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Life is Beautiful Festival Rocks Vegas

Solotech provided a selection of Meyer Sound systems for mid-September's Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas.

Solotech provided a selection of Meyer Sound systems for the Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. Photo: Life is Beautiful / ALIVE Coverage
Solotech provided a selection of Meyer Sound systems for the Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. Photo: Life is Beautiful / ALIVE Coverage

Las Vegas, NV (October 7, 2021)—Mid-September saw the return of the Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival, as 18 downtown city blocks became a hub of music, art and culture, drawing a record 170,000 attendees in the process. Key to attracting those crowds were performances by Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, A$AP Rocky, Green Day, and more than 100 additional acts, all of who were herd through audio systems provided by Solotech.

Key to Solotech’s strategy for the festival’s three main stages was a passel of Meyer Sound PA systems. The main Downtown Stage and Bacardí Stage were anchored by Meyer Sound LEO and LYON linear line array loudspeakers, augmented by 900-LFC and 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, while the Huntridge Stage featured a mix of medium and wide-pattern LYON loudspeakers and 900-LFC low-frequency control elements.

For production teams, designing systems with fixed placement inside the tight confines of an urban environment meant finding creative ways to tackle sound management and noise mitigation. Compounding the challenge of keeping sound — particularly low end — within festival grounds and out of residential areas, the team could not control delay tower placement. To overcome these constraints, they turned to system modeling, with help from Meyer Sound’s MAPP 3D™ system design and prediction software.

Masque Sound Returns to the Muny

“Weather conditions — not just wind, but atmospheric issues like humidity — play a large part in how the system sound carries,” says Mike Smeaton, Solotech’s U.S. Director of Operations. “In MAPP 3D, you can look at the predictions that you want to do, then you can put it into your production, which is a real help.”

To manage low-end patterns, Smeaton says Solotech and Meyer Sound worked together to design both gradient and end-fire subwoofer arrays. “There was a combination of gradient flown subs on the main stage, plus we’ve done gradient stacks as well with 1100-LFCs. Outside of that, we have VLFC very low frequency control elements in two blocks on each side. We flew some subs in gradient, six VLFCs behind each array. I think that really helped with the coverage and helped control the pattern. The VLFC is very musical; they are really great subwoofers.”

With the festival over and deemed a success, the team is now looking forward to next year’s edition. Allen Scott, festival co-producer and President, Concerts and Festivals for Another Planet Entertainment, noted, “It has been 18 months or longer since we put on an event like this and people are a little rusty; throw in all the preparation that needs to go in for COVID and it’s been pretty monumental this year, but everyone’s been doing it with a grin and excitement. They are so genuinely thrilled to be back doing what they love.”

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