Outline’s largest system reinforces Luke Combs
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The singer-songwriter is presently undertaking a major tour across North America in support of his fourth album Gettin’ Old, released in March 2023. The Growin' Up World tour runs through to July and features Combs plus support acts Riley Green, Lainey Wilson, Flatland Cavalry and Brent Cobb.
The popularity of Combs and contemporary country music in general is evidenced by the scale of the venues - the tour is playing principally in NFL football stadiums, accommodating crowds of up to 65,000 per night and every show is sold out.
A touring production on this scale demands not only a technical infrastructure able to deliver the show (including a colossal stage provided by G2 Structures) but also an audio system that can handle all the nuances of modern country music, which swings freely between gentle acoustic ballads and powerful country-rock. Special Event Services (SES) of Mocksville NC are the sound and lighting contractor for this tour and are deploying the largest Outline loudspeaker system so far used for a major American tour.
Jason Farah of SES comments: “The size and layout of the venues plus the audience numbers led us to design a system using our Outline GTO inventory because we knew it had the combination of horsepower and accuracy needed to fill these stadiums, with the fidelity that Combs’ music demands. We have to be able to cover an audience width of 220 degrees from the stage, so the design is somewhat unusual in that the main L&R hangs are actually slightly smaller than the side arrays.
“The L&R hangs each comprise 16 Outline GTO line-array boxes over a single GTO-DF (downfill cabinet) with eight GTO-LOW (bass extension elements) hung behind them, while the side LL / RR arrays include 20 GTO over one GTO-DF. Beyond them there are outfill LLL / RRR arrays, each comprising 26 x Mantas 28 loudspeakers. We also deploy three delay towers, each loaded with six GTOs flown over eight GTO C-12 cabinets. The low-frequency support comes from 40 x LAB21-HS subwoofers, while 20 LIPF-082 lip-fills cover the area immediately in front of the stage.”
FOH system control and power is via two Outline Newton 16+8 FPGA processors which also accept the outputs from the five mixing consoles used for the headliner and various support acts, while the loudspeaker system overall is powered by 90 Outline TTM12K4 amplifiers.
Farah continues: “Thus far, having completed shows in Arlington, Indianapolis, Nashville, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Chicago, every component of the system has performed flawlessly - at the first show at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington Texas, the house audio engineer remarked that he had never heard a PA throw so far and so effectively as our Outline GTO system.”
Key tour personnel include systems tech Joseph Lefebvre, production manager Jerry Slone and FOH engineer Todd Lewis - all echo Farah’s comments about the system and its performance.
