Local company Horne Audio deployed Electro-Voice XLC loudspeaker systems for 30 August performances by the Portland Youth Philharmonic and the Oregon Symphony in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, which featured a programme of classical favourites ranging from Copland to Tchaikovsky.
Horne addressed the large bowl-shaped venue with 14 delay towers in 15 time zones, a surround sound system with a circumference of approximately 1000ft.
Spaced up to 75ft apart, the towers were configured to keep every member of the audience in a near-field zone, minimising environmental effects on sound quality. Most of the towers featured three XLC127DVX enclosures, with low-end support via two XLC215 subwoofers. In addition, QRx112/75 boxes provided front-fills and delays at far the end of the venue. A total of 36 XLC127DVX and 20 XLC215 were used for the concert.
"This community event is always a pleasant way to cap off our summer work schedule," says Peter Horne. "We've done this show for a number of years now, and used to use trap boxes; for past three years we've used XLC line arrays, which provide more precise coverage and full bandwidth control. The effect is seamless, and the XLC's characteristic mid-range warmth and smoothness really impressed the organisers, especially with the added boost of the DVX drivers."
(Jim Evans)
