PhotoBlog: Catalyst 2008 – Day 1
I had the privilege of lurking behind the scenes this afternoon at Catalyst thanks to all my good friends who were crewing the conference.
Here are some details on the PA:
Tops: d&b C series
Downfills: d&b Q series
Subs: d&b B2’s
Driverack was a Lake
FOH console: Digidesign Profile w/ 96 inputs
MON console: Yamaha PM1D
Here are some photos:
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So I have a question for you… Why do they have the C7’s or 4’s on top then the Q7 on bottom? Why are they not just going 6 – 8 Q1’s and 1 Q 7 on Bottom? Are the flying any Q Subs at all or Only the B2’s?
I guesss I dont undersand why they arnt doing a full Line Array. But even though its not- it bet it sounds good!
Since I wasn’t directly involved in the event, I can’t specifically comment on why certain decisions were made. However, knowing what the crew is capable of both designing and deploying I would hypothesize decisions were made based on budget and available inventory.
For what it was, I thought all parties did a good job. All the subs were on the floor. The Q’s that I saw weren’t part of the main hangs. They were supplemental and hidden up in the truss.
Having advanced the show I can tell you that the PA choice was not decided upon because of budget reasons or availability. It was specified because in the round, the C series makes a lot more sense. You can hang it with 8 motors total and it covers the room better. To do this room in the round correctly with Line arrays you would need 12 to 16 motor points(6 to 8 clusters as opposed to 4, 4 wide 6 deep clusters) depending on how you would want to split it. The reason I say 16 points is because with the video screen placement, ideally there would need to be a cluster for coverage on each side of the 4 projection screens. There would need to be 2 clusters on each side playing the long throw of the arena. You could cover the short throw of the arena with 1 cluster of J12’s on each side but again video projection was in the way and the only place to hang would be above the projection screens. Also because of projection screen placement, the side PA would actually be hanging above the crowd in the seats in the arena. (which is not the easiest place to deploy line array stacks when they come in 4 high on a cart) You would have to lift the boxes up off the floor level, and let the clusters swing over the elevated seating. Doing this for 10 or 12 boxes would be very difficult. To solve that problem, you could again hang on each side of the projection screens on the short throw ends of the arena but that would mean you are using 16 points for audio. When it all comes down to it, the C series was specified because it can turn the corner and is a great sounding box. The rig consists of C3, C4, C4 sub, and C7. Q7 and Q10 for near fill on lighting truss and front fill and B2 subs ground stacked. Each cluster can cover a total of about 135 degrees wide. The maximum you would be able to get out of a Q rig would be 70 degrees, and a J rig would be 120. As great as line arrays are, they are not the solution for everything. As far as the consoles are concerned, the Digidesign was requested because Dustin was very familiar with the venue platform. Monitors were kept as a PM1D because it can handle the mix outs that a show like catalyst requires.
And that’s exactly why I shouldn’t bother speculating on things. Thanks for the info, Kyle!
Great shots!!! I was such an incredible few days it is hard to know what to do with that much information. Love the control room shots, not something everyone gets to see, thanks for posting them.
Dave! I hate that I missed you while I was at Catalyst. At one point I wasn’t sure I was going to make it but then I decided to drop everything and go. Now, I know why. God had something to say!
Great photos! I could see the monitor station from where I was at but I never did see FOH. The sound in the arena was incredible. Those guys did an excellent job. There a few eq issues but dealing with that many different speakers and vocalist and musicians that is to be expected.
Who can speak to the LED mesh at center stage? I would love to know more about it.
Thanks for clarifying that! That makes alot of sense about the motor points! Thanks again.
i was at catalyst and it was killer…. great mixes and major cudos to the FOH engineer especially during the african choir and the cloggers…
the d & b riggs sound great!
Thanks for the kind words on the mix. Like any gig it had its challenges, especially with the multitude of bands and performers. It was fun though. I hope to have a Blog of some sort soon, I think Kyle was asking about that. If you guys ever come by Buckhead Church stop by and say hi!