ATLANTA — Freedom Concerts 2009 raised scholarship funds this summer for the children of fallen or permanently disabled U.S. soldiers. Allstar Audio Systems Inc., led by president Mike Borne, provided sound, using a system from D.A.S. Audio. “These concerts were both indoor and outdoor ‘shed-type’ events and we averaged between 8,500 and 12,000 people for each concert,” said Borne, of the multi-city tour featuring music from Lee Greenwood, the Charlie Daniels Band, Billy Ray Cyrus and Christian artist Michael W. Smith and appearances by Jon Voight, Rich Little, former Miss America Carrie Prejean, Oliver North and author Mark Levin.
“Since this tour was for the non-profit organization Freedom Alliance, we were very concerned about controlling expenses,” Borne added. “For this reason, all production was kept within two 53-foot semis. Lighting and trussing travelled in one truck, while video (including a large 12-ft. by 16-ft. LED video wall) and the entire sound package travelled in the second truck.”
The sound system included 32 D.A.S. Audio Aero 38A self-powered, 3-way line arrays — flown sixteen elements per side in a left-right configuration—along with twelve Aero CA-28A self-powered, 2-way, mid-high line array modules for front fill and side coverage. Sixteen powered D.A.S. Audio Compact 218 Sub 2K subwoofers provided low frequency support.
“When the semi backed into our shop, we had about half of the truck available to us for this massive D.A.S. sound system,” said Borne, “so truck pack had to be extremely efficient. We designed the pack so all of the subs remained on the floor, and we laid plywood on top of them. We then filled that area with the Aero 38A line array cabinets and the other D.A.S. enclosures. It made for a tight but efficient usage of space.
“The compactness of the loudspeaker system, including the captive rigging, onboard signal processing, and amplification made this PA the perfect choice for the job,” Borne added. “No other system would have packed into the limited amount of truck space and delivered the punch that it did. D.A.S. quality is hard to beat.”
The tour included stops in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix, Jackson, N.J., San Diego, Cincinnati, Las Vegas and Atlanta.
“At each of the venues, we took measurements of the seating areas, as well as angles and elevations,” Borne said. “We entered these measurements in our Ease Focus software to develop custom hang configurations for our Aero 38 rig at each location. Due to the large arenas, we found the optimum rigging height to be approximately 40 to 45 feet to the fly bar. This allowed us to point most of the cabinets in a down firing configuration and adequately reach the seating at the farthest distances.”
In addition to long throw and broad, even horizontal dispersion that made for a very present music reproduction system throughout the various tour stops, Borne was equally complimentary of the D.A.S. system’s speech intelligibility characteristics.
“This is where the D.A.S. Audio system excels and separates itself from others,” said Borne. “Not only did the D.A.S. system work well for the musical portions of this tour, it also provided extremely clear sound for the talking portions. You could understand every spoken word emanating from the stage, even when the guest speaker had the microphone a foot away from his or her mouth. And when the music started, you’d better hang on to your seat!”
With the Sean Hannity Freedom Concerts tour behind him, Borne summed up the experience. “We received numerous compliments on the sound during the tour, including positive reports from some key engineers, including Bob Workman with the Charlie Daniels Band and John Griffiths, who mixes for Billy Ray Cyrus.
“To a certain degree, I’ve been like a kid in a candy store setting up and tuning this sound system,” Borne added. “The ease of setup and the fidelity of this large system gave me goose bumps when I turned it on for the first time each day. This has to be one of the best sound systems I’ve ever had the pleasure of mixing on, let alone owning!”
For additional information, please visit www.allstaraudio.com and www.dasaudio.com.
