Staged in front of 7,000 and broadcast live by Fox to a viewership of 11.9m, the 67^th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards took place at the Microsoft Theater in Downtown Los Angeles recently. Production specialist ATK Audiotek provided the live sound services, relying on DiGiCo mixing, JBL loudspeakers and a total of 54 Powersoft K10 DSP+AESOP amplifiers.

For ATK Audiotek, the two primary goals for the audio system were reliability and intelligibility: ‘We have been doing the Emmy Awards for so long now that we know exactly what to expect,’ says System Design Engineer at, Kirk Powell. ‘There are many set changes and different presenters, and our main job is to ensure that the dialogue is intelligible for everyone in the house to hear while not interfering with the broadcast mix.’

‘Great amplification is critical in what we are doing here and we depend on Powersoft K10s,’ he continues. ‘Reliability is key. We rack the amplifiers up in varius locations throughout the venue, and once the configurations are complete and systems are tuned, we begin programming our FOH and monitor levels.’

For the two weeks of the Emmys, ATK used a 124 input DiGiCo SD5 console at FOH system and a 96-input DiGiCo SD10 on monitors serving Aviom personal mixing systems on stage for direct control of in-ear monitor levels. There were ten array clusters: three in the front comprising JBL VT4886 three-way line array elements and seven clusters of JBL VT4889 three-way line array elements throughout the venue. Two amplifier rooms were set up in the upper tier of the facility, as well as a small rack to facilitate some minor wedge reinforcement at the monitor position.

ATK recently replenished its arsenal with 48 new Powersoft K10 DSP + AESOP amplifiers, and routinely uses them on high-profile broadcast award ceremonies including the Grammy Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and Country Music Awards.

Powell says the K10s were chosen because of their unparalleled efficiency: ‘There are many dimensions where efficiency comes into play,’ he explains. ‘For example, from a power perspective, the K10s are so efficient that we can run them on a 30A circuit at high levels as opposed to a 40A circuit so there is significantly less power draw.

‘Since the K10s are smaller and lighter, we can also fit more on the truck. Even though we had plenty of space to work with at the Emmy Awards, rack space is often at a premium – particularly when your working environment is the stage or somewhere in the audience. Powersoft has been a workhorse in this regard, delivering the power that we need while occupying a very small footprint.’

By using Powersoft’s built-in DSP at the Emmys, ATK was able to remotely monitor all amplifier settings from the FOH and monitor stations. Powell says that once the amplifiers are set up with all the cable runs in place, they are plug-and-play: ‘They are very reliable, so we never have to worry about them – this is key in a production like the Emmys, where there are so many moving parts at set changes.’

Providing live sound services can entail working in a vast range of different physical and acoustic environments. ATK relies on the DSP capabilities of the K10 to reduce production times – particularly in the configuration and tuning phase: ‘We have worked extensively with Powersoft on the DSP features we need and are very pleased with how they have been implemented,’ he says. ‘For example, we are able to lock in presets that we use for specific environments, and this gives us a known point of origin when we are tuning for a specific room.’

‘We use a lot of groups in our DSP settings,’ he continues. ‘For example, we might use a single tuning for an entire cluster, or we could split the cluster and tune two groups differently. The same goes for attenuation. Often, we will adjust the bottom boxes down by - dB, and the upper boxes by -1dB.’

Most importantly, Powell says, ATK uses the DSP to set things like delay times and EQ. ‘For the front clusters at the Emmys, the left and right settings were pretty much tuned the same, but the centre cluster was different. You’ve got to pay attention to each of the clusters and adjust them appropriately. We have refined all our DSP settings over the years and now have a great starting point wherever we work.’

‘Everything was executed flawlessly,’ Powell says, reflecting on the Emmys. ‘At an awards production like this, which is broadcast to the entire country, have the most powerful, Hollywood elite in the room. If something isn’t perfect, someone is going to say something. In this regard, as far as amplifiers are concerned, we are grateful to have Powersoft in our corner.’