Country singer Keith Urban had the honour of being the first artist to headline the entertainment theatre in the International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney).
Although the venue is equipped with a d&b audiotechnik PA system, JPJ Audio provided a new Clair Cohesion PA system to accompany Urban’s Ripcord World Tour.
At the theatre there are 12 Cohesion CP-118 self-powered sub bass loudspeakers run in a cardio pattern of two blocks of six onstage.
The main hang is comprised of 16 Cohesion CO-12 cabinets, with a further twelve CO-12’s for side hang.
“The side hang is a 120° splay and the main hang an 80° splay,” stated Kirk Kelsey, Urban’s FOH Sound Engineer. “We also have a centre hang which consists of four Cohesion CO-8 cabinets that covers the thrust that comes out from the centre of the stage. We also have CO-8’s stacked in various places across the subs or the stage to fill out little gaps.”
Kelsey mixed on an Avid Profile with a large number of inputs including eight inputs for Urban’s electric guitar alone.
He also had eight RF microphones set up so Urban could move freely around the stage. Kelsey commented: “It didn’t seem cost effective to build channels for each one of those RF microphones, so I came up with a scheme where I can go ahead and route them through their own separate mixer. I use a lot of Waves as well as Brainworx, SPL Transient Designer and Echo Farm.”
Monitors were mixed by Phil Wilke on Midas H3000 analogue consoles with outboard effects. Urban and his band used both IEM’s and wedges.
The Ripcord World Tour has been on the road for several months, continuing across the U.S. and Canada in 2017.
