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Parr Sound & Lighting Rolls Out RCF Line Arrays For Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Parr Sound & Lighting deploys RCF HDL 20-A line arrays at two venues during Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Nestled in the foot of the Black Hills, hundreds of thousands of bikers converge on the small town of Sturgis, South Dakota to take part in the biggest biker rally in the world.

For the last seven years, Parr Sound & Lighting, located in Great Bend, Kansas, has been on hand to assist with the sound reinforcement needs of two of the larger campground/resorts in Sturgis during the 10-day rally.

“It is a huge event for us,” explains Gary Parr, owner of Parr Sound & Lighting. “Both of the campgrounds have extremely large live entertainment venues that require sound reinforcement. They typically bring in national acts, so it’s important the sound is top of the line.”

This year Parr added 26 RCF USA HDL 20-A line arrays to his inventory and quickly put them to use for the rally in both venues.

“We’ve run a lot of gear over the years and I would compare the HDL 20-A against any of the mid-sized boxes I have ever used,” Parr adds. “The horsepower, lack of power consumption, the definition – the SPL they produce is phenomenal. We have done everybody from the Go-Go’s to Montgomery Gentry, Big & Rich and more and we have never had single engineer walk in front of these boxes and not love the product.”

The Glencoe Campground and Resort Pavilion is an enclosed bar/restaurant that seats 3,000. Parr hung left-right arrays – each consisting of 6 HDL 20-A modules – off of a load bearing roof support using half-ton motors. He ground stacked double 18-inch subs below for added low end.

“That is another nice thing about the box,” he adds. “You don’t need a big motor to hang them and you don’t need a lot of people to get it done. I’ve hung 8 per side and have been able to get all 16 boxes in the air, flown and patched, in less than an hour by myself.”

Parr also used 2 HDL 20-A stacked on top of double 18-inch subs on each side of the stage for side fill. Another pair of HDL 20-As were used for front fill.

“There is nothing this box doesn’t do well,” continues Parr. “It’s an unbelievable front fill box – engineers are thrilled because can put the full mix in these boxes without a problem – there’s enough low end to handle it.”

The Broken Spoke Saloon at the Broken Spoke Campground Resort is the other venue in town that benefits from Parr Sound & Lighting sound reinforcement. The 30,000 square foot Saloon is a two story building that accommodates 4,000. The stage is on the first floor, the second floor is a wrap around balcony that covers three sides of the building.

In this venue he hangs two more RCF HDL 20-A line arrays – this time 5 modules per array – using half-ton motors from steel ceiling girders.

“They covered the room and had plenty of headroom to spare,” Parr says. “We had some serious rock-n-roll bands including Korn, Saliva, Black Crowes, Queens of Stone Age performing – and they sounded amazing. We threw some double-18 subs under them and it was incredible.”

Parr had leased other line arrays for years before deciding to invest in a system. He was attracted to the HDL-20A because of their fidelity, headroom and size.

“The company got us a demo rig of four boxes to play with in our warehouse,” he continues. “We put some subs under them and just couldn’t make them sound bad—that helped our decision process immensely. The have been such an outstanding product for us that we are planning on expanding our inventory again next spring.”

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