BLOG 2

I read the FOH Online article about digitally steerable arrays (DSA). This particular article caught my eye because we have not messed with arrays much yet and they are quite interesting. These arrays are specifically designed more for aesthetics like in a church rather than at a rock show. It is interesting that some loudspeakers are designed greatly for look when sound and lifetime for the speakers are very important. The article says in order to increase intimacy between person on stage and audience is when audience hears more sound directly from speakers than reflections. I highly agree with this. I tend to like being as close to the front of the stage as possible at shows because I feel like I get the best sound, regardless of it being incredibly loud. Considering that it is very difficult and almost impossible to cut out all reflections from the loudspeakers, its important that the arrays have a very good acoustic output. I have noticed back at my last school when I had a class in a large auditorium that my professor reflected so much off the walls, and speakers were terribly surround sound, that it was hard to understand what he was saying. I feel as if the room had beautiful line arrays rigged low from the ceiling that the sound would be more direct and his voice would be very intelligible. But that is not going to happen.

As the article mentions a couple times, the DSAs are used mostly outside of loud music venues but more at houses of worship or theaters and theme parks. This makes sense considering the talent is most likely someone speaking and the audience needs to be able to understand them. These DSAs are said to be best at reducing room reflections and as well are designed to be nice to look at. The “S” in DSA stands for “steerable” because the arrays can be digitally programmed to have adjusted coverage angles and the acoustic output can be positioned at a certain section of a room without physically moving the cabinets. These would be neat to play with because it is an interesting concept. The key to reducing reflections is the angle of the cabinet. There are many types of loudspeakers that it gets confusing in my head at times. They mention that there are many DSAs where you can change the delay times and frequency responses on software rather than manually.

 Loudspeakers happen to be one of the rocky areas for me because of the many different types and things that go with a speaker, so this article was a fun one for me to read. At an Amway call I assisted/watched the rigging of the line arrays and it was very tedious and exciting. I think if the show production program had a class where we visited different venues with different architectural interiors and experimented with sounds from speakers, I would understand this topic a little more. But I am excited to lift the arrays in Live 1 soon and mess with the FOH board and getting the different sounds.