EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada – Sound Art provided an Electro-Voice sound reinforcement system for the Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMA), which were presented before 8,000 at the Rexall Place hockey arena and broadcast on CBC.
The EV gear met the challenges of the event, which included the need to minimize the interference between the lighting and audio rigs.
"Between the stage and the audience, there was a lot of lighting, which meant a lot of hanging truss ending right about where the PA needed to go," said Sound Art technical projects manager Iain Graham. "So there were issues of where I could fly the line arrays, and how big a rig I could fly. There were issues of trim height as well, because you can't block the lighting rig."
Graham designed the system in Electro-Voice's Line Array Prediction Software (LAPS) and directed on-site setup. The FOH engineer was Toronto-based freelancer Peter Stoynich. Gerald Sawchuk handled the mix on the EV Xw12 stage monitors, while Chase Tower and Dave Coe dealt with RF and patch, respectively. Mike Noga rounded out the Sound Art crew.
To keep the sightlines as clear as possible without compromising on sound, Graham used left/right main arrays that were each made up of 12 XLC127DVX three-way, high-output loudspeakers.
"The XLCs give us good sound in a small package, and that was a big help," he said. "And the array was quite forgiving when we flew it high to clear the lights. The XLCs are so consistent and intelligible that you don't lose much by having the array a little farther away. So we were able to get them up out of the way and they still performed very effectively."
Graham also credited EV's rigging system with helping to work around the placement issues. "The rigging design makes it easy to angle the box and also allows you to get more down-angle than you can get from a lot of other boxes," he said. "Once we had points and our looms laid out on the cable truss, arraying the boxes was simple and fast. Over 90 points total were being flown that day, so being able to fly the arrays quickly kept our client very happy."
For side fill, each XLC array was flanked with a 12-box array of XLD281 loudspeakers. "The XLDs integrate really well with the XLCs despite being smaller," Graham said. "That makes them perfect for a side hang in situations like this one, where sight lines and lighting truss cannot be blocked."
An additional four XLDs were positioned as single boxes across the downstage edge, and two stacked pairs were used for offstage ground fill. "They're small and they sound great even as single boxes," Graham noted, "so they're perfect for fill in situations where it's impossible to use the optimum positioning. The boxes were below the downstage lip, but I was able to get the coverage I needed without overpowering the first row of seating."
For low end, Graham used 20 Xsub dual 18-inch subwoofers. Two per side were used for ground fill, with the remaining 16 flown in a center cluster. "I did the subs in the center because real estate in the downstage corners was in short supply," he said, calling the Xsubs "solid and smooth."
The system was controlled and monitored via Electro-Voice's NetMax N8000-1500 digital matrix controller and powered by a combination of Precision Series and Tour Grade amplifiers.
"I used NetMax to send the basic feed from the console to the various zones of the PA," Graham said, "and also as the crossover for the main arrays. That allowed me to use FIR filtering with the Precision Series amplifiers. Being able to process the PA as a whole system before the signal moves on to the remote DSP for zone control is a valuable feature. I can quickly and easily adapt the system to the room and then fine-tune each zone of the PA as I go, all within the same processing environment."
The Precision Series amps, used for the main arrays and subs, included 10 standard P3000s and 28 P3000RLs with on-board DSP. The P3000RLs provided zone trim, EQ, and monitoring. Pairing each standard P3000 with a P3000RL, Graham was able to ensure consistent sound by feeding the input of the P3000 with processed audio from the DSP out of the P3000RL.
The XLD zones, meanwhile, were powered by TG-5 amplifiers featuring RCM-26 IRIS-Net compatible DSP and control modules. "The DSP power in the RCM 26 cards is amazing," Graham said. "Having the horsepower required for FIR filtering in each amp channel makes the system extremely flexible and easy to manage. Plus you also have zone EQ, time, level, et cetera, and you are able to see the load and temperature of every amp channel. It's unbeatable."
Stoynich, who's now mixed a number of comparable events on similarly configured Electro-Voice PAs supplied by Sound Art, also had good things to say about the sound quality of the EV rig.
"I really like the clarity of this system," he said. "It sounds very natural without overemphasizing anything. We've had a great response from the audience and performers alike at several awards shows like this. Sound Art and EV have always come through with fantastic results."
For more information, please visit www.electro-voice.com.
