FOH online.com NEWSROOM

10/03/05 04:04pm pst
LD Systems Handles Austin City Limits

AUSTIN, TX—The Austin City Limits Music Festival is one of the most anticipated events on the music calendar. LD Systems dispatched eleven crew members from both its Houston and San Antonio offices, along with seven trucks of audio & lighting gear, to manage the highly technical needs of this year's City Limits Music Festival, which ran for three days from September 23 thru 25 in Austin’s Zilker Park. LD Systems provided production services for the SBC, Cingular and AMD stages. Event artists included Coldplay, Widepread Panic, Wilco, Oasis and Franz Ferdinand.

LD provided all audio needs on both the SBC and Cingular stages, fielded by four technicians per stage and utilizing EV X-Line line array speaker systems powered by P3000RL remote control DSP amplifiers running IRIS system supervision software. Midas consoles were used for FOH and monitor mixes. Both stages were scaled for 45,000 people, and crowds swelled to 60,000 during Coldplay's closing set at the end of the festival.

Robert Ausmus of LD Systems reported: “This is one of the biggest music festivals in the world, with talent to match, and we were extremely pleased with the sound, as were the organizers, audience and bands. The SBC stage was where some of the biggest artists played and the biggest crowds gathered. This stage was all EV, with arrays of 16 X-Line Xlvs boxes and 14 X-Subs per side, and X-Array Xn boxes for front fills and delays. On the Cingular stage, we ran 14 Xvls boxes deep per side, with Xn front fills. Midas consoles took care of the mixes on both stages—an XL4, Heritage 3000s and Heritage 2000s all ensured reliable performance and warm sound—no one complains when they see they’re mixing on a Midas, which is why they were spec’d across the board. Both stages were powered with P3000RL amps, which are working out great for us. Being able to check the load and impedance of every driver in the rig, all from a laptop, obviously saves on time, labor and nerves. The RLs give us the assurance the rig is firing on all cylinders, with presets precisely tailored to the application. Add that level of control to boxes that simply sound superior, mixed on consoles that sound superior, and you have a recipe for success. Ultimately, the audience had a great time, and all the artists left happy, so we did our job.”

For more information, visit www.ldsystems.com.