Held at Microsoft Theater in Downtown LA during November, the 2015 American Music Awards counted more than 10m television viewers across the US alongside the 7,000 people in attendance.

In addition to performances from Coldplay, The Weeknd and Demi Lovato, the evening saw AMA awards presented to artists including One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Rihanna and Fall Out Boy. Country artist Sam Hunt was New Artist of the Year, while Taylor Swift scooped nominations in six categories. Hosted by Jennifer Lopez the event featured Harrison Ford, Prince and Jenny McCarthy among its presenters.

Sound for the performances was handled by a A DiGiCo FOH console and a JBL VerTec loudspeaker system driven by more than 100 Powersoft K10 DSP+Aesop amplifiers, located in racks situated throughout the facility. ATK Audiotek, which has been providing audio services for the AMA Awards for 25 years, handled sound services, including equipment specification, set up, FOH and monitor engineering.

‘For all the large shows we deploy, we depend on Powersoft for the main PA, monitors and subs,’ says ATK Audiotek Audio Engineer, Sean Prickett

With musical performances throughout the evening, the production staff have to make frequent changes to the set-up: ‘There is dialogue, but it is standard for us to have to go A Stage to B Stage after a v/o right into another performance.’ says Prickett. ‘It was certainly a case of “all hands on deck” for everyone in the audio department.’

In a high-profile, live broadcast environment, equipment dependability is key: ‘We have so many amps out there and with Powersoft, I was not concerned about reliability at all,’ he adds.

‘This is considered one of the top three music shows in the country, so there is a certain amount of prestige when the artists come in with certain expectations,’ says ATK Audiotek VP of Special Events, Mikael Stewart. ‘We are doing a lot of show in a relatively short amount of time, so everything has to go in, work right away and be flexible.’

Having done many shows in the Microsoft Theater (formerly Nokia Theatre LA Live), ATK has its audio system ‘dialled in’: ‘Our system for Microsoft Theater consists primarily of four main hang arrays, four delay arrays, three balcony hung delays as well as under balconies and two different versions of front fills for FOH,’ Prickett explains. ‘Typically, for these awards shows, we do a split up distributed drive system, unlike what we might do for typical touring situations.’

For the main PA and delays, ATK used JBL VerTec 4089 line arrays and 4886 balcony delays, all powered by Powersoft K10s. ‘We use a distributed system to give us more flexible set-up for music and dialogue, and it means we do not have to drive the PA as hard because there are many zones to create a nice even coverage pattern throughout the whole house,’ says Prickett.

Whether it is for an awards show or a touring installation, preparation is one of ATK’s key ingredients for success. No matter where the performance, the company relies on Powersoft’s Armonia software to catalogue and recall key DSP settings so the production team doesn’t have to start from scratch when it comes to set up and room-tuning. ‘These venues are very much the same, and the show hasn’t really changed its physical structure over the past five years,’ says Stewart. ‘We just load the presets from Armonia, which gives us a good starting point so we don’t have to spend hours re-tuning the room.’

‘We use Powersoft Armonia exclusively for our DSP, and there is no other system controller in front of it,’ Prickett adds. ‘We rely very heavily on this to tune the system, as well as facilitate EQ and level changes. The preset capability is a key feature for us, since time is always of the essence in these shows.’

Aside from their predictable sonic performance on a demanding live broadcast program such as the AMAs, the Powersoft K10s deliver a range of efficiencies in a range of other areas: ‘The main reason we use K10 DSP+AESOPs at ATK Audiotek is because they allow us to operate in a reduced physical footprint, which is essential in the rack world when it comes to amplifiers,’ says Prickett. ‘Since each K10 takes up just 1U, we are able to have a spare amplifier at each location without tying up a prohibitive amount of rackspace. So in case one of the signals goes away, we have a backup at every single amplifier.

For the AMAs, where every second of live programming counts, the Powersoft K10s never faltered: ‘There were absolutely no issues with any of the 100 amplifiers on our network,’ concludes Prickett. ‘Everything went smoothly and without incident – this is the kind of performance we rely on.’

See also:
The power behing the Emmys

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