In the nine years between their 2013 debut album Atlas and now, Grammy Award-winning group Rüfüs Du Sol has undergone one name change, received three ARIA certifications–two platinum and one gold–for their unique style of house, electronica, and alternative dance music. With an illustrious, decade-long musical career, multi-citied continental tours have been the norm for the three-piece outfit.
Recently, Rüfüs Du Sol wrapped up an Australia-New Zealand tour of eight shows performed in four territories for over thirty-thousand people. For the concerts in Adelaide and Perth, tour promoters Fuzzy Entertainment chose L-Acoustics Certified Rental Partner Novatech to supply sound, visual, lighting, and communication solutions for the outdoor sites. The Novatech team’s open communication and collaborative style have made the company a returning partner for the band and mix engineer Cam Trewin.
Novatech was tasked with designing a system that would provide optimal coverage to the vast open field audience area while also taking the neighbouring residential areas into consideration. “Of course, we needed to adhere to strict local council noise limits,” explains Matthew Ruggiero, Technical Project Manager at Novatech. “But on the flip side, being in the wide space of an open field allowed my team and I to have complete control over speaker placement.”
“We were briefed on the shows before their tour began, which gave us ample time to create a system design and share it with the band’s management,” says Ruggiero. “Working with management and the team’s consultants, we fine-tuned the design, paying special attention to sub placement.”
For both shows in Adelaide and Perth, Novatech deployed the final design, consisting of main L/R arrays of 15 L-Acoustics K2 with four K1-SB subwoofers per side. Side-fill consisted of nine K2 enclosures per side. Front-fill consisted of 12 Kara boxes, while the low-end extension was delivered by 24 SB28 dual 18” subwoofers. These were deployed in an end-fire configuration across the front of the stage.
Ruggiero and the team at Novatech were delighted with the full-range coverage and the even SPL provided by the K Series at the shows. “Rüfüs’ long-time tour mix engineer, Cam Trewin, dialled in an amazing mix. It was an honour to witness him crafting and delivering a mix close to the artist’s record in a live outdoor concert setting,” he concludes.
