L-Acoustics K2 backs Haim Women in Music tour
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The tour began in Las Vegas in April and will take them to more than two-dozen scheduled stops across the US and then onto Canada and Europe.
The full rig for the tour, sourced by the Production Resource Group’s (PRG) Los Angeles office, encompasses 32 K2 enclosures, flown 16 per side, with 12 Kara per side as out-fills. Eight more Kara line the stage lip as front-fills, with four ARCS II boxes on hand as utility fills as needed. Meanwhile, 16 KS28 subs are deployed to reinforce the K2 with added low-end extension. Everything is powered by 36 LA12X amplified controllers running on an AVB network through a pair of L-Acoustics P1 AVB processors.
But not every fan will hear every box on every show. Because of the variety of venues on this tour, the PA needs for each space can vary considerably. That’s not a problem for the K2, says Scott Jarecki, Haim’s PA technician on the tour. “What’s great about the K2 is how versatile it is,” he says. “We’re working in a wide range of venues, and the system can scale very nicely for any of them.”
For example, he cites how the KS28 subs can be deployed either in stacks of two, set eight feet apart across the stage, or in an arc on the ground in front of a stage. Various PA configurations were largely mapped out even before the first truck rolled out, thanks to Jarecki and systems engineer Tom Stegemann working out designs for each venue and performance ahead of time with L-Acoustics Soundvision predictive software and the FIR filters.
“We know when we roll up exactly how much PA we need to take off the truck, from Madison Square Garden to a club date,” says Jarecki. “It scales incredibly well and no matter what configuration of the system we end up using, it still sounds familiar to our front-of-house mixer, Scott Adamson, with all the voicings Scott expects to hear and how it will react in the house. The system is very flexible and adapts to the venue.”
Stegemann also appreciates the K2 rig’s flexibility but in a different dimension. “There have been times on this tour where we are pushing the laws of physics, getting the K2 boxes to throw as far as 300 feet in some cases,” he explains. “It’s a very good rig to tech because it lets us push it beyond the envelope when necessary, so that front of house and the farthest seats both get the right experience.”
HAIM’s L-Acoustics system was designed by Randall Knight, audio project manager at PRG’s Toronto office. “It was always going to be L-Acoustics; Haim’s production manager, Chip Valentino, requested it,” he says. Knight says he considered the band’s widely-ranging venue itinerary and calculated that the K2 and Kara enclosures would provide the best balance of coverage and budget. “You must keep both of those things in mind for touring these days, and L-Acoustics gives us the tools we need to pinpoint that.”
Haim’s 2022 North American tour leg kicked off on 24 April in Las Vegas and wrapped up its 27th date in Bend, Oregon, on 14 June. From there, the band headed over to the UK and Europe for 15 more stops, starting at Glastonbury Festival and running through its closing London date on 21 July, before returning to the US for more shows.
