MELBOURNE, Australia – Consistent audio coverage was a priority at Equitana, not just for the 50,000 human visitors to the three-day event held at the Melbourne Showgrounds, but for four-legged listeners as well.
"You had to deliver so that the audience could hear but there were no uneven sounds – you couldn't have a horse come ‘round the corner and freak out as it was too loud," said Dave Rees, managing director of Deluxe Audio, which provided the JBL VerTec PA system used at the Grand Pavilion, a large tensile fabric membrane structure.
"We had to do everything from musical acts through to demonstrations with people sitting on horses with belt packs," Rees noted, of the event that included Olympic gold medalists, well-known educators, Aussie cowboys, an equine competition program and over 350 exhibitors of horse-related products.
Hanging a PA system in the fabric-topped venue proved to be tricky, as the only hanging points are from the main king poles which are on hinges and actually move around under the billowing roof.
"The PA swaying around certainly doesn't help," Rees said. "It's a demanding space to work in. We decided to hang our JBL VerTec 4888 PA at one end whilst trying out the new VerTec 4886 at the other end.
"We were interested to see if the VerTec 4886 were ‘voiced' the same as the main PA," Rees continued. "Often you'll find that even if two PAs from the same manufacturer are time-aligned, they can sound radically different and will never sit in together. However, when we fired up the VerTec 4888 and VerTec 4886 together, they were instantly seamless. Obviously someone has thought about it and done the job properly.
"We were also quite surprised by the amount of noise the VerTec 4886 could make," Rees added. "It sounded very good despite being in a huge space and did a fantastic job with great coverage."
For more information, please visit www.jands.com.au.
