BOSTON – To commemorate 150 years since its charter was signed, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) staged its Next Century Convocation at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The event organizers called upon Northeast Media (Woburn, MA), which used a Harman JBL VerTec line array system for audio support.
More than 10,000 MIT professors, administration, students, alumni and various VIPs attended the event, which featured 300 performers on stage, including the MIT Choir, Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band. There were 170 input channels of musical entertainment and public address.
Wayne Strauss, Northeast Media's owner and president, used the Harman gear to fill the 250-foot-wide stage surrounded by hard, concrete surfaces within a convention hall that measured 300 feet left to right and 600 feet from the stage to the rear. With four days to load in, set up, tune and operate the system, it was one of Strauss' most complex event efforts to date.
"We literally had to transform a concrete box into a concert hall for music and speech," Strauss noted. To provide clear, intelligible sound for all seated areas, Strauss opted for a distributed-array system design using multiple delayed loudspeaker clusters.
The setup included 72 JBL VerTec VT4888 midsize line array elements, 24 JBL VRX932 Constant Curvature loudspeakers and 16 JBL SRX712M stage monitors, arranged in three rows – four clusters in front, four for the first set of delays and three for the second set of delays. The loudspeakers were driven by four dbx Driverack 4800 loudspeaker management systems and powered with 54 Crown I-Tech amplifiers. Harman's HiQnet System Architect software was used for remote control and monitoring.
With the assistance of Steve Colby and Howard Rose, who regularly spend their time mixing the Boston Pops orchestra, three FOH engineers managed the large number of input channels across three digital consoles. Every musical group in the MIT community performed, and all were located on stage at the same time.
"We couldn't just let the first group play, unplug the multi-pin connectors and have the next group come on stage," Strauss noted. "All musicians needed to be wired at once.
"At some points in the show, we were even connecting the entire ensemble as they performed together for a massive number," Strauss continued. "It was a monster!" More than 40 wireless mics and transmission systems were switched on and off to coincide with each group performing at the time.
"We were honored to be selected to provide audio services to MIT in this challenging environment, and the system sounded phenomenal," Strauss said. "The JBL VerTec worked seamlessly together with other Harman brands, and this really gave us the tools we needed to complete this event with fantastic results." Strauss also credited regional Harman representative Hanoud Associates for its support.
For more information, please visit www.harman.com.
