NASHVILLE — On New Year’s Eve, close to 17,000 “Bassheads” converged at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena to usher in 2014 with Bassnectar, the electronic music DJ whose immersive live shows have earned him legions of devoted fans. To ensure an equal experience for all attendees, the 360-degree event featured a rotating stage, as well as the largest Meyer Sound LEO large-scale sound reinforcement system to date.
“The sound was spectacular, and incredibly even for an in-the-round setup,” said Brendan Hoffman, FOH engineer and production manager. “From FOH at one end of the arena up to the stage and the higher seating sections, differences were negligible. It was a gut punch on the floor and a gut punch at the top level.”
Supplied by VER Tour Sound, the system deployed 96 LEO-M’s in four arrays of 14-each for long-end throws, and four of 10-each for the short sides. Four MICA line arrays handled down fill, while eight additional MICA’s were spaced around the stage as front fill. Some 48 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements were flown, augmented on the floor by 12 1100-LFC’s and 20 700-HP subwoofers arranged in cardioid pairs around the circular stage.
The system was aligned and optimized by a Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system with two Galileo 616 AES and 12 Galileo Callisto 616 array processors. VER Tour Sound’s Doug McKinley and Chad Fuller handled system design.
“Obviously the bottom end, with all the 1100-LFCs, was incredibly loud, but it was still clean with tight transients — the crux of this style of music,” said Hoffman. “It was solid down to 28 Hz.” Hoffman mixed on an Avid SC48 console equipped with Waves plug-ins and monitor engineer Jayson Pietri also mixed on an SC48.
