With a price of $3,500, admission to Elton John’s Oscars party this year was far from the cheapest seat in town when it came to finding a place to watch the awards show. But with the proceeds going to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the soiree at the Pacific Design Center was still considered the best place to see and be seen on Oscars night by some 650 celebrities not attending the ceremony itself.
Feted to a cocktail reception and a five-course dinner while they watched the televised event, guests also participated in an auction, and were treated to a performance by Sir Elton and R&B star Raphael Saadiq. Provided by Sante Fe Springs, California-based Goodman Audio, sound reinforcement for the event relied upon 16 WideLine-10 cabinets from QSC Audio flown eight-per-side to the right and left of the main stage.
Certainly not strangers within the world of celebrity galas, Goodman Audio has, in recent weeks, installed WideLine systems at events ranging from the Producer’s Guild Awards and a Screen Actors Guild party on January 25th to the Governor’s Ball and InStyle magazine’s viewing party on Oscars night.
Run in a stereo, tri-amped, standard spiral configuration, cabinets within the WideLine-10 arrays were separated by one degree until the very bottom, where a two degree splay was used. Performing within the confines of a deep and narrow space measuring approximately 40 feet across and 120 feet from front to rear, the rig was implemented with the aid of EASE modeling.
“EASE got us in the ballpark,” Goodman Audio founder and principal Trace Goodman says of the project. “Then we made some adjustments because it wasn’t necessarily giving us what we were looking for on all levels. We made some decimal changes, dropped the bottom boxes, and did a little shading.”
Lauded by many in the business for their sonic quality, compact size, and wide, 140-degree horizontal dispersion, the WideLines may be considered by some to be more aptly suited to a wider space than the one Sir Elton’s bash occupied.
Goodman, however, notes: “These arrays were made for this space. The way they interact-even in close proximity to one another as they were here-is surprising. Had I used traditional 90-degree cabinets, there would have been an abundance of comb filtering. The WideLines, however, are so smooth that even if you stood far off axis to one side, you could still plainly hear the other array because of the wide dispersion. WideLines are democratic. They produce an aural image that everyone can hear more equally throughout a room.”
