Production Solutions Relies On Martin Audio For Fair St. Louis

st-louis-fair-_2.jpgSt. Louis, MO––Billed as “America's Biggest Birthday Party,” Fair St. Louis typically hosts a series of Friday and Saturday night LIVE On The Levee concerts with National and local talent from the 3rd and 4th of July through early August, with a weekend off for this year's All Star Game at Busch Stadium. All of the concerts and celebrations were capped off by extensive fireworks displays.

The eclectic lineup of performers on the Mississippi River Overlook Budweiser Stage included Counting Crows, Train, Sonic Youth, Little Feat, Angie Stone, Gretchen Wilson, Guster, and rapper Lupe Fiasco.

With acts this different and a wide outdoor area to handle in terms of coverage and audio quality, local provider Production Solutions LLC relied on Martin Audio to get the job done.

Asked to describe the system, company owner Jim Cutshall explains, “We flew nine Martin Audio W8LCs a side with six WSX subwoofers a side on the main stage. The system was flown over some steps leading up to the stage and was very easy to install. The arrays were also turned out a little on both sides to cover the wide area along the river where the audience was.”

The rest of the system consisted of Crown MA9000i amplifiers, Dolby Lake processing, EAW KF850s for delays, Midas H3000 mixing consoles for FOH and Monitoring and three Martin WS218s for sidefills and drums. Saving more time for the system setup was the Martin Audio Display software that Cutshall describes as “extremely accurate.”

Besides Cutshall who served as Production Manager and system tech for the event, members of the Production Solutions crew included Mark Burris as FOH Engineer and Rusty Shaw as Monitor Engineer.

Asked about reactions to the system and Martin Audio speakers in particular, Cutshall explained, “The Counting Crows tech really liked the rig, and Mark Burris, who freelances for us, commented on how much fun it is to mix on this system.”

Concluding, Cutshall added, “The Fireworks committee mentioned how this year's music for their part of the program sounded the best it ever has. Everyone was pleasantly surprised how a ‘small box' like the W8LC could sound so huge.”

For more about Martin Audio, please call 519.747.5853, email [email protected], or visit www.martin-audio.com.