Nashville, TN (November 26, 2019) – Whether tearing it up as Wolverine, smarming it up as a school superintendent in the upcoming HBO movie Bad Education, or turning it up in song-and-dance performances on Broadway, Australian-born entertainer Hugh Jackman pretty much does it all. That includes touring the world, as he did recently on a 90-show global concert production known as “The Man. The Music. The Show.” Along for the ride was audio gear provided by Solotech, which fielded an L-Acoustics K2-based system as Jackman performed Hollywood and Broadway musical numbers backed by a five-piece band and 14-member orchestra.
With SSE Audio, now a Solotech company, kicking off the worldwide trek in the UK and Europe, Solotech system engineer Alexandre Bibeau notes that the second and fourth legs of the tour visited A-market arenas across the US, Canada and Mexico. Performances were presented via main arrays of 16 L-Acoustics K2 per side, each backed by six flown KS28 subs, and flanked by 14 more K2 as side hangs.
Additional arrays of 12 Kara enclosures each addressed the extreme left and right seating areas, ranging from 180 to 220° depending on the venue, while three smaller arrays of eight Kara—on axis with the main PA—were used for upper level delay.
NYC’s ArTecHouse Gets Immersive Underground
Solotech also carried a quantity of short throw enclosures—including eight X8 and a dozen tiny 5XT—for extra fill applications, two additional ground-based KS28 subs for extra low-end impact, and 49 LA12X amplified controllers housed in LA-RAK II mobile rack units.
Bibeau utilized two new L-Acoustics P1 processors and four Avnu-certified Extreme Networks AVB switches. “Our full system used AVB protocol with an analog backup,” he said. “We were using fiber to interconnect the switches, and the whole process was simple, reliable, and a great experience.”
Simon Sayer was the man in the FOH driver’s seat at a DiGiCo Quantum 7 console for the duration of Jackman’s worldwide trek, and his background as a sound designer, music producer, composer, remixer, and live sound engineer well prepared him for this role. “My prior experience as the front-of-house engineer and associate sound designer for the global tour of the Queen and Ben Elton musical, We Will Rock You, helped me know how to best bridge the gap between theatre and rock and roll sound for Hugh’s show,” shares Sayer, who has also worked with Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman.
Want more information like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox.
“Running 85 inputs with a full orchestra and live band in these big venues made this tour a challenge, especially with such a dynamic show, but I definitely think that L-Acoustics was the best option for us. And the worldwide support we got was just as great as the sound. Between L-Acoustics and Solotech, no matter what time zone we were in, I knew that we could always very quickly get an answer for any questions or concerns we might have had.”
L-Acoustics • www.l-acoustics.com
Solotech • www.solotech.com
