POC Media is in its sixth season of providing product marketing opportunities via the SMI (Speedway Motor Sports) Sound Stage for clients like Webasto and Bass Pro Shop.
With the Sound Stage becoming the centerpiece of NASCAR midway festivities, POC selected loudspeakers from Cerwin Vega Professional to provide quality sound to counteract the twin challenges of Mother Nature and loud cars.
POC Media CEO Pat O’Connor elaborates, “If you’re going to be outside, you need durable equipment that sounds great across 500 feet of space.”
“Cerwin Vega was our first choice for these events, because it’s simply the best-sounding and most reliable audio gear—we’re handling eleven racing weekends, with three races per weekend, from Bristol to Charlotte to Atlanta and more. I’ve been using Cerwin Vega since I was in my first band as a teenager—I still have the dual 15 speaker enclosure, and it still works great—which tells you something about these speakers.”
O’Connor and his front of house engineer, Andrew Roomberg, have developed a live sound strategy that integrates the Cerwin Vega CVA 28 (dual 8-inch powered speakers) in a way where they achieve a sound field appropriate to their needs.
Roomberg states, “We don’t need to hang Line Arrays because of the configuration we do by spacing four sets of three CVA 28 clusters. It gives us a satisfying, even, crystal-clear audio signal which you would have a hard time obtaining with Line Arrays. What’s more, the stages have to withstand swirling and gusting winds, sometimes up to 50 MPH. By using this cluster set up with CV speakers, there’s also less of a chance of torque happening.”
Roomberg’s gear list for these events includes the aforementioned CVA 28 speaker clusters along with Cerwin Vega 118 subwoofers and six Cerwin Vega P -1152 passives for monitors, powered by three Cerwin Vega 2800 amplifiers. Rounding out his gear list are Shure SM-58 and wireless Beta 58 microphones, Neumann KS 160 and Rode NT-5s for drums, with Shure SM 57s miking the guitar amps. A Midas M-32 handles front of house mixing.
Roomberg adds “A NASCAR event is sensory overload at times. You can have 40 cars practicing while a live band is onstage. We need loudness, but it has to be balanced and even. The key with Cerwin Vega speakers is that you can get close to the stage without being overpowered, and far away but still hear the full frequency range—not just bass.”
O’Connor’s idea for a customized music venue activation that could appeal to the demographic at NASCAR’s racing events has been a definite hit. According to O’Connor, “Motor sports are great exposure for brands because of the broad demographic and the fact that it’s a three-day event.”
Although POC services stadiums and arenas around the U.S. with both new music and classic tracks, O’Connor sums up the satisfaction that comes in delivering exactly what he promised despite an unusually demanding scenario: “Being out with the crowds and entertaining them is very satisfying to me. When we put on a show at these races, there are 30 other attractions going on that the crowds can check out—the fact that our Cerwin Vega rig can hit 90 dB at 500 feet with clean, clear sound and entice people to our sponsors’ attractions is exactly what we promised and why they hired us. The SMI Sound Stage has become the centerpiece of the midway fan zone at NASCAR races, and Cerwin Vega’s outstanding sound has been a big part of this.”
