Part of an extensive renovation of the five-year-old, 7,000-seat outdoor Nickel Plate District Amphitheater, the City of Fishers, Indiana, set out to attract national touring acts. City employee, event booker and production manager, Bob McCutcheon, lead the audio overhaul with support from Sound Image and Mid-America Sound Corporation.
The newly renovated venue boasts a Vue audiotechnik system, with two hangs of eight al-12 elements per side, with eight al-4 elements for front fill and four hs-221s subwoofers (with an additional four hs-221s from Mid-America’s rental inventory when required) for low-end support – all driven by Vue v3 and v4 VueDrive systems engines.
The city also tripled the size of the stage to 48ft x 40ft and installed trussing to support a 55-element lighting rig. Being an outdoor venue in the US Midwest, the system is designed to be struck and stored each autumn, and re-installed each spring. It debuted in July, with a performance by Indianapolis-native Jennie DeVoe.
According to McCutcheon, the Vue system and rapidly spreading the word about the installation, the venue is already attracting far more interest from national acts. ‘While fielding a call from a national act’s booking agent the other day, I was asked about the in-house system, which would’ve in the past usually ended the conversation. But as soon as I explained we had a Vue al-12 rig with two hangs of eight elements per side, we started talking about dates, not objections.’
More: www.vueaudio.com
