The Shore Club hosted some of the most popular events of the well-established Winter Music Conference - now in its 25th consecutive year - with the main focus of attention being the Pool and Patio venues, where a line-up of DJs such as Carl Craig, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Theo Parrish, DJ Hell, Peter Kruder, Metro Area, Christian Prommer, Roberto Rodriguez, Mark Farina and many more entertained the crowds of between 1,500 and 2,000 over four intensive days.
Following on from the excellent results achieved at last year's WMC, The Shore Club hotel and Miami-based event producer Tomas Ceddia of The Loud Minority were keen to bring Turbosound systems back again.
"The WMC event is all about dance music and the club scene," says Brad Stephens of Turbosound's US distributor American Music & Sound, "and Turbosound has long been an elite brand in that world."
Miami Beach-based Audio Video Lighting Innovations aided by Brad Stephens, and Clinton Muntean from Turbosound's Florida rep company Mainline Marketing, fielded a Turbosound Flex Array for the main Pool system, consisting of six TFA-600H three-way mid/highs flown each side, together with six TSW-218 double 18" folded horn subs.
AVLI's James Reed explains the setup, "Turbosound was chosen again this year for WMC because of its proven reputation for superior sound quality in this demanding application, and we knew this alone would draw the crowds. The flown Flex Array over three 218 subs each side completely covered the pool area, and then some.
Turbosound's new Milan self-powered portable loudspeakers made an impressive debut WMCat in the role of DJ booth monitors. AM&S's Brad Stephens says, "This is a brutally harsh environment. We had major names using them at full tilt for hours at a time, and we had no issues at all. For DJ monitors at an event like this to go for that long without failure, or even an adverse comment, is an outstanding success! The guys we talked to were surprised they could get so much from a little powered-speaker-on-a-stick."
Positive comments about the sound quality from the public, Shore Club employees, promoters, and DJs alike were much in evidence. Kevin Crew, Sky Bar manager at the Shore Club, believes that the quality of the sound system has also had a beneficial commercial impact. "It made the event," he emphasises. "Our bar sales were significantly up. The better the sound quality is, the more successful the event is."
(Jim Evans)
