Initially put to work at the 2023 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo – the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world – LD Systems has added a Solid State Logic Live L550 Plus mixing console to its rental inventory.

‘We decided to make the purchase so that we could have redundant L550 Plus systems managing the live announcers and programme content mix for one of our largest annual events,’ says, Audio Department Operations Manager, Thomas Ruffner. ‘The engineer at this position manages roughly 50 sources, including announcers’ mics, all video rolls, and a multitude of FX mics placed throughout the rodeo competition arena, as well as nightly live performances of the National Anthem.’

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) attracts more than 2.5m people each year to NRG Park where LD Systems’ Production Services and Systems Integration teams work to provide event production services, stadium audio, concert lighting, HD video screens, custom truss structures, rigging equipment, expert technical crews and logistics support for the entire month surrounding the event.

‘Both our primary and secondary console packages consist of an L550 Plus surface, two ML 32.32 SuperAnalogue stageboxes and they all share a central Blacklight II Madi Concentrator,’ Ruffner says. ‘This allows us to split 64 channels across two ML 32.32’s per surface but have all four ML 32.32’s accessible on either of our L550 Plus surfaces, which makes redundancy options with the system very impressive.’

Performers in the evenings following the rodeo events included Brooks & Dunn, Zac Brown Band, New Kids on The Block, The Chainsmokers, Machine Gun Kelly and Kenny Chesney.

Two SSL System T broadcast audio platforms installed in a broadcast production control room and a music control room near the stadium also took mic and other sources specific to the rodeo competitions from LD Systems over the Dante AoIP infrastructure.

‘We are preparing for an increase in demand of our L550 Plus systems on corporate productions, as well as fly date support across the many festivals that we’re fortunate to be involved with every season,’ Ruffner reflects. ‘We do think highly of the platform. It’s without a doubt one of the best-sounding desks on the market.’

See also:
Texas Rodeo drives largest ever L-Acoustics sale