The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), located on the National Mall, has close to 37,000 objects in its collection related to such subjects as community, family, the arts, religion, civil rights, slavery, and segregation. The museum opened recently in a ceremony led by U.S. President Barack Obama. As part of the grand opening festivities, the Freedom Sounds show—a concert featuring The Roots, Public Enemy, and Living Colour—took place before a huge audience. To ensure the best possible sound reinforcement, loudspeakers from the Aero Series 2 and Road Series catalogs of Valencia, Spain-based DAS Audio were placed into service.
Audio & Light of Greensboro, NC, a full service A/V design, installation, and production company, was contracted to handle sound services for the event. Company president Jim Hoyle, who in addition to managing the company’s activities, also served as the FOH tech on this show. He discussed the project and his experience with the DAS Audio equipment.
“Our setup included 24 Aero-50 line array enclosures—flown 12 units each for the left and right hangs. For low frequency support, we used 36 UX-221A powered subwoofers. These were positioned in stacks of two, positioned just over 3 feet apart on the downstage edge of the stage. The Aero-50 line arrays were provided by Ruben Silva of DBS Sound out of Irwindale, CA. “
“For outfill, we positioned 16 DAS Aero-20A line array enclosures—with 8 units for each of the two clusters. We also had a delay system, and this consisted of 16 DAS Aero-40A loudspeakers. These were positioned in two hangs of 8 enclosures that were flown on two clusters, which were positioned behind the FOH tower. For frontfill, we deployed 6 DAS Aero-20A boxes, and these were spread evenly across the front of the stage and positioned on top of the subs. Completing the setup, we used 20 of DAS Audio’s Road-12A stage monitors.”
With the Freedom Sounds show completed, Hoyle reports the event was a huge success. “We are extremely happy with how this show went,” he says. “The rig sounded amazing and all the guest engineers loved it. None of them experienced any difficulty finding their mix. The audience loved it too. I received many compliments on the sound from attendees. We are very proud to have been involved with this historic event and are very pleased to have done it with DAS!”
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