Cheyenne, WY—August 2018… Featuring one of the largest and oldest Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeos in the nation, Cheyenne Frontier Days is ten days of Western-style fun, with nine days of award-winning rodeo competition; concerts; a carnival midway; American Indian dance, music, storytelling, and crafts; an Old Frontier Town with reenactors; and more. In addition to the major concerts, Cheyenne Frontier Days hosts the Bucking A Saloon beer tent stage, which presents local and regional bands.
At the July 2018 Cheyenne Frontier Days, Cheyenne-based country act Sean Curtis and the Divide played two shows a day for seven days on the Bucking A Saloon stage, with the City Creek Band opening. The tent was a sonically challenging environment but the two bands came through loud and clear thanks to a TW AUDiO PA-SYS-ONE sound system. “The Bucking A Saloon tent is roughly 60 by 120 feet, with a 25-foot peak,” relates Sean Curtis and the Divide front-of-house engineer and production manager Jared Koopman. “It is situated roughly 50 yards from the main arena and about 300 yards from main stage. As you can imagine, the tent gets quite noisy, and making the band audible over the ruckus is quite a challenge. Last year, we had significant difficulty being heard over the noise beyond the 30-foot dance floor. So this year, I knew I needed to do something before we damaged our PA system trying to make it do something it cannot do.”
Koopman discovered the TW AUDiO PA-SYS-ONE at the 2017 WFX Dallas Conference and Expo, and he realized he might have found the solution he sought. After attending a couple of demos near his home in Colorado, he was convinced and made arrangements to bring in a PA-SYS-ONE for Cheyenne Frontier Days.
The TW AUDiO PA-SYS-ONE is a complete modular system consisting of two TW AUDiO T24N tops, four B30 subwoofers, and a system amp rack with patch panel and set of cables. The T24N uses two specially designed 12-inch neodymium woofers and one 4-inch mid-high-frequency driver with a 3-inch titanium membrane, combined in a horn-in-horn construction that provides outstanding dynamic range down to 70 Hz. It’s available in easily replaceable 60° horizontal x 40° vertical or 90° x 50° coverage configurations—Koopman used the 90° x 50° option—and can deliver up to 143 dB SPL. The B30 features two 15-inch speakers in a hybrid construction that combines the advantages of bass reflex and horn systems: high efficiency, great range, and deep low-frequency response.
“Setup was very simple,” reports Koopman. “We stacked a TC24N and two B30s on each side and used the pole mount and bracket to get the height we needed for the T24Ns. We aimed the T24Ns so that the centers of the horns focused about 75 feet out and toed them in just slightly to help minimize reflections off the tent. We powered the speakers with one Lab Gruppen PLM 12k44 four-channel amplifier per side.”
Koopman was pleased to discover that with this system, his mix and sound quality remained consistent for loud and soft passages alike. “While instrumentation did drop off a bit past 80 feet or so,” he observes, “vocals were loud and clear.”
Because the tent was buffeted by an exceptional amount of low-frequency ambient noise, Koopman could have used even more subwoofers. “The system did get plenty loud, with headroom to spare,” he assures, “but two PA-SYS-ONE systems would have been ideal in that space. That would give us eight B30 subwoofers and would allow better coverage and more consistent output over the space.”
Koopman also appreciates TW AUDiO’s attention to details that make a difference. “I love the intentional design that has gone into things like the dollies, the TC30 handles, and so on,” he praises. “It really makes for a professional product that is simple to deploy.”
Of course in the end, it’s all about the sound. “All in all this system packs some serious punch,” Koopman asserts. “The band, the venue staff, and I were all impressed and happy with the PA-SYS-ONE. I enjoyed mixing on the TW AUDiO system and look forward to mixing on TW AUDiO systems again in the future.”
