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Elite Presentations of Chesapeake, Va., recently acquired a Martin Audio MLA Mini system including six stacks with 24 cabinets and six subs, and quickly put it to use at an outdoor worship service held by the River Oak Church.
Covering a range of functions including production, AV integration and weddings, Elite is currently focused on corporate events, for which they purchased the MLA Mini. As Technical Director Ray Dixon points out, “We were looking for a larger array system that was compact and could handle audiences of 3000 plus with exceptional coverage and a lot of flexibility.
“Elite had worked with a lot of Fortune 500 companies who were featuring leading entertainers and we'd have to sub out our system because our clients were looking for specific brands. We used to be able to do one and two thousand capacity events but now we're getting larger jobs and even though we're not the least expensive company around, we pride ourselves on providing a lot of value for our customers and that's why we wanted a high quality system.
“Fortunately, we were able to meet with Martin Audio at InfoComm and we fell in love with the MLA Mini system––in fact, we ended up going to the demo room at least three times. The audio quality just blew us away.
“We took the new system for a good spin at an outdoor worship service this past weekend thanks to Rob Hofkamp, Lee Stein, and the Martin Audio team's hard work in quickly filling the order and getting us up to speed on MLA. The event was called ‘One Service' and held for 2,000 people from all three services the Church typically has on Sunday with a concert by the Christian Rock band, Rush of Fools.”
Asked about the system's performance, Ray points out, “The MLA Mini was beautiful, night and day improvement over our other PA. The band made nothing but positive comments and everyone from the church said the sound was magnificent.
“What really sets MLA apart is the vocal clarity and even coverage––it felt like there wasn't a bad seat in the house. And we had plenty of punch with eight boxes and two subs a side. The cabinets are compact, but the sound really carries and we weren't even running it at 100%. It was perfect. Everyone could hear really well, even with the ambient noise of an interstate right behind us.
“And I love the system's flexibility and the way that it rigs,” Ray concludes. “I can fly it, do groundstacks or put it on poles, which is really helpful for conventions and corporate shows. There's a lot of value built into the system and the technology is second to none, that's what really sold me on the system in addition to the clarity and coverage. The audio quality is amazing; you can't go wrong with Martin Audio. We look forward to buying bigger boxes and growing with the family.”
