Supporting her new Hollywood Records album When the Sun Goes Down, Selena Gomez is playing two-dozen North American concerts through September. Javier Alcaraz from Delicate Productions' South San Francisco office, now in its second year, is providing a brand new Martin Audio Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) system that is proving valuable for taming the outdoor venues on their itinerary. The main arrays each consist of 11 Martin MLA enclosures with a twelfth MLD down-fill cabinet below. A dozen Martin MLX dual 18-inch Hybrid horn/reflex sub-bass cabinets are split beneath the two arrays, and Martin WT2 single-12 two-way enclosures are used for front fill. MLA is self-powered, with individual or "cellular" processing of drivers, allowing precise, complex settings derived from Martin's Display 2.0 modeling software.
Rather than only relying on physical array curvature and zone processing, MLA uses a modest bend and networked, component-level DSP to create a uniform response throughout a defined listening area. Martin's Display software helps the system engineer trade off three priorities: smoothness of frequency response, evenness of coverage, and leakage out of the listening area, in this case helping prevent lobes reflecting off the venue's roof.
The St. Augustine Amphitheater seats 3,900 making it ideal for B-level acts. About 2,900 sit under a double-peaked European fiberglass tensile canopy – with the mix position halfway up the bowl, just below the cross-aisle – and another 1,000 sit higher up in a dozen rows of bleachers beyond the canopy's edge.
Like all such venues, the tent canopy can wreak havoc with the sound. "The software recommended nine degrees of up-tilt, which would have required a second point," System Engineer Brennan Houser explained. "Instead I was able to use an alternate option of 3.5 degrees and let the system processing take care of the up-tilt" since it can be steered upwards an extra 5 degrees. "I was able to set a ‘hard avoid' for the overhead region from the edge of the tent back," he added. The usual midrange resonance this structure usually produces is eliminated.
FOH engineer Jason Moore mixes FOH on an Avid Profile. A pair of Meyer UPM-1P ultra-compact loudspeakers fit neatly onto the Profile's doghouse to serve as near-field monitors, allowing Moore to work without having to resort to headphones. Nestled below the Profile's FOH Rack is an APC UPS backing up the amphitheater's electrical supply, which takes a momentary dump just before dinner.
Outboard equipment consists of a pair of Avalon Designs 737t opto-compressors inserted to the main and spare vocal channels. Two Dolby Lake Processors tailor the system under the control of an HP tablet. Houser demonstrated how he uses a Mesa filter to suppress the system's response above it's 3.9 kHz crossover point because it's so powerful. Similarly, he uses a
An APB Dynasonics 4M4S line mixer feeds auxiliary sources – including youth-oriented entr'acte karaoke – directly to the PA through the DLPs, allowing the Profile to be reloaded for each act. A 1RU rack-mount PC runs Smaart for.
Moore, who originally wanted another European of speaker, commented that the stereo field is wider, especially helpful in sheds where you don't always get a center mix position, and that the system performs well in the wind and doesn't phase when it gusts.
Martin LE1200 single-12 floor monitors and IEMs are mixed by Alcaraz on another Avid Profile desk, assisted by A2 Jason Brandt.
