Technotrix and Martin Audio Cover Musical Graduation Ceremonies
Oct 8, 2014 7:43 PM
The Manifest Urban Arts Festival is a showcase for all graduating students on three stages near the campus in the downtown Chicago Loop.
Columbia College Chicago specializes in arts and media, so it comes as no surprise that the college’s commencement exercises in the Chicago Theatre and the outdoor arts festival showcase preceding it are characterized by a wide variety of musical styles, ensembles, and performances.
For this year’s commencement celebrations, Columbia College Chicago enlisted the services of integration firm Technotrix of Calumet City, IL, making it the 16th year that the firm has provided audio, stage, and lighting for the graduation festivities.
Held the day before commencement, the Manifest Urban Arts Festival is a showcase for all graduating students on three stages at various locations near the campus in the downtown Chicago Loop. The outdoor stages feature jazz orchestras, rock bands, performance arts groups, musical theater, stage combat, and more. Each stage has a Martin Audio PA system run by students who function as FOH and monitors engineers and stage technicians.
Set up under a tent, the main stage had five Martin Audio W8LC enclosures per side with 12 ground-stacked WSX subs; three W8C, two WS218X, one WS18X for side fill, and 10 LE12JB stage monitors. Stage 2, also under a tent, used two W8C and two WSX subs per side with six LE12JB stage monitors. The smallest stage was set up in an outdoor garden area with two Martin Audio WT3, two WS218X subs, and four LE12JB stage wedges to keep quality high.
Each festival stage has a Martin Audio PA system run by students who function as FOH and monitors engineers and stage technicians.
“We’ve been doing the Manifest event for a number of years with a formula that just keeps getting bigger and more complex as they add more bands, musicians and different types of music,” says Technotrix’s Kevin Kiefer. “The College is very happy with the sound we provide using our Martin Audio system. In fact, they said this year was the best it’s ever been. We just try to raise the bar every time out.”
The graduation ceremony takes place the day after the festival in the historic 3,600-seat Chicago Theatre. Featuring two small stages, stacked one on top of the other; stage left and right with different ensembles; and a 25-piece jazz orchestra and 20-piece gospel choir set up in the pit, coordinating and reproducing all of the music is challenging.
“We were up to just over 100 channels of audio this year with the jazz ensembles, commencement choir, and all of the small stages,” Kiefer explains. “We’d have singers and a horn section on the upper level and keyboards and rhythm section on the lower level, and they all do a variety of different numbers—a constant challenge in terms of the onstage sound. Fortunately, we had a Martin Audio monitor system to help us stay on top of the mix.”
Concluding, Kiefer adds, “We’ve been using Martin Audio for a long time because it differentiates us from our competitors. Martin Audio speakers have a unique voice that allows us to achieve a better end result in terms of audio quality and coverage. Their speakers are accurate and consistent, which is important for events like the commencement and festival where there are so many different types of bands ranging through every type of program material. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve been doing this for 16 years.”
Product at Work:
Martin Audio W8LC Line Array Enclosure
The Martin Audio W8LC is a compact three-way line array enclosure ideal for medium- to large-scale touring, theater, stadia, and club applications. Features include maximum SPL 129dB continuous, 135dB peak; a wide bandwidth of 60Hz- 18KHz ± 3dB; true 90-degree horizontal mid and HF pattern control; compatibility with the company’s full-sized W8L line array; fast, integral rigging system with variable splay angles from 0 degrees to 7.5 degrees; ViewPoint array optimization software; and loudspeaker management preset files for a wide variety of configurations. W8LC grids allow systems to be flown or ground stacked as required.
