- 320 channels of audio
- 401 loudspeakers
- 24.5 miles of cabling!
“Never once did Dan come back and say, ‘You’ll need to give me more.’ No matter how little I gave him, he always found a solution—or the springboard to get us there.” — Greg Hanson, Freelance Audio Engineer
Dale Pro Audio sat down with Greg to discuss the challenges and solutions behind the Life and Trust audio installation—and how his long-standing partnership with Dale Pro Audio’s Dan Ross helped make it a success.
The challenges of designing and executing Life and Trust came with enormous technical and logistical hurdles:
- Immense scale: 401 speakers and 320 audio channels had to be seamlessly integrated over 6 floors of a downtown New York City historical building
- COVID supply chain issues: securing equipment, especially Dante-enabled gear, during the global chip shortage
- Artistic demands vs. budget realities: ambitious creative goals had to be balanced with cost efficiency
- Reliability and serviceability: the system needed to sound great and be robust enough to handle long-term operation with easy swaps and backups
What the partnership with Dale and Dan means to Greg:
- Creative collaboration: responding to complex, evolving technical needs with practical, real-world recommendations and solutions
- Strategic sourcing: helping identify Martin Audio as the ideal speaker partner for balancing quality, scalability, and cost
- Securing inventory: leveraging strong manufacturer relationships to navigate COVID-era shortages and stage gear in advance
Greg’s advice to engineers designing for immersive audio experiences:
- Get to really understand the show
- Keep it as simple as possible
- Organization is key
- Flexibility always comes with complexity—find the right balance for the project
