Bluegrass guitarist Billy Strings, who has ascended from van-and-trailer gigs to arena performances, is being supported on his current tour by a sound reinforcement system headed by Meyer Sound PANTHER large-format linear line arrays supplied by Nashville-based Major Tom US.
The regular tour schedule took a pause at the end of September for the third annual Billy Strings Renewal Festival in the mountain valley of Buena Vista, CO. Here, with the timely arrival of custom cabling and infrastructure from EMG, the tour’s complement of PANTHER loudspeakers became one of the first to connect all audio and telemetry directly to each loudspeaker cabinet via a Milan AVB network.
“In June we transitioned from the LEO and LYON system we had for the first part of the tour to the new PANTHER rig and it’s working out great on all fronts,” reports production manager/monitor engineer Charlie Bryson. “Andy [Lytle], our FOH engineer, mixed on PANTHER at last year’s Peach Festival and he loved it straight off the bat. Bluegrass is midrange-heavy by nature, which can be challenging with some systems, but with PANTHER the subtle tonal qualities of the instruments easily shine through. It doesn’t color the sound in any way.”
Lytle adds that PANTHER hit the right note when he mixed his first set at the Peach Festival: “The main stage was under a tent enclosure, and that can make it really hard to mix instruments like banjo. But I immediately noticed how clean and clear the instruments sounded. Everything was distinct — never washy but cutting through cleanly.”
In a typical arena configuration, the dual main arrays of 12-each PANTHER loudspeakers are bolstered on the low end by 12 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements. Additionally, PANTHER loudspeakers are used as side hangs.
“Overall, the system is much smaller and lighter,” Bryson states. “The truck space for loudspeakers is close to half of what we needed before, and of course, the weight is drastically reduced. We are out on tour almost constantly, so the incremental savings on fuel consumption add up and make a significant difference. Also, it’s easier to rig in some challenging rooms, like the older large theaters with structural weight limits. With PANTHER, we can hang more boxes for better overall room coverage.”
The newly inaugurated complete Milan AVB connection incorporates primary and secondary networks using Luminex Gigacore 30i switches linked via Opticore trunk lines. “The Milan network gives us easy control and information access to and from each box,” says Jimmy Marsh, the tour’s systems engineer. “And our cable looms are smaller while still having individual box tunings. Also, we are doing a wide range of venues over the year, so not being locked into a fixed number of zones per array really gives us more flexibility in array sizes.”
Billy Strings was just hitting his stride as a top-level touring act in 2019, following the release of his chart-topping album, Home, when the pandemic hit. Strings bridged the gap with a short series of drive-in parking lot concerts in 2020, deploying Meyer Sound LEOPARD systems provided by DBS Audio Systems of Coatesville, PA.
The 2023 tour schedule extends through New Year’s Eve, with the final three shows at the Uno Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. In November, the tour jumps the Atlantic for 11 shows in Europe and the UK.
