BERKELEY, CA–A record 37,000 people attended the 11th annual edition of the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival at the Rose Hall Resort & Country Club of Montego Bay to see and hear a star-studded bill featuring artists such as Patti Labelle, Al Green, John Legend, Nestor Torres, Shaggy, Morgan Heritage, Air Supply, and Bo Diddley. The technical team of Jamaica's John Swaby Entertainment, the festival's audio provider, faced the dual challenges of an event featuring groups of widely varied instrumentation and musical genres being presented in an outdoor environment. In order to deliver even coverage and consistent quality across all of the styles slated to be heard on the resort's golf-course-cum-festival-grounds, the Swaby Entertainment team relied on a system of self-powered Meyer Sound loudspeakers. Since this was the first time that Meyer Sound products were used at the festival, Swaby Entertainment enlisted the support of Philip Grant, managing director of Sound Design, Ltd. in Kingston, Meyer Sound's dealer in Jamaica, to ensure that the equipment reached the festival on time.
The main system consisted of an array of six MILO high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers hanging on each side of the stage, supplemented by three MSL-4 horn-loaded long-throw loudspeakers on each side for downfill, four MSL-4 cabinets per side configured as point-source (horizontal) arrays for sidefill, and two MSL-4 cabinets providing frontfill. An LD-3 compensating line driver provided system drive and compensation for air absorption due to distance and environmental conditions as they changed over the course of the day. An LD-2 line driver supplied additional system drive. A delay tower housed an array of six MSL-4 cabinets and six PSW-2 high-power flyable subwoofers.
"MILO gave us incredible power and worked perfectly with the wide range of musical genres at the festival," says Swaby. "It also integrated easily with the MSL-4, which we used as additional arrays."
The layout of the site posed another challenge for Swaby and his crew. A stage of 52 feet by 40 feet was built facing the sea. Three rear projection screens were installed behind the stage as a backdrop, while five more screens were placed around the area for IMAG (closeup shots). Thus, for three days the golf course became an outdoor auditorium with plenty of room for concertgoers and an unrivaled view. However, once the stage and the lateral screens were installed, the space took on a deep, narrow shape that could have been difficult to manage.
Oscar Gamas, from the Design Services staff at Meyer Sound Mexico, used Meyer Sound's MAPP Online Pro™ acoustical prediction program, to help Swaby come up with a design that would offer uniform sound quality in every corner of the venue. MAPP Online Pro was also decisive in determining a location for the delay tower that would ensure the music was carried uniformly all along the corridor-shaped audience area.
As in previous years, the 2006 edition of the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival was a complete success, highlighted by an unscheduled appearance from controversial Jamaican reggae artist Bounty Killer. With the beauty of Montego Bay, the enthusiastic crowd, and a pristine Meyer Sound system, it is easy to imagine that the artists had every bit as good a time as the audience. In fact, the festival provides a legitimate excuse for performers and tourists alike to make Montego Bay an annual destination for enjoying sunshine, sea, and great music.
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