MIPRO - News | Press Releases

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- The Santa-Cali-Gon Days Festival, a free annual event celebrating Independence as the starting point of the three trails — Santa Fe, California, and Oregon — had another successful four-day stint this past Labor Day weekend. The event, which serves as a major source of income generation for more than 100 local nonprofit organizations, including the Independence Eastview Lions Club as well as the Independence Chamber of Commerce, attracts upwards of 250,000 people. This year's festival featured live music performances by artists Mark Chesnutt, the Bellamy Brothers, and others. The MIPRO, Superlux, and Avlex brands of professional audio equipment — distributed throughout North America by Kansas City, Mo.-based Avlex Corporation — played a prominent role in the festival's musical events.

Performances during the four-day festival were distributed across three stages. For the Gospel stage, which saw performances by the Jason Watson Band, the Reverend Jimmy Bratcher, and Dewayne Phillips, sound services were provided by Independence-based KVI Productions. KVI Productions — owned and operated by Jerry Keller and his son Steve — is a full service sound, lighting, and staging firm that handles a wide range of live and installed sound projects.

The KVI installed sound reinforcement system included Sound Bridge 3222HT top boxes powered by Avlex PAHS-2460B and PAS-1080B amplifiers on mids and horns respectively, coupled with Sound Bridge 3818SW and Sonic R218 subwoofers powered by Avlex PAHS-3820B amps. For stage monitors, KVI proprietary floor wedges were utilized — driven by Avlex PAHS-2460B amplifiers. Jerry Keller, KVI's owner, reports, "On Friday (the festival's opening day), we had several acts perform and music ran from 6 p.m. through 11 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday, performances ran from 1 p.m. through 11 p.m., and on Monday, the music continued from 1 p.m. through 5 p.m.. That's a lot of time, and through it all, the gear performed flawlessly."

Mixing tasks were handled by a Crest Audio Century GTX 40-channel, 8-bus console. Wireless microphone systems included MIPRO ACT-707D UHF receivers used with MIPRO ACT-707H condenser handheld transmitters as well as MIPRO MR-212 VHF true diversity receivers along with MIPRO MH-202 dynamic handheld transmitters. For in-ear monitoring, MIPRO MI-808 wireless in-ear systems were used.

Cabled microphones included models from the Avlex, Superlux, and MIPRO catalogs. Several Superlux CM-H8A, S241/U3, PRO-258, PRO-218A, and PRA-C5 models were deployed, along with MIPRO MM-707P plus Avlex AVS-21 and CI35 models.

Jerry Keller, owner of KVI Productions, reflected on the festival. "The Santa-Cali-Gon Days are an important event in this region of the country," notes Keller. "We had some terrific musical performances throughout the four days, and we consistently saw crowds of at least 600 to 700 people at any given time. The nonprofit groups involved in Santa-Cali-Gon Days generate as much as one-third of their annual budgets during this festival, so this is an important means of funding various services throughout our community. This festival is a lot of fun, it offers a wide range of music, and it's a great way to help support our community's varied projects."