Arlington, TX (July 14, 2014)—For the final show of country music icon George Strait’s career, nearly 105,000 fans filled the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, setting the national record for attendance at a stadium show.
Dallas-based Onstage Systems, which has been rigging sound reinforcement for Strait’s tours since the beginning of his performing days, was on hand for the final show, providing a massive L-Acoustics K1/K2 loudspeaker system to fill the stadium.
Eric Thomas, Onstage Systems’ audio department lead, explained, “There really is no other system that would get the job done for a show like this and provide the sonic signature that we love. Plus, we were really excited to be using K2 for the first time as well.”
“It’s safe to say things are bigger in Texas, and when it comes to musicians, no one here is bigger than George Strait, so we needed a room this large to fit his fans,” said George Olson, Strait’s FOH engineer since 2007. “But it’s a very difficult venue to try to work in. It has to be one of the world’s loudest places with the longest decay time I have ever mixed. That’s why the K1/K2 system was ideal.”
Like most of Strait’s shows in recent years, the stage for the final tour stop was centrally located on the stadium floor and set up in-the-round. To deliver coverage to audiences seated on multiple levels in a full 360 degrees, Onstage Systems deployed a total of 226 L-Acoustics enclosures.
The primary equipment complement for the evening included 104 K1 and 48 K2 line source array enclosures flown in eight arrays around the Jumbotron, 48 SB28 and eight K1-SB subs, and 30 LA-RAK amplifier racks—for a total of 90 LA8 amplified controllers—flown with the arrays.
The June 7 show, itself, set a single-date record in ticket sales of $18.2 million, according to Billboard. Strait’s farewell tour’s 44 shows over a two-year span reportedly grossed in excess of nearly $100 million. Special guests for the show also included: Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Alan Jackson, Faith Hill, Vince Gill, Miranda Lambert, Sheryl Crow and Eric Church, as well as Strait’s son Bubba, all there to pay their respect.
L-Acoustics
www.l-acoustics.com
Onstage Systems
www.onstagesystems.com
