SeaWorld concerts in the swim with L-Acoustics
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Boasting a diverse roster of popular acts - Everclear, Little River Band, Josh Abbott, En Vogue, Newsboys, Chris Jansen, Vanilla Ice, Jesse McCartney, 38 Special, Matthew West, Shelly Lares, Air Supply, Blue Oyster Cult, and others - shows are staged at the 3,000-seat Nautilus Amphitheatre, which recently got a powerful sonic boost, just in time for the new concert series.
LD Systems designed and installed a new L-Acoustics A Series-based loudspeaker system in record time that allows the concert pavilion to host more guests now that the sound finally covers every seat in the house.
According to SeaWorld San Antonio theatrical services manager Douglas Ferguson, the park already had a good track record with another L-Acoustics system that another certified provider supplied three years earlier. “SeaWorld owns an ARCS WiFo system that was originally flown at our Bayside Stadium in 2018 for the summertime HydroPower Extreme FX Ski Show,” he says. “Since the Nautilus Amphitheatre did not have its own dedicated system, we would occasionally bring Bayside’s WiFo rig over as needed for events and shows, but it wasn’t truly sufficient to cover the larger seating area.
“When planning for our Electric Ocean Concert Series, we knew that we wanted to install a rider-friendly permanent solution at Nautilus that would deliver full venue coverage and eliminate the need to bring in a long-term rental system.”
Ferguson reached out to LD Systems sales engineer Jordan Pierce for assistance on 19 April, and the process went rapidly from there. “Jordan immediately collaborated with Marcus Ross at L-Acoustics, putting a design proposal in my hand within two days that met our tight timeline and budget, and we agreed to terms for the purchase on April 23,” Ferguson recalls. “The install began on 24 May, and our first concert was held just five days later.”
The 180° fan-shaped amphitheatre’s new system now features a centre array comprised of four A15i (three Focus over one Wide) backed by two sub-hangs of four KS21 each, while left and right arrays are each made up of three A15i (two Focus over one Wide).
Single vertically-oriented A15i flank the subs for additional mains-fill, while two vertically-oriented A10i flown outside of the left and right arrays deliver far out-fill coverage. Lastly, two Kiva II are deployed for added front-fill intelligibility, while six LA4X amplified controllers power and process the entire system, which was tuned by LD Systems Audio Department operations manager Thomas Ruffner.
The venue, located next to the park’s Journey to Atlantis ride, soft opened on Memorial Day weekend with eight shows by Garth Brooks-tribute artist Shawn Gerhard, followed by Everclear officially kicking off the 18-show Electric Ocean Concert Series on 5 June. All of the acts for the summer concert run are using the new L-Acoustics house rig.
