MHA Audio Supports Jason Mraz at Naval Academy with Martin Audio

	Set-up for the Jason Mraz concert with Martin Audio.

Jason Mraz recently performed at the Naval Academy's spring concert for Midshipman with a Martin Audio MLA system supplied by MHA Audio of Hagerstown, Maryland.

The show was held at the Academy's Alumni Hall with new country artist Cassadee Pope opening for the popular Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, each supported by five and six-piece bands respectively.

Asked whether there were any special challenges posed by the venue, MHA front-of-house engineer Dave Rittenhouse replies, "Nothing out of the ordinary. The venue is a standard small arena for basketball games and the show used half the house with a 160-degree angle spread in terms of the width of audience coverage."

The system had to capture the vocal and instrumental nuances of each artist with accuracy, balance, and enough low end response for the harder-edged songs in each set. To do that, Rittenhouse and his team set up nine MLA and one MLAD (downfill) per side for the main hang along with eight MLA Compact enclosures per side for side fill.

Two MLX subs per side ground-stacked on stage provided more than enough low end with three Martin Audio W8LM for lip fills and two DD12's for front fill- -- with one speaker pointed on and one off-stage, per side, for the additional localized fill. Side fill monitors were single Martin Audio MLX subs per side with three W8LMs stacked on top.

Consoles included an Avid Profile for front-of-house and a Yamaha CL5 for monitors. Shure UHF-R wireless mics were used along with PSM 1000 personal monitors.

Commenting on the system, Rittenhouse says, "I've been mixing on MLA pretty much since it came out. The concert went well, as it usually does with this system. The front-of-house engineer for Jason Mraz, Ettore "ET" Dedivitiis, was also very happy with MLA. It did everything he wanted it to do. He heard it and immediately said, 'Great, perfect.'"

"MLA is very precise and accurate. What I really like about the system is how I can make it fit every type of venue. If your measurements are correct, then what you end up deploying in terms of MLA is going to be perfect. You do that little chunk of homework in the very beginning and by the time you get that rig flown, it's a cakewalk in terms of coverage and control."