ENGLEWOOD, CO — For more than 20 years, Equalized Productions has designed and installed customized AV solutions for applications ranging from residential home theaters to commercial AV systems to event production. A few years ago, the Denver-area company was exploring new digital consoles, so Signal Marketing’s Don Heisler introduced the Equalized Productions team to PreSonus. “We immediately liked PreSonus’ StudioLive Series III consoles, and we took a closer look at PreSonus loudspeakers as well,” recalls Equalized Productions president Dave Kistler. “I went down to PreSonus’ facility in Baton Rouge, listened to a lot of speakers, and had a good time. We went with PreSonus ULT loudspeakers for our onstage monitors.”
A later shootout with a coaxial monitor system confirmed Kistler’s assessment of the ULTs’ sound quality. “Admittedly the design is a different type, so it’s not apples-to-apples, but the difference in sound was incredible,” he declares. “The PreSonus ULTs did laps around the coaxial system. The frequency spectrum was better overall, there was a lot more low-end response, and the high end seemed crisper. Plus the ULTs could get a lot louder.”
The ULT’s versatility proved a major selling point. “Most monitor speakers are just wedge monitors; that’s all you can use them for,” Kistler details. “But with PreSonus ULTs, we can rotate the horn to set them up as monitors and then rotate the horn back to use them as standup point-source PAs for smaller events. That’s especially good for us because we’re trying to maximize the use of our gear. We got some ULT12s, then ULT15s and three ULT18 subs. We can use them as wedges, as side fills for the stage, and as mains, and we can peel off units into multiple small PA rentals.”
Kistler’s faith in PreSonus ULT loudspeakers was unexpectedly reinforced at a small festival. “Burlington Fest has a standard 16×24 small-festival stage, and the original PA system had a competing brand’s 15-inch powered loudspeakers,” he relates. “But after sound check, those speakers blew. Fortunately, we had ULT15s with us, so a partner we work with at the festival asked us to bring them onstage. The sound engineer sound-checked again with the ULT15s and mixed the show. Afterward, he came back to us and told us there was a remarkable difference between the ULT15s and the competing system; he liked the ULT15s much better. It was great to hear that.”
Equalized Productions next proceeded to buy PreSonus CDL loudspeakers. “With the CDL line array system, it was incredible to see how wide the dispersion could be,” Kistler enthuses. “That’s what really caught our attention. We are actively looking for places we can install the CDL line array system because of how wide that dispersion goes.”
When Kistler checked out PreSonus’ CDL constant-directivity loudspeaker arrays, wide horizontal dispersion proved one of several impressive benefits. “The CDL12s have an amazing symmetrical 120 degrees dispersion, and they’re very powerful for their size,” he begins. “We were impressed with the quality of the audio as well as the dispersion. We also like the ability to control the CDLs with Worx Control software. So we got a set of CDLs to do speaker demos, and we introduced them to Saint Timothy church in Centennial, Colorado, where we’re currently installing a system. We’ll fly a CDL array from the ceiling there and will also have a CDL delay stack.”
For most applications, Equalized Productions’ crew pole-mounts a PreSonus CDL12 atop a CDL18s subwoofer. Thanks to the CDL’s design, the crew was able to place the arrays in an unusual location for a client in Broomfield, CO. “We handle production services for a facility at Anthem Ranch that does events once a month in a ballroom that is 40 feet from front to back and 160 feet wide,” Kistler recounts. “The stage is set up on the long wall, and the seating is very intimate. They didn’t want speakers out in front of the stage, and although they didn’t have a very substantial budget, they wanted really good high-fidelity audio. It was perfect for the CDLs. We placed a pole mounted CDL12 and CDL18s on each side but we parked them unconventionally at the back wall, so they’re behind the stage and the performers. The system filled the room up really nicely, and people along the sides were able to hear very well. We used the exact same setup for their little outdoor amphitheater, where it filled up an area about 250 feet by 300 feet. It’s a great small system.”
Typically, the company’s engineers rely on PreSonus StudioLive 32 Series III digital consoles for small-festival mixing. “We frequently have an all-PreSonus system with CDLs for mains, ULTs for monitors, and the StudioLive 32 console,” reveals Kistler. “We chose the StudioLive 32 primarily because of its flexibility with the AVB-networked stage boxes. It’s also one of the few small digital consoles where we can have all of the input faders parked along one bank, so we don’t have to jump between layers, which is annoying. We mostly rely on the mixing surface but we also use UC Surface on Windows 7 and Windows 10 laptops and on an iPad so we can walk around, check our mixes, and fix them on the spot. Sometimes we multitrack record gigs to the StudioLive 32’s SD card and to USB, and we should do that more often. You can install additional Fat Channel plug-ins with the StudioLive 32 but the standard effects and Fat Channel EQ, compression, and gating have worked out perfectly for us.”
For more info, visit www.presonus.com
