When the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup for the third time in the last five years, they celebrated the victory at legendary Soldier Field with local provider Technotrix supplying a Martin Audio MLA/W8LC system to cover the on-field area.
The biggest challenge for Technotrix was what company principal Kevin Kiefer characterizes as a “severe lack of time to put it all together” because there was no way to predict exactly what day the Blackhawks would clinch the Cup. That plus the fact the venue was changed from Grant Park to Soldier Field in the last few days because of flooding.
Fortunately for Kiefer and crew, the MLA system kept the setup moving at a fast pace: “The predictive capability in the MLA is so good,” Kevin explains, “that we were able to punch the information into the computer and once the system was rigged, it did exactly what we expected it to do. It saved us a lot of time tuning and re-adjusting parameters, which was a big help getting everything set up when we had to and keeping labor costs down.”
The actual system consisted of 6 Martin Audio MLA and one MLD enclosure per side in towers alongside the stage with 4 MLX subwoofers per side under the towers. Three delay towers with 5 W8LC were used around the field area for reinforcement in addition to the stadium PA system, and a number of XD12s were set up backstage for team and management to hear the proceedings.
Commenting on the system’s coverage and audio quality, Kevin sums up, “We had done the same show two years before, so we weren’t exactly reinventing the wheel but it turned out really well.
“It sounded good for all the broadcast feeds, and there were over 40 television and radio media outlets at the event. Everyone on site from the Hawks was very happy with the sound quality, especially with so many different systems operating at the same time. In terms of the coverage, MLA was a welcome addition this time around.”
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About Martin Audio®
Founded by audio engineer David Martin in 1971, Martin Audio pioneered the use of all-horn-loaded bass designs in world-class touring loudspeaker systems for groups such as Pink Floyd, ELP and Supertramp. Located outside of London, Martin Audio now embodies a sophisticated mix of acoustic design, research, mathematical modeling and software engineering for a wide range of products in the installation, cinema and touring sound markets.
