HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Comprised of professional surfing, BMX, skateboarding, freestyle motocross demos, live music and a fashion show, Go211 Live’s recently completed U.S. Open of Surfing offered something for everyone. The event included a fashion show and three days of music that included performances by a wide range of artists — including teen heartthrob Jesse McCartney. Held on the beach, sound reinforcement was a massive undertaking that was handled by Torrance, Calif.-based Broadcast Support and a sizeable collection of loudspeakers from DAS Audio.
Being the provider of all foreground and background sound reinforcement for the U.S. Open of Surfing, Broadcast Support was tasked with supplying a sound system that could deliver clear sound under some very difficult conditions, as company founder and co-owner Scott Ramsay explained. “In addition to the usual issues of providing sound for an outdoor event,” said Ramsay, “this project was all the more challenging as we had to provide broad coverage that extended from the boardwalk — where the stage was located — all the way to the water’s edge and deal with sand and wind in the process. In addition to the crowds on the beach, we also needed to deliver coverage for the people who elected to watch from the Huntington Beach Pier. To meet these requirements, we needed a system with long throw and broad horizontal dispersion characteristics that was equally capable of delivering clear speech intelligibility and music reproduction.”
The system that Broadcast Support deployed for the event consisted of a sizeable number of loudspeaker enclosures from DAS Audio’s Aero product line, including 12 Aero 38A self-powered, medium format line array elements — with six elements ground stacked on the left and right sides of the stage. These were augmented by six Aero 218A self-powered subwoofers — three per side adjacent to the line array modules. For front fill, three of DAS Audio’s Variant 25A self-powered, ultra compact line array modules were utilized as front fills along the lip of the stage.
On stage monitoring was also handled by DAS Audio loudspeakers. DAS SML-12A self-powered, low profile stage monitors were present, as were DAS Audio’s Compact 218 Subs, which were used as sidefills.
“The stage was a good six feet above ground level,” notes Ramsay, “so even though the loudspeakers were ground stacked, they were positioned considerably above the crowd. As a result, their ability to project was not impeded. By using a self-powered system, it was considerably easier to move the equipment into place and set everything up since we didn’t have to lug a bunch of heavy power amps around, and this also resulted in a considerably neater overall stage appearance.”
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