The 39th annual Redondo Beach 10k/5k race hosted thousands of costumed runners to kick off Super Bowl Sunday festivities. The race route took runners past some South Redondo Beach highlights, including King Harbor, The Esplanade, and Riviera Village. At the finish line in Seaside Lagoon, the Health & Fitness Expo attracted fitness enthusiasts with family activities, food and fitness industry vendors, and live music.

Bell specified a mono-hang array of 16x VUE al-4 elements, the top-12 configured to distribute audio to Expo guests, and the bottom four to light up the sidewalk and street for runners and onlookers. Tim Campbell, Bell Event Services audio/operations manager, had each box set at the same amplitude with no shading needed. The single array had an effective throw of more than 300 feet and reached the back of the Lagoon and beyond.

In the Sicilian capital of Palermo, the fifth annual Beat Full Festival boasted a range of performances from hip-hop to electro-rock. Set on a one-and-a-half acre section next to the UNESCO World Heritage Zisa Cultural Site, the Festival featured a headline performance from the most-discussed Italian artist of 2017 — Gold and Platinum recording artist and master of the Italian rap/hip-hop scene, Ghali.

Under the masterful guidance of lead live sound engineer, Rosario “Saro” Tine, Sinergie Group provided system design and rental services for the Festival. This was Singergie’s second consecutive year providing audio services to the Festival and the 7th major deployment of their VUE arsenal during a very active 2017 Italian summer festival season.

Citing its flexibility and class-leading size-to-performance ratio, Audio Visual Live, Inc. (“AVL”) recently deployed a VUE al-8 line array system for the HBO Boxing After Dark live broadcast event on January 27, 2018. Looking to strike the ideal balance of intelligibility, directionality and SPL, AVL identified the VUE line array as the best option for the challenging, low-headroom indoor arena, The Forum, in Los Angeles.

AVL has handled production for many televised boxing events for promoters across multiple networks. This venue has always presented a challenging tradeoff between ideal system performance and size.

As is typical with live-broadcasts, AVL needed a system that could handle a range of material — from high-SPL DJ performances to the ring announcer’s spoken word — all without disruption to the live TV broadcast. Directionality and precision of coverage were also key to avoid covering areas that require lower SPL. Adding to the challenge was a relatively low 30-foot clearance from the top of the lighting truss to the venue ceiling.