'SMOOTH' SOUND OF MARTIN AUDIO AT SACRAMENTO

Held annually, Country in the Park is a one-day country music festival put on by local radio station KNCI 105.1 FM that takes place on the Capital Mall between the state capital and the Sacramento River.

Featuring Dierks Bentley, Jack Ingram and other leading country artists, the festival actually spreads out over 4 blocks with an 11,000 in attendance.

Sound was provided by Sacramento Production Services, specifically with Keith Wackford at FOH, Dwaine Wise on Monitors and Rick Stansby as System Tech. In order to get the proper coverage for the fairly narrow but deep concert area, SACPS used 32 Martin Audio W8LC line array enclosures with14 Martin W8LS subwoofers, 8 WLX subwoofers, Martin LE1500 floor monitors and W8C and S218s for sidefills.

Other key equipment for the show included AmpLab Gruppen PLM 10000Q, PLM 14000 & QSC PL380, PL236 amplifiers; Yamaha PM5D and Yamaha M7CL mixers, and Shure R series wireless microphones.

Asked why Sacramento Production Services chose Martin Audio, Wackford stated, 'It's what the client wanted and needed. The trim height was a major factor. The uneven ground on which the roof structure was placed made getting as many speakers in as we could with what little trim height would be left very close.

'In the initial planning phase with the stage/roof company, we were going with 12 W8LCs per side which would land the PA just over the top of the sound wings. But things always change, so we ended up being able to squeeze in 10 boxes per side. After looking at SPL coverage using Martin Audio's display program to confirm that we would be fine with volume and coverage, we made last minute angle changes to the hangs and went with 10 boxes per side.'

Keith added, 'For sub placement we went with ground stacks of 4x3x3x4 of Martin W8LS dual 18' subwoofers. Our System Tech, Rick Stansby and company president Steve Palmer were both amazed at how much low end was available from the Martin W8LS subwoofers. We could have turned off half the 14 subs and still had sufficient low-end to handle the needs of the artists!'

'All I can say is that we're never disappointed with Martin Audio. Their W8LC speakers are extremely smooth sounding, easy to rig and compact i.e. truck friendly. It's a very versatile speaker. From 4 boxes hung on a tower doing smooth Jazz in a court yard to 16 deep per side doing Reggae in 10,000 capacity outdoor shed, the system just works great. And as with the rest of our Martin W series speakers, the W8LC's require very little EQ right out of the gate.'

Further information from:

Maureen Hayes, Martin Audio
Tel: +44 (0)1494 535312
Fax: +44 (0)1494 438669

Jerry Gilbert, JGP Public Relations
Tel: +44 (0)1707 258525
Fax: +44 (0)1707 267140