3G Productions of Las Vegas and Los Angeles provided Martin Audio MLA for Calibash Los Angeles, held recently at the Staples Center and billed as “the leading urban Latin music festival in the world.”
The SRO concert featured a diverse group of acts including headliner Cuban American rapper Pitbull of “Don’t Stop The Party” fame along with Carlos Vives, Tego Calderon, reggaeton artists Wisin and J Alvarez, Don Omar, Becky G, Maluma, 3BallMTY, ChocQuibTown, Plan B, Farruko and Gente de Zona.
The system supplied by 3G Productions included 16 MLA and 2 MLD (down fill) a side for the main hangs; 16 MLA Compacts for side hangs; 8 MLA Compacts for the 270-degree hang and 28 MLX subs in double stacks––24 across the stage and a pair on each side pointed 90 degrees to the audience.
Mixing consoles at front of house included two pairs of Yamaha PM5D’ for the festival and an AVID VENUE Profile for headliner Pitbull.
“We also used Martin Audio DD12s for the front fills,”says 3G systems engineer Manny Perez. “They were awesome; really smooth, clear and responsive, like the whole system.
“In fact, the whole show went really well and all of the band’s FOH engineers were happy, even ecstatic at some points. It was kind of like playtime for them; they didn’t know what else they could do for their mix, which was a real change of pace. They ended up just hanging out, listening to each other’s mix, watching what the other guys were doing. They all really enjoyed the MLA system. They’d all heard about it but many hadn’t mixed on a big PA like that before.
Perez concludes, “The MLA rig was great, we had plenty of headroom and there were smiles all round the room. At the level the engineers had it, which was close to 105 or 106 dB, they were wondering what else they could do, because instead of struggling at that point, it was perfect. They also loved the sub bass being so powerful and smooth.”
