ACS Taps EAW For Largest Political Rally In SC History
The campaign for the U.S. presidency kicked into high-octane mode last week as Oprah Winfrey joined Democratic candidate Barack Obama at Williams-Brice Football Stadium in Columbia, SC, where ACS Sound & Lighting delivered EAW-based sound reinforcement for the more than 30,000 people at the largest political rally in South Carolina history.
ACS Co-Owner Troy Gwin and his crew’s concert-level system effort was headed by EAW KF760 Series large-format line arrays joined by EAW KF730 Series small-format line arrays, with several EAW BH760 “SuperSubs” also on hand for pounding low-end for musical artists such as Arrested Development.
ACS, also based in Columbia, provided “in the round” coverage of the audience surrounding the main stage at one end of the stadium, with organizers adamant that the PA stay out of crowd and TV camera sightlines.
The KF760 line arrays and BH760 subs were transported down to field level from the stadium scoreboard, supplied by ACS through the 2007 football season to deliver reinforcement at University of South Carolina Gamecocks home games. They were joined by KF730 Series line array inventory, with Gwin utilizing the EAW Wizard software program to help with initial system configuration and then doing his own detailed tailoring.
All main system loudspeakers were located at the far edges of the press stages. Two ground stacks of KF760 Series line arrays, including KF761 wide-dispersion modules, provided the longest throw coverage, while two more ground stacks of KF730 Series line arrays handled the nearer regions. The KF760’s were stacked using EAW’s new KF760 fly bars, which proved quite handy on the project.
“The new fly bars are really great – I can’t say enough about how easy they are to use while allowing us to precisely aim and angle the coverage,” Gwin notes. “As a result, the system was absolutely dialed in, with exceptional coverage from the main stage all the way to the ‘nose-bleed’ sections more than 400 feet away.”