Tanglewood Summer 2008

SUMMER 2008 AT TANGLEWOOD

SAVI faced a unique challenge in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood for the Summer 2008 season. In years past a large concert sound system was brought in for special events and then struck immediately after. This year Tanglewood opted to install one system and leave it in for the entire season. This required a highly versatile system capable of conveying the subtlety of the Boston Symphony, the necessary horsepower for such acts as WILCO and JAMES TAYLOR AND HIS BAND OF LEGENDS, and everything in between. To add to the challenge, the system had to be as unobtrusive as possible to maintain the aesthetics of the Music Shed.

SAVI installed a rig comprised entirely of d&b audiotechnik speakers. Left and Right arrays consisted of seven J8 enclosures over one J12 per side. The center cluster consisted of five Q1 enclosures over one Q10. Eight E3 enclosures were used as frontfills, and a delay ring consisting of five Q7 enclosures was also hung to maintain vocal intelligibility in the very back of the house.

To supplement the house lawn system, one Q7 and one Q-Sub per side were used as wide fills, and two C4 tops and two C4 subs were flown in scaffolding on the roof to fill in dead spots.

The entire system was controlled and monitored by d&b audiotechnik R1 software. For lectures and concerts requiring minimal sound reinforcement, the system was switched from the SAVI FOH rig to the house Yamaha O1-V via a Crown USM-810 located backstage.

Over the course of the summer literally EVERY visiting FOH Engineer commented on the sound quality and how ideal the system was for the venue. This was quite an accomplishment given the wide variety of acts that came through.

The system was designed by SAVI Rental Manger John Geritz and installed and maintained by SAVI Audio Engineer Dave Harris.

2008 TANGLEWOOD JAZZ FESTIVAL

SAVI once again provided audio for the 2008 Tanglewood Jazz Festival at Seiji Ozawa Hall. This year they utilized a unique d&b audiotechnik configuration consisting of a main center cluster as well as left and right stacks to provide even coverage for the 360 degrees of seating at multiple levels.

The center cluster consisted of six Q1 boxes over one Q10 on the front, and two Q10 boxes on each side to cover seating areas left and right of the stage, all flown from a 5’ truss. An additional 4’ truss was flown just upstage of the main truss with two Q7 boxes on Rota clamps to cover the upstage seating area.

On the deck, left and right stacks consisted of two Q7 boxes over two Q-Subs per side. Four E8 enclosures were used for frontfills.

To compliment the house lawn system four Q1 boxes per side were flown on Genie towers just behind FOH.

All speaker zones were controlled and monitored via D&B Audiotechnik R1 software.

FOH Engineer Steve Colby’s rig consisted of a Digidesign D-Show Profile console with Dolby-Lake processors used for EQ. Monitor Engineer/Systems Tech Dave Harris’ rig consisted of a Yamaha M7CL console driving Crown-powered L’Acoustics 115FM wedges.

Over the course of three days eight acts in a variety of genres (and with a variety of stage volume levels!) performed, and the PA performed flawlessly in all instances.

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