Held over the weekend of June 23rd and 24th, 2018, the San Francisco Pride Celebration and Rally featured 20 live-music and performance stages celebrating the energy and diversity of the LGBTQ community. Sound Image San Francisco handled production for 11 of the 20 total event stages and deployed their entire VUE Audiotechnik arsenal for 7 of them, including the main stage located at the steps of the city’s iconic City Hall.
According to George Edwards, Sound Image San Francisco’s general manager, VUE made the particularly challenging event more manageable thanks to the brand’s Continuous Source Topology (CST) technology, that allows the seamless combination of al-class line array elements to build complex hybrid arrays to meet the unique needs of each performance venue. “The beauty of VUE is that we could quickly — and flawlessly — mix and match elements and deliver spectacular performance on each stage,” explains Edwards.
While the main stage was functional for the entire weekend, a handful of the remaining stages — showcasing everything from Pacific Islander Culture to Trance – were set up overnight on Saturday for use on Sunday only. According to Edwards, the setup logistics were particularly challenging.
“Driving in San Francisco is challenging on a good day, but when you’re driving trucks in and out and navigating 1 million spectators in a 36-square-mile city, that makes for a pretty wild ride. All the more reason we love the VUE al-Class since setup is a breeze and they require little to any tuning once flown. We absolutely love this PA,” says Edwards.
For the Main Stage, Sound Image deployed 12 VUE al-12 large format acoustic linearity line arrays per side, supported with 16 hs-221 infrasonic ACM subwoofers and al-8’s for front fill. The monitor system utilized hm-112 and hm-212 Mike Adams monitors and h-12s and hs-28s for side fills, while VUEDrive Systems Engines provided networked DSP and amplification.
Following are the configurations for each of the remaining six VUE-powered stages:
— Faerie Freedom Village Stage
3x a-12 per side, 3x V4 systems engines
— Castro Country Club Sober Stage
4x al12 per side, 2x al4SB flyable subwoofers per side, 2x a12 as monitors, and 3x V4 systems engines
— Asian & Pacific Islander Community Pride Stage & Pavilion
4x al-8 per side, 3x al-8SB flyable subwoofers per side, 4x hm-112s, 3 x V6 and 2x V4 systems engines
— Official SF Pride VIP Party at City Hall
Stage#1:
2x a-12 with 1x V4 systems engine
— Stage #2
4x al-4s per side, 2x al-4SB per side, 2x a-12 distributed around rotunda and 3x V4 systems engines
— Stage #3:
2x a-12, 2x a-10
