Engineering Profession; I Appreciate It Even More Now.
By Richard Williams, 01/03/2009
There I was kind of bored while waiting for the show to start at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada. It was held last night on the second of January and we had tickets to see one of the truly great performers of all time hit the stage. If any of you out there reading this have ever been to the MGM Grand, then you know how big of a place it is. It is even more so when you have to walk with a cane and you are not into the gambling scene sitting at a machine or table. Our friends did some of that as my adult son and I walked around to pass the time away until show time. We looked at the Lions in the Plexiglas enclosure (sound asleep and looked stuffed) and then we looked at many of the stores you buy things at and leave your soul there as the purchase price. Mr. Niel Diamond was the performer we came to see and I had never seen him do a live show. We both came out of Brooklyn, New York and he is two years older than me at 67, so I kind of know him and his songs through the decades of his professional career. No, we never met in person but I knew in advance that it was going to be a really great night and since we live here in Vegas and we know how the seating is arranged we did get some really nice seats. But Murphy’s Law is always close at hand and plagues me from time to time with things that you would never think about in advance. At least I would not have imagined these “Laws” happening here at the show but I am really appreciative that some people we call Engineers think of these things. This is the reason for writing this article to tell all of you Engineers out there how much I appreciate all of your talents.
The MGM Grand Garden Arena is huge and that is putting it mildly because it sits 16,800 people. There is a lot of engineering here with air conditioning loads, lighting and the truss roofed ceiling and sound systems. You can take a look at what I am talking about here by going to their web site at: http://www.mgmgrand.com/entertainment/grand-garden-arena.aspx It is very impressive to look out at all the numbers of seats and you would be hard pressed to see any empty ones there as people kept on piling on in. Well, it was scheduled to start at 8 pm but due to the fact that it was a one night only show and that people were still coming in and trying to find their seats it was delayed by a half an hour. While you are waiting for things to start there are plenty of sales on beer, drinks, foods and of course brochures and DVD’s and tee shirts. With the exception of the beer, drinks and food items, all proceeds from shirts, DVD’s and printed materials went to help the South Texas area that was very hard hit with the hurricane this last season. Mr. Diamond announced this on stage and he got a very big applause for doing it. Now the show was just about getting ready to start and people started to shout loudly and wildly. Many of us looked at the stage thinking that he had come out from behind the curtain. That wasn’t what the people were yelling and screaming about. Ushers there escorted a Master Gunnery Sergeant, decked out in his dress blues uniform with all decorations and awards, but he was in a wheel chair. Obviously, he was a war casualty but so welcomed by the crowd and MGM, that they moved him right down to the front left side with his guests, where the best seating was available for wheel chaired audience people. This crowd was primed for tonight whether from the drinks or the expectations of a world class performance. Roving Camera technicians had already taken up positions covering all four corners of the stage but I know there were others out in the audience too, from viewing the various shots on the two very large bus sized screens.
The lights went out and an almost ear piercing blast out of the speaker array was punishing all eardrums from every possible angle. Not mine however; I could turn off my hearing aids to lower the decibel levels. Spot lights focused on someone way in the back of the stage who was holding his guitar. Yes, finally everyone saw Mr. Niel Diamond as he sang and walked his way to the front of the stage where he would take up his spot for the next two solid hours of singing. That was very possibly the first and last time I saw him that evening. Why you would ask? Well, his songs are very energizing and sound pretty darn good and when he does those songs he is so famous for, it drives 95% of all the women in the audience and at least 40% of the men to get up out of their seats to sing, shout, scream and DANCE as he performs. Mr. Diamond tells them to enjoy themselves anyway they can and he tells the audience that he will come closer to wherever the noise is the greatest. Now truly a lot of this was expected to happen by me and this isn’t the first show we have seen here in Vegas. But this Garden Arena is designed to have “Bleacher Styled Seating” of that type that can be moved with enough man power for accommodating the many various shows held there. As the women got up to rock and roll with this music so did the seats and bleachers. I only paid for one show but I truly got two shows with the women that were gyrating and moving in unexplainable ways all around me. Everything seemed to be moving with the music and it only stopped when the music did and when these women sat back down into their seats that they bought tickets for but rarely used during the performance. With my bad leg I would not dare stand up on this vessel that was bouncing on the ocean waves. Of course I knew every song he sang and so did all the young ladies that were sitting all around us. It was almost laughable that this was happening like an expected earthquake and but for the fact that I was getting flash backs of the earlier day, with my studies of the SolidWorks Analysis Simulations and all these strange terms like Static, Fatigue, Frequency, Motion, Non Linear and Optimization testing, I might have enjoyed it more. These thoughts were running through my mind as things were being tested now during this performance. So my hat is off to all of you engineers out there that design and test these types of ideas before they are actually made and used. Apparently, those that did design and test these seats out, must have gone to some of these shows where the ladies in the audience did not need the seats they designed. Salute to the Engineers out there. J
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