Radiohead Returns to the Road with L-ACOUSTICSRadiohead recently embarked on its first North American tour in four years and is firing on all cylinders with a full L-Acoustics K1/KARA/KUDO system supplied by Firehouse Productions of Red Hook, New York. The North American portion of the tour, which kicked off at Miami's American Airlines Arena on February 27, is divided into three legs, the last of which will wrap up at Toronto's Downsview Park on June 16, before heading overseas to Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. For most of the arena stops on the domestic tour, Firehouse is deploying left and right arrays comprised of 14 K1 line source elements with four Kara hung below for downfill. Coverage for the far left and right audience areas is addressed by outfill arrays featuring 10 K1 with six Kara flown beneath. Sub arrays of eight K1-SB are flown adjacent to both of the primary K1 hangs, while 24 SB28 groundstacked in cardioid mode bolster the low-end reinforcement. Horizontal arrays of four ARCS on each side of the stage provide nearfill, as do six dV-DOSC spread out across the stage lip. For larger venues, Firehouse deploys a delay system exclusively comprised of Kudo featuring left, center, and right arrays of nine enclosures each flown in back of the front-of-house mix position. Amplification and processing for all loudspeakers is provided by LA8 amplified controllers housed in LA-RAK touring racks. At the helm of the system each night is Radiohead's longtime front-of-house mix engineer Jim Warren, supported by system designer/engineer Sherif El Barbari and Firehouse system tech Jamie Pollock. According to Warren, "I have yet to find another system which combines the even coverage and the dynamic sensitivity of the L-Acoustics K1/Kara system. With the use of Kudo delays in the larger arenas on this run, we have been able to further improve on the coverage, especially into the rear corners of the room, and have been able to minimize the amount of energy directed at areas where it was not required with very pleasing results." 
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