MARTIN AUDIO W8L LONGBOW LINE ARRAYS INVADE AMERIC

KROQ's LA Invasion 2007 concert at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, a 27.000-seat soccer stadium that's home to the LA Galaxy, provided an ideal setting for Martin Audio's high performance W8L Longbow line array system.

The W8L Longbow, already featured at major U.S. concert events such as the Virgin Festival in Pimlico, Maryland, Capital Jazz Fest in Columbia and this summer's KROQ Weenie Roast, is specifically designed to project sound, particularly higher frequencies, longer distances while maintaining maximum clarity and low end impact.

All of which was particularly appropriate for the LA Invasion show given a lineup that included Paramore, Perry Farrell's Satellite Party, Kid Rock, Velvet Revolver, Foo Fighters, Cypress Hill, Chris Cornell and Smashing Pumpkins.

As system engineer/designer Bryan Bazilsky from Delicate Productions in Camarillo, California describes the event, 'it was loud from start to finish. There was a lot of sound in the stadium because the bands were mixing at typically loud rock concert levels from 104 to 107 dB.'

Asked why the Longbow arrays were particularly well suited to this type of event, Bazilsky explains, 'We were in a soccer stadium and it was 490 feet to the back of the seats, so the speakers had to project long. The Longbow throws longer than the W8L, or anything else for that matter. Martin designed the Longbow with stadiums and arenas in mind. They worked really well for this show. The high-end coverage was more than adequate and everything sounded great. The engineers and crew were very happy with them.'

According to Bazilsky, 'the actual PA hangs for the show consisted of twelve W8L Longbow cabinets with four Martin Audio W8LC enclosures as underhangs. There were also six W8LS sub bass per side outside of the mains and for the sides we hung a cluster of twelve Martin Audio W8LC line array cabinets per side. On the deck, we used eight Martin Audio W8LM line array cabinets as front fill and 24 2 x 18" sub bass enclosures per side.

'The entire system was powered with racks of Martin Audio MA4.2 amplifiers. We also used Martin Audio LE700 wedge monitors on stage, two BSX sub bass cabinets for drum fills, two F1T cabinets for mid/hi per side of the turntable and two F28 bass cabinets and F2 Combis per side for side fill.'

Other system components included Yamaha PM5D-RH consoles provided by Delicate for FOH, with several acts bringing in their own Digico D5 and Digidesign Profile consoles. The system control was an input matrix created from 3 BSS Soundweb 9088iis and then all system control was Dolby Lake processors with a HP tablet.

As a leader in line array technology over the years, Martin Audio continues to push the envelope with its highly acclaimed Wavefront systems. The Longbow array features patent-pending technology designed to provide an exceptional degree of control over the curvature of the high frequency vertical wavefront. The company's research has shown that even very long-throw systems benefit from a small, but specific amount of wavefront curvature. By coupling this technology with significant advances in high frequency device design, they've created a quad-driver, high frequency system with a significant 10dB greater output capability over the W8L enclosure.

This additional high frequency headroom allows the W8L Longbow to handle the most adverse atmospheric conditions that can severely attenuate high frequencies over long distances, a typical aspect of most sporting venues where outdoor concerts are usually staged.

The Longbow has the same 15' Hybrid™ bass horn design responsible for the tight, punchy and extended low frequency performance of the W8L. A completely new ultra-long excursion driver allows the W8L Longbow to displace almost twice the volume of air as the W8L when driven with the same input signal. This advance lifts the already exceptional low-end performance to a new level and extends the low frequency -3dB point down to 35Hz.

Now that W8L Longbow has now proved itself capable of superior audio performance over longer distances under the most challenging circumstances in a variety of arenas, stadiums and race courses, Martin Audio has once again set the standard for line arrays 'as far as sound can travel.'