American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Chicago, held on the Stadium Green of Soldier Field, is the Society’s largest annual breast cancer event in Illinois.
With more than 10,000 people in attendance, roughly 200,000 square feet in coverage area, multiple landmarks and varying angles, this event is a daunting task for even the biggest and best production companies.
RME Audio Video (RME AV, Joliet, IL) was invited to bid on this event for the American Cancer Society because of its involvement with one of the largest Relay For Life walks at Joliet Memorial Stadium/ATI Field.
“We’ve been involved for years with Relay For Life and we’ve grown the production as the event has grown. These days we run a main stage, multiple delay towers and tap into the stadium sound system, as well as provide the video production and programming support for the video scoreboard during the luminaria ceremony. It really is a sight to see and hear,” says Jim Richards Sr., president of RME AV.
“The local Making Strides team was a bit apprehensive, given the event scope and significance, and with this being our first year (at the event). We assured them all along the way that we had it all covered, and the moment they heard the system during sound check the day before, it was all smiles from there on out.”
RME AV provided a StageLine SL100 and flew five EAW KF730s per side for the far-field audio. Four EAW SB850 subwoofers were clustered under the center of the stage and six EAW JF80s were on deck to round out the main stage package.
For coverage beyond the main area, RME AV deployed five JBL Eon 612s with its AirNetix AiRocks Pro ARX-900 wireless audio systems. Rounding out the setup was four JBL AM4212/64s in three different audio zones at the start line.
Jim Richards Jr., vice president of RMEAV, states, “We love these AirNetix units. With the tough RF environment of downtown (Chicago), the advanced frequency selection, hop, delay, gain and complete remote monitoring capabilities made these units the only logical choice in this type of situation.
“They’ve yet to fail us on any project and only further reinforces that we made the right decision in becoming a dealer for AirNetix,” he concludes.
