Officially hailed as “biggest hip-hop and rap festival in the world,” Miami’s fourth-annual Rolling Loud drew a sold-out crowd of 70,000 enthusiastic fans over three days to hear L-Acoustics loudspeaker systems drop the bomb, bass-heavy beats of their favorite artists. Hosting performances by more than 140 of the genres’ top stars—including headliners J. Cole, Travis Scott, and Future—the festival featured eagerly anticipated sets from Lil Uzi Vert, Migos, Post Malone, N.E.R.D., Meek Mill, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Lil Pump, Rick Ross, The Diplomats, Lil Yachty, and scores of other artists.

The festival took place at Miami Gardens’ Hard Rock Stadium, after outgrowing last year’s Bayfront Park location. 3G Productions’ Miami office was once again tasked with providing sound reinforcement for the festival’s two largest performance areas, the High Hemp Stage and Audiomack Stage, both spanning a massive 160 feet wide. Each stage featured 20 L-Acoustics K2 enclosures and eight KS28 subs flown per side, plus a dozen ARCS Wide front-fill enclosures and eight additional K2 per side for outfill.

3G Vice President Andre Serafini notes that 3G was specifically requested to provide an L-Acoustics solution from the start. “The promoter/production team was familiar with L‑Acoustics and naturally requested it as their top choice,” he says. “K2 is a very flexible system that really shines on its usability from mid- to large-scale events like this. Its weight-to-output ratio, rigging ease, and rider acceptance are ideal, and we achieved solid output and consistently even coverage that was very consistent with our Soundvision predictions,” adding that 3G’s Neil Rosenstock handled the design, with James Brightenfield and Eric De Moya serving as the system engineers.

The beefy low-end that is absolutely elemental to both hip-hop and rap was further bolstered by double-stacked linear sub arrays of 40 L-Acoustics SB28 per stage. “We flew the KS28 subs in an end-fire deployment to assist in Rolling Loud’s large and very long coverage area,” says Serafini. “Throw was very important and the KS28, anchored by the SB28 subs, certainly did not disappoint.”

Delay for the High Hemp Stage was delivered by two hangs of eight K2 plus two hangs of eight Kara further out, while two clusters of a dozen Kara each provided delay for the Audiomack Stage. L-Acoustics LA12X Amplified Controllers powered the main PA and flown subs at both sites, with LA8 driving the rest of the systems.

With ticket prices for Rolling Loud starting at nearly $400, extending up to over $900 for VIP packages, the entire festival experience—including the sound—had to be of the highest quality, and all reports back were extremely positive, Serafini enthuses.

“We received many compliments on the sound this year and are looking forward to a continued growing relationship with our friends and artists involved in Rolling Loud,” he adds. “We also truly appreciate the support we receive from L-Acoustics. Strong relations with the best manufacturers always lead to success. Everyone wins, especially the audience.”

“Hip-hop is about defined low frequency tonality and intelligibility of the lyrics, and both are absolutely paramount to the genre,” adds L-Acoustics Touring Outreach Manager David Brooks. “The 3G Productions team did a phenomenal job of designing and deploying our systems for this year’s Rolling Loud festival. They not only covered the huge festival grounds sonically but did so in a way that the crowd could clearly hear the artist vocal and feel the LF impact of the music. It was a pleasure to help support them.”

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