The museum opened 24 September 2016 in a ceremony led by U.S. President Barack Obama. As part of the grand opening festivities, the Freedom Sounds show - a concert featuring The Roots, Public Enemy, and Living Colour - took place before a huge audience. To provide sound reinforcement, loudspeakers from the Aero Series 2 and Road Series catalogues of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio were placed into service.
Audio & Light of Greensboro, NC, a full service A/V design, installation, and production company, was contracted to handle sound services for the event. Company president Jim Hoyle, who in addition to managing the company's activities, also served as the FOH tech on this show. He discussed the project and his experience with the D.A.S. Audio equipment, which included Aero 50, Aero 40A and Aero 20A line arrays, UX-221A powered subwoofers, and Road 12A powered stage monitors.
"The Freedom Sounds show was a concert that punctuated a weekend of D.C. celebrations commemorating the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture," Hoyle explained. "Our setup included 24 Aero 50 line array enclosures - flown 12 units each for the left and right hangs.
"For low frequency support, we used 36 UX-221A powered subwoofers. These were positioned in stacks of two, positioned just over 3 feet apart on the downstage edge of the stage. The Aero 50 line arrays were provided by Ruben Silva of DBS Sound out of Irwindale, CA. Ruben is a great guy and was a big help to us on this show."
"For out-fill," Hoyle continued, "we positioned 16 D.A.S. Aero 20A line array enclosures - with eight units for each of the two clusters. We also had a delay system, and this consisted of 16 D.A.S. Aero 40A loudspeakers. These were positioned in two hangs of eight enclosures that were flown on two TMD-560 Guil Towers, which were positioned behind the FOH tower.
"For front-fill, we deployed six D.A.S. Aero 20A boxes, and these were spread evenly across the front of the stage and positioned on top of the subs. Completing the setup, we used 20 of D.A.S. Audio's Road 12A stage monitors."
When working on a project of this magnitude, questions inevitably arise and, in this regard, Hoyle gives high marks for D.A.S. Audio's customer support services. "D.A.S. is very committed to their dealers and end users," he reports. "Roberto Almodovar and Carlos Henao from D.A.S. were both present at this event. This was obviously a high profile gig, but it's not unusual to have the D.A.S. staff at a show watching how we use the gear and asking questions about what we would like to see in the future. They offer lots of training opportunities and are always available to answer questions. D.A.S. is really dedicated to our success."
(Jim Evans)
