Put on by the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation and sponsored by Disney, the celebration drew more than 80 Hollywood names and sports superstars including Heidi Klum, Mark Wahlberg, Dwyane Wade, Billy Crystal, Sharon Stone, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Tony Hawk among many others. Volunteering their time as 'heroes,' they worked carnival-style game booths and interacted with guests and families.
LA Sound of Canoga Park, California provided audio for the event, with owner-president Richard Ralke serving as system engineer, assisted by band FOH engineer Paul David Hager, who mixes Miley and the Goo Goo Dolls, and monitor engineer Brent Dannen.
The sound system consisted of nine Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Array enclosures per side with two on stage for front-fill. According to Ralke: "We were going to use the Martin W8LCs, but we ended up needing something lighter and less visually intrusive because it was a small temporary stage, so we went with the more compact and lightweight W8LMs."
Four Martin Audio W218X subs a side complemented the system, along with seven Martin Audio LE12J wedge monitors for Cyrus with Martin Audio Viewpoint 4.1 software facilitating set-up.
Asked about how the system performed, Ralke concluded: "Sound-wise the W8LMs were perfect and they threw longer than we needed, which is never a problem. The FOH engineer thought it was a great-sounding little box. Everyone was very happy with the sound quality."
(Jim Evans)
