One of Canada’s greatest outdoor play areas is the Shushwap Lake. The “H” shaped lake boasts hundreds of miles of shoreline nestled in cedar, spruce and fir forests that gets boaters close to nature.
Nature gets disturbed in a big way during the annual Shake the Lake Concert featuring recording and local bands.
Setting up in this “remote location” is an understatement….. To get the equipment to the middle of the lake, there is no roads and the cube van loaded with backline, PA and Power was driven onto a barge for a 3 hour ride to the narrows.
Uniquely on the lake, there are two floating stores called the Shark Shack and the host of the event, The Sea Store. Three businesses,The Sea Store, Papa’s Marina and Red’s Marina came together to make this event happen. In years past the group organized an EAW KF series rig. \While of high quality, the sound didn’t propagate across the water and didn’t have the definition desired by the groups “Go Big or Go Home” attitude.
After consulting with Mike Miltimore A/V by Lee’s Owner and Head Engineer, the plan was to use a brand new Crest Audio Ribbon Line Array. The Crest Audio Versa Array was set with 6 cells per side with a horizontal coverage of 90 degrees and a vertical coverage of just 15 degrees. Power and processing came from Peavey IPR amplifiers and VSX processing. The ability to focus the sound in a tight vertical pattern and the way the ribbons are direct coupled to the air in the same way as the woofers made for a smooth and powerful wavefront that sounded great far down the lake.
“When I was approached to come up with the solution for this unique concert location, I was excited to use our new line array. Each cell of the Versa Array is very powerful yet smooth with the new composite ribbon HF. I am still amazed at the sound pressure that is generated by this system, the small truck pack and the ability to set it up by myself.”
Mike Miltmore
Equipment Manifest
12 Crest Audio Versa Array MarkIII
4 218 Versa Array Subwoofers
2 Crest Audio Versa Array Pro (powered for monitoring)
4 QSC k12 monitors
1 A&H Ilive T112
2 Peavey IPR Amp Racks 14.5kW
2 Peavey VSX System Processors
