Prairie Sun Live

Front of House (FOH) Magazine recently did a wonderful write up on Prairie Sun Live, and their work at the Cali Roots Reggae Festival in Monterey, CA.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

Echoing across the California Roots festival, Bob Marley’s words heralded the beginning of summer and welcomed more than 13,000 fans to one of the nation’s largest reggae festivals.

Now in its ninth year, California Roots has expanded to fill three days and four stages during the Memorial Day weekend. Drawing from an international pool of reggae talent, the two main stages featured more than 40 performers ranging from veterans Steel Pulse and Stephen Marley to up-and-comers Chronixx and Slightly Stoopid.
   
Prairie Sun Live has handled audio for the past five years and was responsible for the Cali Roots main stage and a second stage this year. Heading up the crew of four was Travis Strain, FOH engineer and system tech.
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“One of the largest obstacles with this show is keeping under these SPL limits, which are pretty strict,” Strain says. “The limit at FOH is 94 dBA average over the last hour. Since it’s A-weighted over an hour, it’s not too bad, but that’s still tough to maintain in the reggae and hip-hop genres. We have to make sure the top of our line array is aimed precisely to cover just our area because any overthrow can easily disturb the neighbors.”
   
Top-shelf audio engineering requires top-shelf gear, and as the festival has expanded, so has Prairie Sun Live’s gear. This year’s festival featured both J and Q series loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik and a new subwoofer package from RMS Acoustics.
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Strain adds that “our biggest upgrade this year was our subwoofer package. We put out 16 RMS Acoustics M218 dual-18 subs powered by Linea Research 44M20 amps. We’ve owned M218s for a few years, but this was the first show we’ve put all 16 out on with the new 44M20 amps. These subs are great for the amount of reggae and hip hop that comes through Cali Roots; they go down to 27 Hz and with 16 of them out, you have plenty of low-end.”

Written By Angela Marlett, FOH Magazine

Read the full article on FOH Magazine online.

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