Sacramento, CA––An annual worship event held at the Memorial Auditorium, the Northern California/Nevada Assemblies of God Youth Convention featured a powerful musical lineup that included hometown favorites Method Echo, Nashville Tennessee’s Grits, and worship bands Worth Dying For and the Doug Reid Band, from Modesto and Sacramento respectively.
Put on once a year by the Northern California Assemblies of God Youth Department, the convention brings the youth of the district together for a weekend to get a bigger picture of what their organization is doing.
Every year the students are encouraged to save up and contribute to the organization’s Speed The Light ministry to buy cars and trucks for foreign missionaries who need transportation to deliver food clothes to the less fortunate among us.
Because the very best technology is a must for the event, Sacramento Production Services once again provided sound production support with a crew that included Keith Wackford (Monitor Engineer & Production Manager), Dwaine Wise (FOH Engineer) and josh Sumpter (Systems Tech).
The loudspeaker array had to accommodate the need for clarity and presence for speeches and presentations while providing the smooth, coherent musicality and coverage to effectively showcase the bands.
To best accomplish this, the production crew chose 24 Martin Audio W8LC Line array enclosures for Mains along with 16 Martin Audio WSX Subs stacked in the pit as a center cluster. Front fill consisted of four Martin Audio W8C and three Martin Audio WT2 passive 12� two way boxes.
According to Wackford, “This is a very difficult room, with lots of hard surfaces and RT60 times in some frequencies reaching the 2-second mark. Pointing sound directly at the audience and keeping it off the negative surfaces is a must. The Martin W8LC’s warm, smooth sound kept any harshness away and has been the box of choice in this venue for many clients. They are just so easy to make this room sound great.
“We also used Martin Audio’s Viewpoint program to help predict where to aim the top box,� Keith continues. “The top seating rows are just concrete with hard walls behind and it’s just so important to keep sound under control up there and not let it hit those hard surfaces and bounce around.�
The rest of the system included a Yamaha PM5D FOH console with XTA graphs and crossovers. Monitors were mixed through a Yamaha M7CL Digital desk with twelve Martin Audio LE1200J wedges, and a Martin Audio WT3 run bi-amped for drum fill. Amplification was handled with QSC PL2 and PL3 amps. We used Xcilica for monitor processing.�
Asked about the reactions of musicians and techs to the loudspeakers, Keith concludes, “I would say about a significant percentage of visiting engineers and bands had not heard Martin Audio. But when they did, they quickly fell in love, it doesn’t take much tweaking to get them to sound great, which gives you more time to build a great-sounding mix and make the audience, client and artist happy.�
Photo Caption: Doug Reid of the Doug Reid Band
For more information, please contact Rob Hofkamp, Director of North American Operations at 519.747.5853 and [email protected], or visit http://www.martin-audio.com.
