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United We Soar: Hillsong Tour Well-Equipped For The Arena Scene

“From the beginning of the signal chain to the end – it all sounds exactly how we want it to.” - Steve Pippett, Hillsong United

“If you told me five years ago that we would be touring with four trucks, three busses and a full production team, I would have been shocked,” states James Rudder, front of house engineer for Hillsong United, the Australian praise and worship organization that originated as a part of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia.

“It all started when we were invited to play at some churches in Canada back in 2002 and grew from there,” he continues. “We went from playing small churches to larger churches, then to mega churches and small theaters, and eventually we ended where we are today – selling out large arenas.”

Hillsong United’s Aftermath tour, which began earlier this year, is appearing regularly throughout the U.S. in compact 3-week segments. As with each previous tour, it features a unique approach this time out, fronted by worship leaders Joel Houston, Jad Gillies and JD working with a team that is an evolving collaboration of pastors, worship leaders, musicians and songwriters.

One thing that has remained the same, however, is system provider Mid America Sound of Greenfield, IN (Indianapolis), headed by co-founder Kerry Darrenkamp, which has supported United tours for the past several years.

A staple of the company’s inventory, an L-Acoustics K1 system, has been out with Aftermath since it began in February. Although the components have remained the same, the configuration of the K1 elements for each segment of the tour have been modified to best meet specific venue and coverage criteria.

A scene from the latest Hillsong United Aftermath tour. (click to enlarge)

“Ricki Cook, our system designer, has come out to help implement the system with each of the runs this year,” explains Steve Pippett, production manager for Hillsong United. “Most of the modifications have been in the configuration of the K1SB (dual 15-in) subwoofers. Our most recent setup has been to fly eight per side, equidistant behind the K1 main array and the KUDO arrays used for out fill. It sounds great.”

Same Experience
Generally, a Hillsong United arena system consists of flown left-right K1 line arrays each made up of 12 boxes, joined by flown left-right KUDO line arrays for out fill (also 12 boxes each); and the aforementioned K1SB subs flown eight per side. The low end is further bolstered by 16 L-Acoustics SB28 (dual 18-in) subwoofers.

Key production team members (left to right) Steve Pippett (production manager), James Rudder (house engineer), and Brad Law (monitor engineer). (click to enlarge)

The normal scenario is four groups of four SB28s, stacked in a two over two configuration with a single sub reversed (the bottom one closest to center stage of each group), and fed the cardioid preset in the LA8 amplifier controllers. L-Acoustics KARA modules are deployed strategically to provide down fill and front fill where needed.

“It may seem like overkill, but it’s very important to us that all of the seats – even those in the upper balconies – have the same overall audio experience that I have at front of house,” Rudder says. “I like L-Acoustics because it maintains consistent tone for everything from acoustic sets to huge rock n’ roll songs, handling all decibel levels without a problem.” K1 array modules (dual 15-in, quad 6.5-in, three 3-in drivers) combine a 3-way, quad-amplified enclosure with the company’s proprietary Wavefront Sculpture Technology.

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