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Meyer Sound Goes Down to the Crossroads and Flags a Bonnaroo

The summer season got off to a busy start for Dallas, Texas-based Crossroads Audio in June with two back-to-back three-day festivals. First up was Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, held in the event production company's hometown, followed immediately by the Bonnaroo 2004 Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.

The appropriately-named firm provided Meyer Sound equipment at six separate locations during the Crossroads Festival, which was held June 4 through 6 at Fair Park in Dallas. The three-day event featured performances by dozens of the world's top guitarists.

Proceedings began with the opening of Guitar Center Village, coordinated by the nationwide musical instrument retailer for whom the stage was named. On the main stage at the Guitar Center Village site, reports Robin Magruder, general manager and one of three company directors at Crossroads Audio, "We had two stripes (vertical arrays) nine high of M3D tops with nine M3D-Subs per side."

The Village Main Stage featured performances by a number of guitar greats including Clapton, Robert Randolph, John Mayer, Robert Cray, Dan Tyminski, J.J. Cale, Buddy Guy, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Jonny Lang, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Jimmy Vaughan, Hubert Sumlin, Doyle Bramhall II, Eric Johnson, Del Castillo, Styx and many others.

In addition to the 18 M3D line array loudspeakers and 18 M3D-Sub directional subwoofers, five M3D cabinets were located behind the mix position to accommodate the 850 foot-deep site with four M2D compact curvilinear array loudspeakers providing nearfield front fill. "A total of eight MSL-4s (horn-loaded long-throw loudspeakers), four per side, and four DF-4s (dedicated downfill loudspeakers), two per side, provided side audience coverage -- side wrap, we call it."

Sirius Satellite Radio also sponsored a stage and broadcast from the site during the event. For the Sirius stage, Crossroads Audio supplied eight M2D cabinets, plus two M1D ultra-compact curvilinear array loudspeakers for lip fill. The company supplied four M1D loudspeakers with an M2D-Sub compact subwoofer per side for reinforcement of the VIP Reception at the Texas Hall of State on the festival's opening day.

Crossroads Audio provided nine USM-100P extended range wide coverage stage monitors to rehearsals for the festival’s concluding benefit concert at Cotton Bowl Stadium, which featured an all-star line-up of guitarists, including Clapton, Vaughan, Cray, Guy, B.B. King, Brian May, Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, ZZ Top and Joe Walsh, backed by Booker T & The MG's, Eric Clapton's band, and Jimmie Vaughan's band. An additional six UPM-100P wedges were supplied for ZZ Top's rehearsals at the nearby NOKIA Live at Grand Prairie venue.

The world's top guitarists congregated at the event to raise money for the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education center for the chemically addicted and other compulsive individuals, founded by Clapton in 1997.

In conjunction with New York-based auction house Christie's, Clapton also presented "Crossroads Guitar Auction - Eric Clapton and Friends for the Crossroads Centre" later in the month. The auction featured over 50 guitars owned by Clapton, including the legendary “Blackie,” plus guitars donated by musicians such as Pete Townsend and Steve Vai, as well as the late Stevie Ray Vaughan's famous "SRV"-initialed Stratocaster. Some of the guitars going on the auction block were also on display at the festival, where Crossroads Audio supplied four UPJ-1P compact VariO™ loudspeakers on stands to provide background music for the viewing.

As the last guitar chord was dying out, Crossroads Audio's Meyer Sound equipment was being packed away for the drive to Tennessee, where, ably assisted by Birmingham, Ala.-based Muse Productions, one of the Southeast’s largest sound reinforcement providers, the company provided a variety of Meyer Sound systems for several of the multiple stages at the Bonnaroo 2004 Music Festival. The third annual festival, held near Nashville in Manchester, Tenn., drew over 90,000 people and featured performances from 80 artists, including Bob Dylan, The Dead, Trey Anastasio, Dave Matthews & Friends, David Byrne, and Kings Of Leon.

For the outdoor "Which Stage" at Bonnaroo, Crossroads provided 18 M3D cabinets and 18 M3D-Sub subwoofers, with eight M2D loudspeakers for front fill. “It was much the same system, except for the side wrap, as the Crossroads festival, "Magruder notes.

Sixteen MILO high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers and eight of the brand new 700-HP ultrahigh-power subwoofers provided reinforcement on the tented "This Stage." The festival was the first real-world opportunity for Crossroads Audio to use the new subwoofers.

"We had used them once, but not under these conditions," Magruder reports. "We had demo units in the shop, and tested and used them in demo mode for a corporate application. But this was full range, eclectic music with fairly large scale audiences."

The tent housing "This Stage" held approximately 3,500 people, Magruder estimates, but was open to the elements at the sides and back, allowing crowds of 10,000 or more to gather for the larger acts. The new subwoofers performed admirably, he says. "I was very impressed with the 700-HPs. They're big, strong, very musical sounding subs with a lot of thump, a lot of punch to them, and good definition."

Onstage monitoring at "This Stage" consisted of 16 PSM-2 high-power low-profile wedges, four MSL-4 horn-loaded long-throw speakers, and two 650-P high-power subwoofers, with an MSL-4 and a 650-P for drum fill. Three additional tented stages were supplied with various configurations of MSL-4 and 650-P units. Although the festival kicked-off with scorching sun and 90-plus degree temperatures, it rained heavily several times during the weekend, but the water streaming from Magruder’s brow was only rain, not sweat. "The Meyer equipment weathered the storms remarkably well," says Magruder.

“All of the Meyer Sound equipment we used at both events performed exceptionally well across the wide spectrum of application challenges and conditions we faced,” he states.  “Meyer’s rigorous design and quality standards ensured that every system configuration integrated seamlessly, installed efficiently, operated reliably and shone sonically, garnering many compliments from the event coordinators and artist engineers.”

But Magruder is quick to point out that equipment alone does not make for successful events, and offers praise for the teams from Muse Productions and his own company, as well as singling out the festival staffs. “Maximum kudos to Mick Double, David Stallbaumer, Tim Rozner and their stellar  teams for the Crossroads Guitar Festival; and Hadden Hippsley, Tim Foster and their superb teams for the Bonnaroo Music Festival,” applauds Magruder. “We should always remember that events of this scale, difficulty and complexity would be impossible without the outstanding skills, efforts and sacrifices of the people dedicated to making them successful.”

September 2004

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