SACRAMENTO, CA – KNCI 105.1 FM's annual one-day Country in the Park music festival drew 11,000 to hear Dierks Bentley, Jack Ingram and others in a four-block-long area between the state capitol and the Sacramento River.
Sacramento Production Services provided sound, with Keith Wackford at FOH, Dwaine Wise on monitors and Rick Stansby as system tech.
To get the proper coverage for the narrow but deep concert area, SACPS used 32 Martin Audio W8LC line array enclosures with14 Martin W8LS subwoofers, eight WLX subwoofers, Martin LE1500 floor monitors and W8C and S218s for sidefills.
Other gear included Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q, PLM 14000, QSC PL380 and PL236 amplifiers; Yamaha PM5D and M7CL mixers, and Shure R series wireless microphones.
Sacramento Production Services chose Martin Audio, Wackford said, because it was "what the client wanted and needed. The trim height was a major factor. The uneven ground on which the roof structure was placed made getting as many speakers in as we could with what little trim height would be left very close.
"In the initial planning phase with the stage/roof company, we were going with 12 W8LCs per side, which would land the PA just over the top of the sound wings," Wackford noted.
"But things always change, so we ended up being able to squeeze in 10 boxes per side. After looking at SPL coverage using Martin Audio's display program to confirm that we would be fine with volume and coverage, we made last-minute angle changes to the hangs and went with 10 boxes per side.
"For sub placement, we went with ground stacks of 4-by-3-by-3-by-4 of Martin W8LS dual 18" subwoofers," Wackford added. "Our system tech Rick Stansby and company president Steve Palmer were both amazed at how much low end was available from the Martin W8LS subwoofers. We could have turned off half the 14 subs and still had sufficient low-end to handle the needs of the artists."
Wackford also credited the W8LC speakers for being "extremely smooth sounding, easy to rig" and compact enough to be "truck friendly.
"It's a very versatile speaker," he added. "From four boxes hung on a tower doing smooth Jazz in a court yard to 16 deep per side doing Reggae in 10,000 capacity outdoor shed, the system just works great. And as with the rest of our Martin W series speakers, the W8LC's require very little EQ right out of the gate."
For more information, please visit www.martin-audio.com .
