PHOTO : OKWA ANDREW
Man of the Woods Tour technical crew : ( L-R ) Rachel Rozzi , Audio Tech ; Kevin Leas , WiFi ; Nate Sonnenberg , Audio Tech ; Hugo Gudino , Audio Stage Tech ; Andy Meyer , FOH Engineer , Paul “ Boyo ” Manuel , Monitor Tech ; Paul Klimson , Monitor Engineer ; Justin Lenards , FOH Tech ; Phil Kriz , Crew Chief ; Carlos Lopez-Olavarria , Audio Tech ; Dustin Chrysler , Audio Tech ; Elliott Wiley , RF Tech
instruments find themselves on the third stage as a real fire pit – complete with a surrounding patch of grass – emerges from the deck . Sitting around it , they perform acoustic renditions of “ Flannel ” and “ Until the End of Time ” before each of the backing vocalists tears into their own cover song , ranging from Fleetwood Mac ’ s “ Dreams ” to Lauryn Hill ’ s “ Ex-Factor ” to John Denver ’ s “ Thank God I ’ m a Country Boy .”
The house PA system is comprised of Clair ’ s Cohesion CO-12 large-scale reference loudspeakers and more compact CO-10 flexible reference loudspeakers and divided up into quadrants – upstage and downstage left and right – each comprised of two arrays to cover the bowl seating . Additional smaller arrays cover the VIP section around the middle of the arena and the rest of the floor level . Clair CP-Series subs handle the low end throughout the venue .
Meyer says his choice of the Clair system was based as much on its wide dispersion as it was pure audio performance . “ It has the best pattern control , and a true 120-degree dispersion , which was key with the in-the-round configuration ,” the engineer explains . “ That helped us to minimize the total number of arrays while still getting full coverage . We ’ re thrilled with the response of the system overall .”
One of the challenges inherent with this production design is that for much of the show , Timberlake and The Tennessee Kids are performing directly beneath the PA – and they ’ re pretty active while doing so . “ Overall , it ’ s a bigger production than usual , and there ’ s a lot more movement and more dynamics ,” Meyer asserts . “ The CO-10s are blowing right down on the stage , and you ’ ve got Justin along with the horn players , guitar players , backup singers , all moving around . That can be a bit challenging at times ; it takes a bit more finesse and care to consider everything onstage .”
The complements of amps feeding each quadrant are actually flown , and each amp rack is loaded with one of Clair ’ s recently acquired Optocore DD32R- FX units that offer more than enough AES I / O to feed the system .
“ I originally just wanted one fibre loop , but the engineering team at Clair explained the benefit of keeping my FOH and stage drive on a Digico protocol fibre loop while having the amp rack loop on its own Optocore ring ,” Meyer explains . This offers the ability to monitor all five DD32R-FXs in real time , as he can with any other device on the network .
It was the ease of using the DD32Rs to transport signal anywhere it was desired without the degradation that can occur with longer AES runs that had Meyer and company opting for Optocore . As well , the platform offers 100 Mbit fast ether transport built into the network , so each device can function like a virtual unmanaged switch , allowing Meyer to run control up to the amplifiers via a single cable .
“ The entire drive stays 100 per cent digital ,” Meyer says in summary . “ The advantage [ of the Optocore system ] is that it simplifies everything and sounds absolutely fantastic . I have a doublewide 40-space and singlewide 20-space [ rack ] at FOH connected by one NC14 [ cable ] and two pieces of fibre . That ’ s it . If you ’ re going to carry a lot of analog , it has to be smart and has to be simple . This solution provided the absolute best way to achieve this , taking audio quality , stability , and ease of use into consideration .”
In addition to his complement of analog outboard gear , Meyer also takes advantage of the SD7 ’ s seamless integration with Waves plug-ins , which he says is full of “ excellent tools .”
As for how the desk itself earned its spot on the tour , Meyer admits it was an
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