Gemini Sound Expands Arsenal of EAW KF740 Loudspeakers

Dallas-based production company Gemini Sound, Inc. has expanded its inventory of EAW loudspeaker systems and processing with the purchase of 20 additional KF740 three-way full-range line array modules. The new acquisition brings the total number of KF740 modules to 36 at the company, which provides regional production sound services for touring music artists as well as corporate clients.

According to Gemini Sound owner and president, Tim Cain, the company first committed to EAW loudspeakers in the mid-1990s and has since increased its inventory significantly. In addition to the KF740s, the company also owns KF760 and KF761 line array modules, KF650z compact array loudspeakers, SB250z medium format and SB1000z large-format subwoofers, KF300z medium-format array loudspeakers, SB412 drum fill subwoofers and others. "We've got quite a bit of the EAW equipment here -- a couple of hundred pieces."

Cain first heard the KF740s in action at a product launch event organized by EAW at San Diego's Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in December 2009. At the time, he noted the system's even coverage all the way to the very rear of the venue, he recalls. "But the side coverage was what really impressed me the most. It's true 90-degree horizontal coverage. It's got a nice soft edge to it and rolls off evenly and gradually. Normally at sheds like that you have to do a side hang. I feel very comfortable going into a shed with these systems and hitting the seats at the sides."

Although Gemini originally provided production to four times as many corporate events as rock shows, that ratio reversed over the last decade, according to Cain. "Compact and versatile, the KF740 can easily handle either type of event for my company," he stated. "It's a lightweight module, and it's very smooth. You can go hang however many you want in ballrooms and not worry about the weight, then turn around and go do a band with it and slam it hard. I've heard all the EAW systems in the last 15 years and I really believe it's one of the best they've ever built."

Most recently, Gemini supplied production sound for a succession of shows at the Verizon Theatre in Dallas, reports Cain, including Kid Cudi, Owl City, A Perfect Circle, and Frankie Beverly and Maze. "That's about a 6,500-seat theater. It's the best venue in Dallas, probably one of the better venues across the country for that size. The upper balcony goes up pretty high and pretty steep, so when it's a full house you need at least 14 to 16 modules a side just to get the coverage that you're looking for. We had 14 KF740s a side for each one of those shows, with a dozen SB1000s a side."

Cain relates that a couple of the front-of-house engineers were impressed with the performance of the new KF740s. "Tim Kidwell with Frankie Beverly and Maze just fell in love with the system; he just really likes the way it sounds. And Stewart Bennett with A Perfect Circle [and the owner of Crossroads Audio in Dallas] had a great show on the 740s."

Gemini has also regularly supplied sound for EdgeFest, an annual one-day festival hosted by Dallas-Fort Worth's 102.1 The Edge FM, for the last five or six years. The most recent event, held April 30 at the 30,000-capacity Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, featured Jane's Addiction, Weezer, Social Distortion, and Seether, plus many others. Limp Bizkit, Three Days Grace, 30 Seconds to Mars and Deftones headlined the 2010 EdgeFest lineup. "The main hang in that P.A. includes 14 KF740s, four KF760s underneath and KF730s for front fill. Then on the outfield we used the 740s, and we put down about 20 SB1000s a side. That year before was pretty much the same configuration, except the outfields were KF761s," says Cain.

For the 20th annual EdgeFest in 2010, he relates, EAW supplied Gemini with eight of the company's new SB2001 dual 21" subwoofers. "We had the subs on an aux, then we added another aux for the 2001s and, man, it would pound your butt at front of house, just light you up."

Cain continues, "I've been an EAW user for much of my career, and the KF740 came along at the right time with the right sound. I've watched EAW develop products employing the latest technologies, like drivers, waveguides and processing. It's only going to get better, and I can't wait to see what they have next."