Tempo celebrated with a birthday concert named Tempo Turns One on 4 November, which started at 4 p.m. Saturday and continued well into Sunday morning. Tempo's Founder, senior vice president and general manager, Frederick Morton chose his home island of St. Croix to host the concert, at the Cramer's Park Beach on the east end of the island. The concert was headlined by The Royal Family of Reggae, Morgan Heritage, The Alison Hinds Show, Machel Montano & XTATIC, Denise "SAUCY WOW" Belfon, Wayne Marshall and Sweet Mickey. They were joined by many local favorites from the island, including Kenya, The Stroka Band, The Xzecutives, and D'Apostle. Tempo's VJs and hosts were also at hand at the event. "It has also become a revolution for those who have witnessed Tempo's birth and growth over the past year," said Morton. "When Tempo does something, it can't be ordinary -- it has to be extraordinary."
The extraordinary task of setting up the production was given to Frontline Systems, a locally based production company who owns their own high-end pro gear and has a lengthy and great track record in pulling off such events. Rick Jarvis, owner and sound designer for Frontline Systems, put up two arrays of eight Adamson Y10s, with three Adamson SX18s underneath as front fills.
The three T-21 Subs per side brought all the necessary and much-loved bass: "The further away you get from them, the louder they get, usually you lose the low end as you move away from a sub, but these are a different breed of speakers. Really, I don't even know if I should call them speakers." Jarvis commented. He added: "I think Adamson should put a bigger SPL warning label on the boxes!"
For stage monitors they used a combination of their existing stage monitors and four brand new Adamson M15 multi purpose enclosures, which had Jarvis explaining his future plans: "I'm going to replace all my monitors with M15's some time in the future-I've never heard anything like them."
(Chris Henry)
