The recent Live Sound International Loudspeaker Demo at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville during the annual Worship Facilities Expo (WFX) drew hundreds of audio professionals and church sound personnel over the course of its two-plus-day run.
The demo, which launched six years ago at WFX in Dallas, delivers unique side-by-side listening opportunities to evaluate top line array and loudspeaker systems in a round-robin format.
This year’s event kicked off with an evening slate of sessions for the regional pro audio community, and once again, dedicated demo sessions focusing on portable loudspeaker systems were also included, joining the popular compact system sessions.
Thirteen premium manufacturers participated in this year’s event, with the two types of sessions presenting 26 total systems. For more about each system and the demo in general, go to www.livesound-demo.com.
Participating manufacturers included:
- Adamson Systems Engineering
- Clair Brothers
- dBTechnologies
- Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW)
- Electro-Voice
- L-Acoustics
- Martin Audio
- RCF USA
- Renkus-Heinz
- Tannoy
- Turbosound
- Verity Audio
- WorxAudio Technologies & PreSonus
The Process
In both compact and portable demo areas, engineer Nicholas Radina utilized a Yamaha QL5 digital console to manage and deliver audio to each system. The QL5 was joined by Rio stage boxes for routing individual feeds to the systems, which received a choice of analog, AES Digital or Dante audio signal, delivered by Link interconnect components.
Key system gear was on a Furman F1500-UPS power conditioner/UPS, while demo host/emcee Craig Leerman was outfitted with a Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless system.
To insure sound level conformity, all systems were fed pink noise, with the designated SPL set and confirmed. This process, managed by Leerman and Radina, was based on portable metering incorporating an iSEMic 725TR base kit-2 analyzer from iSEMCon. In addition, the 10EaZy measurement platform from Rational Acoustics, receiving input from a centrally located measurement mic, supplied constant SPL readings to attendees via a large video monitor during all demo sessions.
Morris (Nashville) provided a professional lighting package for spotlighting each individual system as it was played. AE Global Media (Charlotte, NC) supplied large-format video projection utilized to provide attendees with key information on systems.
The Program
During each compact and portable session, systems are fed identical music tracks. Listeners can evaluate what they hear and also observe each system’s scale, components and other important details, in addition to getting further technical details and pricing information from qualified representatives of each company participating in the demo.
The participating manufacturers both nominated and selected (via an online voting system) the music tracks that were played. The playlist offered a diverse selection of styles, with each session featuring tracks spotlighting female and males vocals, as well as dynamic large-ensemble selections.
Many of these tracks are utilized by manufacturers in their own system demonstrations in the field. A sampling of selections played in demo sessions included tracks from Boz Scaggs (Thanks To You), Jennifer Warnes (Somewhere, Somebody), Chris Jones (No Sanctuary Here), Nora Jones (Thinking About You), Pentatonix (Rather Be), perennial favorite Tower Of Power (Once You Get A Taste), and several others.
The Prizes
Numerous lucky attendees were big winners in prize drawings following each session. Prizes included an RCF M18 digital mixer, Rational Acoustics Smaart v8 licenses and RTA 420 measurement mics, Electro-Voice ND76 vocal mics, Link mic cables, a PreSonus RC 500 channel strip, Audio-Technica ATH-M50X headphones, gift cards from retailer Sound Productions, premium compact loudspeakers from Clair Brothers, Renkus-Heinz and Tannoy, the Furman F1500-UPS power conditioner/UPS, Gig Gear production gloves, and an ES 503 portable PA system from dBTechnologies.
The Future
The next LSI Loudspeaker Demo is slated for the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in downtown Dallas, October 11-12, in conjunction with next year’s WFX show. Plans are already underway for the event, so keep an eye on ProSoundWeb for further updates in the near future. And again, for more specifics on this year’s event and the systems presented by the manufacturers, check out www.livesound-demo.com
Here’s a behind-the-scenes video of the demo put together by Nicholas, and also don’t miss the Photo Gallery Tour of the proceedings in Louisville.
