The annual AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, played at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course and the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course, features an all-star lineup of both pros and celebrities. Run almost entirely by volunteers, the golf tournament is one of the Monterey Peninsula’s largest fundraisers, doling out six million dollars to local non-profits and other youth-oriented charities each year.
Clint Eastwood heads up a prestigious evening party honoring the volunteers, with Spider Ranch Productions (San Francisco) chosen once again to provide full technical production at the Monterey Conference Center in the 19,600-square-foot Serra Ballroom. The lineup of artists at the event included Jake Owen, Kenny G, Ray Romano, Clay Walker, Joe Don Rooney, Gary Mule Deer, Michael Bolton, Colt Ford, Larry the Cable Guy, Huey Lewis, Charles Kelly, Bill Hopkins Band, and of course, Eastwood as the main host.
The audio design included three VUE Audiotechnik al-4 compact line arrays on delay in support of the main system. The al-4 arrays are powered by proprietary V4 systems engines with built in DSP and networking capabilities. SystemVUE software allows remote control of independent elements, or a system as a whole.
The biggest challenge that faced the audio production was dealing with the low 15-foot ceiling without obscuring sightlines and still provide perfect coverage and sound quality for the delays. “We used the al-4s here last year and they were a dramatic improvement in several ways over loudspeakers we have used in past years,” states Spider Ranch owner Alex Moran. “Due to the venue’s small ceiling heights the VUE al-4 line array was the ideal choice for this delay application. The line array’s small footprint solved the sightline dilemma.
“Additionally,” he continues, “the low ceiling height made traditional rigging options unavailable, so the delay loudspeakers needed to be dead hung. This was not a problem with the al-4s since they are so lightweight a single technician took the entire array up in a scissor lift and easily hung it. Solving these problems and having a quality loudspeaker system that exhibits excellent definition and clarity makes the al-4 a perfect fit for this kind of job.”
This year Spider Ranch added the recently released al-4-sb flyable isobaric subwoofer to each delay hang. The compact al-4-sb has two long-excursion 15-inch transducers with neodymium magnets and 4-inch voice coils placed front-to-front in an isobaric configuration.
“We used the al-4-sb as a low frequency component companion to the al-4s,” Moran explains. “This brought out the true nature of the music being performed on stage a 110 feet away to the people at the rear of the hall. At this event everyone is important and the sound quality everywhere is paramount. I’m very pleased with the addition of these compact isobaric cabinets.”