National Catholic Youth Conference

Morris, a Solotech company, incorporated d&b audiotechnik’s GSL rig at the 2019 National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) for large-scale sound reinforcement.

Over 25,000 youth were in attendance for the biennial conference at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. With the reinforcement of 6 hangs of 14 enclosures of GSL boxes and Y10P front fills, the GSL delivered a new dimension of performance-enriching sound. So far, this is the largest deployment of GSL in the round to date.
“Having worked this event in the past, we were aware that our biggest challenge to overcome was the buildup of low-end frequencies” recalls Dave Thomas, Advance System Support for d&b audiotechnik, who previously mixed five NCYC shows. “The rejection of the GSL eliminated this issue and kept consistency from the floor to the bowl.”
The switch to GSL proved to be a solution for two long-standing challenges they faced. Declan Weir, the producer of the event, was concerned that the bowl sounded different from the floor, resulting in a lack of consistency and tonality across the listening plane.
The GSL provided enough horsepower with directionality that cut the delays entirely. Front of house engineer Jeremy Bane was overjoyed at the improvements he experienced from his perspective.
“We got rid of delays, subs, took 13,000 lbs out of the rig overall and shaved off six hours rigging,” he explains. “For the first time ever, we didn’t have a single sound complaint for the entire show.”

According to Bane, the greatest metric of success when producing an event for teens is if the conversations are to a minimum and no one is on their phone.
“The clarity and continuity of processing took the coverage and experience for the audience to a whole new level,” he adds. “We never lost their attention from the minute we started, to the minute we ended. We didn’t hear conversations anywhere. Declan walked the entire stadium, from floor to top, and everyone was captivated. No one was drifting off or on their phones.”