Sunset Music Festival 2010 Pulses With D.A.S. Audio

eluis_hi.jpgMiami, FL – September 2010… Bigger and better than ever, the recent Sunset Music Festival 2010 gave Miami's trance / house music enthusiasts much to cheer about. Held on Saturday, July 31st at SOHO Studios, this year's festival was comprised of four stages (three inside – one outside), each with ten DJ's. When he wasn't busy running the event, festival promoter DJ Xta-C treated the crowd to his unique blend of house music. Trance / progressive music artist George Acosta also performed, as did Ralph Falcon, Cato K, and numerous other musical luminaries. The main stage was located outdoors in SOHO Studios' parking lot and this is where the biggest names on the festival roster performed—through a potent sound reinforcement system from the Aero series catalog of D.A.S. Audio.

Miami-based High Intensity Sound, which specializes in live sound reinforcement for concerts, festivals, special events, and also operates a commercial installation group, was contracted to provide sound reinforcement for the main stage. Owner Eric Luis discussed his firm's decision to deploy the D.A.S. Audio Aero series sound system.

“We were expecting a crowd in excess of 2,000 people,” notes Luis, “and to ensure we would have ample sound pressure level, I felt it was important to use our line array system. With the trance / house / progressive music genre, it's extremely important to have a lot of low frequency performance, so I decided to use our D.A.S. Aero line arrays, accompanied by the CA-215A subwoofers. This way, we would have the levels we needed while also ensuring even coverage throughout the audience.”

The main stage system erected by the High Intensity Sound crew consisted of twenty D.A.S. Audio CA-28A self-powered, 2-way, mid-high line array elements that were flown ten modules per side. For low frequency support, Luis and his team ground stacked sixteen CA-215A monoamplified subwoofers—each consisting of dual 15-inch long excursion transducers—across the lower front of the stage.

For sidefills / stage monitoring, the High Intensity Sound crew used a combination of D.A.S. SML-15A 2-way, powered stage monitors sitting atop Compact-18Sub enclosures. A total of four (two each model) enclosures were used. They were positioned one “system” per each side of the stage.

“We had ten DJ's on our stage,” Luis said, “and each DJ provided a left-right feed. These signals were routed to one of our loudspeaker processing systems and, from there, went straight out through the sound system. There really wasn't much in the way of sound mixing involved on this project.”

Luis cited the Aero system's controlled, horizontal dispersion and long throw characteristics as being ideal for this particular event and was equally pleased with the CA-215A's sub bass performance. “With 2,000+ people in attendance—not to mention the DJ's music plus all the ambient sounds of the city—there was a lot of activity in that parking lot,” he said. “The CA-28A's did a great job of providing uniform coverage and the CA-215A subs were incredible. No matter where you were, the music was clear and had loads of low-end punch. The fact that the entire setup was self-powered was equally important, as it eliminated the need to transport racks of heavy amps and simplified the system's cabling.”

Luis reports this year's Sunset Music Festival was a huge success, “The festival went really well for everyone. The crowd, which was substantially larger than last year, was really receptive to the artists, who responded with lots of energetic performances. Both our client and the DJ's were extremely complimentary of the sound from our Aero system. Several performers commented how big the low end sounded. In fact, we actually had two DJ's who performed on the indoor stages tells us they wish they had been assigned to our stage. Perhaps the best compliment of all is the fact that our client has already contracted us for next year's festival. When a project like this leads to repeat business, that's as good as it gets!”

To learn more about Sunset Music Festival 2010, go to www.smfmiami.com. For additional information about High Intensity Sound, contact the company at www.highintensitysounds.com.

About D.A.S. Audio

Headquartered in Valencia, Spain, D.A.S. Audio is one of the world's leading manufacturers of loudspeaker systems, power amplification, signal processing, and related components. For better than thirty years, D.A.S. Audio products have been found on tour with the world's greatest performing artists and installed in many of the most prestigious facilities. For additional information about the company, visit them online at www.dasaudio.com.

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Photo info: Image of Eric Luis.