QUEBEC, Canada – Taking full advantage of their short but warm summers, Canadians turn each year to a number of outdoor music festivals. Among those supported by Sennheiser Canada and K-array gear: Amnesia Rockfest, formerly known as D-tox; and the Osheaga festival.
More details from K-array (http://www.k-array.com/en/):
“Two big systems for two big live music festivals of over 7.000 m2 open-air space, managed by the highly experienced staff of four rental companies: Tour Tech East, ADA, Klar AV, Ranger Son Eclairage “ stated Vaino Gennaro, Business Director Live Sound Products of Sennheiser Canada. The success of the events could not have been reached without the technical know-how of Pierre Tougas, Patrick Marleau and Daniel Brodeur – their involvement was fundamental to the smooth running of the operational activities.
The Amnesia Rockfest in Montebello has been growing exponentially since its first edition, seven years ago. Now, with a long list of big-name performers, including Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, the outstanding alternative metal band Deftones, and 150 other bands strewn over five stages it was no wonder that the festival attracted 30,000 punk and metal fans.
“Similar to last year’s PA, we used 6 x KH4 line-array elements and 10 x KS4 self-powered dipole subwoofers flown on each side. 1KS+1KH were added per side and stacked on the stage deck for outward coverage. For subs we added to the 2012 set up using an additional 4 x KO70 sub bass elements for a total of 12 on the floor level. We stacked them in 3 for a total of 4 stacks, separated from one another for a better outward steering possibility and coverage. For the front fills we used 4 stacks of 2 x KH15 alongside the stacked sub arrays.” Pierre related.
“The public area was almost twice as big as the previous year, so the extra speakers were an important addition, in north America, this type of set-up with these devices is unique. Everybody was pleased with the system, in particular the stacked KO70. Sennheiser Canada supplied the system as well as the Inovason/eclipse digital console surface and stage rack. I was happy to work with the Sennheiser crew again as well as M.Monk McClements as FOH console operator” Pierre stated.
“It was incredible to hear Marilyn Manson on the K-array system and hear the power of the Italian brand in such a large live event such as Amnesia” Vaino commented. “Not all the acts new K-array speakers, but once they tested them out during the sound checks everyone was really enthusiastic about the system and thanked us.”
This year we tried a different approach for Osheaga. Osheaga is a unique and eclectic music and arts festival staged in the environs of Montreal’s Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène. The festival was inaugurated in 2006 with the intention of offering a world-class European-style festival to Canadians and to showcase Montreal’s acclaimed local talent alongside some of the industry’s biggest names. Sennheiser powered its Green stage with K-Array’s PA system: 12 x KH4 speaker systems, 12 x KS4 subwoofers, 12 x KO70 sub bass, 5 x KH15, 4 x KS+KH line, plus 2 huge towers of 6 x KH4 and KS4, delivering an awesome clean and true sound heard from a distance!
“As in Montebello, the public area doubled in size, the farthest customer being at 365 feet from the stage” Pierre commented so we fought hard with the local production to implement delay towers, which we did. We had fantastic results with near to even coverage of the public area and fantastic Club like bass pressure levels up to the farthest points. This is probably the best result so far as I know, for this system” Pierre raved.
