SEATTLE — Flamingo Audio Owner Brad Walker comes from a music recording background, and his company still does plenty of that at their Seattle-area facility. But their real bread and butter these days comes from systems installation and live sound.
As Walker said, “the installation work keeps us smart, and the live sound work makes us fast.” And for a company that has to cover as many categories of events as Flamingo Audio — from concerts to corporate, from government to tribal — the EAW NTL720 Self-Powered Line Array Loudspeaker System has been a versatile solution.
Walker first acquired his NTL720 boxes a year-and-a-half ago, and they’ve been in constant use ever since.
“We really like the physical form factor of the NTL720, as well as the way it sounds,” says Walker, who added that the NTL720’s dimensions, mounting possibilities and scalable deployment let it be used in a wide range of situations.
At the Kitsap Arts & Crafts Festival, which attracts over 50,000 people each year, Flamingo Audio used 16 NTL720 boxes, set up eight per side on a stage that hosted music acts ranging from brass bands to rock bands to a flamenco guitarist.
“The system had to cover a music performance area of about 1,000 people and cover all these types of music without sounding hyped,” he said. “The NTL720 performed flawlessly for every genre on that stage.”
For the University of Puget Sound’s last two annual commencement ceremonies, 12 NTL720 boxes per side easily covered an event attended by an estimated 8,000 people, with EAW NT29 Self-Powered Full-Range Loudspeakers used as fills. “The last two years with NTL720s required very minor system EQ during setup, which is a good thing — we never get a soundcheck with the actual people speaking, and hear them for the first time with the rest of the audience.”
Flamingo Audio also used the NTL720 when the Suquamish Tribe hosted the 2009 Tribal Canoe Journey. There, eight NTL720s covered a five-acre gathering area with a single cluster. The NTL720 was also deployed for a U.S. Navy change-of-command ceremonies, where, as Walker joked, “you cannot even think of making a mistake.”
Summing up, Walker called the NTL720 “a great box for so many reasons. I can’t imagine where we can’t use them.”
For more information, please visit www.eaw.com.
