Jan 23, 2013 4:02 PM

deadmau5 headlined the Contact Winter Music Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia

Pulling more than 12,000 fervent fans into Vancouver, British Columbia’s cavernous BC Place, the Contact Winter Music Festival—headlined by deadmau5—notched a new record as the region’s largest-ever electronic dance music concert. The event also marked the introduction of KiAN Concert Sound Services’ new LEO large-scale sound reinforcement system from Meyer Sound.

The Contact Winter Music Festival was produced by Blueprint Events in partnership with Live Nation Canada. Other featured electronic artists were Nero, Alesso, Chris Lake, and Lazy Rich.

Bud Wandrei, director of production in Western Canada for Live Nation (co-promoters of the event), said that in its first deployment, KiAN’s LEO system made a remarkable impression. “I loved it,” Wandrei says. “It sounded fantastic. BC Place is a very difficult venue, but the sound seemed to come together in no time. And the coverage was outstanding. At the far end, you could hear just as well as right up front.”

To cover the stadium’s vast surface area of nearly 110 meters long by 85 meters wide with full-force sound, the core LEO system included twin 15-each arrays of LEO-M line array loudspeakers. Low-end support came from 12 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, supplemented by 24 700-HP subwoofers, with core system optimization supplied by a Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system with four Callisto 616 processors and a Galileo 616 AES master processor. For side-hangs, cross-fills, and delays, KiAN deployed an additional complement of 32 MILO line array loudspeakers, five MSL-6 loudspeakers and a second Galileo 616 processor.

“Everybody was blown away by the power and clarity of the LEO system during the show,” says Derek Mahaffey, general manager of KiAN. “Obviously electronic dance music is extremely demanding on the low end, and the 1100s combined with the 700-HPs did a fantastic job.”

Mahaffey states that LEO’s auspicious debut has already spurred interest, with bookings anticipated for several winter arena shows and summer festivals.

Mark Reimann, KiAN’s president, expects LEO to boost his company’s profile as a major tour provider: “We’d like to get back to working more with international touring acts, and I think LEO will help make that happen.

“If you want a system that will last for 20 or 30 years, you want to buy the best,” continues Reimann. “Today, for large-scale line arrays, that means LEO. Meyer Sound technology is leaps and bounds beyond the rest of the industry.”

For more information, visit www.meyersound.com and kiansound.com.

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