David MellorIf you are in a band, or you are a live sound engineer, there will come a point in your career when you get to work with a line array system.
You only find line arrays in arena-sized venues and larger, so you have to be pretty good to get to this point.
The purpose of the line array is to direct sound at the audience. Simple you think? No, not so simple – it has taxed the brains of the greatest sound system designers for decades.
This article, in the March 2006 issue of Sound on Sound Live, by David Mellor, covers the theory and practice of line arrays from the basic concepts of covering the audience, through directivity theory, practical line array systems, deployment and set up.
And if you ever wondered what the difference is between intensity shading and divergence shading, you can find out here.
Although line arrays are currently only used for arena-sized shows and larger, this technology will be coming to the gigging band soon. In fact, small bands used it back in the 1960's and 1970's without realizing.
But if you want to cover your audience with high-quality sound and plenty of it, line arrays are what you need to know about.
Find out more at www.soundonsound.com
