See Factor K2 system for The Bowery Presents
- Details
A gantry crane retained from the former steel fabrication business enables the flown arrays to be repositioned, along with the movable 50,000lb steel and concrete stage, to scale the audience area according to the expected attendance at each show.
TBP’s in-house team designed and installed Brooklyn Steel’s L-Acoustics loudspeaker system, which is patterned after a similar rig at Terminal 5, a 3,000-capacity venue in Manhattan that the promoter also exclusively operates.
Mark Friedman of Long Island City-based See Factor supplied the speaker setup as well as the rest of the new club’s audio complement, including a 56-channel DiGiCo SD10 console at front-of-house with a 56-channel SD9 available for monitors. A three-way copper split accommodates tours traveling with their own monitor rigs as well as recording and broadcast feeds.
“Having worked with The Bowery Presents on numerous venues over the years, See Factor’s first choice of L-Acoustics and DiGiCo is a solid combination that has firmly built our fruitful relationship of trust with the promoter,” Friedman notes. “The Bowery Presents has always recognized the value of providing the highest quality production infrastructure available to best enhance both audiences’ and bands’ overall live experience.”
“Terminal 5 didn’t start out having the best reputation for great sound, but once we installed the K2 system it turned around to where engineers love mixing there,” says Lorne Grabe, front-of-house engineer at Terminal 5, where he collaborated on the design of the sound system with production manager Chris Burrows. “We wanted to achieve the same thing at Brooklyn Steel right out of the gate.”
For Brooklyn Steel, which at 1,800-capacity is the largest general admission space in the borough, Grabe specified a rig that mimics the latest Terminal 5 system almost box for box. The main left and right hangs each comprise 10 K2 array modules - two less per hang than at Terminal 5 - while four Kara boxes provide front-fill. K2’s Panflex horizontal steering feature nicely allowed the main arrays to be flown on the outside of the stage, close to the walls, yet keep the coverage tightly focused on the audience area.
Four K1-SB subs flown behind each array provide low frequency extension, with the added benefit of noise reduction on the performance area, while eight KS28 subs are distributed beneath the stage. “The KS28s are in a cardioid configuration, with the centre two flipped around, to keep too much energy from firing back onto the stage,” he says.
“I come from a theatre background,” continues Grabe, who circled the globe as a touring engineer and also previously oversaw operations at Masque Sound’s concert division. “So I also gave Brooklyn Steel a centre cluster of six Kara that engineers can put the vocals in and get more three-dimensional depth from the system.”
The venue features a raised audience platform toward the rear of the space plus two balcony levels. “There are eight ARCS WiFo boxes for delay, six for the second balcony and two under the first-floor balcony,” Grabe reports. Onstage, Brooklyn Steel offers visiting performers a monitor rig comprising 13 L-Acoustics X15 HiQ wedges, two ARCS WiFo cabinets on each side for side-fill, plus six SB18 subs for side-fill and drum-fill.
Three LA12X amplified controllers drive the centre cluster and KS28 subs, and a total of 25 LA8 amplified controllers - more than at the larger Terminal 5 - power the remainder of the system.
Overall, he adds, “There’s enough system there for the engineers who come through to be comfortable. We’re not pushing it; the rig sits around 70 percent, which also means the rig is really going to last. They’re not going to go through any drivers; they’re not stressing anything.”
(Jim Evans)
