IC Live Scores Media Touchdown at Super Bowl

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March 4, 2009

IC Live Scores Media Touchdown at Super Bowl

Foothill Ranch, CA | March, 2009 – Fresh from its first public appearance at Winter NAMM, the revolutionary IC Live digitally steerable live sound system from Renkus-Heinz scored first time with packed press conferences at Super Bowl XLIII.

The press conference podium had been rigged for the first time with a dual IC Live stack per side, each comprising two IC Live arrays, locked together vertically, and a pair of matching ICL215S dual bandpass subwoofers. The system was under the command of a full mobile RHAON (Renkus-Heinz Audio Operations Network) package, with just a single CAT-5 cable supplying signal and control data to each stack. The effect, compared with a conventional PA, was that the stage sightlines were almost completely clear for photographers, and the entire 100 ft deep space was covered accurately and consistently from just the two compact stacks.

The system was the work of leading US-Canadian AV and staging solutions provider AVW-TELAV, whose teams work on many projects with the NFL. Martin Reeves, the firm’s National Director of Technical Staging, had attended an IC Live demonstration organized at McGill University in Montreal in December.

“Martin was very impressed and requested a demo in a tougher environment,” explains Renkus-Heinz National Sales Manager David Rahn. “That confirmed for him that it sets up easily, trucks easily, covers large spaces and minimizes sightline and camera angle impacts. But all of those aspects were second to the fact that he thought it sounded phenomenal.”

Live at the Super Bowl, sound sources for the two main press conferences were simple enough – wireless microphones a piece for American Idol favorite Jennifer Hudson, who sang ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ in the pre-show slot and country star Faith Hill, who followed her on the night with ‘God Bless America’.

The second press conference saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band face the media, again on wireless mics, all mixed on a Midas console with a few minutes of pre-event playback.

Martin Reeves comments: “IC Live performed admirably at our Super Bowl event and I was very pleased with them both musically and for their vocal intelligibility and transparency; they were exactly what we needed for this event.”

He adds: “Furthermore, when they requested us to move the main plenary in a much larger hall and then back again in a smaller room, I was thankful on their flexible design to convert them from long throw to near field “medium actually” configurations. Their design proves to be both accurate and articulate and dead simple to move around and tailor to any given situation. I’m convinced you have a winning product on your hands.”