Challenge

With thousands of company leaders gathered in one location for the first time in six years, Starbucks placed a high priority on delivering resounding and clear messages to everyone in the audience. Crucially, all guest speakers would be communicating lavalier, which required running the selected audio system at lower levels than a performance. The chosen PA needed to emphasize vocal intelligibility and full coverage to all seats in the arena while also providing exceptional tonality and output for musical performances.

Solution

The  audio system comprised two rings, one for the lower bowl and a delay ring for the upper bowl. The lower ring included two hangs of fourteen Cohesion CO10, with the top four enclosures using 80° horizontal dispersion inserts and the bottom ten enclosures using 120° inserts, four hangs of ten CO10 (all 80° inserts), and two hangs of 8 CO10 (all 120° inserts). The delay ring used sixteen clusters of eight Cohesion CO8 with 120° inserts. The speakers were closer to the audience to increase the signal-to-noise ratio for keynote portions of the event. For additional low end, eighteen Cohesion CP218 II+ were flown in standard configuration in six clusters of three each. A dozen Cohesion CM14 were used as stage monitors, both for the keynote speakers and for the artists.

Result

Nearly three hundred Cohesion enclosures were deployed by ATK Audiotek, a Clair Global brand, to ensure full arena coverage. The precision in vertical coverage and control in horizontal dispersion from the CO10 produced seamless, rich audio with natural-sounding speech and premier intelligibility for the audience to enjoy the keynotes. The PA provided the clarity and musicality for the star-studded trio of performances from Ella Langley, The War and Treaty, and ten-time Grammy nominee Janelle Monáe that capped the first evening.

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