simple physics – the higher we could get the PA system and the farther we could get it from the front seats, the less differential there was between the sound arrival time in the front and back of the auditorium,” Zieba explains.

Zieba has also been the sound designer for the Brit Awards since 1994. His position has let him experiment with new technology to maintain fluidity through quick changeovers. He has recently seen somewhat of a regression in the show as the show’s performers use many different digital consoles.

He comments: “In the beginning we were using six analog desks at FOH and monitors and an extra one for mixing the live presentations, which sounds crazy for today’s standards. The introduction of digital desks meant that we could use one board for monitoring and one for FOH in single stage presentations. However, with the plethora of digital boards out there, now I am seeing a regression to the point where, at this year’s show, we needed a Digico D5 and a Digidesign venue at FOH with the same boards mirrored for monitoring, and we may need to provide another two for future events. Part of my job has become negotiating with the performers to find solutions that will satisfy the bands without going back to using 14 different boards.”

Experience with many brands in numerous applications has made Zieba a master at choosing the right gear for the job. While frequently relying on EV’s X-line array or Outline’s Butterfly system, Zieba is not against trying out new technology if it can benefit the project. His experience, in addition to his willingness to tackle difficult jobs that others shy away from, has also lead him to be the engineer of choice for unusual projects. “It seems that I have become the guy to call when there is a weird project held at an odd venue. I welcome the day when someone calls me to mix a simple four-piece band at normal club,” Zieba laughs, “but I love the challenge and enjoy using equipment that has never been used in a new application.”