With locations in Chicago, Las Vegas and Nashville, and a hectic schedule of live production work, corporate shows, product launches, TV broadcasts and special events, On Stage Audio (OSA) continues its national growth in audio rentals, service and production.
As part of that growth, OSA recently added more Martin Audio MLA and MLA Compact enclosures, resulting in OSA having the largest MLA inventory in North America. With this and other recent sales, the total number of MLA cabinets deployed worldwide is more than 3,000 cabinets at this point.
OSA vice president Jim Risgin states, “We believe in the product, technology and, most importantly, the result that MLA delivers.”
In addition to deployments of MLA and MLA Compact at corporate and special events, OSA recently equipped the pavilion stage at Ravinia Festival with the MLA system, the first new PA system at North America’s oldest music festival in a decade.
Ravinia welcomes about 600,000 guests every summer to over 100 events, including the annual residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Since Ravinia’s 1904 inception, a residential neighborhood has grown around the concert venue resulting in Ravinia becoming increasingly sensitive to containing sound within its gates.
“Sound is crucial in two ways to outdoor concert presenters who not only want to provide the best musical experience they can to their attendees but who also want to prevent that music from reaching unintended listeners,” Risgin says. “We are proud Ravinia chose us to help them present a premium customer experience and to help them be a good neighbor to the residents of its home community.
“It (MLA) is the first technology in the last 30 plus years that is truly delivering sound in a new and exciting way as far as I’m concerned. Even with the obvious benefits the Multi Cellular drive brings such as SPL control, consistent audience coverage as well as out of area rejection, it still amazes me how good it sounds every time I turn on the system.
“Simply input the room calculations and MLA in turn delivers the expected coverage as well as giving the engineer a stellar sonic canvas to work with. Now I can allocate my time to my craft and art of mixing rather than spending the time mastering conventional systems to gain similar results. This translates into a better end product for our clients as well as savings in time and labor.
“In terms of its performance, MLA never runs out, it never stops. I think it’s the best sounding system with the most even coverage out of the box. Every seat gets the same high quality sound regardless of the location, which helps our clients reduce costs for acoustical treatments in some venues. At this point, the level of the MLA system control has become second nature. For me to work on something other than MLA has become an eye-opener rather than the other way around,” Risgin concludes.
