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EV XLD AND XLC COMBINATION ARRAYS IMPRESS AT THE GORGE
AMPHITHEATRE, WASHINGTON STATE
As outdoor concert venues go, the
Gorge Amphitheatre
(near George in central Washington state) is among the most
spectacular in the United States. As a House of Blues concert venue, the
Gorge hosts shows by some of the biggest names in music, and relies upon
the sound reinforcement services of
Ford Audio Service to make sure things sound as impressive as the
surrounding scenery looks. In keeping with House of Blues’ preference for
EV sound at their venues around the U.S., Ford’s EV XLC rig is the house
delay rig for shows at the Gorge. At a recent triple-header featuring 80s
rock superstars Styx, REO Speedwagon and Foreigner, Ford's XLC rig was
combined with additional XLC and XLD boxes rented from friends
Horne Audio, of Portland, Oregon,
for use as the main PA. For this show, Ford tried an experimental
configuration that incorporated four XLD281 boxes (from EV’s new X-Line
Very Compact line) at the bottom of each 12-box XLC line array. Gary Ford
explained:
“The XLD boxes and grids came from fellow XLC users Horne Audio (Portland,
Oregon). We called Peter Horne to rent 16 more XLC boxes to use as the
main PA for the Styx/REO/Foreigner show, and he suggested we pull a couple
of the XLCs out of each main array and try four XLDs in their place. The
idea was to use the XLDs as near-field fills with a little more down angle
-- and more drivers in the same amount of space -- to help maintain a more
even frequency response throughout the entire array. Horne Audio have
successfully beta tested this configuration throughout the summer, and we
were eager to give it a try -- we even invited EV Director of Special
Projects Monte Wise along to check it out and offer his expert opinion on
the rig’s performance. Like us, he was impressed. Also on hand was Systems
Technician David Caldwell from Horne Audio, who did a great job tweaking
the rig.”
Ford continued: “The top of the hill that encloses the amphitheatre is
nearly 500-feet away. The delays pick up at 255-feet, carrying from 120Hz
on up. Using the XLDs was really an advantage because it freed up 8 of the
12 XLCs per side to throw long range. The other four XLC boxes in each
array could therefore be used to cover the midfield more effectively. This
is a broad, asymmetrical venue, and, in addition to the house delays, we
usually fly side arrays of five XLCs to cover the audience areas adjacent
to the stage. Most of the tours that come to the Gorge need these side
hangs to augment their touring rig. For this show, the wide dispersion of
the XLC and XLD combination made a stage right side array unnecessary.
There was no sacrifice in SPL, coverage or intelligibility, and the whole
PA -- 32 subs and 38 mid/high boxes, consoles and monitor rig – packed
into the back of two 24-foot rental trucks. This really was a case of
‘less is more’, and we look forward to working with this configuration
again.”
from
electrovoice.com
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