Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Scale Up with Adamson

	Adamson E-Series system on main Gov Ball NYC stage at the 2018 Governors Ball Music Festival. Photo: rohofoto

The eighth annual edition of New York City's Governors Ball Music Festival hosted some of the biggest names in music on its main stage, which featured a substantial Adamson E-Series loudspeaker system provided by Cleveland, Ohio's Eighth Day Sound.

Over the course of the three-day event, which ran from June 1 - 3, 2018, on Randall's Island in New York City, the combined crowd of approximately 150,000 enjoyed main stage sets from the likes of Jack White, Eminem, Travis Scott, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Chvrches, Halsey, and others.

"We've had our Adamson systems out for some of the biggest tours and festivals of the past year, and seeing some of the names that would be performing the 2018 edition of Governors Ball, we figured we'd stick with a good thing," comments Chris Berry, Eighth Day Sound's lead system tech for the event. "With a massive E-Series system on the stage and a single S-Series delay cluster, we were covering 600' as clear as day and left some heavyweight front-of-house engineers with smiles on their faces."

The system holding down the Gov Ball NYC Stage included main arrays of 17 Adamson E15 three-way, true line source enclosures atop three E12 three-way, full-range boxes per side. The outfill arrays had eight E15s and three E12s per side. The company's E119 subwoofers handled the low end, with flown left-right arrays of nine cabinets per side and an additional 36 ground stacked at the front of the stage.

Eight of Adamson's compact S10 two-way, full range enclosures lined the lip of the stage as front fills, while an additional dozen were deployed for the single delay tower behind the FOH mix position.

"The E-Series has fantastic clarity, particularly in the midrange -- like mixing on a set of nearfield monitors in a control room," says Harley Zinker, FOH engineer for Yeah Yeah Yeahs. "Subtle EQ changes on the console were immediately heard on the system. The transient response was fantastic and the low end was tight, focused, and consistent throughout the entire field. A real musical pleasure to mix on. The E15 is a box I look forward to carrying in the near future."

"Every time I get a chance to mix on Adamson E15s, it's a pleasure," adds Jack White FOH engineer Brett Orrison. "No other system translates my mix so easily. I am always happy to see this PA."

Since its inaugural edition in 2011, the Governors Ball Music Festival has presented a wide array of artists and musical styles for fans on Randall's Island in the borough of Manhattan. The 2018 event featured a lineup of over 60 acts across four stages.