Anyone who knows college basketball in the Unites States understands the dominance Duke University in Durham, North Carolina has achieved over the years. Under the expert tutelage of coach Mike Krzyzewski, Duke has won 14 NCAA ‘final four’ appearances and three national championships in 1991, 1992, and 2001. All of which explains why the
Duke Basketball Dinner is a major event in the state and the southeast region.

Audio for the Dinner, held at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, was provided by the veteran crew from RMB Audio, specifically including technicians Robert Weddings, Roger Dennis, and Graham Wiggs. Martin Audio Director of North American Operations, Rob Hofkamp, was also in attendance to provide some typical hands-on guidance. The new W8LC Compact Line Array was chosen for its sound quality and RMB’s ability to rig the system extremely quickly, avoiding unecessary stress and strain on the crew.

In terms of the equipment specifics, FOH speakers included 12 Martin Audio W8LC cabinets flown, along with six Martin Audio W8S subs. Six Martin Audio LE700 wedges were used for front fill.

FOH amplifiers included Chevin Research A6000s for the subs, A3000, A2500, Quad 9 for the mid/highs and six JBL EON10 powered cabinets backstage for monitoring. Microphones included Twin Crown LM301 lectern condensers and two UHF Shure U4 series diversity channels armed with six handheld Beta 87 capsules.

A Midas Heritage 2000 44 mono + 4 stereo input with 4-band sweepable EQ as the matrix was complemented by two BSS 960 stereo 1/3 octave EQs; Drawmer DL241B stereo compressor limiter; two BSS FDS-388 Omnidrives; two Drawmer DS404 4-channel noise gates; three Drawmer DS441 quad compressor limiters, an Eventide H3000, a tc electronic D-2 Delay, two Yamaha SPX-990 multi-effect units, a Denon compact disc/cassette player and a ClearCom communications system.

Frequency coverage for the loudspeakers was absolutely consistent with the manufacturer’s stated specifications, and while walking the venue it was obvious that inaudible comb filtering peaked everyone’s attention.

RMB has three previous generations of Martin Audio products and stock over 100 cabinets in their inventory. Company President, Cooper Cannady, states that he has, “always been pleased with the designs from Martin Audio’s engineering team — from founder David Martin and now through the leadership of Bill Webb.”