FOH Engineer Jim Ebdon and Maroon 5 continue to tour with Sound Image’s K1 / K2 sound system.
Ebdon and the band began the tour back in February 2015. Ebdon discovered that the L-Acoustics V-DOSC system that he had come to count on wasn’t available. “The V-DOSC was simply still so popular that one wasn’t always available – bands and production managers loved it,” he recalled. That summer, however, a K1 / K2 system did become available, through Sound Image, which has been the tour’s main SR vendor throughout. The system started with two hangs of 10 K1 per side with four to six K2 boxes slung underneath, depending on the size of the venue.
Most recently, the main arrays consist of 14 K1s per side with two K2s underneath, always powered and processed with LA8-equipped LA-RAKs. In addition, there are 12 K2s per side used as side fills, 10 Kara boxes flown as rear fills for arenas and stadiums, and six Kiva speakers per side for front fills.
The low end has usually been handled using 10 SB28 subs ground stacked; however, Ebdon has recently taken to hanging additional K1-SB subs alongside the K1 hangs. “I used to think that would create too much bass in the roof when we put them on the top of the arrays,” he explained. “But, on the sides, they really seemed to add a dimension.”
The K2s in particular have amazed their users on the tour. For instance, lead vocalist Adam Levine spends much of the show traversing a 130-foot-long stage thrust into the audience. Ebdon says the K2s are what he’s listening to from an FOH position that’s just 95ft from the stage. “There’s been no feedback at all,” he marvelled, “even though we have so much audience cheering and singing along getting into his microphone.”
The system’s Array Morphing tools, part of the LA-Network Manager EQ section, lets Ebdon adjust the sound for different array geometries and conditions of use to fit every venue with confidence.
In addition to Ebdon, the tour’s core audio crew members include: Jim Miller, L-Acoustics System Tech; Dan Bower and Matt McQuaid, PA Techs; Marcus Douglas, Monitor Tech and Crew Chief; and Bill Chrysler, Monitor Engineer.