In particular, Rat Sound provided the system for Coachella's Main Stage, making this the third year in a row that the company's L-Acoustics rig has been flown at the giant outdoor venue. The main PA system featured left and right line arrays each comprised of 15 V-Dosc cabinets with tails of three dV-Dosc boxes. Two additional hangs of six V-Doscs plus three dV-Doscs provided coverage to the far left and right areas of the audience, and two arrays of six dV-Doscs a piece were flown from trusses out in the crowd for delay. Furthermore, eight Arcs boxes were hung to provide front-fill while an additional six Arcs were used as side-fill tops on the monitor system. Rat Sound also employed 48 of its own proprietary dual-18-inch subwoofers for low-end reinforcement.
"We've flown V-Dosc at Coachella for the last three years now because it is simply the most popular box accepted and liked by pretty much every engineer out there," says Jon Monson, who heads up systems and tours for Rat Sound. "Goldenvoice actually insists on it due to its rider acceptability and sonic performance. Even after looking at and listening to all of the other line arrays out there, we still find V-Dosc to be the best sounding one. It provided great coverage again this year and all of the band engineers gave us very positive comments on the system."
U.S. Audio, also a veteran of Coachella, likewise opted to put up an L-Acoustics rig on the Outdoor Theater, the event's second largest stage. A stereo array of ten V-Doscs and two dV-Doscs per side were complemented by a total of 20 SB218 subwoofers ground-stacked in front of the stage. For monitoring, 16 115XT wedges were positioned around the performance area. "We had zero complaints and tons of positive feedback on the 115XTs," says U.S. Audio Owner Pete Docter. "We also just used them on a big blues festival with 30 bands and it was the same story. Everybody just absolutely raves about those wedges."
The company employed an additional total of 28 V-Dosc, 12 dV-Dosc and 24 SB218 cabinets in the 7,000-capacity Sahara Tent. "The SPL in the center of the Sahara - known as the 'techno tent' - was absolutely slammin' at 122dB and the system was barely even getting out of idle. Volume aside, all of the performers and engineers were absolutely amazed with the clarity of the rig. In fact, Coachella was the last stop on The Crystal Method's North American tour and they made it a point of having their road manager call us the day after the show to tell us that it was the best sound they'd had on their entire tour, which was awesome. I mean how many times do you get called by an artist to be told how good your sound was? You usually only hear back from someone if there was a problem!"
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
