The first Sturgis motorcycle rally in 1938 was a relatively tame affair, and remained so until well into the late 1960s, when films like Easy Rider and Hunter S. Thompson's book Hell's Angels fuelled the rise of the outlaw biker mystique. Since then, the festival has taken on a life of its own, and for a few weeks out of the year this pastoral community of 6,000 in South Dakota's Black Hills becomes the Harley Davidson capital of the world, with attendance estimates of upwards of 700,000 (slightly more than the population of the entire state).
On tap, for the musical portion of the festivities this year, were Aerosmith, George Thorogood, Toby Keith, Billy Squier, Lita Ford, Tesla, Hinder, Saving Abel, Buckcherry, and The Guess Who, to name a few.
Providing audio for the festival's nine days of concerts can be something of a daunting challenge, against the backdrop of the pulsating roar of several thousand choppers, which has become something of a trademark. The industrial strength solution to the sound reinforcement conundrum was a high-end sound system provided by production provider, Sure Sound And Lighting, and comprised of loudspeakers from Renkus-Heinz, plus amplifiers and signal processors from MC2 and XTA.
The main stage's sound system comprised left and right arrays of 12 Renkus-Heinz VerSys VLX3 loudspeakers - augmented by Renkus-Heinz ST7R and ST7LR powered boxes with PN102LAR powered arrays covering front-fill as well as the VIP area. The system was powered by MC2 E45 and E90 amps (eight each), and two XTA DP448 digital signal processors.
"We needed a reliable, efficient, powerful and flexible amplifier and processor solution to show off the 12-box/per side Renkus-Heinz VerSys VLX3 line arrays to the visiting engineers," says David J. Rahn, Renkus-Heinz national sales manager. "The MC2 amps took a beating not only from the weather, but the bands as well. Using just four of each amp per line array made an incredibly small and lightweight package. Two XTA DB448s were linked together and used to switch consoles, EQs, crossovers, and to limit and protect the PA with wireless tablet control. They worked extremely well together."
(Jim Evans)
