The recent 2024 edition of the annual Coachella festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA presented a reimagined Do LaB electronic music stage equipped with a main sound reinforcement system utilizing Meyer Sound PANTHER large-format line arrays to support performances from the likes of Chase & Status, Alesso, Anna Lunoe, and DJ Tennis, plus surprise appearances including back-to-back sets by Kaskade and Alison Wonderland and an impromptu party hosted by Billie Eilish.
Do LaB’s new MACROdose stage is a departure from the tent designs of recent years, presented in an open-air forest of music and lights nestled under a canopy of fabric sculptures. “MACROdose was a return to our roots of building stand-alone structures that create an immersive environment,” says Do LaB co-founder Jesse Flemming, who designed the experience. “This also gave the opportunity for the crowd to expand much farther than in years past, and we saw some of our biggest audiences ever.”
MACROdose’s open design and intricate structural elements required a low-profile sound system with the ability to cover the expanded audience zone, which extended 300 feet from the stage. “We were going for our best options for the position of the PA and how much weight the designers should calculate for in their engineering,” explains audio crew chief and systems engineer Ian Ingram, who serves many roles at Do LaB, from designing and proving the sound system to mixing front of house. “It’s not like a big tent, it’s not like an arena.”
Ingram, who began providing audio for Do LaB in 2008, sought to bring the PANTHER large-format linear array loudspeaker into the newest stage design. “Only PANTHER would allow for this kind of rigging with this kind of output on this structure,” he says. “For 150 pounds, for the amount of output, it easily hits above its weight. Its power-to-weight ratio is on a whole different scale. It’s insane.”
Meyer Sound’s Josh Dorn-Fehrmann worked with Ingram to design a system centered around PANTHER arrays and 2100-LFC low-frequency control elements. “Because it’s EDM, because it’s really fast drum and bass music, it was the perfect showcase for PANTHER and the 2100-LFC,” he says. “Those loudspeakers are incredibly fast. And, with PANTHER being so light and yet so powerful, we were able to really home in on getting nice angle sets and throwing over 300 feet and making it really powerful so that the kids had a good show.”
The Do LaB sound system, provided by Los Angeles-based integrator Launch, comprised 10 PANTHER-L array modules flown per side, supplemented by four PANTHER-W front fills and 18 2100‑LFC low-frequency elements configured in a gradient arc to help deliver bass impact while keeping low-frequency energy contained, preventing bleed to other stages.
Six flown LEOPARD compact line array loudspeakers per side served as delays. The team implemented an outer ring of 10 ULTRA-X40 compact loudspeakers as lateral surrounds, in a configuration recommended by Meyer Sound senior technical support specialist David Vincent. The entire system ran on a MILAN AVB network and was controlled by Galileo GALAXY 816 and 408 network platforms.
The first time I heard PANTHER in action, I was blown away by the system’s clarity and power,” says Flemming. “Every beat hit with precision.”
“With the open environment, people could wander out to the edges and chill, enjoy the lighting, the video, the structure, and the music without having to squeeze inside to experience great sound,” adds Ingram, adding that he received positive feedback on Do LaB’s sound from everyone from artists to fans. “I’ve had engineers from other stages come by and say, ‘This sounds great.’ Guest engineers have been really happy with the PA. And the audience has literally been turning around and thanking me for the audio.”
