LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - In June, for the first time since 2019, Starbucks convened its Leadership Experience conference, bringing together more than 14,500 of its store managers and other Starbucks leaders at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The three-day gathering, designed to foster a sense of camaraderie over a shared passion for coffee, included breakouts and workshops, keynote speakers, competitions, live musical performances and more, all backed by a large-scale Cohesion audio system.
FOH Engineer Andrew Waterman, who also serves as Account Manager for global brands Starbucks and Microsoft, was entrusted to select the PA. “I’ve done a lot of events lately with Cohesion, and the sound and the coverage have been amazing,” he said. “It’s just so smooth and good sounding. It’s a team effort, and I think James [Ellison, System Engineer] has done an amazing job with the design, so my hat’s off, for sure.”
The system comprised two rings, one for the lower bowl and a delay ring for the upper bowl. The lower ring included two hangs of fourteen Cohesion CO10, with the top four enclosures using 80° horizontal dispersion inserts and the bottom ten enclosures using 120° inserts, four hangs of ten CO10 (all 80°inserts), and two hangs of 8 CO10 (all 120° inserts).
“I’m loving the CO10,” said Waterman. “I truly appreciate the effort that goes into making a great speaker, and this line has some incredible work behind it.”
The delay ring used sixteen clusters of eight Cohesion CO8 with 120° inserts.
“The CO8 made more sense logistically as a lighter box,” said Ellison. “It was also nice to have the internal angles of a smaller box that allowed us to achieve the coverage we needed in the upper bowl.”
For additional low end, eighteen Cohesion CP218 II+ were flown in standard configuration in six clusters of three each. A dozen Cohesion CM14 were used as stage monitors, both for the keynote speakers and for the artists. ATK Audiotek, a Clair Global brand, deployed the PA, which totaled nearly three hundred enclosures.
“The number of enclosures we used and the layout of them were all about the control. Since presenters used lavaliers, we needed to be able to run the whole system at a lower level,” explained Ellison. “We needed to control for feedback and provide excellent clarity. We were sitting at 80–85 dBA, so we needed more hangs to compensate for the throw distance. The lower bowl and the upper bowl were completely independent, which meant the whole system was configurated as a more distributed system to maintain that control we needed. If we were only doing music, we’d have only done a main ring of speakers, a normal 360°, but in this case, it’s all about that lavalier. It was a fundamental rethinking of how we approached this content differently than a music performance.”
Waterman agreed that the clarity was significant, especially for those sitting in the 300 level. “It sounded natural, even at the top. We had very little EQing, and the overall experience was very good, especially on lavs and headsets.”
While breakout sessions occurred across the street at the Mandalay Bay casino, Thomas & Mack Arena had the most exciting elements of the week, starting with a simultaneous presentation of 14,500 coffee beverages to everyone in the stands. The first night concluded with a star-studded trio of live performances from Ella Langley, The War and Treaty, and ten-time Grammy nominee Janelle Monáe.
“The pattern control of the PA, as well as the design process, was crucial for the clarity,” said Ellison.
Talented baristas worked all week to advance during the first-ever Global Barista Championships, with the five finalists competing live on the final day to impress judges. After these creative presentations concluded, the final keynote brought out Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who then introduced former CEO Howard Schultz.
“There wasn’t a seat available in the house when Howard and Brian were talking,” said Waterman. “It was filled up, and when Howard came out for his interview, the place just went nuts. They made it clear they wanted to get everyone behind them and return to what Starbucks was all about originally.”
Starbucks officials used the gathering to emphasize goals of clearer customer service standards and a focus on hospitality, such as four-minute wait times, while celebrating the “leaders and teams that bring that experience to life for millions of customers every day,” according to Niccol.
“Thomas & Mack was incredible. It sounded fantastic,” summarized Waterman. “Everything came together nicely, and everybody had a really good time.”
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