
L-Acoustics Triumphs at Trifesta posted: 12/12/2019
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts performing on the L-Acoustics K1/K2 system at Bourbon & Beyond's Oak Stage
Brown Note Productions and Danny Wimmer Presents deploy K Series rig for three back-to-back weekend festivals: Hometown Rising, Bourbon & Beyond, and Louder Than Life
Although Louisville residents have long associated the term Triple Crown with Kentucky Derby thoroughbred horse racing at their own Churchill Downs, this year's Trifesta may well pose a legitimate threat to that reigning royal trio title. Produced by Los Angeles-based Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP)-the concert promoter behind popular US music festivals like Sacramento's Aftershock, Columbus' Sonic Temple and Charlotte's Epicenter-a Trifesta pass served as the golden ticket to get into three large Louisville music festivals held on consecutive weekends during September, each of which utilized an L-Acoustics K Series loudspeaker system deployed by Brown Note Productions (BNP) of Thornton, Colorado.
Zac Brown Band on Bourbon & Beyond's Barrel Stage, sonically reinforced by Brown Note Productions' K1/K2 rig 3
Staged at the Kentucky Expo Center's Highland Festival Grounds, the inaugural Hometown Rising festival packed in more than 70,000 country music fans over September 14 and 15 to hear from headliners Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, and Keith Urban, among others. The following weekend, a crowd of more than 90,000 attended the eclectic, three-day Bourbon & Beyond festival featuring performances from a wide variety of artists, including Foo Fighters, Robert Plant, and Zac Brown Band. Anchoring the final weekend of the month was the three-day Louder Than Life, which brought out 128,000 hard rock and heavy metal enthusiasts to headbang along with Guns N' Roses, Slipknot, Disturbed, and many more.
According to BNP President Ryan Knutson, who, with the help of Soundvision, created the system design for Trifesta, each of the three weekend festivals featured two similar and adjacent stages. The primary left and right main arrays for each stage-so four in total-were comprised of six L-Acoustics K1-SB low-frequency extension enclosures flown over 12 K1 full-range elements, with six K2 hung below for downfill. Behind each of these 24-enclosure arrays was a hang of eight KS28 flown in a cardioid configuration to improve LF directivity. For added impact, two dozen more KS28 per stage were groundstacked down below, topped by 16 Kara for frontfill, while 12 additional K2 were used as far outfill arrays.
To further optimize coverage and control residential noise spill for the two larger festivals-Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life-Brown Note additionally deployed three delay towers, each flying eight K2. This brought the site's total L-Acoustics enclosure count from 232 up to 256, all of which were collectively powered and processed by 95 LA12X amplified controllers housed in custom Brown Note touring racks.
We designed the system based on the layouts that Les Targonski, DWP's Director of Production and Logistics, had provided us early on, Knutson recalls. Although the system for each of the three festivals was very similar, we still had to deal with slightly different layouts of stage thrusts, barricades, and so on. With a combination of the new Autosolver tools in Soundvision, the L-Acoustics P1 processor and M1 measurement platform, and our own workflow for system design and tuning, we felt like we were well equipped for dealing with the festivals' challenging layout and central mix position. The use of the P1, in particular, was probably the most notable change in our workflow. Having this as part of our toolbox to analyze the system was a great addition to our normal practice of using SMAARTs analytical software platform.
As an official L-Acoustics Certified Provider for rental (CPr) and install (CPi), and on the cusp of also being a new distributor (CPd), BNP keeps its K Series system busy throughout the year on festivals, national tours, cross-rentals to other rental network providers, and at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the company's back yard. And Knutson notes that his PA never fails to elicit smiles from engineers and audiences alike.
The K1 system, especially with the LA12X amplified controllers, delivers a quality, power, and transient response that is world renowned, he says. Most, if not all, top engineers have toured with or had great experiences mixing on K1 for festivals like this. With its system control, filtering, power, and tonality, it delivers a voice that is undeniable. Other manufacturers have great systems as well, but when you are in front of a K1/K2 system, the sound is clearly L-Acoustics and what many engineers, like us, have come to love.
DWP's Les Targonski points out that the combination of the right tools in the right hands has firmly established BNP as the promoter's production partner for all of its festivals since 2014. Over the course of the three Louisville festivals, I had multiple production managers and audio engineers give kudos to the Brown Note team, Targonski shares. From their willingness to make adjustments for the comfort of an engineer, or the ease of an engineer simply being able to plug in and mix because the analyzing work had already been done, Ryan and his team are incredibly efficient, accommodating and thoughtful.
A bird's eye view of Trifesta's third and final 2019 festival, Louder Than Life, which drew 128,000 hard rock fans to Louisville's Highland Festival Grounds
When I called Ryan five years ago for Aftershock, I knew what I was getting, but I needed everyone else at DWP to witness it, he adds. All it took was that one festival to prove a point. These days, when I advance with an artist that has played one of our events, t
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
08/07/2026
The end of the Big A' marks the demise of one more iconic sports venue and its signature sound
After 132 years as one of the preeminent horse-racing track...
08/07/2026
Memphis Athletics and Learfield have signed a long-term renewal to their 25-year relationship, which sees Learfield's Tiger Sports Properties continue repre...
08/07/2026
MLB All-Star Week returns to Philadelphia for the first time in 30 years as Amer...
08/07/2026
Former Wall Street Video event expanded to include all Enterprise sectors
SVG Enterprise has announced the inaugural Enterprise Video Summit, taking place Oct....
08/07/2026
An offseason project enhanced eight video displays around the venue in time for ...
08/07/2026
Kaseya Center has a ton of new features that weren't available to the indust...
08/07/2026
The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and the Sundance Film Festival are pleased to announce the establishment of a FIPRESCI jury beginning wi...
08/07/2026
Latest analogue-emulation plug-ins revealed
Universal Audio have just added two new analogue-emulation plug-ins to their DSP-powered UAD line-up. Developed ...
08/07/2026
Turn any audio loop into a playable kit
Pitch Innovations have recently introduced an interesting new tool that's capable of creating playable kits from...
08/07/2026
Adds new keyboard-split function
MonkeyC have recently launched an update that overhauls their powerful software sampler. Described as the sampler that mad...
08/07/2026
Four new delay algorithms & dual-engine functionality
Strymon have just announced that the much-anticipated MX version of their hugely popular delay pedal i...
08/07/2026
Well over half of Australia have tuned in to watch the FIFA World Cup on SBS
7 July, 2026
Media releases
Australia's Round of 32 match against Egypt a...
08/07/2026
SBS and Koorie Heritage Trust announce three-year partnership to celebrate First...
08/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and China Mobile Research Institute jointly demonstrate generati...
08/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/07/2026
Collaboration demonstrates how managed IP distribution and cloud-based syndication workflows can support live television at national scale
Fox Television Stati...
08/07/2026
New ARRI ALEXA 35 Live Xtreme camera seamlessly delivers up to 8x HFR via SDI fo...
08/07/2026
Did You Know? Redshift for Cinema 4D: The Power of the Distance Node
Marc Potocnik July 8, 2026
0 Comments
The Did You Know? Redshift for Cinema 4D ...
08/07/2026
Lightware is introducing the biggest update yet to the LARA Wizard Touchpanel configuration experience, designed to help integrators work faster while deliverin...
08/07/2026
DMC Production has turned to Calrec in its quest to redefine outside broadcasting with a flexible approach to live production that reverse engineers the convent...
08/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/07/2026
Foundry today announced that Reel FX Animation Studios has adopted Flix to standardize their pipeline and streamline processes across departments. Flix is a vis...
08/07/2026
The right team. The right time.' How The Killings at Parrish Station stuck t...
08/07/2026
Australians in Film and Screen Australia launch FUTURE VISION Forward to elevate...
08/07/2026
Film follows the courageous fight for justice by survivors of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries & Mother and Baby Homes
TESTIMONY airs Wednesday 22 July at 9...
08/07/2026
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra is offering leading performance at lower cost than top c...
07/07/2026
Applications are now open for the Validation Booster, a six-month acceleration programme supporting journalists, media organisations, content creators, media in...
07/07/2026
The Universal Talent Identifier (HAND) has issued HAND IDs to 50 top prospects ahead of the 2026 MLB Draft, including consensus top-ranked players Roch Cholowsk...
07/07/2026
Cisco and the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team have announced an extension of their partnership, expanding the scope from networking and communications to incl...
07/07/2026
LucidLink has announced a workflow integration with Adobe Frame.io that gives production teams unified access to Frame.io projects alongside supporting producti...
07/07/2026
Chyron has announced the appointment of Ahmed Magd as Sales Director for the Middle East. Magd joins from previous senior commercial roles at Riedel Communicati...
07/07/2026
Leader Electronics of Europe has announced that its PHABRIX Qx rasterizer and Le...
07/07/2026
eCLUTCH has announced it has acquired broadcast rights to the Esports World Cup 2026 for EMEA and MENA, covering the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans, Sweden, a...
07/07/2026
Riedel Communications and ARRI supported ORF's host broadcast of the Eurovis...
07/07/2026
ARRI has announced the ALEXA 35 Live Xtreme, a camera that adds high frame rate ...
07/07/2026
LiveU will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 7.C24), showcasing the LU900Q Intelligent Production Unit, expanded Sony collaboration, and additions to its open IP-video...
07/07/2026
Telemundo's coverage is packaged with Multiview, Catch Up with Key Plays, in...
07/07/2026
The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) has announced a seven-year media r...
07/07/2026
Produced onsite at The Star in Frisco, TX, live coverage of the
two-day event airs on ESPN platforms
The season for Football Media Days is here, and the Big ...
07/07/2026
Rogers Communications Inc. has announced an agreement to acquire the remaining 25% ownership stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) from Kilmer Spo...
07/07/2026
End-to-end broadcast solution includes fleet of mobile units, Cloud Control, and...
07/07/2026
Sports-production-tech experts sound off on the state of the industry...
07/07/2026
New mixer aimed squarely at instrument-level sources
Heritage Audio have clearly been busy recently, as alongside their all-new Tubestrip, they've also ...
07/07/2026
New channel strip combines popular hardware designs
The latest arrival to the Heritage Audio line-up brings together a selection of their praised hardware d...
07/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......