For three wild days and nights June 14 to 16, BamaJam 2012 fired up the area just north of Enterprise, AL, with lights, video displays, music and sound… plenty of sound. Located on the 1,600-acre grounds of BamaJam Farms, 35,000-plus music enthusiasts from all over the Southeastern U.S. converged and revelled to the sounds of Tim McGraw, Eric Church, the Zac Brown Band, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock and a long list of additional artists. With three stages spread across the area — one of which was a double stage that alternated acts on each half — along with a wealth of lighting and video displays, the logistical and technical aspects of bringing BamaJam 2012 to life were nothing short of massive.
Mike Borne, president and founder of Smyrna, TN-based Allstar Audio Systems, was hired as production manager and was contracted to handle all staging (with assistance from MSR/Mobile Stage Rentals), sound, lighting, video, cameras, loading docks, technicians, stage crew and backline for this year’s festival. With 14 trucks of stages and production equipment, Borne and his crew of 70 descended upon this town and made it all happen.
“From an audio perspective, this year’s BamaJam festival was huge,” noted Borne. “We had two-plus semi-trucks loaded with audio gear just for the main stage — most of which were D.A.S. Audio loudspeaker systems, which served as the house mains for each of the three stages. The Pepsi Stage Red and Blue was the main performance venue and featured headlining acts in the evening from 6 p.m. until roughly midnight, while the two secondary stages — the Dodge Ram Stage and the Bud Light Stage — alternated performances during the day. The Bud Light Stage then resumed after the main stage evening performances ceased and ran until 2 a.m.”
On the Big Dual Stage (A and B)
Located at the bottom of what is referred to as the “bowl” due to the sloping area that descends toward the stage, the Pepsi Stage Red and Blue served as the main performance area for headliners. Featuring six artists each evening, this double stage consisted of two 50-by-40-foot (WxD) platforms to accommodate equipment switching on one half while, on the other half, an act performed. A 24-by-30-foot area that split the area down the middle served as the monitor station for each side of the stage. Combined with additional 16-foot soundwings on each side (for the line arrays and artist guitar worlds), the total width of the main stage was 156 feet.
This double stage employed a left-center-right line array setup that included 24 D.A.S. Aero 50 3-way, large format line arrays, flown with 12 elements per side. Due to line-of-sight issues with the large video display that was centrally positioned on this stage, the center hang consisted of four Aero 50s and handled a summed L/R feed. This center cluster functioned largely as a front fill system for those audience members in the extreme front/center area known as the “pit.” Lab.gruppen FP 10000Q power amps drove the Aero 50 enclosures and passive LX218 subs. These were controlled by three D.A.S. DSP-4080 digital processors. Overall system processing was managed by a Lake Contour at FOH.
Low frequency support was provided by a combination of 16 D.A.S. Audio LX-218 (passive) and 16 LX-218A (powered) subwoofers. These enclosures were positioned equally in pairs on the ground across the front of the stage. Passive systems were driven by Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q power amplifiers.
Additionally, 16 Aero 12A powered, compact line array loudspeakers were used for downfill and frontfill, and 12 Aero 8A powered, ultra-compact line array speakers were employed for outfill.
Onstage, there were four stacks of side fill loudspeakers—two for each half of the stage. Each side fill stack included two EAW KF-850 loudspeakers sitting atop two EAW SB-850 subs. The drum fills for each half of the stage were D.A.S. CA-215 subwoofers. For stage monitors, the Allstar crew enlisted 32 Clair 12AM biamped wedge monitors—16 units for each half. Lab.gruppen amps with Klark Teknik processing were used for all monitor systems across all stages. Shure PSM 900 monitoring systems were also made available to performers that preferred in-ears.
Long Throw? No Problem
In addition to the house mains, Borne and his crew placed an additional 12 D.A.S. Aero 28A powered line array modules off to stage right. These compact, 2-way loudspeaker systems served as an outer fill for the audience in the stage right area. “In the true sense of the word, there was no delay system,” Borne reports. “The Aero 50s had absolutely no trouble penetrating the top of the bowl area, which was 400 feet from the stage.”
The FOH mix position was centrally located 125 feet from the stage. Here, the Allstar crew placed two Yamaha PM5D digital mixing consoles—one for each half of the stage. Allstar Audio’s Tim Lamoy and Mark Brasel served as the house engineers while Jose Nazario, Walbert Goveo and Ricky Rios served as system techs. Running an average of 40 to 48 channels per show, these weren’t the only consoles residing here.
“Because a lot of the acts travel with their own systems,” said Borne, “we frequently had as many as five or six consoles at FOH. In order to easily patch the various feeds into whichever console was to be used for any given show, we had a Midas XL88 Matrix Mixer on hand. This served as the interface to feed signals among the various consoles and at any given time enabled us to have two consoles patched into the system feeds. Further, a Midas Venice console handled the wireless microphones, announcers, as well as video and canned audio playback. This board ran the entire time.”
The Allstar crew placed an additional two Yamaha PM5D consoles into the 24-foot monitor world area between the two halves of the main stage—one for each half. Jessie Hankins, Todd Wilkenson and Marty Gilbert managed these systems.
Microphones used at this and the other two stages were of the Shure variety. These consisted of Shure SM-58s, 57s, 81s, 98s and 91s. Shure UHF-R Series wireless systems were also on hand across all stages.
The Bud Light Stage (Stage D)
Situated at the top of the “bowl” that leads to the main stage area was the Bud Light Stage. This was the smallest of the three stages and was centrally located between the Pepsi Stage Red and Blue and the Dodge Ram stage. This area served as the “saloon,” a corralled zone that functioned as an open-air bar where people could enjoy performances of regional and up-and-coming acts. This area was staffed by Allstar crew members Chris and Nicole Cole as well as FOH engineer Eric Carlson.
Measuring 24 by 20 feet (WxD), the Bud Light stage was outfitted with eight D.A.S. Aero 8A 2-way, compact line arrays — flown four elements per side. Low frequency support was provided by four D.A.S. Compact 218 subwoofers — two enclosures per side. Loudspeaker processing chores were handled by a Klark Teknik DN9848E processor.
Side fill systems consisted of EAW LA325 enclosures with EAW LA118z subwoofers while a D.A.S. Avant 118A subwoofer handled drum fill chores. For stage monitoring, the Allstar crew made ten EAW SM-200 biamped wedge monitors available.
Due to space considerations around the saloon area, the FOH mix position was located at stage left. Here, a Midas XL250 console running 32 channels resided. As this was a relatively small setup, the monitor mix was also handled by the Midas board.
The Dodge Ram Stage (Stage C)
At the opposite end of the open area in a smaller “bowl,” the Dodge Ram Stage measured 40 by 40 feet (WxD). As with the Bud Light stage, a variety of regional and up-and-coming acts performed here. For this setup, the Allstar crew deployed 24 D.A.S. Audio Aero 38A large format, powered line arrays—flown 12 modules per side. These were augmented by 12 D.A.S. Compact 218 Sub 2K biamped subwoofers. Loudspeaker processing was handled by a Klark Teknik DN9848E.
Stage C’s side fill system consisted of EAW KF-850 loudspeakers sitting on top of EAW SB-850 subwoofers. There were two such systems—one for each side of the stage. A D.A.S. Avant 118A subwoofer handled the drum fill while 12 EAW SM-500 biamped wedge monitors were available.
The FOH mix position was centrally located 75 feet from the stage. Manned by Allstar Audio’s Steve Smith, this station had a Midas Heritage 3000 analog console. Monitor engineer Pat Boone and stage manager Bryan Madaris also mixed on another Midas Heritage 3000; monitor world was located at stage left.
Team Effort Leads to Success
“Between all the staging lighting, audio, video and backline equipment, this was a huge project that required months of planning,” noted Borne. “I could not have handled an event of this size without the support of D.A.S. Audio’s Carlos Henao, who was on-site to assist with system setup and tuning, my project manager Mike Thamann, assistant production manager/coordinator Mickey Mulcahy and stage managers Tim and Harrison Freese — not to mention our Nashville office manager, Ric Cassity, who kept us organized.”
At the end of the day, Borne added, all the gear from D.A.S. performed as specified. “We used EASE Focus to model the speaker arrays and, when we traveled the hill side, it was just like the modeling. All the performers and engineers were not only knocked out by our elaborate stage setup, but also on how musical this large D.A.S. system sounded at moderate and high volumes.”
“While gear on stage was being tested, I had a few moments at FOH to have my first listen to the DAS Aero line array. I was immediately impressed with the musicality of the array at all listening levels,” added Kerry West, Ronnie Milsap’s FOH engineer. “From the smooth mids and highs of the Aero 50 to the deepest sub-harmonics of the LX-218, all the components functioned to create a stereo sound field as deep as it was wide.”
“Numerous people on the crew were equally impressed with the D.A.S. Audio hardware,” Borne continued. “The line arrays’ hardware is all fully integrated, so not only did the systems go up and tear down quickly, they also conserved space and made for very efficient truck pack. This entire show was a huge undertaking and yet we erected everything, including stages, in three days and it came down in one.”
“But what really floored us,” Borne added, “was the robust build quality of the D.A.S. systems. While I’ve always known they were built very solidly, the loudspeakers were really put to the test that weekend. On Thursday, after setting up for all the bands and running our sound checks, we were hit with a monsoon-type rainstorm with 60 to 70 mph winds. The fact that we were able to recover from that within two hours after the storm had passed and have a show that evening featuring Eric Church and Tim McGraw was absolutely amazing in itself. The D.A.S. loudspeakers were exposed to the full onslaught of the storm and they performed as if nothing had happened. In the end, we received compliments from all parties involved. The show must go on, safely, and it did!”
