The main stage front of house system was the recently purchased Powersoft K Series powered EAW KF740 system. The system consisted eight EAW KF740 mid-sized line array loudspeakers per side, four EAW SB1002 Arrayable Subwoofers (in cardioid array) per side and UX8800 processors, all powered by Powersoft K10s. For the sub-bass the K10s used the DSP cards to implement the Active Damping Control for low frequency impact, clarity and cone control, which Powersoft say is "impossible to achieve in competing products".
The system was aligned and tuned on the Friday morning by Ben Clarke of Production Audio Services (EAW and Powersoft support agents), who decided to implement a true cardioid subwoofer array with the EAW SB1002s for the event. This effectively provided in excess of 22dB rear reduction of the complete subwoofer bandpass (27-80Hz). The EAW KF740s were run completely full range, phase aligned and overlapped with the subwoofer arrays for even greater impact from 45Hz and above. All system measurements and performance verification were made using the as yet unreleased Rational Acoustics Smaart V7 (of which Ben is part of the Alpha testing team).
"The system came together very easily, sounded great straight out of the box, took very little time to align and tune", commented owner Don Shepherd. He adds: "And that's about the last time during the weekend - it was a straightforward festival!" Melbourne's reputation for unpredictable weather was about to be unleashed in all its fury . . .
On the Saturday, Melbourne had its' worst 'Superstorm' in 50 years, with hailstones up to 4" diameter in some parts of the town, flash flooding and up to three inches of rain in a couple of hours. The whole system got pounded by serious hail then drenched by very heavy rain. Protection circuits in the amplifier racks received a true real world test. The pictures tell only part of the story.
But as they say, the show must go on - and it did - after everything checked out on the Sunday morning, the system was fired up and it performed faultlessly, running for the next couple of days. Due to subsequent site power problems, requests were made to start combining amplifier racks onto a single circuit, which was no problem for the Powersoft PFC power supply technology. Crew even ended up drawing stage power from the amplifier rack power distributors - live proof of operating efficiency for a system consistently producing in excess of 288,000W of real amplifier power.
Overall the system was very well received by all stakeholders and those that used it. Mike 'Ace' Baker - FOH engineer for Colin Hay commented on the Monday. "Wow . . . No sound check, pouring rain, first show of the tour - who cares? Rig sounded amazing and even chased the rain away. EAW once again retains its spot on the top of my riders."
(Lee Baldock)
