WAKARUSA, Indiana - When it comes to intelligibility requirements, very few, if any, productions are likely more demanding than providing a PA system for the White House Communications Agency. With that in mind, when US President Barack Obama recently spoke to a crowd of employees, political dignitaries and members of the press at the Navistar/Monaco Coach plant in Wakarusa, IN, Cincinnati-based production company Loud & Clear chose to deploy a small yet highly effective L-ACOUSTICS loudspeaker system.

The rig consisted of three dV-DOSC flown per side paired with a single ground-based dV-SUB located back by the mix position. Two stand-mounted 115XT HiQ enclosures per side delivered side-fill to the audience, with another pair discreetly positioned under a school bus for VIP area fill. Furthermore, four 8XT coaxial systems were located on the President’s platform– two providing front-fill and two serving as stage monitors. All systems were powered by a total of four LA8 amplified controllers housed in a rack under the digital mixing console.

“We’ve had a lot of great experience serving political campaigns and Presidential needs over the years,” says Loud & Clear President Bill Deavers, “and one of the things that remains consistent regardless of the changing administration is the requirement for delivering highly intelligible sound in an extremely wide array of environments. These events can range from coliseums and amphitheaters all the way down to manufacturing facilities like this, which are not built for great acoustics. So it’s critical that we supply a sound system that can perform to Presidential caliber under many different circumstances.

“We never know more than a few days in advance what the venue will be, but with our full line of L-ACOUSTICS products – from our compact 8XT boxes all the way up to our KUDO and V-DOSC big dogs, all conveniently powered, processed and controlled by LA8 – we can confidently walk into any on-site evaluation knowing that we have the appropriate tools to handle the production.

“At the Navistar/Monaco Coach event, we flew dV-DOSC in the middle of a factory and it sounded like we were at a concert. The President’s comments were heard perfectly by every ear, even though it was an overflow crowd of double the audience we were told to expect. As usual, everything worked out extremely well and we were very happy with the performance of our L-ACOUSTICS system.”

For the Navistar/Monaco Coach event, Loud & Clear handled all aspects of the production, including audio, lighting, video, staging, trussing, motors, barricades and décor.Bill Fuss served as the FOH engineer, with assistant technician Matt Fish tasked with flying the dV-DOSC system and handling connectivity. Lighting director Zach Durban and crew chief Steve Lagemann was also instrumental in ensuring that the event went smoothly to “Presidential standards.”