If you’re an event or concert producer in the Bay Area, you likely know about Nils Erickson and his company Erickson Sound Productions. If you’re passionate about sound quality, like we are, you probably already hire him for your events.
With Mill Valley Music Fest entering its fourth year, we’re excited to highlight ESP’s role in crafting exceptional sound reinforcement for our event.
The big update for MVMF audiophiles is that ESP is debuting their brand new d&b audiotechnik XSL line array at our festival this May. “Our production team is always fanatical about the quality of the concert sound we provide, and we are very excited to unveil d&b audiotechnik’s new, state-of-the-art concert line array at the festival this year, the XSL Series,” says Erickson.
What makes this new concert system special? The new d&b XSL Series features updated drivers and components and introduces innovative sound field technology that reduces sound bleed from the main PA onto the stage.
This creates a quieter performance environment, allowing the monitor engineer and band to more accurately fine-tune their sound. The result is a superior on-stage experience for the band enabling them to refine their performance, and improved sound quality for the audience.
Also, the highly efficient system also uses very little power, using an advanced voltage management to bring up to 50% power draw efficiency and making for a greener event for our community.
Erickson Sound Production has a long track record of delivering transparent sound and exceptional service at Bay Area venues, including The Exploratorium, San Francisco City Hall, Academy of Sciences, The Quarry Amphitheater (Santa Cruz), Jerry Garcia Amphitheater, and many more.
Product description
The XSL8 is a mobile specific line array module purposefully designed for small to medium scale sound reinforcement. It can also supplement GSL and KSL Systems as fill and delay.
Up to twenty-four / twenty-two cabinets in compression or tension mode from XSL Flying frames and up top twelve cabinets from the smaller XSL Mounting frames can be flown in vertical columns to produce an 80° constant directivity dispersion pattern in the horizontal plane.
The XSL8 houses two 8” neodymium forward facing LF drivers, two side firing 6.5” neodymium LF drivers, one horn-loaded 6.5” MF driver, and two 1” exit HF compression drivers with 2” voice coils mounted to a dedicated wave shaping device.
Due to the patented arrangement of the front and side firing LF drivers, in combination with their specific processing functions, seamless directivity is maintained from 60 Hz to above 18 kHz. Further expanding flexibility and catering for applications where smaller arrays are used and ArrayProcessing is not required, the XSL8 includes the option to link two cabinets in Line or Arc mode. SL-Series’ flying hardware comes with a patented workflow with integrated tension and compression rigging modes, allowing for splay angles between cabinets to be set from 0° to 14° in 1° increments.
The loudspeakers are driven actively by two channels of an appropriate d&b amplifier, which provides dedicated processing functions for the front LF and passively crossed-over side LF and MF/HF sections. This component geometry allows the cabinet to produce a perfectly symmetrical dispersion pattern.
The cabinet enclosure is made from injection molded PC-ABS plastic, and has an impact and weather protected 2K finish. The front and side panels incorporate rigid metal grills backed by an acoustically transparent and water repellent fabric. Each side panel incorporates a recessed handle, with two additional handles provided at the rear.