NASHVILLE, Tennessee - July 2024 - As the only musical artist in history to have released nine RIAA Diamond-certified albums, Garth Brooks doesn't just hold rank in the pantheon of country greats, he's long been one of the world's most beloved musicians. So when Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, announced the grand opening of their four-floor, 55,000-square-foot Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk live music venue in downtown Nashville's Neon Neighborhood of Lower Broadway, excitement ran high among the artist's broad fan base.
The new venue is outfitted with an L-Acoustics A Series concert sound system and a DiGiCo Quantum225 console at front of house, complete with a MADI-ready MQ-Rack stage box. The full system was designed and installed by Clair Global Integration (CGI), the permanent installation division of the star's longtime sound-reinforcement tour provider, Clair Global.
The loudspeaker system is perfectly scaled to the venue's dimensions, reflecting the long rectangular spaces characteristic of the area's turn-of-the-century urban spaces. Flanking the stage on the left long wall are one A15i Focus over two A15i Wide enclosures, and another hang of one A15i Focus over two A15i Wide, which provide coverage to either side and in front, towards both the main floor and balcony, carved out of what was once the second floor.
The design challenge here was to provide even and consistent coverage to both levels. To keep the volume reasonable but still impactful, 14 coaxial X8 loudspeakers are installed as balcony underfills, each powered by one of the 16 channels of an LA7.16i amplified controller, with the remaining two channels used to power X8 in the club's elevated VIP areas on the main floor. That way, we could tailor the sound to what was exactly needed in each zone of the area under the balcony, explains CGI Systems Designer Joe Anderson.
In addition, two KS21i subs are mounted behind the A15i hangs, along with four KS28 subs in custom-constructed, four-foot-deep cavities below the VIP areas, which give those areas significant LFE impact but without rattling the seats. The rooftop bar, known as The Oasis, has a left-right sound system comprising an A10i Focus over an A10i Wide and one KS21i sub on either side, all powered by an LA4X amplified controller. A nearby bar area is covered by eight X8 speakers with SB10i subs, also driven by an LA4X.
The challenge for the rooftop bar, where DJs perform late into the night, is to have impact without getting too loud, says Anderson. One of our mantras at Clair is it has to sound great, not just loud. That's accomplished largely by relying on the subs for impact, which allows the roof to keep the overall volume level lower. Our goal is to elevate the production-value level of the entire sound experience here, making it closer to what you'd expect from a concert rather than a club, he says. The A Series speakers deliver great sound, with a lot more punch than you'd expect from their size, right out of the box. I never have to fight to get it.
CGI Account Executive Dan Heins was intimately involved in creating the sonic vibe for Friends In Low Places. Lyrics and therefore speech intelligibility are important for Garth. Equally important is getting the right kind and amount of energy in the room so that you can still hold a conversation, he explains. With A Series, you can. Garth noticed that right away on opening night, when he played there.
Heins also points out how the compact A Series generates the energy we want without interfering with the sightlines of a room like this. It's a great place to see as well as hear music.
He says that same beneficial form factor applies to the DiGiCo Quantum225. It's a great-sounding console, but doing everything it does in a smaller amount of space is important, because every inch of real estate is a premium on Broadway. We had to shift the location of the console to accommodate that, but the desk has the kinds of features that make even a challenging mixing space easy to work with.
The venue's mix position is located at the back of the bar, near stage left. From here, freelance AV technicians like Nate Warren and Gianni Gambuzza, brought in by JAG Warner Productions, utilize the Quantum225 console to provide both the front-of-house and monitor mixes for four bands a day, each playing four-hour sets.
The performance of our DiGiCo desk is extremely impressive, says Gambuzza. We run it seven days a week in the honky-tonk venue from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. more than 16 hours a day and it never slows down on us! The sound of the console is very clean, especially when going through our L-Acoustics A Series system. I feel like I can push my mix to the limits while still maintaining tremendous clarity. And I don't really need to do a lot of work once I get all of my inputs in; all I have to do is push my faders up to where I want them and it sounds just like a mixed show before I even get into tweaking EQ and compression.
For Gambuzza, the Quantum console's Nodal Processing has been a particularly loved feature. On Lower Broadway, we have such quick changeovers that, in the past, there have been times at other venues when I couldn't give a band the best in-ear mix simply due to time and channel limitations, he recalls. Now, with Nodal Processing, I can really get musicians' mixes dialed in and provide every band member a personalized touch. I can give a drummer a different EQ curve on their snare, give a bass player compression on their vocal, and give a singer a boost in the high end, all in their own individual mixes while not affecting anyone else's, and without having to double up channels for monitors. It's truly amazing for when operating on time restraints. He's also
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
NASHVILLE, Tennessee - July 2024 - As the only musical artist in history to have released nine RIAA Diamond-certified albums, Garth Brooks doesn't just hold rank in the pantheon of country greats, he's long been one of the world's most beloved musicians. So when Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, announced the grand opening of their four-floor, 55,000-square-foot Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk live music venue in downtown Nashville's Neon Neighborhood of Lower Broadway, excitement ran high among the artist's broad fan base.
