Some 33 years after it was founded, the 550-seat CupOJoy live music venue in Green Bay, Wisconsin, has taken delivery of its first permanently installed sound system.
The system is in the larger space within the two-auditorium venue which it relocated to two years ago.
Part of a complete audio-visual fit-out masterminded by local system integrators CCCP (Camera Corner), a cutting-edge Martin Audio Wavefront Precision WPS line array was specified after careful evaluation against other leading brands.
The facility’ mission is to be a family-friendly venue, offering ‘music that inspires’ and the non-profit organisation is run by volunteers.
CupOJoy’s Technical Director, Mark Berg said: “When we fired up the PA for the first time before the launch event I was flabbergasted by the quality of the sound, and [CupOJoy director], Jan Oettinger, said she was moved to tears.
“After the benefit concert two days later, multiple people came up, including one of our donors, stating that it sounded ‘amazing’.”
CCCP had previously worked with Martin Audio point source systems for a couple of years with the WPM installation marking their first Martin Audio line array experience.
Jan Oettinger, who has been at CupOJoy virtually since the beginning, added: “Having experienced other sound systems in the room with touring artists’ own production we felt like the Martin Audio sound was superior to anything we had heard in the room previously.”
CCCP’s Steve Littlepage was tech head and system designer. He detailed two WPS line array hangs, seven elements per side, driven in single box resolution from two Martin Audio iKON iK81 amplifiers (with channel 8 of each iK81 used to drive DD6 front fills).
These are set either at the edge of the stage, or operate on a thrust with a different system preset. Four SX218 subwoofers, driven by the iK42, are flown in an end-fire configuration and aligned with the arrays.
Mark Berg pointed out further advantages of reduced real estate in having the iKON multi-channel, process-controlled amps. “
“It means we can run the entire system off just three amps instead of many more required in the rack with the other two systems [we reviewed]. It was one of the main selling points of the system.”
But given present supply problems, the fact that all this ordinance was delivered to site for the opening benefit concert, said Littlepage, had been due to the efforts of Martin Audio’s Martha Callaghan. “She was amazing—she went above and beyond to get everything to us in time.”