Harman Buyout Dead - FOH Online

Dave Rahn and the Jägermeister girls
more difficult before,” he says. “The previous
system, although we had done well with it
over the years, took a lot longer to hang and
rig than the Renkus-Heinz solution; it really
was no match for the more modern solution
when it came to providing the even coverage
and level across the entire space we needed,
because with this new solution we’ve actually
got two different, but matching, types of
line array — one large, one compact — that
work great together to cover a big site.
Owen concludes, “Factor in that many of
our headlining bands have been requesting
a switch to line-array technology for a whole
variety of reasons, the generic change made
total sense, and this rig just sounds and
works great.”
Renkus-Heinz’s National Sales Manager
Dave Rahn and VP of R&D Ralph Heinz also
made the trip to join the support team on
site — and stayed. “We always enjoy not just
supporting the customer, but really getting
in there and listening to what people say
about our products,” says Ralph. “And there
were some great bands!”
As with any festival, being light on your
feet in terms of production flexibility is essential.
“As you’d expect,” says Steve Owen,
“we have headline bands’ engineers coming
through here with very different mixing
styles and using their own boards; everything
has to be just right when they walk up
and plug into our system. So, a system that
delivers the output, plus is very clean and uncolored
and responsive to those engineers, is
what you absolutely need.”
He continues, “Also, a really road-proven,
self-powered solution was great because
it eliminated the need to create that whole
‘amplifier world’ either beside or under the
stage, with all the mass of cabling that entails
and the water protection considerations
of outdoors shows. It just removes a whole
other level of complexity in a situation where
you’re having to run fast and think on your
feet anyway.”
Don Dodger, FOH for Foreigner, said,
“We played Sturgis at the Buffalo Chip
campground stage, and to my surprise, the
new Renkus-Heinz line array was strong. I’d
wanted to use it since it came out; I’ve always
liked Renkus-Heinz products, but this new
line array blew me away — a big open-air
amphitheatre and it had no problem filling
it perfectly. I was very impressed:
little EQ and whole
lot of punch!”
Meanwhile, Tim “Poppa
Smurf” Lawrence, mixing out
front for Poison, had this to
say: “The Renkus-Heinz line
array is very nice: compact,
smooth sounding and can
handle pretty much everything
— all the volume and
dynamics I could want without
ever going into pain.”
The Challenges
Were there practical
challenges? Of course there
With such a wide and
deep area on the edge of
town, the audio challenge
was twofold: coverage
of the broad crowd plus
containment.
were; it’s a festival. One
afternoon, Rahn noticed
that one of the STLA/9
cabinets was producing
an anomaly at a specific
midfrequency. After five
minutes of analysis, and
after donning a pair of sturdy boots, Mr
Rahn himself had lumbered up the hung
array’s “hardware ladder” and hot-swapped
a PM3 amplifier module from the identified
cabinet, with no interruption to the day’s
proceedings. “Smart road design is like
insurance,” he says. “You don’t expect any-
www.fohonline.com
thing to go wrong
on the road, but
if it does, the crucial
thing is that
design is ready to
cope with it.”
Buffalo Chip, Sturgis, S.D.
A final word,
from Woody, who says, “The new system
contained the sound very well, while at
the same time ensuring excellent sound
throughout the amphitheatre. Like I said,” he
added, “we were trying to outdo ourselves.
Our audiences come here for a good time,
and over the Buffalo Chip’s two-week rally,
including nine days of nationally prominent
entertainment, they’ll spend hundreds,
maybe thousands of dollars on getting here,
accommodations, entertainment, food and
drinks. We wanted to give them the best. I
think this year we truly blew ’em away with
our sound.”
2007 OCTOBER
19
Ad info:http:// foh.hotims.com