MIAMI – The Calle Ocho Festival takes place with six stages stretching along nearly a mile of Southwest 8th street in Miami. Drummer Boy Sound Productions provided Martin Audio gear for the Power 96 Radio stage, and Harold Cummings, founder and CEO, worked with Martin Audio North American sales director Rob Hofkamp to determine how many of the soundco's recently-acquired Martin Audio W8LM line array boxes would be needed.
With well over 10,000 people packing the intersection of 8th Street and 17th Avenue, "it was incredibly crowded," Cummings said. And although he had been skeptical when Hofkamp said 18 of the compact W8LM boxes would be all that Drummer Boy needed, as it turned out, "we couldn't even rig all nine boxes per side because the roof system wasn't tall enough, but it was still more than enough sound."
More than enough, in fact. "Our stage was rockin,' between the incredible amount of sound we were getting from the Martin Audio system and the 9-by-12 LED screen set up by the side of the stage," Cummings noted.
Drummer Boy Sound Productions was in charge of all audio for the stage, and in addition to the W8LMs, the soundco provided Martin Audio WS218X subs and H3s for side fills with additional subs and total of 10 LE1200 stage monitors.
"We used Martin Audio 2.8 and 4.2 amplifiers as well," and mixing consoles included a Midas Verona 48-channel for FOH and an Allen & Heath iLive digital board for monitors," Cummings said.
"We had to cover the intersection at 17th Avenue, so we set up a stage 120 feet into the avenue facing toward 8th St. so the people walking up and down the street could stop and come into our block or continue down to another stage," Cummings added.
Drummer Boy Sound Productions worked with Image Pro Sound, which served as production manager for Rush Sounds, the main production coordinator for the radio station.
Summing up, Cummings credited the gear for sound quality that was, as he put it, "A-ma-zing. The performers were happy too because anytime they asked us for more, we were able to give it to them," he added. "We have a couple of shots of Flo-Rida standing on the subs in front of the whole line arrays rapping with no feedback. Amazing!"
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