News

Huey Lewis, EAW Keep the Heart of Rock 'N' Roll Beating in Providence

Providence, RI (August 25, 2003)--This year's CVS Charity Classic, a two-day PGA tournament, got a special post-tourney treat at the dinner gala: entertainment by Huey Lewis and the News on an EAW KF760 line-array system coupled with EAW KF730 small line-array modules.

PGA Tour members Brad Faxon and Billy Andrade host the CVS Charity Classic's annual Dinner Gala, a fundraising dinner featuring a silent and live auction. The event was held at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence. AVS of Rhode Island, a massAV company, is the in-house audiovisual provider for the convention center. For the third year in a row, AVS and massAV were brought in by Frank Miranda of A Better Resolution, the producer for the event, to help stage the dinner.

"Historically the dinner was usually in the Ballroom, about 20,000 square feet," said Chris Gasbarro of massAV. "To accommodate the growing size and logistics of the silent-auction area, the event was moved to two-thirds of the exhibition hall this year."

The team at massAV was no stranger to this hall. It was used for the initial beta testing during the development of the EAW KF760 line-array system in the winter of 2001. The exhibit hall features a polished cement floor and open steel ceiling. An air wall was used to cordon off approximately 60,000 square feet for a 240x240-foot room. This blend of open space with a highly reflective floor surface made for a challenging acoustical environment. The open steel ceiling also presented the crew with another problem: so many boxes, so few rigging points.

To overcome these issues, AVS deployed the first-ever combination of the EAW KF760 line-array system with EAW's new KF730 small line-array module (SLAM) loudspeakers. The main system was comprised of 12 KF760 long-throw modules, four KF761 near-field modules, 12 KF730 small line-array modules for side coverage of the stage, and four KF650 loudspeakers for front fill. Twelve SB1000s provided low-end coverage. The KF760 system was powered by 12 Crest 9001s and eight Crest 8002s.

A pair of Lab.Gruppen fP6400 amps powered the KF730s. QSC's PL 6.0, PL 236 and PL 218 powered the KF650's low, mid and high sections respectively. Processing for the system consisted of a dbx DriveRack 480R, two dbx DriveRack 480s, three dbx DriveRack 482s and an EAW MX8750 processor.

Huey Lewis and the News carried their own monitor rig and FOH console and electrics. Jim Moran, FOH for Lewis, mixed the show on a Gamble EX56 console.

EAW
www.eaw.com