PA for rodeo

J

Jared Koopman

Junior
Jun 13, 2012
303
0
16
Colorado
Hi all,
Just curious if any of you all have provided PA for a rodeo. I have some questions that I would like to ask.

The rode will be outdoors and they are requesting "loud and clear with bass the spectators can feel" :)

Thanks...
Jared
 
Re: PA for rodeo

Jared Koopman said:
Hi all,
Just curious if any of you all have provided PA for a rodeo. I have some questions that I would like to ask.

The rode will be outdoors and they are requesting "loud and clear with bass the spectators can feel" :)

Thanks...
Jared
Click to expand...

Yes, we do indoors in a 4,000 seat rodeo arena (arena floor is 135' x 300') with big VerTec rig. We fly 2 4880 subs and 6 4889, per side. The PA hangs upstage of the chutes by about 15', so the cowpokes and livestock wranglers can hear it, too. Announcer, timekeeper and secretary are all upstage of it, though, so we provide a couple of small Anchor monitors for them to hear program material and for the announcer to interact with the rodeo clown.

Does your prospective client have any examples of "loud/clear/feel-able bass" that you can work with? I've found that what the horse event folks think is very, very different from roping events or (especially) bull riding.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

I used to do a bunch of rodeos with Mexican bands.

I thought it was really weird-but the bands would play while the riders were riding.

There did not seem to be any correlation to the riding and the band playing.

I brought out a full PA for the band. The "throw" was about 200' or more.

I got tear gassed a couple of times at those gigs and had gangs running around with large knives, clubs etc. It got scary at times
 
Re: PA for rodeo

Ivan Beaver said:
I used to do a bunch of rodeos with Mexican bands.

I thought it was really weird-but the bands would play while the riders were riding.

There did not seem to be any correlation to the riding and the band playing.

I brought out a full PA for the band. The "throw" was about 200' or more.

I got tear gassed a couple of times at those gigs and had gangs running around with large knives, clubs etc. It got scary at times
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Were you sure you were North of the border?
 
Re: PA for rodeo

Glenn Adams said:
Were you sure you were North of the border?
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Well that depends on whether you call Atlanta GA north of the border??????????

There is a large Hispanic population around here-i used to do a lot of Hispanic shows.

I make A LOT more money doing those type shows that I ever did doing Metal or pop music.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

jared , I have done rodeo's outside before , and I can say that i didnt have enough rig for the gig. I had 2 CGM and 2 PEAVEY PV15M speakers doing it with a Mackie 1400I (Bridged) and a Samson F800 (Stereo). My mistake was not enough power and the speakers was not spread out as much as i would have liked because one show the horses was all around the gates on the outside of them and i couldn't have spread the speakers out so all of them had to go on the stage where the announcer was. the crowd was all the way on the other side of the arena. and the other time it came a monsoon and it was a bad deal there too. so if you are going to do them outside make sure that you got enough to carry the sound to where you need it to go. what exactly are you wanting to know?
 
Re: PA for rodeo

Ivan Beaver said:
Well that depends on whether you call Atlanta GA north of the border??????????

There is a large Hispanic population around here-i used to do a lot of Hispanic shows.

I make A LOT more money doing those type shows that I ever did doing Metal or pop music.
Click to expand...
So risk has its reward.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

Jared Koopman said:
Hi all,
Just curious if any of you all have provided PA for a rodeo. I have some questions that I would like to ask.

The rode will be outdoors and they are requesting "loud and clear with bass the spectators can feel" :)

Thanks...
Jared
Click to expand...

What do you have available? Flying or ground stacking/stand based?

How big is the arena, as in how much audience area?

I have done horse events where we have ringed the arena with SOS all the way around, using 12 or so boxes. Tim's approach of 2 center hung arrays sound like it would cover well.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

Eric Lenasbunt said:
What do you have available? Flying or ground stacking/stand based?

How big is the arena, as in how much audience area?

I have done horse events where we have ringed the arena with SOS all the way around, using 12 or so boxes. Tim's approach of 2 center hung arrays sound like it would cover well.
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The information I have thus far is that it is outdoors, with the grandstand on one side of the arena. Seating capacity is roughly 4000. There isn't a way to hang anything over the arena. We could put some up on lifts/towers but I am concerned about sight lines unless we do it on the far side of the arena.

I did a Lacrosse event last summer that we setup single QSC KLA12 on a stick down on the deck for national anthem playback and play by play. It worked great and is certainly an option to consider for this. However, based on the images I have seen, there isn't much space to do that along the grandstand and I doubt they want speakers on sticks inside the arena.

I have a call in with the venue to get dimensions and more specifics.

As far as my inventory, I have:
6 x QSC KLA12 (additional 4 I can rent)
4 x QSC KW153
12 x QSC KW181
2 x QSC KW122
12 x QSC K12

While this system worked just fine for the Lacrosse event, we also didn't care about "bass you can feel" so I am concerned (know) that twelve single 18 subs in an outdoor arena arent enough. I could rent additional KW181's.

I have another local provider that I could potential rent up to 16 Vue AL8 and some dual 18 subs, and I have another company I could bring in a LA rig if needed. Obviously, I make the most money if I use my equipment, but I am willing to rent if needed.

If I can get drawings from the venue I will post the dimensions of the space.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

What have they used in the past? What were they most happy with, and least?

A grandstand with 4000 capacity is going to be over 200ft long. Depending of lots of "ifs", you might have a PA to front row distance of 8ft or 50ft, and the grandstand will be at least 50-60ft deep. That's a lot of area to cover with clear speech and bass that can be felt.

What is the nature of the program material? Announcing with music intro for the Livestock Stars and cowboys? Band after the bull riding event? Both?

What's their budget? There are ways to do almost anything if the money is there...
 
Re: PA for rodeo

A fair I do sound for has an outside rodeo of about that size. We don't do their sound as the rodeo company has its own system. They use two dual 12 front loaded boxes and a sub on scissor lifts x 2 on the opposite side of the arena from the grandstands. It does the job pretty well.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

It all depends on what the expected result is.

What "works great" for one situation does not work at all for another-even though the audience may be the same size.

As with any "design", the first thing you have to know to START with is the expected result. If you don't know what the expected result is-how do you know if your "design" is going to work?

Defining the "target" is essential if you are going to try to "hit it".
 
Re: PA for rodeo

Rodeos have changed. The last time I was at one there was a half dozen Cobraflex speakers on wood poles, all pointed to the stands. Talk about phasing issues. But it was on a Sunday, sunday,,, sunday
 
Re: PA for rodeo

With that inventory I would be thinking about three stacks of 4 KW181, each with 2-3 KLA cabs on top spread across the grandstand on the ground spaced out evenly. Of course I have no idea the dimensions of the risers, so this is likely under gunned depending on coverage and expectations.

As Ivan and Tim said, it will really help to know what they are trying to do. Is it just program feed and tracks, etc, or is there a band or what? In my experience with the KW181 subs they will do OK with a DJ but get lost pretty quick with a band outdoors.

Personally I would be thinking more like (12) double 18" pro subs rather than singles, but you may be fine. And, it really comes back to the budget question. If budget is low then use in house gear and do the best you can. If they want to spend the money to do it right then it's time to cross rent enough rig for the gig.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

Eric Lenasbunt said:
ed out evenly. Of course I have no idea the dimensions of the risers, so this is likely under gunned depending on coverage and expectations.

As Ivan and Tim said, it will really help to know what they are trying to do. Is it just program feed and tracks, etc, or is there a band or what? In my experience with the KW181 subs they will do OK with a DJ but get lost pretty quick with a band outdoors.

Personally I would be thinking more like (12) double 18" pro subs rather than singles, but you may be fine. And, it really comes back to the budget question. If budget is low then use in house gear and do the best you can. If they want to spend the money to do it right then it's time to cross rent enough rig for the gig.
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Yeah you start with "where I can I put the speakers", how wide/deep is the area to be covered (in relation to the speaker position), how loud does it need to go (and be sure to allow for 15dB or so headroom), what products/budget do you to work with and then start doing the simple math.

If you can't define each and every one above-then it is simply a guess-not based on any useful information. So what it is-is what it is. Whether or not it fulfilled the needs is a matter of opinion-since the needs weren't defined.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

My experience with SOS and this type of crowd, is that if the speakers are within public reach, some old man is going to decide that the speaker right in front of him is too loud and turn it back towards the track/arena/etc.

Just something to keep in mind when decided on where to deploy speakers.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

Scott Helmke said:
Don't forget the dust/dirt/poo that'll get on anything within a dozen feet of anything.
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At one of the Mexican rodeos I did, they had the holding pen kinda close to monitor world.

The "attendees" were spitting and throwing beer at the bulls. After a little while the bulls decided they did not like it and literally started kicking bull shit. The problem was that it was in the direction of monitor world.

So I got a bunch of BS kicked on the console and amps before I could get a barrier put in.

That was NOT a fun gig. And it was the end of a 3 day run with about 8 hrs drive between venues.
 
Re: PA for rodeo

If you ever hear that gear you are going to rent from a company has been used as a "rodeo setup", refuse it! We rented some breakout gear from a local company in Houston, and it arrived looking, sounding, and operating like it had just been trampled by bulls.
 
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