Sophisticated Control Tames the Old West Sound
In 1920, Walter and Cordelia Knott moved to the then-sleepy southern California community of Buena Park to farm 20 acres of rented land. They eventually founded a fried chicken restaurant, which by 1940 was serving as many as 4,000 meals a day and is now the world’s largest chicken dinner restaurant.
To offer waiting customers something to do and to pay homage to the pioneering spirit of his grandparents, Walter developed Ghost Town, eventually the first of Knott’s Berry Farm’s six themed areas. Today, that land is part of 160-acre Knott’s Berry Farm, America’s first theme park and the 12th most-visited amusement park in the country.
Built in 1951, the park’s Calico Saloon is an entertainment venue that recreates the elements of old west saloons, including live music, can-can dancers and variety acts. As part of the Ghost Town’s 75th anniversary, KBF added new interactive entertainment experiences and completely restored the Calico Saloon.
As the park’s creative designer specializing in audio, Lawrence McCoy handles all aspects of entertainment production from conception to overseeing installation. One of his biggest obstacles is the amount of time that is necessary to successfully do his job. Tasked with the need for audio installations serving customers drawn to an amusement ride, a retail store, a live performance venue or at any other location in the theme park, McCoy faces a broad array of interesting challenges. And because the facilities are open to the public 364 days per year, every minute counts. Once the products are in place, the operations management staff takes over to ensure that they are ready to welcome the public.
Working His Way Up
McCoy’s involvement with production began in his high school’s fine arts department, a program with lots of students but few techs. He jumped in and enjoyed the process. To further his goal toward becoming an entertainment industry pro, McCoy received his certification in studio recording, and working on live shows offered experience in professional audio before migrating into production design. His 23-year tenure at Knott’s began with a position in entertainment tech as a show operator. He worked his way up, and the company created his current position, as they needed an expert who understood the industry’s ever-changing tech requirements. As things migrate to IP-based and digital realm learning curves, McCoy continues to proactively self-educate and adapt with the industry.
“We research and purchase the equipment that is the most appropriate for each unique and individual job,” states McCoy. “Yamaha has a great reputation and strong, longstanding relationship with Knott’s Berry Farm,” he adds, crediting the company’s desks as “some of the most innovative mixing consoles ever made.” He also credited the company’s products as rugged, easy to use due to their intuitive features and price-competitive. “We choose them because our number one priority is quality of sound, and Yamaha always delivers.”
The Calico Solution
McCoy notes that Yamaha’s TF-1 digital mixing console has a record of success at Knott’s Berry Farm, and he chose the console once again for the “fully refurbished, historic Calico Saloon in Ghost Town. The TF-1 was the perfect choice” for that project. The TF-1 is designed to satisfy a wide range of on-site venue requirements and applications, and it can store scenes for specific performances, which lets McCoy recall all of the parameters for each cast. The saloon show is consistent and requires just three mics and a piano for most performances. Conversely, their upcoming stunt shows will cycle through scenes with entrances, exits and sound effects requiring more use of the stored scene capabilities.
“In our approximately 100 scenes, we might mute mics in groups, route sounds, and so on,” McCoy notes. “The TF-1 has two banks of scenes making those tasks incredibly easy.” He creates the scenes to accommodate cast changes or adjust any of the processing and parameter configurations for any given show.
In the Calico Saloon, McCoy configured the venue with a TF-1 digital mixer, NY64-D Dante expansion card, TIO-1608D Dante stage box and Yamaha MS101 speakers as active monitors. As Knott’s Berry Farm expands with their next venue, The Boardwalk Ballroom, the plan is to install another TF-1 along with an NY64-D and two TIO-1608D boxes that will be able to handle more inputs should they wish to expand to a TF-5 mixer. The new Calico Mine Stage in Ghost Town includes an outdoor concert stage with a Yamaha CL-5 digital mixer, an RIO 3224-D stage box and a RIO 1608-D stage box.
“Almost every mixer we have here is a
Yamaha,” McCoy notes. “We have a wide range of them, including more than a few PM5D, M7, 01V96i, LS9, CL and TL models. The Yamaha name is highly regarded, the products are durable and well made.”
The TF-Series mixers are straightforward and relatively easy to use, according to McCoy, in that most engineers with any real experience are already fluent on the CL, QL, LS9, M7, and often the PM series mixers. He believes that the transition to the new consoles will be seamless. “On the TF, you just need five minutes on the thing to get it. We don’t need to do workshops on these mixers, but we do encourage anyone who’ll be running one to check out the Yamaha educational tools online — or just ask for help if they need it,” reports McCoy.
Although the productions do not tend to use a lot of the automated features or effects on the consoles, he is very clear about the features he uses most on his TF-Series mixers, “Having the touch screen for the small format TF-1 makes the process more efficient and having 16 outputs is really amazing, considering the value and affordable price point,” says McCoy. “Between the left/right output, security feeds and cue monitor, I get full use out of the outputs. Plus, I like the 2-track inputs, as well, for iOS or other devices without eating up valuable channel inputs.”
The System
Intelligibility and audio quality were key factors in the selection of the P.A. components.
The system employs ten EAW JF60 full range, two-way speakers — each having a 6.5-inch woofer, 0.75-inch tweeter on a Wave Guide Plate and internal passive crossover in a compact, trapezoidal Baltic birch enclosure. The multiple speakers are arranged as a distributed audio array, providing smooth, even coverage to the entire venue. JBL Control 25 AV and Control 26 speakers are put into use as backstage monitors
Signal flow begins with a Yamaha NY64-D Dante expansion card in the console, which routes to a QSC Q-Sys Core 500i processor with a Q-Sys CDN64 Dante card and two Q-Sys CODP4 DataPort cards. Three QSC CX254 four-channel amplifiers equipped with HD15 DataPort connectors provide Q-SYS networked control and system monitoring. Each two-rackspace CX254 provides 200 watts per channel into 70-volts to feed the EAW JF60’s, offering plenty of punch.
As the shows require a vintage look, no hardwired mics are used. The venue’s RF system consists of a Shure ULXD digital wireless rig that includes a UXLD4Q quad- and a ULXD4D dual-channel receiver for a total of six mic channels. Seven ULXD1 belt pack transmitters are available (six plus one spare) and eight Countryman e6i omnidirectional Earset microphones. Besides combining a near-invisible appearance and optimum fidelity, the e6i mics also feature a flexible soft boom design that is especially easy to adjust, particularly when one microphone may be shared among several performers.
Future Expansion
While the Calico Saloon show is specifically tailored for the can-can show, the full-sized stunt show stage located in Ghost Town’s Wagon Camp is in full development. The stage show, which will host larger scale concert events, will be equipped with a Yamaha QL-5 console at front of house. One of the larger-scale shows in Wagon Camp is the Texaco Country Showdown, where popular up and coming acts perform. “The Yamaha consoles work really well for us and transitioning from the earlier models [to the latest ones] is really easy for the team to continue providing park guests with world-class entertainment Knott’s is known for.”
For more information, visit www.yamahaca.com and www.knottsberryfarm.com.
