“Working this year has been interesting to say the least,” said Jared Jasinski, owner and lead engineer for Arizona Sound Productions [AZSP] based in Phoenix. “With COVID restrictions we’ve been forced to be more creative and think outside the box. ”
Arizona Sound Productions got its start in 2011 with small to mid-sized church and school installs, moving into sound reinforcement for live events and festivals. From there the company grew into larger events for Fortune 500 clients, MTV concert series for one, and sport.
On August 15, 2020, AZSP set the stage in Oklahoma, making boxing history with what has been called the “street fight” concept. AZSP clients’ Holden Productions and Matchroom Boxing dropped a boxing match in the middle of downtown Tulsa for a night of fights headlined by Cecilia Brækhus, defending her Women’s Welter Weight title against contender, Jessica McCaskill. The match was staged at the intersection of East 5th Street and South Boston Avenue with no fans present.
It was an intense process,” described Jasinski. “COVID testing was required for everyone on my crew, before traveling to Oklahoma, then again when we arrived. It’s not a fun process, but at the end of the day we’re glad to be working.”
Using EASE Focus to determine hang points and angles, ASP designed a small line array rig with sixteen RCF HDL 6-A Active Line Array Modules. They were hung around the boxing ring to cover the floor level, made up of judges, fighters, staff, production crew, refs and boxing officials.
“The HDL 6-A has been a game changer for us,” said Jasinski. “It’s a great sounding, powerful speaker with an amazing price point. We jumped on board right away. We could throw it up on a stick for small gigs, to building 10-module arrays for small festivals, it’s a very versatile box. We built 4 box arrays in stereo hanging over the ring on the north side to cover the ring walk, 3 box arrays on the south side, and one box for the east and west, basically straight down to hit the floor area.
The RCF system works perfectly for what we are doing
« For that extra punch, we added six 8003-AS subs under the ring. We wanted to have enough sound to create that ‘live energy’ when the boxers come down the walkway. We built LED video walls for the entrance and above the ring and created most of the lighting design with local company, Omni Lighting. Having a thundering audio to support it all, it looks and sounds amazing, the RCF system works perfectly for what we are doing,” said Jasinski.
“We didn’t add any crowd noise or anything like that,” added Jasinski. “We did take advantage of capturing natural city sounds it played off that raw, street feel very well. We had ambient mics set up around the ring to get pops from punches from the fighters and things like that. With all the streetlights changing colors throughout the match, visually it was a nice touch.”
Arizona Sound Productions will continue the tour with press conferences, weigh-ins, and boxing matches, through various states in the US. According to Jasinski, the new partnership is described as the ideal match that ensued by being in the right place at the right time. What started out as being available to set up mics and hang a few banners, ended up evolving into a full production gig for a sold-out fight across the street.
More information on the AZ Sound Pro website and on the RCF website
