20 Live Sound International September 2003

September 2003 Live Sound International 21

By Keith Clark

A bout four years ago, Bill Robisonand the team at Great LakesSound & Lighting began to get

bitten by the line array bug.Happens to us all from time to time.

But rather than acting immedi-ately to jump on the bandwagon,

Robison and partner Todd Mitchellchose to wait, let the market settle a

bit while doing plenty of homeworkleading to resolution of the issue

for their self-described “small”regional production company basedin Toledo, Ohio.

I recently caught up with Robison inthe midst of the culmination of this effort, in

the form of a “shootout” between three lead-ing contenders in the line array wars. The

three finalists were invited to participate in athorough head-to-head face-off for the Great

Lakes crew at the main exhibit hall of theSeaGate Convention Center in downtown Toledo.

The process, which involved key representativesfrom all three manufacturers, spanned well

more than a day, with plenty of timeprovided beforehand for set-up

and “tweak.”“We started looking at

line array boxes several yearsago. At the time, I went to hear

a (L-Acoustics) V-DOSC linearray rig at a festival near

Yosemite Park, and real-ized this was a direction

our company would needto evolve toward,” Robison

told me during a break fromthe action. “And then so many

new systems started hitting themarket. We needed to make surethis wasn’t the latest ‘flavor of themonth,’ and in the intervening timeit’s been fine-tuned and is nowobviously here to stay.”

“Shootout” – a glamorous term for awell-informed decision

STEADY, RELIABLEFounded in 1985, Great Lakes Soundhas steadily built a solid base of busi-ness in the northwest Ohio/southeastMichigan region, providing sound andlighting services for concerts, festivals,corporate/industrial and other events.“We’re a regional company, and weknow our limitations. Our biggestasset is a dedicated staff,” Robisonexplains. “Anyone who knows any-thing about this business knows thatyour success or failure is most deter-mined by those working in the frontlines.”

A Crest-powered 48-box Adamson200 Series loudspeaker system hasserved as the heart of the company’smain rig, and still does a steady, reli-able job at larger events where it’srequired. At the same time, Robisonand Mitchell kept on eye on the linearray phenomenon.

“This is the first product, in all ofour years of doing this, where theclients are specifically asking about it,”Robison notes. “At the same time, it’sbeen a tough business climate. I don’tknow of very many sound guys, myselfincluded, who are business people bychoice. But it’s a necessity as you getinto this and find you want to make areal go of it. So while it’s tempting tojump on the latest technology, and to

answer those client inquiries, you alsohave to keep the bottom line at thefront and center of every decision.”

The past four years have beenspent in researching each new linearray model as it hit the market, talk-ing with colleagues about the plussesand minuses, and a whole lot of per-sonal evaluation. Robison estimateshe’s heard most, if not all, viable linearray systems on the market at leastonce, often more.

He adds that even with cutbacks inrecent years, the corporate/industrialmarket is a place his company still

sees good growth potential. A linearray system can help bridge to high-er success in that sector. It’s logicalthat the economy will snap out of itsdoldrums at some point, and as a pro-duction company, Great Lakes desiresto be poised to take advantage of theupswing as soon as it happens. And atthe same time, the down economyhas presented an upside.

“ Let’s face it – right now we’re ina buyer’s market,” he says. “At thepresent point in time, you can workthe deal side of this more to youradvantage. We’re in a good position,because there are 25 to 30 differentline array models out there, from avariety of manufacturers. And withthis choice, there is maturity to thetechnology that has shaken out. Oftenin business, it’s best to be conserva-tive, but there are times when youneed to take risks in order to takeadvantage of conditions that might notlast much longer.”

SEEMINGLY AT ODDS?The mounds of research led GreatLakes to a “final three” selection, withall finalists quite compliant about par-ticipating in the head-to-head evalua-tion, often known better in industrylore as the shootout. The models“locked and loaded” for the contest, inalphabetical order, were an AdamsonY10 compact system, a JBL VerTecfull-size system and a Martin AudioW8LC compact system.

22 Live Sound International September 2003

The contenders, left to right: Martin Audio W8LC, Adamsom Y10 and JBL VerTec.

Some perspective of the shootout set up. The cavernous room presented relatively realisticconditions.

24 Live Sound International September 2003

Wait – two compact systems and afull-size system? Shouldn’t this be an“apples to apples” comparison? “Yes,it seems kind of at odds,” Robisonacknowledges. “But weight is one ofour primary selection criteria, andthose who know can tell you thatwhile the size differences in thesemodels are notable, the weight differ-ences are not.”

So, score one right out of the gatefor JBL? Not necessarily. “One or theother of these systems might get loud-er than the others, and I don’t reallycare,” Robison explains. “That’s not abig consideration for us. We are doingthis evaluation at similar levels to seehow each works at these levels, eval-uating their performance as a linearray system, how they put sound intoa space. Every box is going to sounda bit different, and any two people aregoing to perceive them as soundingdifferent, in their own way and fortheir own reasons.”

Weight indeed is a top criteria forGreat Lakes because a smaller compa-ny doesn’t always have access to big-ger crews. So a 280-pound box canpresent problems for just two crewmembers, while a 150-pound box ismuch more practical.

Another key factor is economics,both in terms of the purchase “deal”as well as the key factor of cross-rentability appeal to other sound com-panies. Frankly, it’s an important rev-enue stream for a company outside ofthe constantly busy environs of amajor market like New York, Chicago,Orlando, Las Vegas, etc. Just becausethe owner of the system doesn’t havea gig on a particular day doesn’t meanthe system has to sit idle.

Aesthetics also enter the picture.“You hate to say it if you’re a ‘true’sound guy, where how it soundsshould be the only thing, but how theproduct looks is a fact of life of thereal world,” he admits.

Manufacturer support is yet anoth-er factor. Great Lakes has been happywith its Adamson rig for severalyears... Score one for Adamson? Notso fast. “Adamson has been verygood to us in terms of supportingtheir product and our needs,”Robison explains. “But all of thesecontenders were asked to be herebecause our research showed thatthey do whatever it takes to supporttheir customers.”

And then there are the non-quan-tifiable factors that go into an invest-ment of this nature. In essence, whatdo you like, what don’t you like? Areyou comfortable with a product, got acertain feel for it? Yes, the intangiblealways lurks to play a role.

THE OK CORRALBoth compact arrays were made up ofeight modules, the full-size array wasmade up of seven, and all were

tapered in a gentle “J” configuration.The array size/count was about half ofwhat Great Lakes expected to be aninvestment in a system of 16 loud-speakers.

Tom Kneisel, shop manager forGreat Lakes, coordinated all systemset-ups, including the flying of thearrays the day prior to the evaluation.Ken Miller of Great Lakes did a lot ofthe “heavy lifting” in support ofKneisel and the manufacturers. Duckswere in a row, so to speak, when itcame to show time.

The convention center exhibit hallproved a reasonable facsimile of “realworld” conditions, the type of roomwhere corporate/industrial shows areheld every day. Runs of carpetingwere placed on the floor in front ofthe arrays to help lessen any initialslap off the hard concrete, but thatwas the only “special” considerationmade in the environment.

“For some applications, this isn’tthe ideal space with its hard surfaces,but in other ways, it is. In any evalu-ation, you have to read between thelines a little bit,” Robison explains. “Insome ways, I’d like to be doing this ina shed or outdoors, but that’s not pos-sible.”

Each manufacturer was allowed tosupply its own amplification, bringingup another interesting point. (For therecord, JBL was powered by Crown,while Lab.Gruppen drove both MartinAudio and Adamson.) Great Lakesultimately hoped to be able to use itsexisting racks with the new boxes, butdidn’t necessarily want to close thedoor on a more optimal approach.

SMAART Live data, for both real-time and later analysis.

PC at the ready for any processing tweaks.

As a result, the company’s currentCrest-loaded racks were also evaluat-ed with each system, all headed byXTA DP226 digital processors. Klark-Teknik third-octave graphics were inthe front-of-house racks for tweaking,but weren’t really touched, while theconsole was a Yamaha PM3500.

“The XTA processors are some ofthe finest units available, and we’vealready determined that we’re goingto have them in our racks with what-ever loudspeakers we choose,”Robison adds. “Our view is thatthey’re the best DSP out there in a sin-gle rack space. The bottom line onamps is that most are pretty darn goodin terms of beefiness and sound qual-ity, and they’re priced similarly. We’vegot Crest for our big rig, and they’veserved us well, but there’s a lot ofgood choices.”

DRAW!Shootout day dawned with each man-ufacturer allowed to show off itsrespective system the way it wantedthem heard, including choice of amps,racks and specific processor settings.Later, Great Lakes patched in its ownracks.

In initial testing, Robison and crewwalked the room, listening to individ-ual groups of boxes, evaluating theirdynamics, smoothness, and they like,and also how each reacted both with-

in the room and to differentconsole and processor adjust-ments. Test source materialincluded a diverse assortmentof musical tracks, from Towerof Power to James Taylor toEarth Wind & Fire and severalothers. Robison tested vocalintelligibility and reproductionas he walked around theroom with a Shure SM58 inhand.

Meanwhile, Cliff Fuller,systems engineer for GreatLakes, used his SIA SMAART-Live rig to evaluate what washappening with each systemfrom a more clinical data per-spective. He was also savingand storing this data, for laterevaluation by the team.

“I’m a ‘seat-of-the-pants’ type ofsound guy,” Robison notes. “I useRTAs, know how they work, have‘pinked’ rooms and etc. But I alsodon’t know a lot about measurement,and frankly, I don’t want to know. Wehave others on staff that know it verywell, and they share their input. Iwant to know how it sounds. Whatare my ears and fingers on the knobstelling me when I’m mixing?”

And on it went for several hours.Bursts of demo, serious evaluation,and then break time to walk outsideand digest. After a couple of hours, Icomment to Robison that all three sys-tems seem to be performing very wellindeed, that coverage is smooth, full,solid and dynamic throughout the lis-tening area. Intelligibility seems quitecommensurate as well – all statementswith which he enthusiastically con-curs. So, tough choice – would it beMartin Audio?

Great Lakes wasn’t tipping itshand. In fact, the final decisionwouldn’t be made for at least a week,after the team had a chance to getsome perspective, compare notes andfully discuss every aspect of whatthey’d experienced.

“I’m sure there are some things, aswe get further away from it, that Iwould have done differently, butthat’s the way it goes,” Robison tellsme as I prepare to depart. “We don’thave this type of opportunity very

often, and in fact, I don’t know howmany people doing this work for a liv-ing get this type of opportunity. It’svery fortunately for us that the manu-facturers have set this up and provid-ed A-line staff for it. They’re making itas good as possible.

“I feel this has been fair and equi-table to all parties, and they’ve certain-ly all been impressive,” he concludes.“After 18 years, we’ll likely surviveanything, but at the same time, we’retalking huge dollars and this is criticalto our success. So, we’re going to ana-lyze it, probably to death, comparenotes, and make the decision.”

So who won? Well, about twoweeks after the event, Robison waskind enough to call and let me know.But – invoking editor’s prerogative,I’m not gonna flat-out tell you.

This shootout was so well doneand well supported that no onedeserved to “lose.” I can honestly saythat another sound company mighthave come to a different conclusion,and they wouldn’t have been disap-pointed.

So, curious readers... You can findthe answer contained somewhere elsein this issue of Live Sound. Happyhunting! n

Keith Clark is editor of Live Sound and can be reachedat kclark@livesoundint.com. He sincerely thanksGreat Lakes Sound & Lighting, as well as the manufac-turers involved, for allowing him access to this event.

26 Live Sound International September 2003

One of the Lab.Gruppen amp and XTA DSP racks usedduring portions of the demo.

Robison doing vocal evaluation, SM58 inhand.