Today’s professional audio market abounds with excellent loudspeaker options, from distributed point-source systems to large-format line source solutions. Controlled by a skilled operator or engineer in an optimal acoustic environment, any number of solutions can deliver pristine, practically unimpeachable results.

While professional loudspeaker technology has arguably been perfected, the spaces in which said technology is deployed have not—at least from an acoustic context—which has resulted in the invention of the robotic line source system. Patented in 2015, robotic line source systems empower users with precise vertical and horizontal sound field manipulation, also known as multi-axis coverage control, both remotely and in real time via integrated robotic actuators.

[Integrators and AI]

With these systems, users can mechanically adapt acoustic coverage to the contours of any environment and essentially remove the room from the equation. This helps avoid reflective surfaces, reduce SPLs outside the target area, and, ultimately, negate the notable compromises to acoustic performance inherent in digital beam steering and other DSP-based measures.

Conventional Comparison

Robotic line source systems combine the principles of traditional line array theory with a modern, mechanical approach to system optimization. Remote and real-time robotic control of the multi-axis directivity of each module in an array enables the configuration of tapered, variable curvature systems precisely tailored to the dimensions and features of any space.

Designers and users of conventional line source systems are beholden to a limited number of pinholes to set the angles between modules in an array, typically in one-degree or two-degree increments. Once flown, these angles can’t be adjusted without landing the array and reconfiguring the pins. This makes integrators heavily reliant on advanced software simulations, but rarely if ever do these simulations exactly match their real-world counterparts.

[Giants-Sized Audio Makeover]

Robotic systems allow users to adjust and fine-tune dispersion settings in real time, even after the system is flown. In the vertical plane, they offer an unmatched 0.1-degree of resolution between modules, eclipsing the conventional one-degree or previously best 0.5-degree increments. In larger deployments like arenas and stadiums, this degree of precision can improve sound coverage for hundreds if not thousands of patrons. Plus, a single robotic array can cover a significantly larger swath of the venue without a pullback motor when compared to a conventional counterpart.

Avoiding Reflections

The fixed and typically symmetric horizontal directivity of conventional line arrays often results in a significant portion of the sound field colliding with side walls and other boundaries or obstacles, reflecting back onto the audience or congregation. This increases reverberation, excites the room, and ultimately compromises sound quality and intelligibility. Subsequently, integrators can spend as much or more time and resources on acoustic room treatments as they do on the audio system itself.

In the horizontal plane, robotically controlled waveguides offer variable coverage options—in some cases spanning 60-120 degrees in symmetric and asymmetric configurations—allowing designers to adapt the sound field to the venue’s architecture and drastically reduce impact on reflective surfaces. For example, in a rectangular room with main left and right arrays closely flanked by side walls, robotic arrays can be asymmetrically tapered with the outer waveguide angles uniformly minimized to avoid impact on the walls, while inward dispersion is feathered from narrow angles on the uppermost elements that gradually increase in width with each descending module.

This degree of control is even more significant in spaces with complex geometry and architecture, such as modern-day houses of worship. It can also significantly benefit larger-scale deployments, where the seams between arrays can be minimized down to mere inches to ensure uniform arrival times and enhanced intelligibility.

Reducing Pollution

For installations in or near noise-sensitive environments, the goal is to precisely focus the sound field over the intended coverage area and minimize off-axis SPL levels. Extensive testing and measurement verify that variable multi-axis coverage offers notable SPL reductions in off-axis spaces, along with increased output and overall consistency across the listening area.

Variable multi-axis coverage control is an applicable solution for virtually any installed sound reinforcement application. In addition to mechanically tailoring coverage to any space with an unparalleled degree of precision, remote and real-time manipulation enables fast and efficient system reconfiguration in multi-use venues. What’s more, operators can easily recall dedicated system EQ settings for each configuration.

[High Marks for New Studio]

One of the fundamental principles of audio design is the less manipulation of the source signal, the better. Acoustic engineering is a complex and painstaking process. For a better experience with fewer compromises, it is important to ensure the basic attributes of the physical design are correct before digitally addressing a problem.

Robotic line source systems with variable multi-axis coverage control enable designers and users to precisely tailor a system in three dimensions. It also allows them to make decisions that positively impact the sound quality in virtually any indoor or outdoor application without the need for drastic DSP. Instead, the users can increase coherency and output by mechanically directing sound only where it’s intended, avoiding unwanted reflections and spillage. This ultimately provides a more rewarding live sound experience for client and stakeholders.

OSA Delivers High-Impact Audio to WWE HQ

The WWE brings private events home to its new Stamford, CT-based corporate headquarters, where it seeks to deliver the energy and excitement of a sold-out stadium bout into its stunning, sunlit atrium.

The atrium is a long, tall, and narrow rectangular space with the building’s massive glass façade on the west side and three stories of open balconies on the east, each with a high-resolution LED video screen as its fascia and a fourth lining the top of the space. The central LED wall on the south end spans four stories from the base of the main floor and commands attention from any vantage point.

To design and install a PK Sound T10 robotic line array system for the unique space, the WWE tagged in the team at OSA International, which has offices in Las Vegas, Nashville and Chicago. The system’s acoustic coverage is precisely tailored to the atrium’s architecture to maximize clarity and consistency.

“We program events like company town halls and parties in our lobby space, which presents some major acoustic challenges,” said Joseph Solari, VP of studio operations at WWE. “The PK Sound solution devised by OSA is configured to keep acoustic energy off reflective surfaces and focus it only where people are gathered, and the results are truly phenomenal. Our first town hall with the new system was like night and day compared to our previous events, with clean, intelligible, and impactful sound reproduction across the board.”

The main array of eight PK Sound T10 robotic line source modules is installed above the center of the south video wall via a custom rigging solution by Atlanta Rigging Systems, with a column of three T218 intelligent subwoofers flown behind it for ample low-frequency reproduction. From there, variable horizontal coverage is configured on each module in the array and easily reconfigured remotely via PK .dynamics control software.

[Meptik Is Ready to Rumble]

For events with smaller crowds, coverage can be symmetrically focused only on the ground floor. When the WWE hosts busier events with spectators on the upper floors, sound can be directed asymmetrically to include the crowds on the balconies while minimizing spillage onto the reflective LED screens. Content for the AV system is fed through a range of sources, including The Studios at WWE, the building’s new production facility that’s equipped with five studios and highlighted by a virtual production stage.

When pastors Jeremy and Catherine Teague arrived at Resurrection Church, they faced an immediate challenge in engaging their congregation with their sermons and the music of the church’s praise band—a woefully inadequate P.A. system. Jeremy, who is well versed in audio, knew a complete AV makeover was in order. After consulting with account manager Derrick Ramirez of Irving, TX-based Sound Productions, he went all in on a QSC active line array system consisting of a total of four KLA12 cabinets and two KLA181 subwoofers.

“I came to the church a little over a year ago,” said Pastor Jeremy. “We were in the process of replacing everything from the board to the loudspeakers. There had been no investment in anything tech-wise in over 20 years, so of course the first priority during the pandemic was to get some sort of video streaming up and running. Next came full audio for services.”

Jeremy recalled just how under par for the space the previous P.A. system was: “The speakers we had before were too small for the space. Our sanctuary is about 9,000 square feet and seats 250 people, and these two little point-source speakers were about 300 watts a pop," he said. "They were flown from the ceiling at the wrong angle, so the sound was floating above the congregation. There were a lot of dead spots in the room, and also a serious problem with intelligibility.”

With the pandemic affecting supply chains worldwide, it was a race against time to get their new gear installed and delivered in time for Easter Sunday. Not everything made it in time, but the KLA line array did. “The P.A. was what arrived here first, so we got it up and running, which made for a night-and-day improvement over what we had been experiencing,” said Jeremy. “With two KLA12s and one KLA181 sub on each side, we were able to cover the whole room. There are no dead spots or places where the sound isn’t clear anymore.”

The magnitude of the change was a surprise even to Jeremy, who was excited about the new system but had concerns about some members of the congregation judging the new cabinets as too loud at first blush. "We’re a contemporary church and we want Sunday morning to be like an uplifting concert setting," he explained. "After the Easter service, one of our older members came up to me and said, ‘I see you got a new sound system.’  Of course, I’m expecting the loudness complaint next. Instead, he says, ‘I just want you to know that as long as I’ve been coming to church here, that was the first time I could ever understand the whole sermon!’ Again, the issue is intelligibility—people are fine with a worship environment being louder and livelier if they’re able to clearly understand the words and music.”

[QSC Promotes Ron Marchant to VP EMEA Sales and Marketing]

Feedback from Resurrection Church’s worship musicians has been just as enthusiastic. “Our band includes five musicians and up to eight singers, with the instrumental players mostly on in-ear monitors,” Jeremy said. “Of course, they can still hear the mix in the room. They’ve told me it’s like a whole other church now.” 

The KLA system’s coverage and intelligibility has also made a difference to the his all-important spiritual mission: delivering the Good News. “We definitely feel more of an emotional connection to the congregation,” said Jeremy. “When you’re preaching, one thing you do to hold people’s interest is, you vary the volume and tone of your voice—anything from a stage whisper to all-out hollering. People are able to experience that dynamic range so much better now. Previously, if we were talking too softly, we weren’t sure if everyone was hearing it. If we were too loud, we weren’t sure they were understanding it. It felt like a wall between us and everyone. The KLA system has broken down that wall and increased participation.”

The What: MSE Audio is introducing an updated aluminum casing to SoundTube's LA880i-II and LA808i-II line array speakers. While there are no acoustic changes to the superior sound quality of the speakers, they now come with aluminum cabinets for a contemporary look and cleaner aesthetic.

The What Else: SoundTube LA880i-II's advanced LAPS (Line Array-Point Source) 3-way design provides a very short near-field extent and robust far-field performance. The LA880i-II maintains a more consistent ratio of array height to radiated wavelength with frequency tapering of low and mid-frequency passbands, ensuring a stable vertical beam width that outperforms many other single box line arrays. Measuring  7.91 inches x 40.87 inches x 11.99 inches, the LA880i-II achieves superb coverage in an enclosure. It features eight 4.5-inch woofers, eight 2-inch midrange drivers, and one 2.5-inch planar magnetics (ribbon) high-frequency driver for a highly smooth high-frequency response.

Recommended in spaces that have a large reverberation time, the SoundTube LA808i is designed to increase the directivity of low frequencies in SoundTube's Line Array system. With identical dimensions to those of the LA880i, it can be used only in conjunction with the LA880i 3-way line array and placed directly above or below the LA880i (or both). When a single unit is added to the LA880i, the directivity of low frequencies is increased by up to an octave lower than with the LA880i alone. 

The Bottom Line: The LA880i-II and LA808i-II line array speakers are currently available in black. The company has plans to release a white version at a future date.

The What: Renkus-Heinz has added two new models to its Iconyx Compact Series—the Iconyx Compact 36/3-RN and the 48/3-RN—enabling the delivery of steerable sound to larger spaces. 

The What Else: The addition of the ICC 36/3 and ICC 48/3 completes the portfolio in the new Iconyx Compact Series, which launched in 2020 to provide additional solutions for integrators seeking highly coherent sound in problematic acoustic spaces. With its compact footprint, the series brings performance and directivity to spaces where even the classic Iconyx arrays might be too large. 

Related: Maryland School Upgrades Campus Sound with Renkus-Heinz Solutions

Both the ICC 36/3 and ICC 48/3, which offer 36 and 48 channels respectively, are constructed with channel digital amplifier power 3-inch full-range, high-sensitivity, treated paper cone drivers. These feature an amplifier and DSP channel for each driver. The new products also offer full RHAON II beam-steering with the latest U.R.G.O beam algorithms, a movable acoustic center, multiple beam opening angles, and high-pass filtering of individual beams.

“The ICC 36/3 is three meters (10 feet) in length and the ICC 48/3 is four meters (13 feet) in length, all while remaining in the same ultra-compact footprint,” said Ralph Heinz, chief technical officer at Renkus-Heinz. “This design allows the 36/3 and 48/3 to provide significantly more low frequency control, an important consideration for applications where reverberation times peak at low frequencies. In addition, the longer columns will project coherent, highly intelligible sound for longer distances, negating the need for labor intensive distributed systems in many applications.”

The Bottom Line: The very narrow profile allows the Iconyx Compact Series to blend into nearly any environment, while high directivity helps control even the most challenging acoustics. This allows the beam-steered line arrays to function in even the most architecturally sensitive spaces and provides more opportunities for integration in the house of worship, corporate, transportation, education, and government markets. 

Propelled by an unbroken string of sellouts in NFL-sized stadiums, Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (“Divide”) Tour continues to draw thousands of fans from around the world. As has been the case from the beginning of his “A” level tours, Sheeran connects with his adoring throngs through a Meyer Sound LEO Family reinforcement system provided by UK-based Major Tom, Ltd. The production team relies on the LEO Family to deliver the dynamic punch of the music while creating a sense of connection between Sheeran and his fans.

“Major Tom and the Ed Sheeran production team have a very strong relationship, which began with Ed when he was starting out playing clubs, and has continued with him into stadiums worldwide,” said Chris Marsh, Ed Sheeran production manager. “The key to the longevity of the relationship is a mutual desire to continually evolve, and provide the best sound. Major Tom is heavily invested into Meyer Sound products and the response from Ed’s family, friends, and team when we originally switched to the LEO system was an instant observation and acknowledgement that we had changed something — the difference in sound was palpable.”

Marsh continues as Sheeran's trusted FOH engineer, a post he has held for more than six years. He also mixes Sheeran's monitors on the same DiGiCo SD7 console, and supervises all aspects of the tour’s technology as production manager. Marsh's partner in fine-tuning the tour's massive LEO Family rig on a daily basis is audio systems engineer Charlie Albin.

“Our touring system has transitioned smoothly into the USA stadiums,” said Albin, “although every venue presents a slightly different set of challenges due to variations in size, shape and reverberant field. That’s why we keep using the Meyer Sound LEO Family loudspeakers alongside the GALAXY processing and SIM3 analysis tools. Together they deliver the consistent clarity, tonality, musicality, and dynamic impact from the nearest to furthest seats, whether Ed is singing an intimate ballad or an all-out belter.”

The foundation of the current touring system is formed by four arrays of 18-each LEO line array loudspeakers with low end augmented by 42 1100-LFC low frequency control elements: two flown arrays of 9 each and two end-fire arrays of 12 each on the ground. LEOPARD (8), LINA (20), and UPA-1P (2) loudspeakers supply fill from the stage as needed, while 56 MILO line array loudspeakers are deployed on four delay towers.

For onstage foldback, the tour also carries two MJF-212A stage monitors and two 900-LFC low frequency control elements.

System drive and optimization is entrusted to a pair of Galileo GALAXY AES master processors, with stage array processing from eight GALAXY processors and delay processing by four Galileo processors. The tour also carries a SIM3 audio analyzer for fine tuning response before each concert.

Sheeran uses a Sennheiser 9000 Series digital wireless system for his guitars and on-stage microphones. The primary vocal mic has a 9235 dynamic capsule while the secondary mic (for loop-building) has an MMD 945 super-cardioid capsule. His intricate multi-channel accompaniment is built in layers using a sophisticated, computer-driven Chewie II Monsta Looper pedal system.

Regarding the record-breaking success of the tour, Albin said, “Personally, it hasn’t had any bearing on my day-to-day aims. The motivation is to deliver the best show as consistently as possible to every single fan in attendance, whether in an audience of 100 or 100,000.”

The 2018 North American leg of the ÷ Tour was launched on Aug. 18 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., where Sheeran thrilled over 62,000 of the faithful. The leg continues through the final show at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Nov. 10, with a total of 24 shows in 21 cities. The ÷ Tour, which started in March 2017, has shattered Pollstar’s all-time record for mid-year gross receipts.

Sheeran’s stratospheric popularity is further reflected in the recently announced nominations for the American Music Awards, where he is a leading contender in six categories: Artist of the Year, Tour of the Year, Favorite Male Artist (pop/rock), Favorite Pop/Rock Album, Favorite Song and Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist.

From its early 1990s origins as a touring festival to its 2005 revival in Chicago, Lollapalooza has turned into a global festival phenomenon. The Chicago edition of Lollapalooza, annually held in Grant Park between the city’s skyline and shoreline, draws more than 400,000 music fans over four days each August to experience approximately 180 artists performing on eight stages. This year, crowds gathering at Lollapalooza’s two largest stages—the Grant Park Stage and Bud Light Stage—heard their favorite songs better than ever thanks to L-Acoustics K1/K2 loudspeaker systems.

The two L-Acoustics systems—used by Arctic Monkeys, Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Jack White, Portugal. The Man, The National, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Vampire Weekend, ODESZA, and scores of others—were supplied and deployed by Houston-based L-Acoustics Certified Provider LD Systems, which is no stranger to huge productions. In addition to providing K1/K2-based sound reinforcement for three solid weeks of country and pop music’s top artists at RodeoHouston each March, the company also serves as the production provider for the two largest stages of the annual Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival.

Austin-based C3 Presents, paired with Live Nation, is the promoter behind both ACL and Lollapalooza. With LD Systems already providing audio and lighting packages for several of Lollapalooza’s secondary stages since 2013, in addition to its track record with ACL, LD systems director of production services Robert Ausmus said he was pleased to have the opportunity to bring even larger deployments of L-Acoustics gear to the two main stages of the Chicago festival.

“I’m a huge fan of the large-format K1 line source array,” said Ausmus. “Not only does it have high output and throw incredibly well, but it’s also an extremely articulate system. Our deployments at Lollapalooza this year reminded us of how amazing it is. To experience sound so present and rich at 500 feet out is absolutely mind-numbing. K1 is the only PA out there that I am aware of that can do that.”

Between the two stages, Lollapalooza this year featured an absolute “lollapalooza” of an audio setup. The system design that was deployed for the Grant Park Stage consisted of left and right main hangs of six K1-SB over 14 K1 over four K2, with eight K1-SB flown directly behind each of the two main arrays. Side hangs were comprised of eight K1 over four K2, and a total of 36 subs were deployed, configured with 24 KS28 in the center flanked by four SB28 per side in an arc sub configuration. For front fill, eight two-high Kara were arranged across the edge of the stage, while two rows of three arrays each featuring six K1 covered the depth of the field for delay.

The Bud Lite Stage, deployed by LD FOH systems tech Rafael Rosales, featured left and right hangs of four K1-SB over 14 K1 over four K2, also paired with eight K1-SB behind each of the two main arrays. Eight K2 per side served as the side hangs, and a total of 32 SB28 subs were utilized, configured in an arc sub configuration. Eight Kara front fills were also positioned across the edge of the stage, and a single row of three arrays of six K2 provided delay.

The systems were powered and processed by LA8 amplified controllers housed in LA-RAK touring racks, as well as LA12X-equipped LA-RAK II for the KS28 subs. A dozen self-powered 108P coaxials were additionally used as near-field monitors at FOH and as VIP area fills at both stage sites.

Regarding noise containment at Lolla Chicago, the LD Systems team appreciated the directivity and predictability that L-Acoustics provides. “Soundvision’s predictions are so accurate that it’s absolutely scary,” said Ausmus. “We try and keep low end, which is typically the main issue, on the festival grounds using good system design, especially the different flexible cardioid setups that the L-Acoustics system offers. Plus, L-Acoustics loudspeakers are great about only going where they’re pointed—and we can see that in Soundvision beforehand—so we don’t really have to worry much about spill.”

One of the other inherent advantages of K1/K2 is its rider acceptability. “We sent an audio overview out to all of the visiting artists to give them a sense of the systems and didn’t get a peep from anybody,” he said. “That’s the beauty of L-Acoustics. There are a lot of ‘weapons of choice’ out there, but nobody—and I mean nobody—will turn down K1 and K2. They know they’ll have a good day on it. We’ve used other PA systems in the past where there’s been some pushback from the artists, but we never get pushback with this system.”

“I was extremely impressed how the entire system performed,” said LD Systems’ Julian Gates, who was the principal systems design engineer and FOH systems engineer for the Grant Park Stage. “Even at the furthest distance from the stage, with the help of the two K1 delay rings we had the desired LF contour and bandwidth to provide the required SPL and still had plenty of headroom. In turn, we were additionally able to achieve within a 3 dB ‘A’ weighted variation over the field. The whole system was extremely consistent from front to back. I couldn’t be happier with the results we achieved with L-Acoustics.”

Meyer Sound and the Telluride Film Festival have announced a decade-long partnership agreement, which outlines a fourfold expansion of theaters equipped with 100% Meyer Sound cinema systems. For this year’s festival, held over Labor Day weekend, the Galaxy Theatre joined the flagship Werner Herzog Theatre as a second venue to offer complete, premium Meyer Sound systems. In addition, the Palm Theatre and the Nugget Theatre will be fully furnished with Meyer Sound systems in the coming years as part of the continuing collaboration.

“Even though many of our theaters are temporary venues for film, we are committed to offering our audience a world class experience,” said Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger. “By partnering with Meyer Sound, we can be assured of benefiting not only from the world’s finest cinema loudspeakers but also the on-site technical expertise to make sure each system is fine-tuned for optimum performance in its acoustical environment.”

For each festival run, Telluride’s middle school gymnasium is transformed into a first-class cinema with special acoustical treatments and finishing design touches inspired by pioneering French filmmaker Georges Meliés. The Meyer Sound cinema audio system comprises Acheron 100 coupled with Acheron LF systems for the screen channels, HMS-12 surround loudspeakers, and X-800C subwoofers for the LFE channels. Processing for drive and optimization is — appropriately — supplied by a GALAXY 816 network platform. For film introductions and panel discussions, the venue has a separate PA system with UPQ-1P loudspeakers and a 750-LFC low frequency control element.

“Telluride continues to gain wider recognition as one of the world’s leading showcases of new and noteworthy cinema,” said Miles Rogers, Meyer Sound’s business development manager, cinema and content creation markets. “Great films deserve sound to match, and we’re proud to be playing an important role in making sure every film’s sound is heard exactly as its creators intended.”

The Galaxy joins the Werner Herzog Theatre, where the Meyer Sound complement is anchored by the same trio of Acheron screen loudspeaker systems plus 22 HMS-12 cinema surrounds, 10 X-800C subwoofers and three Galileo 616 processors.

Although the Werner Herzog Theatre’s building serves as Telluride’s community ice rink outside the festival season, it nonetheless offers a first-class experience for filmgoers. “Watching movies at Werner Herzog is a wonderful sensory experience — great picture, great sound!” said film critic and historian Leonard Maltin.

Slated for a complete Meyer Sound upgrade in the coming years are the Nugget Theatre, a smaller year-round venue housed in the historic First National Bank building, and the Michael D. Palm Theatre, a 587-seat performing arts venue located on the campus of Telluride High School. The Palm Theatre already is equipped with a compact Meyer Sound line array system which is used regularly for the venue’s range of live music performances and community events.

The Telluride Film Festival was established in 1974 and is held annually over the Labor Day holiday. In a departure from typical film festival procedures, neither the films nor the special guests are announced prior to the festival weekend. Films featured in either the Galaxy or Herzog this year, with celebrities on hand for the screenings noted, included “The Old Man and the Gun” (Sissy Spacek, Robert Redford and Casey Affleck with director David Lowery); “White Boy Rick” (Matthew McConaughey with director Yann Demange); “Destroyer” (Nicole Kidman with director Karyn Kusama); “Front Runner” (Hugh Jackman with writer/director Jason Reitman); “The Favourite” (Emma Stone with director Yorgos Lanthimos); and “Meeting Gorbachov” (theatre namesake director Werner Herzog).

The Pope’s visit to Ireland comprised just three public appearances. The Festival of Families at Dublin’s Croke Park Stadium was a sell-out, gathering an audience of more than 82,000 for a multi-cultural, multi-entertainment spectacular with a cast of 2,000 performers, and featuring many of Ireland’s most famous live performers, including Daniel O’Donnell, Patrick Bergin and the Riverdance company.

Sound Design, led by John Vickers, has a long history of using NEXO loudspeakers. The relationship between the two companies was consolidated in 2015-16, when Sound Design was appointed as distributor for Eire, and made its first investment in the STM Series. Vickers was able to bid successfully for the audio production of the prestigious Festival of Families, scaling up his own STM inventory with sub-hires from the pan-European network of users.

“We’d watched many other companies doing Croke Park, and we knew that STM Series was the ideal system for the venue,” said Vickers. “We were confident that we would be able to nail it and that it would sound outstanding. Logistically, it was simple to bring in additional cabinets from our friends at VDB PA in Belgium, and Sound of Music in the UK. I really believe that this is the way for all of us to go forward with rental, bringing in what is needed for the job rather than having inventory sitting around expensively in the warehouse.”

For the main event, Sound Design specified the front-of-house PA with L/R arrays of 18 sets of STM M46+B112 with 3x M28 downfill modules. These were flanked by separate sub arrays of 15x S118 per side, supplemented by 14x groundstacked S118s per side, running in cardioid mode. With a wide stage positioned at one end of the stadium, the necessary side arrays used 18x STM M28s on each wing.

“We were impressed with the lack of colouration from the rear of the system,” said Vickers. “The noise levels outside the stadium were substantially lower than with other systems, which meant we could run it during the day without upsetting the heavily residential neighborhood. We used 28 supplementary S118 subs on the ground, and by running these in cardioid mode, we could drastically reduce the sub-bass on stage.”

On the floor of the stadium, four delay towers each carried 12x STM M28, powered by a NEXO Universal Amp Rack. All elements of the PA were under NeMo remote control.

The Festival of Families was the first show to benefit fully from Croke Park’s new ability to tie event PA into the stadium’s fixed PA to provide coverage for all the uppermost tiers of the stadium. More than 150 NEXO GEO S12-ST line array cabinets are spread throughout the stadium’s overhang roof, permanently installed this summer by Mongey Communications as part of a major upgrade to the stadium’s technical facilities. In fact, the installation deadline was brought forward by stadium owners the Gaelic Athletics Association specifically to handle the Papal visit.

With an orchestra, choirs, playback, and numerous microphones to accommodate, the Festival of Families was a complex show. The music was submixed by Paul Keegan, before being routed to a Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 digital console for the final mix in the hands of John Vickers. The signal routing backbone for the entire show was run from the PM7. Every input and output coming to and from FOH was routed through a Yamaha TWINLANe network, working seamlessly with Dante, using RPio622 and Rio3224-D I/O racks. This provided up to 400 channels between stage and FOH, with incredibly low latency at a native 96khz, 32-bit sampling rate.

On stage, Sound Design deployed its new GEO M10 mid-size line array as side fill. 12x NEXO 45*N-12 cabinets were used as stage monitors. Monitors were mixed by Paul Moore and JC Campbell, an all-NEXO line-up of PS15 cabinets alongside the 45*N-12 line monitors on stage. Sound Design radio techs Sinead Conlan and Alannah Hayes managed 60 channels of Sennheiser 2000 and 3000 Series radio microphones.

Key to the success of the day was the 3-man engineering support team from NEXO, sent in by NEXO to contribute their expertise to that of the Sound Design crew. Val Gilbert, Nicholas Poitrenaud, and Robin Shamsnejad proved their value as the set-up window for the event production shrank from 3 days to just over a day.

Delivered by Tyrone Productions, the Festival event was broadcast through Ireland live on RTE, and distributed to a worldwide audience of several million people.

UK band alt-J, currently on a world tour in support of their third studio album, used L-Acoustics’ L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology to envelop nearly 12,000 fans in a 360° soundscape at Forest Hills Stadium in the New York borough of Queens on June 15.

“Wherever you’re standing in the audience, you’ll be able to hear the music coming from all around you,” alt-J keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton told UK music publication NME ahead of the show.

Lance Reynolds is alt-J’s Chicago-based FOH engineer and has been using L-Acoustics sound reinforcement systems with the band since 2015. He said that the band’s manager, Stephen Taverner, had been searching for the right technology to present a show in surround for quite a while, so Reynolds visited L-Acoustics’ U.S. headquarters in California’s Westlake Village to explore L-ISA as a potential option. “Once I got my hands on it, I was very excited—and immediately started thinking about what we could do with it,” he said.

With everyone on board, Reynolds returned to L-Acoustics to familiarize himself with mixing in L-ISA and, alongside alt-J’s three band members, design a mix for the show incorporating live and pre-recorded elements that would take advantage of the surround capabilities of L-ISA.

“In preparing the mixes for this show, I’m lucky that alt-J has a lot of interesting sonic nuggets and a little bit of sound effects,” said Reynolds. “These elements exist in our normal live show, but with L-ISA, it’s much more evident. There are a lot of things that I’ve been able to just draw out—pinpointing instruments and sounds in specific places. That’s really what this ‘360’ mix is; it’s an extension of what we already do, but a really big extension. Usually, I don’t want the audience to notice my mix, per se. Ideally, I want it to sound great while keeping the audience focused on the band. But using L-ISA for this show, I wanted the audience to notice the difference. My hope was that the fans would walk away saying, ‘wow—did you hear that?’ I wanted heads to turn and the audience to feel completely immersed in alt-J’s music.”

Another thing that Reynolds wanted to accomplish was to broaden the show’s sweet spot: “Being at the mix position, I generally have the best seat in the house—I’m creating what I want to hear and hopefully everyone else is hearing most of that,” he said. “But when you get off to the sides, when you get into the balcony, it can’t be the same as what I’m hearing. This technology helps you do that. If you‘re sitting in an L-ISA show, you’re going to get that experience that I’m getting at front of house. It has the ability to be a better experience all throughout the venue.”

To create that giant L-ISA zone, Rat Sound, the band’s longtime production provider, flew three arrays of 12 K2 each equally spaced above the center of the stage, flanked left and right by single hangs of 16 Kara elements each. Two hangs of eight KS28 subs were flown behind the center K2 array. Outside those five arrays, to left and right, the team flew extension hangs of 16 Kara speakers, toed in toward the center. A hang of nine K2 boxes on either side provided out-fill for those seated immediately next to the stage. Three pairs of Kara and a pair of ARCS II delivered front-fill.

Tom Worley (KSE) of Rat Sound created a mounting system for the 16 Syva surround speakers, attaching poles behind the handrails at the upper edge of the seating bowl and fixed the speakers to them. Frequently used for permanent installations and corporate or private event applications, Syva was also the perfect fit for Forest Hills, said Worley. “They’re loud, lightweight, and have the right dispersion. And even without using a sub with them they go low enough that it made sense,” he said. L-ISA Controller software was used to place sound objects with the L-ISA Processor dedicated to spatial audio processing, and the entire system was powered by a combination of 15 LA12X and 31 LA8 amplified controllers.

The MADI transport capabilities of Reynolds’ console of choice, the Avid S6L, supported 32 outputs to L-ISA, which can accept up to 96. “You could send to individual channels, one to one, but I did it with stems,” he said, noting that it was easier to bus together both kick drum mics to a single channel, for example. “Plus, I needed some extra channels to do some submixing and some things to get sources into the surrounds that made sense,” he added.

Those additional outputs would be put to good use to address timing. With the farthest Syva speakers located 250 feet from the stage, sound coming from the stage would need to be delayed in the surrounds, or those nearby would hear it ahead of the signal from the main PA. But precisely compensating for that 250-foot distance would double that delay for a listener by the front of the stage. “Getting the levels correct so that, if you do hear it, it doesn’t interfere with what’s coming from the stage was the biggest challenge, but it was one that we were able to creatively resolve,” said Reynolds.

L-ISA mixing integrated seamlessly into Reynolds’ workflow at Forest Hills. “The desk was simply feeding mixes to L-ISA and I was doing any movements via snapshot automation in the L-ISA controller,” he said, driven by the timecode running the show automation that controls the lighting and other production elements.

Surround effects throughout the show—including a helicopter fly-by, haunting wolf howls, and a children’s choir during the song “Pleader” that enveloped the audience—generated chills and cheers from the crowd. Reynolds was concerned that a steady, syncopated heartbeat that starts “Hunger of the Pine,” almost like a click track, might not work as well. “We figured out that it was not too obtrusive to do it manually for the first eight bars, before anything else happens in the song,” he said, adding that California-based L-ISA Labs Engineer Carlos Mosquera panned the heartbeat around the venue. “Using a controller on an iPad, Carlos flew the sound around very specifically with the touch of his finger, which was really fun,” said Reynolds.

By the end of the show, Reynolds said he was ecstatic with L-ISA’s performance. “In prep on the day before the show, and even that morning, I still wasn’t quite prepared for what it was going to do and how it was going to feel,” he said. “With the surrounds, there were moments when it absolutely filled the stadium and I just couldn’t believe how amazing it sounded. It covered the venue better than anything I’ve ever heard. I was walking front to back, left to right, across the main stadium floor, and it was the same mix for the entirety of it. It was hard to find a massive difference anywhere. The whole stadium was the immersion zone. It was mind-blowing.”

The new $85 million UMBC Event Center is the new home for indoor sporting events at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and in addition it serves as a flexible venue for hosting concerts, convocations and graduations, trade shows, and other events. About 4,700 fans are accommodated for UMBC Retrievers basketball and volleyball games, with uniform audio coverage and “pump ‘em up” power supplied by a distributed system based on Meyer Sound’s new LINA line arrays.

The new Meyer Sound LINA system is the centerpiece of a complete AV package designed and installed by Baltimore-based Design & Integration. According to project engineer Kevin Barrett, his company worked with university technical and managerial staff to come up with the optimum, long-term solution for a house reinforcement system.

“The audiovisual consultant based a performance specification on an alternative, externally powered system but listed Meyer Sound as an approved option,” said Barrett. “We decided to pursue the Meyer Sound solution and discovered it offered a number of advantages. We came up with a design that not only would meet or exceed all the performance numbers, but also would fit into a smaller footprint, reduce installation costs, and provide more configuration flexibility along with detailed system confidence monitoring.”

The thorough system selection process also factored in the university’s prior experience with Meyer Sound LEO Family line array systems.

“We have a portable system based around 24 LEOPARD™ line array loudspeakers and it has served us very well in the old Retrievers Activities Center and for many outdoor events,” said Sam Zuckerman, head audio technician and sound engineer for university events. “We were very happy with the LEOPARDs and wanted to continue working with Meyer. And the new LINA system has delivered as promised. The coverage is very even, and the clarity is outstanding for spoken word events such as commencements. And at the games I’ve attended it really gets the crowd pumped up. It definitely has plenty of punch.”

The new system is anchored by five arrays of eight each LINA loudspeakers for coverage of the U-shaped main bowl. Three 1100-LFC low frequency control elements supply convincing impact for deep bass effects, while two UPQ-1P loudspeakers are flown as court fills. Two GALAXY 816 networked processors handle overall system drive and optimization.

Although owned by the university, the UMBC Event Center contracts with the Oak View Group to handle venue operations and outside concert and event bookings. Frantzer LeBlanc, Oak View Group’s director of events and operations at UMBC, said he is pleased with the power, clarity, and versatility of the house audio system at his disposal.

“The major touring acts that play concerts here will carry their own production, but we’re delighted with the way our house system is taking care of everything else,” said LeBlanc. “In addition to UMBC Retrievers games we’ve hosted community church services, well-known speakers, martial arts competitions and trade show events. The performance has been really, really good for all of them. The sound conforms to the bowl in a way that gives a sense of intimacy despite the size. We also really appreciate how easily and effectively we can zone the system to cover only designated seating areas when we’re using part of the arena."

Although specifying a highly compact line array system for a mid-sized auditorium may seem somewhat audacious, Design & Integration’s Kevin Barrett said he was confident of the outcome.

“Although LINA was not even shipping when we did our initial design, we were confident based on Meyer Sound’s reputation and on what we had heard from its predecessor, MINA, at another installation we’d done recently,” he said. “I knew that with the power inside the box, and with the precise tuning options available in GALAXY to deal with the reverberant space, we could make LINA work. I knew it would sound great, and it does.”

The full AV installation provided by Design & Integration also includes an Allen & Heath digital mixer with D-Live control surface and MixRack engine. A QSC Q-Sys network backbone ties together the arena bowl system with all back-of-house systems. Design & Integration also supplied a comprehensive broadcast cabling system, distributed CATV video systems, and both wired and wireless production intercom systems.

Located on a hilltop campus in Catonsville, about eight miles from downtown Baltimore, UMBC has a total enrollment of over 13,000 students. The university’s Retrievers athletic teams compete in the NCAA Division 1 America East Conference.

J Sound Services (JSS) of Nashville recently specified two NEXO/Yamaha systems for Drum Corp International (DCI) members, the Carolina Crown of Fort Mill, SC and the Cadets of Allentown, PA in time for the semi final competitions that began at Middle Tennessee State University in July. Both groups will be participating in the DCI Championships on Sept. 11 in Indianapolis.

“The most significant criteria given to us by the Crown team for their new sound reinforcement system was clarity,” said Jason Spence, owner of JSS and principal systems designer. Jim Coates, the CEO/director of Crown, said, “We’re not trying to have a big rock show (referring to SPL); we want clarity.”

Spence said it was the JSS approach to design a system that could reproduce the detail of all the instruments and the ability to balance those details within the entire ensemble.

“The drastic swing in dynamics between a brass section wide open and the soft mallet of the front ensemble is a tall order for any sound system,” Spence said. “As with any sound reinforcement system, careful consideration was given to coverage, especially at the judging area. And, as with any project, we had a budget to meet. We also needed efficient amplifiers with low power draws and a system that was fast and easy to set up. As we evaluated numerous systems and the criteria, the NEXO M10 easily checked all the boxes.”

For the Crown organization, JSS designed, provided, and built a stereo (left/right) NEXO/Yamaha sound reinforcement system with custom carts for the stadium competition. The NEXO rig consisted of a total of 8 (4 left, 4 right) GEO M10 line array boxes, 6 MSUB15s (3 left, 3 right), 2 NXAmp 4x2 Mk 2 amplifiers (1 left, 1 right), and 2 NXAE104 AES network cards. A Yamaha QL5 Digital Audio Console was chosen for its sound quality, ease of use, and remote connectivity of the Rio 3224-D stage box. MY8AE cards for the NXamps were deployed, in lieu of Dante, to minimize setup time.

“The teams have six minutes to role onto the field and be ready,” Spence said. “So, speed of setup is extremely important, and with AES, we don’t have to wait for the network to come online before we can make noise.”

For the Cadets, JSS consulted on the design and provided a 4-cart, multi-zone NEXO/Yamaha sound reinforcement system. 14 GEO M10s (2 carts with 4 M10s over 1 MSUB15, 2 carts with 3 M10s over 1 per side RS15 Ray Sub, each powered by 1 NXAMP 4X2 MK2 amplifier (a total of 4 NXAMP 4x2 amplifiers powered the system), and 4 NXAE104 AES network cards. The console was upgraded to a QL5 to integrate with their existing Yamaha Tio digital stage boxes.

The Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC) recently opened the doors on a new development located in the South Street Seaport district. Pier 17 offers dining, retail, and entertainment options along with a large 1.5-acre rooftop concert space that can hold 3,400 for its standing general admission shows, or 2,400 seated, with the Brooklyn Bridge as the stage’s backdrop.

HHC brought in SIA Acoustics to identify and design a system that would deliver pristine audio quality while keeping the sound contained to the listening area. After reviewing multiple products, it was determined that an Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) adaptive sound reinforcement system was the only solution. It would not only reduce the amount of audio that would impact the adjacent neighborhoods — Wall Street to the west and Brooklyn to the east — but also produce sonic clarity beyond expectations.

In turn, SIA Acoustics worked closely with Harrisburg, PA-based Anderson Audio and TMG Systems, who teamed up for installation of the system. Left-right Anya arrays were hung in single columns of 12 Anya modules, approximately 35 feet from the ground, along with 24 Otto subwoofers laid out in pairs, to blanket the rooftop.

“In my opinion, there isn’t another system out there that could do this,” said Chris Anderson, owner of Anderson Audio. “Each Anya enclosure has 22 channels of digital signal processing and amplification driving 22 transducers. Multiply that by 12 modules in each array, and you have the control to really dial it in, so it delivers exactly what is needed, where it is needed.”

The venue opened on July 4, 2018, with Carrie Underwood headlining the Spotify Hot Country Live Event. The season lineup includes Amy Schumer, Diana Ross, 88 Degrees, Ziggy Marley, Sting & Shaggy, and more.

“The neighbors are happy,” said Mark LaBouff, national sales manager, TMG Systems. “It’s very impressive when you walk in and out of the coverage area – the difference is incredible. There are two VIP areas technically ‘out of the coverage’ and it’s quiet enough to make a phone call. There were also some concerns about sound levels behind the stage traveling across the water to Brooklyn. Also, not a problem — the rear rejection of the system is substantial.”

“We found that EAW's Adaptive Anya loudspeakers and Otto subwoofers were the combination that would help dramatically control coverage of sound, provide an impactful and tonally balanced sound to the audience, and be acceptable to most touring bands,” said Sam Berkow, owner of SIA Acoustics. “So far everyone is in complete agreement.”

As the technology centerpiece of a total renovation project, a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system has been installed in the 561-seat Alexander Theatre at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Originally designed and built for spoken word dramatic presentation, the Alexander Theatre is now capable of hosting the full spectrum of acoustic music performances and, in conjunction with the complementary LEOPARD line array direct reinforcement system, all genres of amplified performances as well. The Constellation system is the first in a dedicated performing arts venue in Australia.

The impetus to renovate and repurpose the 50-year-old auditorium originated with Professor Paul Grabowsky who, in addition to serving as executive director of the University’s Academy of Performing Arts, is renowned throughout Australia and beyond as a jazz pianist and composer for opera, film, and television.

Recognizing that the theatre’s physical acoustics were poorly suited to musical performance, university administrators engaged the international consulting firm Arup to evaluate possible solutions.

“We were given two options,” said Grabowsky. “One was to create an acoustical environment suitable for music through physical means by use of materials and slightly reconfiguring the space. But no matter what was done it could never be great acoustically because of the existing constraints of the building structure.”

The other solution presented was an active acoustic system. “Initially I was very skeptical,” said Grabowsky. “When you talk about intervening in a space with electro-acoustic devices, your mind immediately goes to, ‘Well, why would you want to do that? It’s not genuine.’ But the potential was intriguing so I decided to give it a listen.”

Grabowsky organized a delegation to audition several different active acoustic systems in Europe, the U.S., and Japan, at times bringing along a string quartet to perform the same pieces in evaluating each system.

The seminal moment came with a visit to SoundBox, the San Francisco Symphony’s conceptually innovative and widely acclaimed alternative venue. “Other than for us, the room was empty,” Grabowsky said. “The quartet set up and played at one end of the room, which is quite a large space. I was amazed that it didn’t matter where I was in the room, or which direction I was facing. The clarity of the music remained true, but more importantly the quality of the music did not suggest any kind of electronic intervention. It simply sounded clear, crisp, and warm, as if you were in a very good concert hall.”

Grabowsky’s preference for a Constellation solution was cemented by a later visit to SoundBox, this time for a full concert program. “Again I moved throughout the room, and that experience convinced me that, in terms of what the system was doing, it allowed for more flexibility and more musical detail than the others we had heard,” he said.

As installed at the Alexander Theatre, the Constellation system comprises three elements: sensing of the ambient acoustics, high-resolution digital processing using the patented VRAS acoustical algorithm, and distribution of early reflections and reverberant signals using more than 150 loudspeakers. For ambient sensing, 16 compact cardioid microphones are placed on stage, 16 miniature cardioid microphones are placed in the auditorium, and eight boundary-mounted omnidirectional microphones are placed in the orchestra pit. The processing is accomplished by a D-Mitri digital audio platform with 18 modules for input and output, core processing, and creation of the acoustic presets. The loudspeaker complement includes 133 full-range Meyer Sound systems (MM-4XP, UPM-1XP, UP-4XP, and UPJunior-XP) along with 19 compact subwoofers (UMS-1XPSM and MM-10XP).

Because all Constellation loudspeakers are self-powered and receive dedicated, discrete input signals from D-Mitri, the hardware component also provides a dynamic, immersive sound environment with Meyer Sound’s SpaceMap 3D panning software. Using SpaceMap with the Constellation infrastructure allows dynamic movement of multiple sounds in three dimensions throughout the auditorium.

“The possibility of using the spatiality of the system enables one to add a new dimension to a musical composition that has been talked about for perhaps a half a century,” said Grabowsky, “but has never been realized to this extent. I remember when I talked with John Meyer he referred to Constellation as an instrument, not just equipment, and that’s a profound indicator of this system’s potential. It allows a degree of spatial flexibility beyond any other system I have experienced.”

In the first months since reopening, the Alexander Theatre has used Constellation to optimize acoustics for a wide spectrum of events, including acoustical musical ensembles, musical theatre, and amplified concerts as well as conferences and lectures. Two notable events were a recital by celebrated classical pianist Stephen Hough and a recording session by jazz great Branford Marsalis.

To support amplified concerts, the theatre offers a direct reinforcement system anchored by 12 LEOPARD compact line array loudspeakers along with six 900-LFC low frequency control elements for deep bass support and eight MM-4XP miniature loudspeakers for front fill.

The renovated Alexander Theatre is the largest of three venues in Monash University’s Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts. The new arts complex was designed by Peter Elliott Architecture and Urban Design in collaboration with Irwinconsult Engineers and Marshall Day Acoustics, with the latter firm’s Peter Exton responsible for physical acoustics in the Alexander Theatre. Exton worked closely with the team at Marshall Day Entertech, the firm’s theatrical consulting division, to ensure seamless integration into the wider scope of the project. The centre will soon offer two more venues: a 190-seat jazz club and 130-seat sound gallery, both scheduled to open in 2019. Also equipped with a Constellation system, the sound gallery will provide a free-form environment for innovations in musical composition and performance.

A public research institution founded in 1958, Monash University has a total enrollment of over 70,000 students at multiple campuses both in the Melbourne area and at overseas locations.

DP Design recently installed Martin Audio CDD to solve a variety of acoustic challenges at the Latitude Church in New Bern, North Carolina.

Latitude is described by designer David Price as “one of the fastest growing churches in North Carolina that only started over a year ago and already has a weekly attendance of over 1,000 people.”

The church is based in a large facility that originally served as a manufacturing warehouse with “a variety of acoustic challenges in a space that wasn’t designed as a worship sanctuary.“

Latitude became known as the rock and roll church in terms of having the highest volume levels,” David continues. “They originally committed to a used line array system from a well-known brand that had seen better days on tour. It was woefully inadequate with three boxes a side for a 90-foot throw in a long, low trim height room. It sounded incredibly loud and harsh up front with drivers blowing and a host of other problems.

“We came in and redesigned their stage which was very deep—cut it in half with both sections separated by a double wide video production screen. We installed a distributed system of Martin Audio CDD speakers that blended perfectly into the environment. Eight CDD15’s in three rows of two for left, right, and two delay hangs. We also deployed four CSX218 floor-mounted subs and eight CDD5’s for front fill mounted on the edge of the stage.”

Asked about his client’s reaction to the CDD system, David said, “It sounds absolutely fantastic with the warmth you get out from the CDD15’s and wide enough coverage to get the stereo image throughout the room. Bottom line, CDD sounds amazing, and the church is very happy with the system because they can play it loud without any overload or harshness, just smooth, pristine sound.”

Munro Acoustics recently deployed an end-to-end Harman Professional Solutions audio system at the Flea Bazaar Café, a first-of-its-kind dining and entertainment concept in the Lower Parel district of Mumbai.

Owned and operated by Impresario Group, the 7,000-square-foot café features 13 separate restaurants, a marketplace for local lifestyle brands, and a bar that serves local beers and craft cocktails. The Flea Bazaar Café also includes a community performance venue that hosts standup comedy, plays, DJs and live music, and more. The space features a unique pulley mechanism that can quickly lift the tables and chairs to the ceiling and create extra space for audiences, as well as a van that serves as the DJ booth.

Impresario Group hired longtime audio partner Munro Acoustics to design a state-of-the-art audio system that would complement the aesthetic of the Flea Bazaar Café and deliver even sound coverage in the highly reverberant venue. To ensure an even, smooth and enjoyable music experience for guests, Munro Acoustics selected a complete Harman sound reinforcement system comprised of JBL VRX line array speakers, JBL SCS Spatially Cued Surround loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers and dbx digital signal processors.

“Integrating the system in a highly morphable space such as Flea Bazaar Café was quite challenging,” said Kapil Thirwani, partner, Munro Acoustics. “We worked with the architects to make the subwoofers an integral part of the stage. The DJ plays through a van and we created a plug and play provision to disconnect the DJ van when not in use to free up the space for gigs. The venue was highly reverberant, and we faced some initial hiccups due to the complexity of the system design. However, the combination of the JBL VRX line array system and the JBL SCS loudspeakers worked well for this requirement. We chose Harman as our preferred audio solutions company for its wide range of JBL Professional loudspeakers, end-to-end solution offerings and their extensive service support network.”

The main house system includes six JBL VRX 932LA-1 compact line array speakers paired with four JBL VRX 918S 18” high power subwoofers, which are suspended from the venue ceiling. Two additional JBL VRX 918S cover the flea stall, kitchen garden and pan stall areas. Four JBL SCS 8 Spatially Cued Surround loudspeakers are used for side-fills around the main performance area, with six additional JBL SCS 8 installed at the flea stall, pan stall, and kitchen garden area. Although they are commonly used for cinema applications, the JBL SCS loudspeakers are ideal for installations where sound reinforcement needs to be provided in a compact space with flexible mounting options. The system is powered by Crown XTi 6002, MA 5000i and XLi 1500 amplifiers, which deliver reliable, uninterrupted power for performances.

“When I think of a bazaar, it brings back fond memories from my childhood,” said Prashant Govindan, senior director India & SAARC, Harman Professional Solutions. “Street food, shopping and entertainment have been all brought together in this innovative yet modern setting. Although the installation was complex, the Harman Professional and Munro teams worked together to create a versatile audio experience. One of the things that I admire about Kapil is his creativity and innovation. By combining JBL cinema surround loudspeakers with a JBL line array solution, his team was able to create a unique and immersive sound experience for guests.”

The 2018 Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon recently drew more than 22,000 participants to Liverpool’s streets, where runners and spectators alike were entertained by a wealth of stages located throughout the city. For regional live event specialist IE Production Services, the sheer size of the event was reflected in the number of stages it served – no fewer than 17, each of which presented its own challenges in terms of sound reinforcement. Having considered the options, IE Production Services looked to K-array and the Italian innovator’s exclusive UK representative, 2B Heard, for a broad range of solutions.

Encompassing the 26.2 mile course with options to either tackle the full marathon, attempt a half marathon, or try a slightly more manageable 5k, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon draws on Liverpool’s unique musical heritage and has become an institution within the city. Stages are located at numerous points along the route, including the starting line, the town hall balcony (replicating the famous 1964 balcony concert by The Beatles), and the picturesque Sefton Park bandstand.

“With so many stages and performance formats, this was anything but a straight forward project,” said Mark McComish, project manager at IE Production Services. “It’s a very high-profile event with a lot of media coverage, so it’s important to the city. From our perspective it was vital that the speakers we used delivered high quality audio but were also very easy and quick to rig. K-array was the perfect choice on both counts.”

K-array solutions could be heard from the beginning of the event to the end. Included was the compact but powerful Firenze KH7 digitally steered line array, four elements of which covered the starting line, split between two stacks positioned 80m apart with low end support from two KS8 subwoofers.

“The KH7 is discreet, lightweight and very quick to rig but it’s still powerful enough to throw long distances, up to 100m, without feeling too loud for those nearest the stage, all of which meant it was ideal for the starting line,” said McComish.

Further along the course, the historic town hall balcony was served by a Mugello KH2 compact line arrays comprising four KH2 per side. Chosen for its ability to deliver “seamless coverage and a long throw down the strip of oncoming athletes outside the Town Hall, while still remaining unobtrusive”, the KH2 set-up was augmented with two Mugello KS5 dual 21” subs.

Elsewhere, a variety of smaller stages benefitted from seamless coverage courtesy of Pinnacle KR802 and KR202 column array systems as well as Axle KRX802 ground stacked line arrays. “The column arrays gave us even and consistent coverage while the IP rated options meant we were prepared for all types of weather,” McComish said.

“The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon is an exciting event for everyone who takes part, including ourselves,” he said. “It’s important to our company and a powerful reference project for us so living up to everyone’s high expectations was of paramount importance to us. With the support we received from 2B Heard and the breadth of the K-array range, we were able to design discreet yet powerful, high quality sound reinforcement solutions for all of the stages. No matter the challenge, we had it covered with K-array.”

Earlier this year, Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium completed what is not only the largest installation to date of Meyer Sound CAL digital beam steering column array loudspeakers, it’s also the first Meyer Sound stadium system to deploy the latest in AVB/TSN networking technology.

The distributed system of 69 loudspeakers projects highly intelligible, full-bandwidth voice announcements, incidental music, and soundtracks for videos on the Panasonic screens throughout the vast stadium bowl. The advanced beam steering technology built into CAL allowed Meyer Sound engineers to precisely adjust the beam spread and tilt for uniform coverage, while the slender profile of CAL loudspeakers keeps sight lines open.

"We approached Meyer Sound for this new system simply because they offered us the best solution," said Azteca Stadium Audio Manager Alejandro Aguirre. "We needed the latest in technology, and the CAL system with AVB fulfilled all our requirements."

For the lower ring, the system deploys 24 CAL 64 loudspeakers along with 10 600-HP subwoofers for low frequency extension. The upper ring is covered by 26 CAL 96 and eight CAL 64 loudspeakers, with one additional CAL 96 covering the playing surface. Two GALAXY 816 network processors are placed at the head of the system for overall optimization, and two RMServers are inserted in the network for comprehensive status monitoring and troubleshooting.

The GALAXY 816 master processors are connected to the control room master switch via AVB/TSN, with bi-directional signals routed over a fiber optic network from the control room switch to the 11 local switches distributed around the stadium. Each local switch connects to its assigned group of CAL loudspeakers via Cat-5e cable. All switches are Extreme Networks X440-G2 series.

"The stadium hosts a variety of events, not just association football," said Aguirre. "We also have concerts, religious events and the annual NFL games. It was essential that we have intelligible audio in every seat, and with the power and clarity needed to deliver a complete watching and listening experience alongside the HD screens. All of this has been fully accomplished with the new Meyer Sound system."

Aguirre acknowledges that the complete solution depended on design and support as well as the latest in technology. "The Meyer Sound team studied every detail, and they made sure the right people were on the project,” said Aguirre. “They advised us at every step. There is a level of commitment from Meyer Sound that sets the company apart from others in the industry."

Designed by architects Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Rafael Mijares Alcérreca, the main structure of Estadio Azteca was completed in 1966. It had a peak capacity of 115,000 in 1986, but safety restrictions and eventual replacement of seating with VIP boxes have since reduced overall capacity. The Mexican media company Grupo Televisa owns both the stadium and its principal user, the Club América association football team.

Celebrating its 47th year, the Country Music Association’s latest CMA Fest drew more than 50,000 country music fans to downtown Nashville this June to experience more than 350 artists performing over four days and nights at Nissan Stadium, Riverfront Stage, Ascend Amphitheater and seven other concert sites. Although the diversity of country acts ran deep, from old-school traditionalists to the newest country-pop stars, many of them had two things in common—DiGiCo mixing consoles at the helms of both their house and monitor mixes.

Nashville-based Morris Light & Sound supplied numerous DiGiCo desks for four of this year’s stages, including four SD12—two for FOH and two for monitors—plus one SD11 production mixer at the Chevy Riverfront Stage, with all consoles connected via an Optocore fiber loop to two SD-Racks positioned on stage. This popular venue, located on the banks of the Cumberland River, hosted performances from reigning CMA “New Artist of the Year” Jon Pardi, Scotty McCreery, Lee Brice, LoCash, Frankie Ballard and dozens of others reinforced on two 16-element d&b audiotechnik J-Series line arrays and two 14-element V-Series outfill arrays.

Morris also had a DiGiCo SD5 FOH console and SD12 monitor console in place at the Cracker Barrel Country Roads Stage at Ascend Amphitheater, which featured sets from Cole Swindell, Lindsay Ell, Craig Campbell, Morgan Evans, Maddie & Tae and more reinforced on a pair of 14-box d&b arrays. Three additional stages at Nashville’s Music City Center—Close Up, Spotlight and Radio Disney—featured musical sets and artist interviews mixed on Morris’ smaller DiGiCo S21 desks at both FOH and monitors.

“The GUI on all of DiGiCo’s SD-Range desks is pretty much identical, so most engineers are quite familiar and comfortable on them,” said Morris Light & Sound Senior Audio Designer/Trainer John Mills, who spent much of CMA Fest at the Chevy Riverfront Stage. “It’s easy to grow up on a smaller tour with, say, an SD9 and learn the desk, and then when you get the opportunity to mix on a SD7, you already know how to get around. The same goes for the SD12, which practically everyone was excited to get their hands on seeing that it’s still quite new. The SD12’s layout, feel and sound are all DiGiCo, and they performed very well.”

For the Maui Jim Broadway Stage at Hard Rock Cafe, fellow local production provider DCR Nashville deployed two DiGiCo S31 desks for FOH and monitors paired with a 16-element Meyer Mina PA. The desks were connected via two D2-Racks and utilized Waves DMI cards for native integration with Waves Sound Grid Extreme. On stage, DCR fed 32 outputs from the monitor desk into the monitor D2-Rack and ran seven wedge mixes with a cue wedge plus eight stereo IEM mixes.

“We currently have six DiGiCo S31 consoles out on tours right now and our clients love them,” said DCR Nashville General Manager John Schirmer. “With Hard Rock Cafe activating the Maui Jim Broadway Stage in the evenings, we worked with more than 70 bands over the four days of CMA Fest this year. Most of those artists were mixed by the front-of-house and monitor engineers from the Jordan Feliz tour, which carries the same console, monitor and PA package that we deployed at Hard Rock. Both of those guys were very familiar with the desks and system in general, which made for a great, seamless success. And the few other engineers that did mix on that stage were very complimentary of the deployment of the PA as well as how easy to use the S31s were. Everyone was all smiles.”

The What: Clair Brothers is now offering the kiTCurve-TrueFit Landscape and kiTCurve-TrueFit Portrait line array models.

The What Else: These standardized TrueFit line array systems are an intermediate choice between the standard, 90-degree horizontal product and the fully customized TrueFit system. The kiTCurve-TrueFit Landscape | Portrait visionary array products are solid options for venues on a watchful budget.

The Bottom Line: When it comes to sound, the biggest advantage of TrueFit technology is how it expands imaging across the entire audience, making it ideal for houses of worship, auditoriums, and theater applications.

Best-selling hip-hop artist Post Malone recently wrapped up the North American leg of his 2018 tour in support of his latest album, Beerbongs and Bentleys, which broke streaming records on Spotify the day it was released and zoomed to the top of the Billboard Hot 200. The 26-city tour of mixed arenas and outdoor sheds was supported by a massive Meyer Sound LEO Family reinforcement system supplied by VER Tour Sound.

''The LEO system is a beast,'' said FOH engineer Joe Hellow, who has extensive studio experience as well as touring credits with Big Sean, Tyga and Miguel. ''This kind of power could be scary for some engineers just starting out, who might be intimidated about keeping control of such a powerful box. But working with VER I’m backed by great system techs who give me the tools and the confidence to make it happen. I’m really happy with the results on this tour, and everybody has raved about the sound.''

Though system configurations vary somewhat by venue type, with larger arenas and outdoor sheds the main front hangs are—per side—14 LEO line array loudspeakers over four LYON-W wide coverage loudspeakers. Outfills per side are six LYON-M line array loudspeakers over six LYON-W, front fills are eight LEOPARD loudspeakers, and four UPJ-1P loudspeakers are available for utility fill. Chest-slamming bass is supplied by a total of 30 1100-LFC low frequency control elements: 12 flown and 18 ground-stacked.

"The 1100 is a monster that is rounded and thick and it doesn’t interfere with my mix," said Hellow. "I use the flown subs to keep a linear sound, then I use the ground subs as an effect to just wrap around your body. You can actually feel your shorts moving. In some venues I have to reach for the sub master and pull it down because it’s so massive."

Production manager Dennis Danneels has been impressed—and gratified—by the throw distance of the main arrays. "The LEO/LYON rig is one that just doesn’t stop," he said. "It always seems to have more power in the tank. We’ve had some challenging sheds with house delays that haven’t been updated to today’s demands, but we had enough extra horsepower from our own stacks to pick up the slack."

Danneels also credits the Meyer Sound system and the VER crew for keeping the tour running like clockwork despite the varied venue sizes and configurations. "In today’s touring market we’re seeing more inconsistencies in the venues on a run, so you need to adapt quickly," he said. "The LEO Family PA has met those challenges, and VER has some great young talent in their dugout, with great skill sets and work ethic. I’ve begun to call them ‘the future’ on this tour."

Summing up his experience, FOH engineer Hellow said, "I’ve mixed on every modern-day system out there, and now when I go on the road Meyer is first on my rider."

The VER audio crew was headed by systems engineer Kevin Valind, aided by PA techs Justin Stiepleman and Colten Mortensen. Under the direction of account manager Jeff Priepot, VER supplied a turnkey package that also included lighting and video. The Post Malone team was filled out by monitor engineer Blair Bondy and tour manager Kurt Kuehn. Creative direction was by Bobby Greenleaf, an associate of the artist’s manager, Dre London.

The front end of the Post Malone tour was anchored by a DiGiCo SD10 paired with a fully-loaded Waves SoundGrid server. Vocal microphone for Post Malone was a Shure Axient digital wireless topped by a DPA d:facto capsule, with vocal processing via a Rupert Neve Designs Shelford channel strip.

Clearwing Productions, a full-service production company, deployed a Harman Professional Solutions audio and lighting solution made up of JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers and Martin lighting fixtures at Summerfest 2018.

Known as “the world’s largest music festival,” Summerfest features over 1,000 performances across 11 stages and attracts nearly one million people annually. In order to provide premium audio and lighting for the world’s top music artists, Clearwing Productions deployed full Harman Professional Solutions rigs at multiple stages across the festival, including the groundbreaking JBL VTX A12 loudspeakers, and the newly released Martin MAC Encore fixtures.

“Summerfest is home to the world’s top artists and we’re thrilled to use JBL Professional and Martin lighting to provide an amazing experience for performers and audience members alike,” said Gregg Brunclik, president/CEO of Clearwing Productions. “The new JBL A12s sound incredible—they allow the artists to put on their best performance, and they always get the crowd hyped. With so many different acts, our lighting needs can change drastically from set to set, and the MAC Encore fixtures make the performers look great every time.”

On the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse Stage, Clearwing deployed a complete JBL audio system featuring 20 VTX A12 line array loudspeakers, 12 VTX S28 and 12 VTX G28 subwoofers, and four VTX V20 line array loudspeakers for fills. Four VRack 4x3500HD and four VRack 12000HD power amps from Crown powered the rig. The lighting rig featured eight Martin MAC Encore Performance fixtures and six MAC Quantum Wash fixtures to illuminate performances by Social Distortion, Buddy Guy, Cheat Codes, and more.

On the Uline Warehouse Stage, Clearwing deployed a complete JBL audio system featuring 18 VTX A12 line array loudspeakers, 12 VTX S28 and six VTX G28 subwoofers, and eight VTX V20 line array loudspeakers for fills. Four VRack 4x3500HD and three VRack 12000HD power amps from Crown powered the rig. The lighting rig featured eight Martin MAC Encore Performance fixtures and six MAC Quantum Wash fixtures to illuminate performances by Plain White Ts, The Neighbourhood, Gin Blossoms, and more.

On the BMO Harris Pavilion Stage, Clearwing deployed a complete JBL audio system featuring 20 VTX A12 line array loudspeakers, 18 VTX G28 subwoofers, and 16 VTX V20 line array loudspeakers for fills. Four VRack 4x3500HD and four VRack 12000HD power amps from Crown powered the rig. The lighting rig featured eight Martin MAC Encore Performance fixtures and six MAC Quantum Wash fixtures to illuminate performances by Pat Benatar, Steven Tyler, Cheap Trick, and more.

On the JoJo's Martini Lounge Stage, Clearwing deployed a complete JBL audio system featuring eight VTX V20 line array loudspeakers and six VTX S25 subwoofers. Two VRack 4x3500HD power amps from Crown powered performances by The Screamin' Cucumbers, Kings of Radio, The LoveMonkeys, and more.

In the American Family Insurance Amphitheater Clearwing deployed a complete Martin lighting solution featuring 20 VDO Sceptron 10 video fixtures, 20 VDO Fatron 20 video battens, 24 RUSH MH 10 Beam FX fixtures and 12 Atomic 3000 LED strobes to illuminate performances from James Taylor, Halsey, Dave Mathews Band, and more.

“Harman continually provides outstanding sound and lighting solutions for the greatest performers in the world, and we’re very excited about our continued partnership with Clearwing that positions our products at the world’s largest music festival,” said Andy Flint, vice president of live entertainment at Harman International.

The 2018 Roskilde Festival marked the first year of a partnership with Meyer Sound.

Wrapping up in early July, the 2018 edition of Denmark’s long-running Roskilde Festival brought in more than 130,000 attendees for eight days of musical performances from 184 artists, including Orange and Arena stage headliners Bruno Mars, Eminem, Gorillaz, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Massive Attack, Nine Inch Nails, David Byrne, and Khalid. All stages — from the small and intimate to the massive Orange stage — were powered by Meyer Sound systems.

Roskilde Festival and Meyer Sound led training sessions over the months prior to the festival as part of a technical education initiative. Any profits from the festival are distributed to charity every year.

Meyer Sound co-founders John and Helen Meyer were in Denmark to experience the results. “Working with the whole team at Roskilde has been amazing right from the start,” said Executive Vice President Helen Meyer. “It feels different than the other big festivals. Everybody is very cooperative, and always coming up with new ideas. Also, there’s a warmth to it. Everybody really cares about what they’re doing, and that makes it a very special experience.”

Supervising the technical education side of the collaboration is Morten Büchert, who works with the festival year-round as consultant and project manager. Under the five-year agreement forged late last year, all sound reinforcement systems at all Roskilde stages are Meyer Sound. The systems are supplied by the Bright Group, a leading European AVL rental and integration firm. The technical teams of Bright, Meyer Sound, and the festival were fully integrated, collaborating on the sound design and deployment.

“This partnership with Meyer Sound is an opportunity to move into uncharted territory,” Büchert said. “I’m positive we will succeed with this, based on the quality of the staff and the quality of the products. The mindset that everybody brings to the table is one of openness and curiosity, and that will have a positive effect on the audience experience.”

“The sound systems for all the stages have been redesigned since last year,” added Lars Liliengren, production manager for the festival. “We looked at the entire site and calculated the coverages we needed to achieve our goal, which is to close the gap between the audience and the artists on the stage.”

Under the five-year agreement inked late last year, all sound reinforcement systems at all Roskilde stages are Meyer Sound. The stage systems are supplied by the Bright Group, a leading European AVL rental and integration firm. The technical teams of Bright, Meyer Sound and the festival were fully integrated, collaborating on the sound design, and deployment.

Close to 1,000 Meyer Sound loudspeakers were deployed across the eight festival stages as well as all other festival-related events and activities requiring sound. The largest system by far was at the Orange stage, anchored by LEO and LYON main line arrays with added power from LEOPARD line arrays and deep bass from 1100-LFC and 900-LFC low frequency control elements.

Systems for the Arena, Avalon, and Apollo stages were built around LYON main arrays, with LEOPARD arrays doing the heavy lifting at the Pavilion, Rising, and Countdown stages. The low end of the new VLFCs brought a visceral feel to the EDM experience at Apollo. LINA arrays, the newest and smallest of the LEO Family, supported the Gloria Stage.

Meyer Sound Production Manager Dennis Tholema led the technical team embedded at the festival. Bob McCarthy, Meyer Sound’s director of system optimization, led the team charged with the design and tuning of the festival systems, working together with Bright logistical and rigging teams and the festival’s own technical staff.

For the Bright Group, Roskilde afforded a collaborative opportunity to demonstrate how their Meyer Sound inventory and support teams could manage a massive, multi-stage festival. “I’m looking forward to many more years of this,” said Bright Group CEO and President Patrick Svensk. “We have been partners with Meyer Sound for many years and we expect to strengthen that partnership through the festivals yet to come. Audio is key for a music-centered festival like this.”

Another feature of the festival was “Big Mix Lounge,” organized by Meyer Sound, where legendary Metallica FOH engineer “Big Mick” Hughes hosted a relaxed island of hospitality for his visiting peers. “You couldn’t come up with a better plot,” said Hughes. “You’ve got the Roskilde family forming a bond with the Meyer family, and only good things come out of that. It ensures the quality of the audio across the entire site, so that every stage is catered to fully – and expertly so. I hope this model is recognized by other festivals as a good way to go.”

Roskilde Festival Group CEO Signe Lopdrup said that the purpose of the collaboration is to “enhance the experience for all participants here at Roskilde. I think this partnership goes beyond great sound. It is about creating community, and creating experiences at a new and higher level.”

Meyer Sound leveraged its relationship with the festival to conduct R&D experiments over the course of the week. Working under the direction of Büchert and Meyer Sound Senior Scientist Dr. Roger Schwenke, students from the Danish Technical University helped set up experiments to measure variations in sound propagation at different heights above ground level as caused by increases in temperature and moisture from the crowds.

Staged continuously since 1971, the Roskilde Festival is the oldest and largest music and cultural event of its kind in Northern Europe. The festival’s full-time staff of 50 is augmented by nearly 32,000 volunteers at the time of the event. A non-profit venture since its inception, the festival operates under the auspices of the Roskilde Festival Charity Society.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee has been an American cultural and educational institution since the first Bee, back in 1925. This year, the event took place on May 31, capping off “Bee Week,” at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, where it’s been held since 2011. For most of that time, Chris “Cap” Capaletti has been the Bee system guru for its live sound, which has grown with the event itself—this year a record-breaking 516 spellers from around the country vied to make the final round, culled from 11 million students nationally and internationally.

To fully cover and provide intelligible audio to a live audience numbering in the thousands, Capaletti laid out a line source array system comprising six L-Acoustics Kara per side for the main left and right hangs, with two smaller arrays of five-Kiva II addressing the far sides of the audience. Five coaxial X8 boxes were deployed as stage monitors, while four KS28 subwoofers were positioned backstage behind the furthest upstage scenic elements for LF reinforcement. A second truss flown out in the house featured four more arrays of four Kara each for delay. The entire system, which was supplied by Frederick, Maryland-based Showtime Sound LLC, was powered by a dozen LA12X amplified controllers housed in four LA-RAK II racks.

Deploying the L-Acoustics system for this event was arguably easier than spelling the winning word, “Koinonia.” Capaletti credits L-Acoustics’ LA Network Manager, which provides a slew of features, including real-time control and monitoring of amplifiers, a truly intuitive workflow and application-driven GUI, and automated discovery and matching of units over the network, for much of that.

“In terms of managing the system on site, LA Network Manager’s tools are the best there are,” said Capaletti, who has supervised the sound for the Bee for the past six years and was responsible for bringing the L-Acoustics system in. “Thanks to the program’s intuitive amplifier and group management, which lets me listen to changes in real time as I move things, I get to spend more time on the rig and on the console. I just get to where I need to be faster with L-Acoustics’ stuff, which is critical in an event like this, where we have television [the event was broadcast on ESPN] and lots of lighting, and I don’t have a lot of time before rehearsals start, so I have to do a lot of the system tuning by ear. LA Network Manager is simply the best software out there for this.”

“L-Acoustics’ hardware design also helped substantially,” said Capaletti. Four of the X8 speakers were arrayed across the front of the stage for contestants waiting their turns, but the fifth solved a unique challenge: “We want to have the speller’s monitor below them, so they can be looking down from the stage and at the judge speaking to them, so it feels natural,” Capaletti said. “But every year, the space between the front of the stage and the judge’s position gets tighter and tighter. The X8 is the perfect size for this situation—it fits right into the space but still gives the speller a very natural-sounding voice to listen to. It’s one of the many little things that L-Acoustics gets right that makes a big difference in a show like this. There’s no way to pull this level of event off without the kinds of tools that L-Acoustics gives me.”

Penn State University notched up the technical capabilities for its performing arts programs with the recent installation of a Meyer Sound LEO Family reinforcement system in Eisenhower Auditorium, the flagship facility of the Center for the Performing Arts on the main campus in State College, Penn. At a school renowned for its Nittany Lions athletic teams, the new state-of-the-art reinforcement system is appropriately anchored by 24 LYON line array loudspeakers.

''It’s really a game changer with this system hanging in here,'' said Tom Hesketh, the venue’s events manager and de facto technical director. ''Now we can offer touring acts a better system and at a lower expense when you factor in labor costs on rental rigs. For example, I just had an email conversation with the FOH engineer for Gordon Lightfoot. When I told him what we had, his reply was, 'Oh yeah!'''

Rental systems were a constant necessity as the former house system, a decades-old ''Voice of the Theatre'' cluster, was rejected by touring riders and was barely adequate for many university events. Hesketh had been pushing for an upgrade for years, and finally a breakthrough came when Dave Brotman of Coatesville, Penn.-based DBS Audio Systems brought in a LEO Family system for an annual university event attended by top administrators, finance personnel and faculty leaders of the College of Arts and Architecture. Following the formal event, a demo session featuring both live and recorded music proved convincing across the board.

''The system exceeded all our expectations,'' said Hesketh. ''To me, one of the more gratifying outcomes is that we’ve had three touring Broadway shows since we’ve put the system in and the A-1’s basically said, 'Can I use this? If yes, I want to leave my rig on the truck.'''

In addition to the main LYON arrays, the system comprises a center array of eight LEOPARD line array loudspeakers, six per side cardioid arrays of 1100-LFC low frequency control elements, eight UPJunior-XP loudspeakers for front fill, and five UPQ-1P loudspeakers as balcony delays. The system is optimized and managed by four GALAXY 816 processors (networked via AVB/TSN) while an RMServer enables comprehensive remote status monitoring.

The system made its concert debut with the big-band jazz of The Birdland All-Stars. (''A good one to break it in,'' said Hesketh. ''Their engineer was top flight, and it sounded amazing.'') Broadway’s Jersey Boys and Dirty Dancing also benefited from the upgrade, as did numerous university events, including a moving Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial celebration featuring multiple choral ensembles. ''I was up in the balcony and the effect was so emotional I had tears in my eyes,'' Hesketh said.

Dean of the College of Arts and Architecture Dr. Barbara Korner, who worked with senior administrators to facilitate the upgrade, considers it a significant enhancement to the cultural life of the university and community. ''We are now able to host shows and events that we couldn’t before,'' she said. ''People notice the difference immediately, as the new system allows our audiences to experience music and theatrical events at a higher level. It’s a joy to sit in the audience and hear comments about how much clearer the sound is.''

From his standpoint, Tom Hesketh maintains that Dave Brotman of DBS Audio Systems deserves recognition for his initiative and follow-through support. ''He stuck his neck out for us. Nothing was ever guaranteed, but Dave knew I had a vision and he wanted his company to be a part of it. And I can’t rave enough about their customer support. It’s been very gratifying.''

Katie Rountree, facility coordinator for the College of Arts and Architecture, also expressed her appreciation. ''I was impressed by the way DBS got the work done in the time frame promised, in a professional manner, and they went over and above by providing the temporary electrical service.''

''It was a fitting anniversary celebration for our company since DBS turned 25 last year,'' said Brotman. ''It was a pleasure to work with Barbara, Katie, Tom, and the entire staff at the Center for the Performing Arts. We’ve been thrilled by the response from the university since the system was commissioned.''

Eisenhower Auditorium seats 2,585 and features the largest permanent stage between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Opened in 1974 and named in honor of former university president Milton Eisenhower (brother of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower), the venue hosts about 200 events annually. In addition to staging a variety of student and community events, Eisenhower Auditorium hosts conferences, graduations and concerts by classical, jazz, pop, rock and blues artists.

Originally constructed in 1808, Glazier’s Hall is characterized by a blend of refined tradition, contemporary design and one of the best locations in London. Sat beside the Thames, the building offers seven strikingly individual spaces for corporate events and functions. It also adjoins the historical London Bridge—a distinction made all the more tangible following the completion of the London Bridge Arches, a new subterranean space where the foundations of the bridge’s original wharf are visible. Beyond the bare brick walls of the venue flows the Thames, while within the acoustically challenging space, an almost invisible K-array solution delivers smooth and precise audio coverage.

Previously a back-of-house zone, the newly transformed space is the seventh function area available for hire within Glazier’s Hall, offering three long, arched vaults where original bricks are complemented by minimalist architectural lighting. At the far end of the vaults are the stones that adjoin the river, while to the right, visitors can gaze through three hermetically sealed windows at one of the British capital’s best appointed wine cellars. The overall effect is unlike anywhere else in the city.

“The building is actually Grade II listed–the floor is actually all original Yorkstone paving from 1808, and we are on a raft in the Thames,” said Glazier’s Hall Managing Director Samantha Enstone. “Our vision was to convert and use more riverside space and create a unique environment using the walls from 1808. But of course part of the challenge was to achieve the right balance of sound in an entirely brick, underground and very reverberant chamber.”

The company charged with delivering on that vision was lighting and sound specialist Technical Arts, whose founder and managing director, Chris Filippidis, has played a key role in shaping the building across a number of years. “Glazier’s Hall is a long standing client of Technical Arts,” he said. “Before this current phase of work we have been involved in lighting and audio throughout.”

Each area presents its own challenges, but within London Bridge Arches, the underground location and unusual décor left Technical Arts Project Manager Martin Tarpy looking for a suitably versatile but highly discreet audio solution.

“The architect, Andrew Lock of Lyn Atelier, provided the drawings and we instantly knew that we needed an audio solution that could provide highly intelligible coverage for BGM whilst remaining unseen by guests. This isn’t the kind of place where you can just put boxes on the wall. I’d previously heard K-array speakers when I visited with 2B Heard, and they seemed to be exactly the right solution.”

Visitors to the Arches descend into the space via two short flights of stone steps, then find themselves in the central vault. A long wooden raft, suspended from the ceiling, acts as a counterpoint to the stone and brickwork while also providing a home for lighting fixtures and extremely compact, well-hidden K-array Tornado-KT2C 2” speakers. To the left and right, two further vaults boast wooden rafts of their own, each housing four Tornado-KT2C speakers, for a total of 12 throughout the venue.

“Given the limited head height, the rafts needed to be physically as tight as possible with the apex of the vault–we needed to ensure the depth of the speakers wouldn’t bring the raft height back down again,” said Tarpy. “The Tornado-KT2Cs are ideal because they’re so compact. Then it was a question of matching the client’s expectations in terms of audio quality – the brief was for high quality and high intelligibility, primarily for background music that could move into a mid-ground performance–we needed plenty of headroom. Again, the Tornado-KT2Cs were the right choice.”

Low-end support for the distributed system is via three Rumble-KU26 subwoofers, all hidden behind custom grates to appear as though they are part of the ventilation system. “Given the space restrictions, the prospect of subwoofers was quite challenging, but that led me to the Rumble-KU26 subs—it’s impressive to have an enclosure that can deliver that kind of SPL but which is the size of a shoebox.” Signal distribution is via a Cloud Z4 mk4 zone mixer, with wall-plates positioned throughout the venue, while the loudspeaker system is powered and processed by a single K-array Kommander-KA24.

“It sounds really good,” Tarpy said. “Once the system was installed, 2B Heard came in and tuned it and the result was great. Particularly considering this is a relatively new relationship between us, the support from 2B Heard has been fantastic throughout.”

“Most of the arches in London are acoustically very poor,” said Enstone. “But when we held our launch event in here we hosted a long table of 40 guests, and it was stunning–I could hear the audio perfectly. You can’t see the system and you don’t know where the audio is coming from, but it still sounds great. The result in here is far better than I thought it would be.”

UCLA’s new Mo Ostin Basketball Center provides both the men’s and women’s programs an exclusive destination with everything from practice courts to video rooms to sports-medicine treatment areas. There are 11 individual spaces in the venue, with men’s and women’s facilities mirroring each other, including gyms and sports-therapy suites and a common conference area. All of these spaces feature sound provided by Bose Professional systems.

The men’s and women’s gyms are each covered by a pair of arrays composed of three Bose RoomMatch loudspeakers topped by a RoomMatch RMS215 subwoofer, powered by a Bose PowerMatch PM8500N networked amplifier and managed by a Bose ControlSpace ESP-800 DSP system. “That’s a big PA system for a practice gym,” said Michael MacDonald, president and CEO of ATK Audiotek, the Los Angeles-based AV systems integration firm that designed and installed the Bose Professional systems in the facility. “However, you need that kind of power to deliver the impact of the music that today’s collegiate basketball players like to rely on as part of their practice regimen. The RoomMatch does that incredibly well, but it also does something else: its high and precise directionality keeps the sound where it needs to be and off of reflective surfaces. So the music can be as loud as it needs to be and still sound great.”

That kind of well-defined sound tailored to the spaces is present throughout the rest of the facility. In the trainer’s rooms, a Bose F1 Model 812 Flexible Array loudspeaker with F1 subwoofer lets users pump their choice of music into the rooms through 3.5-inch jacks on wall panels. These are set up on the floors in a left-right configuration, for maximum effect. In the smaller sports-therapy rooms, Bose FreeSpace DS 16F loudspeakers are complemented by Bose FreeSpace 3 Series I Acoustimass bass modules. Additionally, Bose speakers powered by FreeSpace IZA 190-HZ amplifiers are installed in the common conference room and video playback room, providing clear, intelligible speech and sound as players and coaches discuss their training programs and watch recordings of their work.

Kevin Borg, assistant athletic director, facilities and project management, and an experienced live-sound mixer himself, said getting the best sound for the new facility was important for all the usual reasons but paramount for one very special reason: the venue’s namesake and benefactor, Mo Ostin, the legendary music-business executive who headed both Warner Bros. Records and Dreamworks’ music division, and who Frank Sinatra tapped in 1960 to run his Reprise label. “When you have a building named for someone who understands sound like he does, you need the absolute best sound possible,” said Borg. “He was at the opening ceremony for the building; he heard the sound in those gyms and he remarked on how there was no echo when the music is playing. That’s astounding, since it’s all hardwood and glass. When you clap your hands in here, or when you’re running, you can hear the slap and the echo. But not when the music is playing in the speakers—that’s how perfectly fitted to the spaces the Bose system was able to be tuned. We were able to totally customize the systems for the spaces.”

MacDonald points to the precision pattern-control technology of the RoomMatch system, noting, “We were able to achieve a high degree of articulation in a moderately challenged acoustical environment like this because of that.”

Borg recalls the first time he heard the RoomMatch system in the gym, playing a CD of Norah Jones. “It was as though she was standing ten feet away from you, singing,” he said. “That’s what Bose brought us: music that comes alive. Who wouldn’t want to play in here?”

Bethany Community Church (BCC) Green Lake in Seattle established itself in the early 1900s and now has a weekly attendance of approximately 3,000 people across six physical campuses and one on-line. They moved to the Green Lake location in 1969, and in 2005 after outgrowing the building that had housed the church for 36 years, they began construction on a new state-of-the-art worship space that was completed in 2008.

This year the Green Lake location upgraded its sound system with a NEXO STM line array and Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console for its 600+ seat sanctuary thanks to Morgan Sound of Lynnwood, WA. The campus has an average attendance of around 1,800 at their three main Sunday services.

In summer 2017, Morgan Sound was contacted by Bart Brueck, the church technical director, to begin the process of looking at upgrading the sanctuary audio system at the main Green Lake campus. The contemporary worship service had progressed to the point that it was time to implement a new audio system and mixing infrastructure. Needs for higher SPL, multi-track recording, virtual soundcheck, new in-ear monitoring, and a separate streaming mixing system were urgent priorities.

BCC has a full contemporary worship band that typically includes drums, percussion, bass, electric guitar and acoustic guitars, keyboard/organ, and acoustic piano. Many of the musicians sing and play, but the typical vocal complement includes 3-4 main vocalists. The church also features a 40-member choir.

“Morgan Sound has been the primary BCC contractor for over ten years and has worked hand in hand with the church technical team to provide equipment and expertise for the main campus and the satellite campuses as well,” said Stephen Weeks, senior A/V consultant for Morgan Sound. “All of the locations include Yamaha or NEXO products so that volunteers have a common operating platform across all of the venues. It was natural that Yamaha and NEXO products would be featured prominently in this venue.”

Weeks said that BCC has invested in Yamaha consoles for many of their campuses over the years. “They currently own QL5, CL3, and TF5 consoles, so the CL console was the logical choice to expand the quality/channel count for the main Green Lake location. The church also has two other campuses that utilize NEXO PS Series speakers.”

Weeks also noted that the church staff received a demo of the NEXO STM M28 that was selected due to its compact size and audio quality. “That, coupled with Dante-enabled amplifiers made the design decision an easy one,” said Weeks.

“NEXO’s commitment to making their products work well together is an important factor, but sonic excellence is really the overriding feature of the STM M28 system.”

The NEXO system includes 8 boxes per side of M28s, 7 ID24 speakers used for front fills on the stage stairs, 6 ID24s used as under balcony delays, 3 RS15-P Dual 15" Ray Subs in custom bunkers under the stage, a pair of PS10 speakers in monitor mode for general onstage use, 4 NEXO NXAMP4X4 and 2 NEXO NXAMP4X1 amplifiers, 5 NEXO NXD104MK2 Dante Cards, an Aviom D800D distribution amp, and a Waves Impact Server With 2 WSG-Y16 Cards for 32 Waves inserts.

A Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console and Rio1608-D and 3224-D Stage Boxes were implemented over a new Dante network. Morgan Sound added a Waves impact server along with Yamaha MY cards for 32 channels of Waves plug-ins to extend plug in options. In the broadcast suite, a Waves LV1 server and mixing software was installed to enable a completely separate streaming/broadcast mix to be utilized for the live video stream and audio recording.

“The system sounds warm and full with extraordinary detail and clarity, adds Weeks. “The phase response on the PA is truly fantastic and made system tuning and alignment very straightforward.”

Bart Brueck said that over the last couple years, the church had begun to feel they had outgrown their existing system in terms of fidelity and expandability. “There had been several times where we just simply ran out of headroom; there was nothing left in the system, and yet you could just feel the congregation wanting that little something extra; and it just wasn't there. The NEXO system has just completely blown us away in terms of fidelity and openness. The articulation and evenness throughout the worship space comparatively is night and day. The integration of Waves plug-ins at front of house and with the LV1 system for broadcast coming straight out of Dante, has totally transformed our live stream mix. We couldn't be happier with this installation and can’t imagine making this leap without the incredible team at Morgan Sound under the expert guidance of Stephen Weeks.”

Following events in New York and California, the Martin Audio North American Demo Tour will take the stage at The Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, WI on July 11 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Scheduled demonstrations will feature Wavefront Precision Line Arrays, the new monitor XE and LE wedges, iKON amplifiers, and powered point source CDD-Live.

“The success of the Demo Tour has been very encouraging, especially in terms of Wavefront Precision’s amazing success in the U.S. market," said Martin Audio's VP sales, Lee Stein. "These demos give us an unparalleled opportunity to present our market-leading new solutions so more people can experience them in person and understand how they can be the perfect partners for both rental companies and fixed installations.”

For more information about the Martin Audio North American Demo Tour in Milwaukee, visit https://martin-audio.com/events/us-demo-july-2018-riverside-theater.

David Kendall Audio Visual installed an end-to-end networked audio system by HARMAN Professional Solutions at the Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul.

The Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Wellington. In addition to serving an important role in the Anglican Church, the ornate architecture and acoustics of Wellington Cathedral also make it a popular venue for choral and orchestral concerts.

Management hired David Kendall Audio Visual to upgrade its aging sound system with a complete HARMAN networked sound reinforcement system. David Kendall chose supplier JPRO (formerly JANDS NZ) to partner on the project.

“I knew this was going to be a challenging job—many people have tried over the years,” said David Kendall, integrator. “Thanks to the technology provided by HARMAN solutions, we were able to make big improvements while staying within the church’s budget. I am very proud of what we achieved with the HARMAN system in the cathedral’s challenging acoustic environment.”

The front nave, the Cathedral’s main area, is covered using JBL Intellivox DS280 array speakers, which offer excellent speech intelligibility throughout the coverage area while maintaining a constant sound pressure level up to 110 feet. The Intellivox DS280’s unobtrusive design and active vertical beam shaping helped the JPRO design to achieve seamless integration and optimum performance in the cathedral. To cover the rear nave of the cathedral, Intellivox DC280 speakers that were part of the previous sound system were redeployed, while JBL CBT-50LA and CBT-100LA column speakers were deployed for chancel-, choir- and front-fills. The CBT Series speakers are powered by Crown DCi Series amplifiers.

“The main objective when designing the system was to ensure that the loudspeakers distributed the sound evenly in the desired areas, while minimizing unwanted reflections,” said Nicholas van Dyk, JPRO. “The JBL Intellivox and CBT line array column speakers delivered the coverage and clarity needed to produce properly balanced speech and music reinforcement in the acoustically sensitive cathedral.”

For mixing and audio processing, David Kendall included two BSS Soundweb London BLU-100 audio processors and a Soundcraft Si Impact digital mixing console. The system’s ease of use and intelligent design allows simple operation for everyone at the church, while offering great flexibility for operators.

During liturgy, the microphone levels are controlled with the Soundcraft ViSi iPad app, and can be automatically mixed via a BLU-100 stage box and the Soundweb London automix function. When the venue hosts guest artists and large concerts, a Soundcraft Si Impact digital mixer provides intuitive professional control over the mix.

“We try to update our sound system every 10 years or so,” said Reverend Digby Wilkinson, Dean of Wellington. “I am very happy with the latest upgrade—the sound quality, coverage and control provided by the HARMAN system is a huge improvement and it sounds fantastic! We thank David Kendall and the JPRO team for the expertise and hard work they displayed during the installation.”

“It is a privilege to see our solutions being used in the beautiful Wellington Cathedral,” said Ramesh Jayaramn, vice president and general manager, HARMAN Professional Solutions. “The new HARMAN system ensures that sermons can be preached with clarity, and the beauty of the choral music can be delivered with perfect balance in the cathedral. Thanks to JPRO for their confidence in HARMAN solutions, and for their relationship-driven approach.”

Advanced Audio & Lighting Systems was called in by Oak Pointe Church in Novi, MI to evaluate the space and provide acoustic analysis and treatment that would eliminate room anomalies, a process which would eventually lead them to supplying a new audio design based on a Martin Audio Wavefront Precision Compact line array solution.

Trent Keeling, senior design consultant for Advanced Audio, explained that the sanctuary “had significant acoustic issues and the PA system was lacking intelligibility, pattern control, and musicality.

“Part of the upgrade was to architecturally emulate a high school auditorium, what we affectionately call a ‘praise-a-nasium’. The original stage was low with poor sightlines. The church wanted to bring the stage experience closer to the audience, so they built a 30 x 40-foot circular thrust that comes out into the congregation with 130-degree seating around the stage."

Speaking with Charlie Koopman and Anthony Progar, the Church’s worship leader and technical director, Trent discovered “they needed a multifaceted space because the Church is very involved with the local community––they might put on off-Broadway plays, a dinner theater for 1,500 one night and contemporary praise and worship the next. Typical attendance is between 1,200 and 1,500 per service with the room capacity around 2,000.“

To accommodate this situation and provide uniform coverage, Advanced designed a main stereo-configured left and right line array system from Martin Audio, “that would cover from the downstage lip forward but avoid the near seats and also include everything 180-degree diagonal to the stage, which are treated separately. The stage is actually mobile––it comes out so when they strike it, they seat that area.”

The system consists of six WPC enclosures a side flown just ahead of the thrust lined up with the downstage lip to avoid impacting sightlines for center, left and right video screens and stay out of the way during play productions. Power is provided by five Martin Audio iK42 amplifiers.

“We used 2-box resolution [2 WPC enclosures per channel], with an eye to expanding to single box resolution with the spare iK42 that we have but it sounds so nice we haven’t made any changes,” said Trent. “All of which is why we greatly appreciate the small footprint of the Martin Audio WPC array. Also, the very flexible rigging that allowed us to easily optimize the system to the room without compromising performance.

“There are two hangs of three SX218 subs flown in a center cluster with a cardioid subwoofer pattern for directionality towed out at 45-degree to one another so we can avoid overlap. The PA also includes eight Martin Audio Blackline X8’s for nearfield custom cut in and wired into recessed areas of the rolling stage. There are three XD12’s for outfills and center fills covering the oblique seating at 180-degree for house left and house right behind the line array that also cover the close seating from the front lip when the circular stage is struck. The nearfield, outfills and center fills are powered by a Martin Audio iK81.”

Asked why they chose Martin Audio WPC line arrays, Trent said, “one of the main criteria for the church was fidelity. We didn’t want a traditional crossover point in the high frequencies or a typical compression driver at 1.2 kHz because of the way it sounds to the audience. The church does marathon events and they wanted a system the operators and audience could listen to for two or three hours at a time without ear fatigue.

“We needed control and directivity to avoid coverage where we didn’t need it, which we get from the system’s Hard Avoid capability. The surfaces are brick and steel with a huge reflective wall at the back of the room and the PA system drops coverage a few feet beyond the operator at the back of the house while staying off the ceiling as well.”

The What: EM Acoustics released the HALO Arena large format line array system to the North American market.

The What Else: The HALO-A utilizes a proprietary patent-pending emulation manifold, which combines the energy of four 3.4-inch diaphragm, 1.4-inch exit compressions drivers into a plane-wave array. This assembly gives not only a significant moving area for the high frequency section but also provides twice the headroom of comparable systems.

The HF section is flanked by a pair of high power 3.5-inch voice coil, 12-inch neodymium low frequency transducers. These two drive units combined with optimally-tuned low turbulence porting and generous cabinet volume ensure HALO-A has a low frequency performance to match the highs.

The Bottom Line: The larger HALO-A follows the same core design as the more compact HALO-C providing the EM Acoustics “maximum headroom” design approach that ensures consistency of performance regardless of SPL level. The compact enclosure (14.3/362 x 40.2/1020 x 24.4/619 in/mm) and low weight (145.2/66 lbs/kg) translates into less truck space used and smaller motors required.

At InfoComm, pro-audio exhibitors may talk about their latest gear like proud parents, but sound products are not children—they should be seen and heard! With that in mind, you owe it to yourself to hear all the offerings inside the 23 audio demo rooms here at InfoComm.

Inside N111, Community Professional Loudspeakers is focusing on two things this year—its 50th anniversary and the new IV6 Modular Vertical Array, intended for permanent installation, which can be configured as a line array, a constant curvature or an adaptive array. Next door in N112, Martin Audio is introducing Sound Adventures, a 3D immersive sound experience created in cooperation with its partner Astro Spatial Audio.

[Diving Into InfoComm’s Audio Demo Rooms, Part One]

Meanwhile, in N113, Yamaha and Nexo (pictured) are demonstrating the new Yamaha DZR line of powered speakers and CZR passive speakers, along with the new DXS-XLF powered subwoofers. Also on-hand are Nexo’s NXAMP4x2 MK2 and NXAMP4x1 MK2 amplifier models—new additions to the Nexo range of NXAMP TDcontrollers.

dBTechnologies has plenty to see inside N114—including its newest software, Aurora Net; the U.S. premiere of the Opera Unica; the VIO L208 and S118R line array boxes; the ES 1203 column PA; the Ingenia loudspeaker series; and more. Over in N115, QSC is unveiling its new Premium Business Music Solutions, including multi-zone mixers, wall controllers, configurable multi-channel amplifiers, SUB/SAT loudspeakers and installation and management apps.

Eastern Acoustics Works is ensconced in N116, debuting its new RSX212L line array module and RSX18F subwoofer. The two new RADIUS products are designed for both touring and permanent install applications. Meanwhile, in N117, RCF has a ton of new items to hear, like the HDL 30-A line array, HDL 38-AS flyable subwoofer, additions to its NX Multipurpose line, and more.

Over in N118, D.A.S. Audio is presenting a ton of good stuff, including its LX and UX series subwoofers, while over in N119, d&b audiotechnik has been packing the crowds in with demos of its new d&b soundscape technology, made possible by the DS100 Signal engine.

Not all the demo rooms are on the first floor, however. You’ll miss out if you don’t head upstairs to check out the three on the second level. Earthworks is discussing its conferencing, live sound and measurement microphones in N203/204. Over in N209/210, KV2 Audio is presenting its ESR212 + VHD2.18J; ESR215 + VHD2.18J; SL412 + SL2.15 + VHD2.21; and EX15 + EX2.5 MkII + ES2.6. Last but not least, Clair Brothers can be found inside N211/212, ready to rock your socks off with a room full of loudspeakers, including the new 10Spot Coax Point Source with curved array technology and S2-CX Coax Point Source, both intended for small and mid-sized venues.

The What: MSE Audio, parent company of SoundTube Entertainment, Soundsphere, dARTS, Phase Technology, Induction Dynamics, SolidDrive and Rockustics, announced that it will debut the LA830i, a two-way columnar line array, from SoundTube Entertainment, at InfoComm 2018 booth C1937.

The What Else: The LA830i features eight 3.0” polypropylene subwoofers and eight 1” aluminum dome tweeters. The LA830i is sealed with an MDF enclosure with a plywood rear panel and a powder-coated steel grille. Users can connect simply through a Neutrik SpeakOn input jack.

The Bottom Line: The product is designed for indoor applications, including theaters, entertainment venues, restaurants and bars, and other mid-size indoor venues that require high-quality audio and flexible installation.

d&b audiotechnik will debut its newly launch d&b Custom Solutions at InfoComm 2018 in Booth C982. The introduction of d&b Custom Solutions consolidates the company’s long-term appreciation for individuality and character. According to the d&b, no matter the project size or the rigging challenge, color and weatherization of any d&b system can be matched to even the most challenging interior and outdoor spaces.

Also being show in the booth, the company's largest in over a decade of exhibiting, will be loudspeakers from the xC, Y and xS-Series, representing line array, point source, and column options, together with the installation specific 10D amplifier. Alongside will be the new DS100 Signal engine, and an open V7P. The stadium and arena targeted Yi-SVS array also makes its U.S. exhibition debut.

As always, the d&b Workflow, comprising d&b ArrayCalc, R1, ArrayProcessing, and NoizCalc, is brought to life at the booth’s central workstation. Here, visitors can get hands-on with this toolkit, designed to incorporate every detail of a d&b system, including all new and future d&b technologies.

Away from the stand, the team will be welcoming visitors to Audio Demo Room N119 for two presentations: the d&b Soundscape, and Integration and Interoperability, which will both be running multiple times a day.

Visit http://www.dbaudio.com/en/events/infocomm-2018 for more information and session times.

The Scottrade Center is home to the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League, and much more. Besides ice hockey, the 18,724-seat arena, first opened in 1994, annually hosts a range of nearly 200 events including wrestling matches, boxing bouts, basketball tournaments, concerts, ice shows, family shows, graduations, and more, drawing nearly two million guests.

But like other venues of its vintage, the Scottrade Center’s original sound system was not able to keep up with the demands imposed by a wider range of applications that require comprehensive audience coverage, full-spectrum music reproduction, and excellent speech intelligibility. It now has that capability, thanks to the implementation, last autumn, of an AVB-networked L-Acoustics Kara sound system designed by Dallas-based consultancy Idibri and installed by the local L-Acoustics Certified Provider, Logic Systems Sound and Lighting.

The new Kara system, powered by 33 AVB-equipped LA4X and one LA12X amplified controllers, consists of 90 Kara loudspeakers and 36 SB18i subwoofers, divided into six equal arrays of 15 Kara and six SB18i. In addition, six ARCS II, configured in two clusters of three, are positioned facing straight down for ice coverage and special events.

What’s especially remarkable, according to Idibri, is that this Kara system design provides such comprehensive coverage of the bowl’s seating areas that an option to add under-balcony speakers was abandoned the first day the system was turned on.

“Although L-Acoustics’ K2 was initially specified and provided 6dB more SPL, Kara was eventually chosen because it was able to meet actual SPL requirements for the arena and a tighter budget, allowing funds to cover more aspects of the overall renovation, including updating the AV systems in the locker rooms,” said Ben Cating, senior consultant and project manager for Idibri, which also designed a new center-cluster video scoreboard system for the arena. Amazingly enough, the smaller Kara boxes were still able to provide the high degree of coverage, volume, and intelligibility that the arena project demanded, allowing the budget to be stretched without any compromises.

The Scottrade Center project did have its challenges, but the AV integrator’s expertise combined with the Kara system helped with those as well. “The primary challenge was to place six arrays in very precise locations in a building with asymmetrical steel and a labyrinth of 10-foot-diameter steel air ducts that always seem to be in exactly the wrong place,” said Logic Systems Sound and Lighting president Chip Self.

Kara’s weight-to-power ratio solved that issue. “It was lighter, more powerful, and required substantially less power than the other systems,” Self said. “Since this project included a huge new scoreboard, which weighs much more than the original, the weight savings was very valuable to the building engineers, as it did not necessitate the addition of any new steel.”

In addition to the new sound system, the renovation also included a rebuild of the arena’s ice floor. The installation also faced a tight timeline, between sports seasons and other scheduled events. “Since the timeline was so very tight, we had limited access to the space,” Self said. “Given lead times on equipment and other elements of the construction schedule, we were not able to start our work in earnest until there were less than 60 days to complete the entire project. To compensate for that, we did a great deal of pre-configuration and preassembly offsite. I believe that made a huge difference in getting the project complete on time, and on budget.”

In fact, Cating recalled, all of the Kara loudspeakers were able to be hoisted into place within a single day, allowing the crews to focus on wiring and tuning the system.

“The final performance exceeds the predictions,” Self said. “If anything, I've found that L-Acoustics are conservative with predictions, which can't be said of all loudspeaker manufacturers. The intelligibility and directivity are spot-on, and there is headroom for days. Upon completion, the only change we've been asked to make is the installation of a 10Eazy SPL monitoring system to make sure it doesn't get too loud.”

“Last year’s renovations required a high level of expertise, precision, and commitment, and I can’t imagine working with anyone better then Ben from Idibri, Chip from Logic Systems, and the L-Acoustics team,” said Scottrade Center Group vice president and arena general manager Alex Rodrigo. “This project was our ‘Mount Everest’ and the team not only reached the summit, but did it in such a professional and knowledgeable way that it was an enormous amount of fun. Our fans and guests are now more engaged than ever and truly blown away by the difference that the new sound system has made. This project has dramatically improved Scottrade Center’s sports and entertainment fan experience for years to come.”