High Noon in Toledo
Shootout” a glamorous term for a well-informed decision
About four years ago, Bill Robison and the team at Great Lakes Sound
& Lighting began to get bitten by the line array bug. Happens to us all
from time to time.
But rather than acting immediately to jump on the bandwagon, Robison and
partner Todd Mitchell chose to wait, let the market settle a bit while
doing plenty of homework leading to resolution of the issue for their
self-described “small” regional production company based in Toledo, Ohio.
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I recently caught up with Robison in the midst of the culmination of this effort, in the form of a “shootout” between three leading contenders in the line array wars. The three finalists were invited to participate in a thorough head-to-head face-off for the Great Lakes crew at the main exhibit hall of the SeaGate Convention Center in downtown Toledo. The process, which involved key representatives from all three manufacturers, spanned well more than a day, with plenty of time provided beforehand for set-up and “tweak.” |
“We started looking at line array boxes several years ago. At the time,
I went to hear a (L-Acoustics) V-DOSC line array rig at a festival near
Yosemite Park, and realized this was a direction our company would need
to evolve toward,” Robison told me during a break from the action. “And
then so many new systems started hitting the market. We needed to make
sure this wasn’t the latest ‘flavor of the month,’ and in the intervening
time it’s been fine-tuned and is now obviously here to stay.”
STEADY, RELIABLE
Founded in 1985, Great Lakes Sound has steadily built a solid base of
business in the northwest Ohio/southeast Michigan region, providing sound
and lighting services for concerts, festivals, corporate/industrial and
other events. “We’re a regional company, and we know our limitations.
Our biggest asset is a dedicated staff,” Robison explains. “Anyone who
knows anything about this business knows that your success or failure
is most determined by those working in the front lines.”
A Crest-powered 48-box Adamson 200 Series loudspeaker system has served
as the heart of the company’s main rig, and still does a steady, reliable
job at larger events where it’s required. At the same time, Robison and
Mitchell kept on eye on the line array phenomenon.
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“This is the first product, in all of our years of doing this,
where the clients are specifically asking about it,” Robison notes.
“At the same time, it’s been a tough business climate. I don’t know
of very many sound guys, myself included, who are business people
by choice. But it’s a necessity as you get into this and find you
want to make a real go of it. So while it’s tempting to jump on
the latest technology, and to answer those client inquiries, you
also have to keep the bottom line at the front and center of every
decision.” |
He adds that even with cutbacks in recent years, the corporate/industrial
market is a place his company still sees good growth potential. A line
array system can help bridge to higher success in that sector. It’s logical
that the economy will snap out of its doldrums at some point, and as a
production company, Great Lakes desires to be poised to take advantage
of the upswing as soon as it happens. And at the same time, the down economy
has presented an upside.
“ Let’s face it right now we’re in a buyer’s market,” he says. “At the
present point in time, you can work the deal side of this more to your
advantage. We’re in a good position, because there are 25 to 30 different
line array models out there, from a variety of manufacturers. And with
this choice, there is maturity to the technology that has shaken out.
Often in business, it’s best to be conservative, but there are times when
you need to take risks in order to take advantage of conditions that might
not last much longer.”
SEEMINGLY AT ODDS?
The mounds of research led Great Lakes to a “final three” selection, with
all finalists quite compliant about participating in the head-to-head
evaluation, often known better in industry lore as the shootout. The models
“locked and loaded” for the contest, in alphabetical order, were an Adamson
Y10 compact system, a JBL VerTec full-size system and a Martin Audio W8LC
compact system.
Wait two compact systems and a full-size system? Shouldn’t this be an
“apples to apples” comparison? “Yes, it seems kind of at odds,” Robison
acknowledges. “But weight is one of our primary selection criteria, and
those who know can tell you that while the size differences in these models
are notable, the weight differences are not.”
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So, score one right out of the gate for JBL? Not necessarily. “One or the other of these systems might get louder than the others,
and I don’t really care,” Robison explains. “That’s not a big consideration
for us. We are doing this evaluation at similar levels to see how
each works at these levels, evaluating their performance as a line
array system, how they put sound into a space. Every box is going
to sound a bit different, and any two people are going to perceive
them as sounding different, in their own way and for their own reasons.”
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Another key factor is economics, both in terms of the purchase “deal”
as well as the key factor of cross-rentability appeal to other sound companies.
Frankly, it’s an important revenue stream for a company outside of the
constantly busy environs of a major market like New York, Chicago, Orlando,
Las Vegas, etc. Just because the owner of the system doesn’t have a gig
on a particular day doesn’t mean the system has to sit idle.
Aesthetics also enter the picture. “You hate to say it if you’re a ‘true’
sound guy, where how it sounds should be the only thing, but how the product
looks is a fact of life of the real world,” he admits.
Manufacturer support is yet another factor. Great Lakes has been happy
with its Adamson rig for several years... Score one for Adamson? Not so
fast. “Adamson has been very good to us in terms of supporting their product
and our needs,” Robison explains. “But all of these contenders were asked
to be here because our research showed that they do whatever it takes
to support their customers.”
And then there are the non-quantifiable factors that go into an investment
of this nature. In essence, what do you like, what don’t you like? Are
you comfortable with a product, got a certain feel for it? Yes, the intangible
always lurks to play a role.
THE OK CORRAL
Both compact arrays were made up of eight modules, the full-size array
was made up of seven, and all were tapered in a gentle “J” configuration.
The array size/count was about half of what Great Lakes expected to be
an investment in a system of 16 loudspeakers.
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Tom Kneisel, shop manager for Great Lakes, coordinated all system set-ups, including the flying of the arrays the day prior to the evaluation. Ken Miller of Great Lakes did a lot of the “heavy lifting” in support of Kneisel and the manufacturers. Ducks were in a row, so to speak, when it came to show time. The convention center exhibit hall proved a reasonable facsimile of “real world” conditions, the type of room where corporate/industrial shows are held every day. Runs of carpeting were placed on the floor in front of the arrays to help lessen any initial slap off the hard concrete, but that was the only “special” consideration made in the environment. |
“For some applications, this isn’t the ideal space with its hard surfaces,
but in other ways, it is. In any evaluation, you have to read between
the lines a little bit,” Robison explains. “In some ways, I’d like to
be doing this in a shed or outdoors, but that’s not possible.”
Each manufacturer was allowed to supply its own amplification, bringing
up another interesting point. (For the record, JBL was powered by Crown,
while Lab.Gruppen drove both Martin Audio and Adamson.) Great Lakes ultimately
hoped to be able to use its existing racks with the new boxes, but didn’t
necessarily want to close the door on a more optimal approach.
As a result, the company’s current Crest-loaded racks were also evaluated
with each system, all headed by XTA DP226 digital processors. Klark-Teknik
third-octave graphics were in the front-of-house racks for tweaking, but
weren’t really touched, while the console was a Yamaha PM3500.
“The XTA processors are some of the finest units available, and we’ve
already determined that we’re going to have them in our racks with whatever
loudspeakers we choose,” Robison adds. “Our view is that they’re the best
DSP out there in a single rack space. The bottom line on amps is that
most are pretty darn good in terms of beefiness and sound quality, and
they’re priced similarly. We’ve got Crest for our big rig, and they’ve
served us well, but there’s a lot of good choices.”
DRAW!
Shootout day dawned with each manufacturer allowed to show off its respective
system the way it wanted them heard, including choice of amps, racks and
specific processor settings. Later, Great Lakes patched in its own racks.
In initial testing, Robison and crew walked the room, listening to individual
groups of boxes, evaluating their dynamics, smoothness, and they like,
and also how each reacted both within the room and to different console
and processor adjustments. Test source material included a diverse assortment
of musical tracks, from Tower of Power to James Taylor to Earth Wind &
Fire and several others. Robison tested vocal intelligibility and reproduction
as he walked around the room with a Shure SM58 in hand.
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Meanwhile, Cliff Fuller, systems engineer for Great Lakes, used
his SIA SMAART-Live rig to evaluate what was happening with each
system from a more clinical data perspective. He was also saving
and storing this data, for later evaluation by the team. |
And on it went for several hours. Bursts of demo, serious evaluation,
and then break time to walk outside and digest. After a couple of hours,
I comment to Robison that all three systems seem to be performing very
well indeed, that coverage is smooth, full, solid and dynamic throughout
the listening area. Intelligibility seems quite commensurate as well
all statements with which he enthusiastically concurs. So, tough choice
would it be Martin Audio?
Great Lakes wasn’t tipping its hand. In fact, the final decision wouldn’t
be made for at least a week, after the team had a chance to get some perspective,
compare notes and fully discuss every aspect of what they’d experienced.
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“I’m sure there are some things, as we get further away from it, that I would have done differently, but that’s the way it goes,” Robison tells me as I prepare to depart. “We don’t have this type of opportunity very often, and in fact, I don’t know how many people doing this work for a living get this type of opportunity. It’s very fortunately for us that the manufacturers have set this up and provided A-line staff for it. They’re making it as good as possible. “I feel this has been fair and equitable to all parties, and they’ve
certainly all been impressive,” he concludes. “After 18 years, we’ll
likely survive anything, but at the same time, we’re talking huge
dollars and this is critical to our success. So, we’re going to
analyze it, probably to death, compare notes, and make the decision.”
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This shootout was so well done and well supported that no one deserved
to “lose.” I can honestly say that another sound company might have come
to a different conclusion, and they wouldn’t have been disappointed.
So, curious readers... You can find the answer contained somewhere else
in this issue of Live Sound. Happy hunting!
Keith Clark is editor of Live Sound and can be reached at kclark@livesoundint.com. He sincerely thanks Great Lakes Sound & Lighting, as well as the manufacturers involved, for allowing him access to this event.
September 2003 Live Sound International