The MSC Poesia shipped out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. recently for ShipRocked, a five-day cruise and rock festival pairing Queensrÿche, Tesla, Ratt, Skid Row and half a dozen other bands with nearly 1,500 fans. Gear from L-Acoustics, supplied by Cincinnati-based Loud & Clear, went along for the ride.
Loud & Clear, chosen by tour/production manager Larry Morand, opted to use L-Acoustics amplifiers and loudspeakers for all three stages on the vessel.
The primary performance venue was the 1,250-seat Carlo Felice Theatre, which was equipped with five L-Acoustics KUDO enclosures positioned over three SB218 subwoofers per side. Two dV-DOSC were deployed as front fills, while two eight-inch coaxials were used for balcony fill.
On stage, a dozen 115XT HiQ wedges served as monitors, with an ARCS and SB28 per side for sidefill and LF fill. Monitors were driven by 10 LA8 amplified controllers and main/fill enclosures were powered by other LA Series systems.
A second stage near the outdoor pool on the Foscolo Deck featured six dV-DOSC stacked on four SB218 per side complemented by six 115XT HiQ stage wedges.
The Pigalle Lounge, a third venue in the lower aft of the ship, featured a smaller system consisting of three dV-DOSC stacked on two dV-SUB per side, a single dV-DOSC per side for fill, and six more 115XT HiQ monitors on stage.
Power for both of these smaller stages came from a combination of LA8 and other LA models.
"KUDO's adjustable vanes were very instrumental in eliminating some potential audio challenges in the main theater," said Loud & Clear's Matt Fish, who served as the FOH tech for the Carlo Felice Theatre. "Using SoundVision, we were able to appropriately tailor the dispersion patterns and keep as much of the sound off of the theatre's side walls and push it to where it needed to be."
"We used a really wide variety of L-Acoustics boxes on this cruise – from our KUDO enclosures all the way down to our smallest coaxials – and everything performed perfectly," added Loud & Clear president Bill Deavers. "There was plenty of horsepower and volume to satisfy the bands, engineers and fans, and the sound quality and coverage was never anything less than exceptional, which is exactly what we've come to expect from L-Acoustics."
Loud & Clear's Norm Stout and Chuck Smith served as the FOH techs for the Foscolo and Pigalle stages, with Steve Lagemann on-hand as L&C's supervisor and Nate Schneider as the production manager.
The ship left Fort Lauderdale for stops in Jamaica and Grand Cayman.
