Wirebox Media of Smyrna, GA was selected by Auburn University to provide production services for the Auburn Oaks Celebration at Toomer’s Corner. The annual celebration included a block party and “One Last Roll” of the historic oak trees.
The event took place in late April just after a record-setting attendance at the spring football game. The attendance at Jordan-Hare Stadium was over 83,400 with the downtown celebration pulling similar attendance figures..
Auburn Oaks rolling has been a tradition for nearly 80 years; the trees are then replaced by live oaks.
The audio production system selected by Wirebox Media was centered around a NEXO GEO S 12 loudspeaker system and NEXO PS15R2 and PS10R2 monitors.
“The NEXO system is consistently predictable, and sound fantastic,” states Tim Harrigan, Owner, Wirebox Media. “This job, in particular, proved the ease of use for the GEO S12 Series as we didn’t even have time to tune the system before the show and made very few adjustments in the first few minutes.”
A total of 32 NEXO GeoS12 cabinets were configured as 10 per side for main hangs with an additional 6 per side for out fills, all powered by 8 4×4 NXAMPs.
“Staging a block party in three hours was not that simple,” says Harrigan.
The complexity of the event snow-balled in the ten days Wirebox had to prep for the event that involved a nationally attended press conference with VIP’s from AU and the city, highlighted by a kabuki drop for the new architectural plans for the area, a spirit rally headed by the AU Band, and the event finale featuring a concert by local band Kidd Blue.
“Design and planning was key as the day was really four separate events: load-in/setup, press conference, spirit rally, and concert,” Harrigan notes. “This was all compounded by the three-hour setup time and the massive crowd.
“We could not have successfully completed this without a stellar crew, great clients and the cooperation of the City of Auburn, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Auburn Police Department.”
