FRISCO, TX — Gemini Light Sound & Video provided production gear for the annual EdgeFest one-day rock festival at 30,000-capacity FC Dallas Stadium here in late April, using Powersoft K2 and K3 amplifiers to power the main stage PA system. It was the sound and lighting company’s fifth year of supporting the event.
More details from Powersoft (www.powersoft-audio.com):
This year’s lineup included The Black Keys, Garbage, Cake, Cage the Elephant, Arctic Monkeys, Neon Trees, Civil Twilight, Switchfoot and Aranda.
The main stage speaker rig this year comprised a total of 52 EAW KF740 modules, with 18 flown per side in the main system plus eight per side for the extreme side hangs. Additional KF730 boxes provided front fill. Forty EAW 40 SB1000z subwoofers, ground stacked 20 per side, handled the low end. “We used the Powersoft K2s and K3s on the tops, and we used the K3s on the SB1000s,” reports Chad Cain, system tech at Gemini. EAW UX8800 DSP units provided drive processing, adds Cain.
Gemini switched over to Powersoft during the past two years, according to Cain, who notes that the K2 and K3 amplifiers offer a number of advantages over the amps that the company was previously using. “One reason we went to Powersoft amps was the light weight and the size of them,” he says. “We can get a lot more power out of a lot more usable space, so our racks are smaller and lighter.”
Cain elaborates, “We went from using an amplifier that weighs 80 pounds, with four of them running eight boxes, to six Powersoft amps, weighing 26 pounds each, running 12 boxes. That has significantly cut down the weight of the racks.” The K2 and K3 amplifiers, at just 1RU in height, also take up less rack space than the previous models. For a company such as Gemini those weight and space savings can translate to real savings in transportation and fuel costs, and even in crewing.
At EdgeFest, the entire P.A. system tends to be working flat-out all day in the blazing Texas sun, and for that reason Cain is pleased that Gemini has standardized on Powersoft and EAW. “That those amps and those speakers can be beat down that hard for that long and come out without any failures, that’s a good deal,” he comments. “That’s what you look for, and that’s exactly what we got out of these amps and boxes.”
EdgeFest is promoted by Dallas-Fort Worth area radio station 102.1 FM the Edge (KDGE). This year’s festival was the twenty-second event in a series that began in 1992.
