JBL Recently launched the PRX ONE Column Array and the EON ONE MK2 Battery Powered Column Array. So what are the main differences? Jason Allen from CX Magazine reviews the two powerhouse “Stick PAs”
I find myself increasingly in front of stick PAs, as more and more manufacturers get into the territory. I also ran the stick PA demo sessions at ENTECH three years running and have personally put almost all of the models in this roundup through their paces. What I have been surprised by is the history of the humble stick, its origins in a concept championed in the 1970s, and its relationship to modern immersive audio PAs.
The Long Strange Trip
The stick PA we know today had its genesis in the USA when engineer, inventor, and musician Cliff Henricksen. Cliff and another engineer called Ken Jacob started to work on the first stick PA in 1995, which would be commercially released in 2003 as the L1.
Cliff and Ken were trying to solve what they referred to as the ‘triple amplification’ problem in amplified live music performance; instruments have amps on stage, performers have foldback, and then there’s the FOH PA.
They found it all created a flat, uncontrollable mess with no spatialisation that wasn’t ideal for the musicians. They adopted an idea from The Grateful Dead’s ‘Wall of Sound’ experiment in the 70s; dedicated line arrays behind each performer, shooting over their heads, with a separate line array for each performer. No more guitar amps blaring into the first few rows, nor foldback making a sonic mess, and no FOH PA that the musos can’t hear trying to drown all of that out.
The L1 concept was tested exhaustively with musicians and sound engineers, with direct A/B comparisons run between traditional FOH PAs, switching over to four or five L1s set up behind the band. Apparently, the results were fantastic. But as is the case with many radical inventions, the public embraced the product, but not the manner in which it was intended to be used. No matter; the L1 and all of its descendants went on to become huge sellers powering solo and duo musical acts, corporate speakers, buskers, and wedding celebrants.