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[Anthony Robinson]

Does anyone know what the size of the biggest PA system ever used is? I know Metallica once played through a 1 megawatt system but beyond that I don't know.

[Evan Kirkendall]

I'd say the largest concert PA would probably be the system U2 had out with Clair recently:

http://clairglobal.com/u2/



Evan

[A Man]

I think President Obama's inauguration had more boxes / power than the U2 tour. (someone correct me if I'm wrong..)

Some time ago Showco deployed a Prism rig @ Texas Motor Speedway that was in excess of 1 million watts (FWIW)

[Ivan Beaver]

Anthony Robinson wrote on Sun, 18 April 2010 21:28

Does anyone know what the size of the biggest PA system ever used is? I know Metallica once played through a 1 megawatt system but beyond that I don't know.

What do you mean "biggest"?

Is it the most watts available?  And how was that calculated-by the actual load on the amps during the event or the possible output capability of the amps?  8 ohm vs 2 ohm loading for example.

Most cabinets?

Most square footage of the cabinets?  Does that include depth?

Tallest hang?

I kinda know what you are asking-but just wanted to point out that there are very often more factors involved than just a simple number of some sort.

Simple numbers often result in inaccurate answers.

[Charlie Zureki]

Jon Martin wrote on Mon, 19 April 2010 05:38

I think President Obama's inauguration had more boxes / power than the U2 tour. (someone correct me if I'm wrong..) Some time ago Showco deployed a Prism rig @ Texas Motor Speedway that was in excess of 1 million watts (FWIW)

  +1

 and...I remember the 168 Prism box rig  at the Speedway.... it went to 11!

 and Kiss used the new-er loaded Prism boxes on a tour in 1997...with a (sometimes)hang of 140+ boxes.

 This rig was bloody loud!

 Cheers,
 Hammer

[The Guy]

Charlie Zureki wrote on Mon, 19 April 2010 23:46

+1  and...I remember the 168 Prism box rig  at the Speedway.... it went to 11!

Holy shit, that must've been awesome.  And I'll bet that went to way more than 11!

-J

[Doug Fowler]

Quote:

Some time ago Showco deployed a Prism rig @ Texas Motor Speedway that was in excess of 1 million watts (FWIW)

I worked a B stage at one of those (Rockfest?) and that Showco rig was the biggest thing I have ever seen.

I think it was (if I counted rows and columns correctly) 140 Prisms  per side.  Sounded like a million bucks in the right hands, too.  Whoever was mixing Collective Soul at that time had a very good day.

I spent a little time with Howard at FOH.  They were mixing at least 15 feet in the air.  Estimates of the crowd, per day, were around 300K.

IOW "it was a big rock show...."

[Nathan Short]

I thought it was the Metallica show in 91 Moscow  1.5 megawatts

Mick has been quoted as saying he took a helicopter to tune the delay towers.

[Randy Pence]

I'll throw my stab in at an unusual contender:

The Berlin Loveparade drew 1.5 million in 1999.  While the various rave size sound systems were playing different sources for most of the event, it had been customary for all of the systems to turn into a special radio frequency for broadcast of a main stage at the siegesaule towards the end of the event.

maybe in the end it wasnt the biggest, but a bit unique.

In that realm, I thought I once read somewhere about a new years countdown in london which was supposed to cover millions of people.

hmm, going along that route, i believe the entirety of sweden is covered with a pa ready to broadcast emergency messages.

[Mac Kerr]

The farthest out delay towers I have seen was the Promise Keepers rally on the Washington Mall. The stage was a on Third? and the last delays were across the street from the Washington monument. The spacing was about 300' between delay systems. Each delay was left and right arrays of either EAW KF900 or Meyer MSL6. I think it was a little over a mile. Every delay system was capable of supporting an outdoor concert stage for maybe 25000 people. There were about 1.25 million in the audience. Video was distributed to the repeater screen that accompanied the delay speakers via direct broadcast satellite.

I think Disaster Area's last concert was probably louder.

Mac