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L-ISA BRINGS WIDE-EARED WONDER TO CHILDISH GAMBINO’S THIS IS AMERICA TOUR Britannia Row Productions supplies a hyperreal L-Acoustics system for Donald Glover’s latest run.
Although Childish Gambino’s This Is America Tour has been announced as his final trek, Donald Glover is far from slowing down as a prolific dynamo of originality. As a producer, director, writer, comedian, DJ, recording artist and live performer, the modern-day Renaissance Man is absolutely at the top of his game and, according to Variety, “on an upward trajectory that’s rarely seen for a musical artist, let alone an isthere-anything-he-can’t-do polymath who channels so much creativity into so many different projects.” The same relentless pursuit of creativity that makes the Emmy and GRAMMY winner one of the most relevant and important artists of our time also carries over into the tour’s tech; how his art is presented was recently underscored by the use of L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology for his latest North American tour run. Childish Gambino’s Tour Director, Christian Coffey, additionally served as Tour Director for Run the Jewels. He first heard L-ISA when the hip-hop duo went out on Lorde’s North American Melodrama World Tour earlier this year.
“Lorde’s tour sounded incredible - really full and panoramic,” Coffey recalled. “Childish’s management was at her Staples’ Center show and felt the same way, so that’s when our discussions began. Everyone wanted an immersive experience with a non-traditional arena show, and we felt that the L-ISA system could be a great fit.” To widen the sonic panorama and add dimension to the 20,000-seat, sold-out arenas on this tour, the L-ISA Scene system - provided by Britannia Row Productions - comprised three centre arrays of 15 K2 flanked by a pair of 21-enclosure KARA arrays. For increased horizontal spread, a further four arrays of 15 KARA were flown (two per side), outside of the Scene system as an additional L-ISA Extension system, while two arrays of 13 K2 were deployed to provide coverage to the seats on the extreme sides of the stage. Palpable low frequency coverage was delivered by two adjacent centre hangs of 8 KS28’s each, flown in a cardioid configuration, while an additional 8 ground-stacked KS28’s provided LF reinforcement to the near-field audience; 6 KARA spread across the stage lip provided front fill, 16