Ballard SeafoodFest celebrates seafood and the Seattle neighbourhood’s Nordic
heritage with a crowd pleasing salmon bbq, craft booths, family activities and a live
music stage for the annual two-day festival. This is the second year that Mackie and
EAW have teamed up to support the performance space at the festival, this year
providing a sound reinforcement system made up of EAW RADIUS loudspeakers and
Mackie’s AXIS Digital Mixing System.
This year’s event offered a variety of music genres that appealed to a broad
audience base. The line-up consisted of mostly local talent including Helio Sequence
and Mudhoney – who headlined Saturday night – while Fly Moon Royalty,
Polyrhythmics and Eldridge Gravy & The Court Supremes closed out the event
Sunday.
SeafoodFest takes place right in the middle of a bustling urban setting near the
Puget Sound. One of the key criteria for sound reinforcement was a system that
could contain the sound to the audience area – approximately 1,100 people at any
given time. Also, given the congested location, quick and efficient setup of the PA
was another necessity. RADIUS not only provides smart features like array self-
detection and optimization to drastically cut down on setup and tuning time, but also
offers system optimization and intuitive room design and prediction via the
EAWmosiac™ app. As a result, setup was a breeze with sound optimized for the
listening area.
Chris Mael, a long-time Mackie employee and live sound veteran, managed FOH as
well as setup.The self-powered RADIUS PA consisted of left-right hangs of six
RSX208L line array modules reinforced by 12 RSX18 subwoofers stacked six per
side. Front fill was managed by two RSX89 loudspeakers. The three-way RSX208L is
loaded with two 8-inch cones (LF and LF/MF) with high frequencies handled by two
1-inch compression drivers. Each module provides up to 125 dB whole space SPL
ensuring more than enough bandwidth to handle any performance type. The RSX18
delivered driving low end compliments of an 18-inch cone (3-inch voice coil) loaded
in a vented enclosure. Internal Class D amplification with integral DSP limiting
supplies the stage with rock-sold reliability.
Mael mixed on the AXIS Digital Mixing System, which was designed for modern
small- to mid-sized production companies. Because time and reliability are of the
essence when on a gig, Mackie concentrated on creating a product that delivers an
incredibly fast workflow through visual feedback and customization to help reduce
setup time, allowing engineers to dial in their mix quickly and easily.
The modular AXIS system combines the power of the 32-channel DL32R Rackmount
Digital Mixer and innovative DC16 Control Surface to deliver a live sound solution
with the efficiency fast-paced festival stages demand. Thirty-two remote-
controllable Onyx+ mic preamps and 18 outputs with built-in DSP can handle the
most rigorous schedules. With both AXIS and RADIUS on the Dante network, setup
time can be further minimized and routing is effortless.
