What's the most crazy, expensive, over the top PA's?

[Scodiddly]

Well, it did use to be the case that we (I mean the industry in general) would stack up a whole lot of boxes. And yes, it was comb-filtering hell in retrospect. Classic all-in-one boxes like the Clair S4 - each one had a horn, 4 feet away from the next horn. Not the way to do things, really. But on the other hand it was easier to scale the PA size to the venue that way.

 

Meyer and other companies put in a lot of work to getting full-range boxes to play together better. Boxes like the MSL4 fit together tighter and have a much narrower high frequency dispersion, so you can aim just that one horn at just that one section of the audience. Much reduced comb filtering.

 

Line arrays try to make the comb filtering work to advantage, by making things blend as much as possible. It's still common for people to hang a big line array without doing their homework - all those boxes together couple up in interesting ways that generally need a lot of EQ to tame, and a lot of preplanning to use best.

[KF650SB1000]

If your looking at a "cobra type Line array" you should look at the d&b C- rig... I will blow it out of the water.

 

I'd rather have this rig:

C4-top

C4-sub

B2-sub

Powered by 3 D12 amps.

[The Real MC]

WWPGB?

 

(What Would Peter Gabriel Buy?)

[kevinnem]

 

I wish people would stop posting pictures of that K-Array. Makes me want one so freaking bad. I'd gladly ditch my Meyer system for one of those. EDIT: The only pricing I can find for K-Array is a price guide from Ireland. Ko70 OVERBASS Subwoofer USD$22,601.15 KH4 Self Powered Line Array Element USD$25,313.98 KH15 Self Powered Ultra Compact Element USD$9,378.27 KS4 Self Powered Line Array Sub USD$14,782.33 ...which is why it won't be happening any time soon.

 

 

That priceing can't posibly be correct for a "real" quote.

[kevinnem]

 

I wish people would stop posting pictures of that K-Array. Makes me want one so freaking bad. I'd gladly ditch my Meyer system for one of those. EDIT: The only pricing I can find for K-Array is a price guide from Ireland. Ko70 OVERBASS Subwoofer USD$22,601.15 KH4 Self Powered Line Array Element USD$25,313.98 KH15 Self Powered Ultra Compact Element USD$9,378.27 KS4 Self Powered Line Array Sub USD$14,782.33 ...which is why it won't be happening any time soon.

 

 

That priceing can't posibly be correct for a "real" quote.

[injected]

 

If your looking at a "cobra type Line array" you should look at the d&b C- rig... I will blow it out of the water. I'd rather have this rig: C4-top C4-sub B2-sub Powered by 3 D12 amps.

 

 

 

What the hell are those? pics? prices?

 

thats really what i want;)

[Special J]

 

If your looking at a "cobra type Line array" you should look at the d&b C- rig... I will blow it out of the water. I'd rather have this rig: C4-top C4-sub B2-sub Powered by 3 D12 amps.

 

 

I love my SB218's, but the B2's are by far the most impressive sub I've ever heard. Bar none.

[boseengineer]

We designed the system for this venue.

 

Hosts 1.000.000-1.500.000 people on a busy day. Obviously it's an installed system but it required custom designed speakers (very difficult acoustic environment)

[Craig Vecchione]

We designed the system for this venue. Hosts 1.000.000-1.500.000 people on a busy day. Obviously it's an installed system but it required custom designed speakers (very difficult acoustic environment)

 

Did the check clear?

[Telecruiser]

We designed the system for this venue. Hosts 1.000.000-1.500.000 people on a busy day. Obviously it's an installed system but it required custom designed speakers (very difficult acoustic environment)

 

Out of curiosity; what is the total wattage of that system? Inquiring minds would like to know.

[allexcosta]

This is a little over the top too!

 

 

All speakers are custom made to fit the truck. 2 15KVA generators in the heart of the truck. 80KW worth of amps and a bunch of lights, effects, etc... Playing for 3-4 million people on a 6 mile circuit.

 

And there's a second truck with another 80KW that receives a wireless signal and delay...

[boseengineer]

Sorry, we consider the actual specs proprietary (and also property of the customer). Power was actually not a particularly hard problem, since it scales easily (just put in more amps). The tricky part was getting decent speech intelligibilty in a real large venue where the predominant building material is polished marble and where there is vistually no absorption (other than human bodies).

It's clearly an application where "more is better" doesn't work at all and where too much power is as bad as too little.

[srp72ee]

 

Sorry, we consider the actual specs proprietary (and also property of the customer). Power was actually not a particularly hard problem, since it scales easily (just put in more amps). The tricky part was getting decent speech intelligibilty in a real large venue where the predominant building material is polished marble and where there is vistually no absorption (other than human bodies). It's clearly an application where "more is better" doesn't work at all and where too much power is as bad as too little.

 

 

Were you allowed to be on-site?

[agedhorse]

This is a little over the top too! All speakers are custom made to fit the truck. 2 15KVA generators in the heart of the truck. 80KW worth of amps and a bunch of lights, effects, etc... Playing for 3-4 million people on a 6 mile circuit. And there's a second truck with another 80KW that receives a wireless signal and delay...

 

How do you get 80kW out of 30kVA???

[Craig Vecchione]

With new math.

[oldschooler]

 

This is a little over the top too! Playing for 3-4 million people on a 6 mile circuit. And there's a second truck with another 80KW that receives a wireless signal and delay...

 

 

Are you sure that is 3-4 million folks at the same time? Not the total number of people that attended. That seems like a pretty wide guess of a number. I don't think a 6 square mile area can even hold 3 million people. Keep in mind, buildings, streets, cars, and landscaping take away from standing room.

 

Checking wikipedia, the City of New York, the most populated city in the US, The density is roughly 22000 per mile. There about 10 million folks living on 470 sq miles.

[agedhorse]

More new math

[injected]

This is a little over the top too! All speakers are custom made to fit the truck. 2 15KVA generators in the heart of the truck. 80KW worth of amps and a bunch of lights, effects, etc... Playing for 3-4 million people on a 6 mile circuit. And there's a second truck with another 80KW that receives a wireless signal and delay...

 

 

What is that/?!

 

 

And also guy to 1.5million people setup... How much did it cost to set it up??? And where is it?? haha

[boseengineer]

 

Were you allowed to be on-site?

 

 

Not really. Non-muslims are not allowed in there unless there is special dispensation on a case-by-case basis that needs to be issued by the royal family. We do have some employees that are muslims and we also used local contractors for on-site work. We were planning to do binural recordings using a dummy head, however that was considered an "idol" and we couldn't do that either.

That's a case were really good computer modeling, simulation and auralization tools are really crucial. Most of the design & commissing work was done virtually.

[Craig Vecchione]

More new math

 

 

more = better

 

 

 

right?

[Craig Vecchione]

Are you sure that is 3-4 million folks at the same time? Not the total number of people that attended. That seems like a pretty wide guess of a number. I don't think a 6 square mile area can even hold 3 million people. Keep in mind, buildings, streets, cars, and landscaping take away from standing room. Checking wikipedia, the City of New York, the most populated city in the US, The density is roughly 22000 per mile. There about 10 million folks living on 470 sq miles.

 

 

Interesting basic math problem.

Alex stated it was a 6-mile route. Not that it was 6 square miles of area. If we figure 4 sq ft per person, 4 million peeps will take up 16 million sq ft. A square mile has well over 27 million sq ft. so we could jam 4m people into a square mile with room for access/exits and other stuff. So we know it's at least physically possible to do this. Even allowing for how non-Americans will crowd tiny spaces without beating the shit out of each other, we'll assume they don't pack like that.

 

So our 4M-person crowd will take up 16M sq ft. along an area 6 miles long. How wide of a parade route would this need to be? Distributed equally along the route, they'll occupy 2.67M sq ft of each lineal mile of route. They would be 505ft wide, or 253ft deep on each side of the route.

 

Easily possible, and could be covered by the sound rig Alex described.

 

 

but check my work.

[oldschooler]

Well, there is 5280 feet in a mile.

so 6miles x 5280 ft =31680 linear feet

so if the crowd went 300 ft deep a side. 31680x300=9.5 mill sq feet. So roughly 19 mill sq feet for both sides. 19 mill sq ft / 1.5ft per person = 12.6 mill folks. I think 4 sq ft is too much space if attending a major event.

So you are right, it is possible to fit 4 mill folks easily depending how it is layed out. But if it is in a major city, I still think it is a really tight fit. How many city streets can go 300 feet wide? Give 8 lanes at 8 feet each= 64 + 10 feet for sidewalks= 74 ft width I will used 100 ft for max width

So my math would be;

31680x100= 3168000 sq ft/1.5 ft per person=2.1 mill folks

Still a very big crowd.

I will do a Mythbuster and say it is possible to have 3 mill folks on a 6 mile route if it is standing room only and you have at least 150 ft of width for the people to stand.

A+ for your math Craig.

[KF650SB1000]

 

What the hell are those? pics? prices? thats really what i want;)

 

 

http://www.dbaudio.com/en/systems/c_series/

 

 

 

I haven't bought any C's, but have purchased a few B2 and D12's. As for pricing it all depends who you know and where you get it from.

D12 amps - $6-8k each

B2 subs - $6-8k each

 

That doesn't include the shipping and/or importing the gear.

[allexcosta]

 

Are you sure that is 3-4 million folks at the same time? Not the total number of people that attended. That seems like a pretty wide guess of a number. I don't think a 6 square mile area can even hold 3 million people. Keep in mind, buildings, streets, cars, and landscaping take away from standing room.

 

 

City has 4 million. 2 million come from all over the world for the Carnival of Bahia. EVERYBODY goes to the streets, believe me...

 

6 miles is an estimate. Those are 160KW mobile stages and they go all over the city playing music. 14 hours per day... Yes, in one day they play for more than 3 million folks, but not at the same time. BTW, this years party starts today...

 

Here's a glimpse:

 

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