HYDE PARK LIVE SOUND <
FIELD MARSHALLING Ten and more years ago, microphone manufacturer Sennheiser was still one of the big players in the business, but in the UK it had something of a gap in its portfolio. Not products – artists, but even more importantly, artists at the big gigs and festivals. Today, in great part to the Sennheiser
UK’s artist relations manager, Mark Saunders, Sennheiser is particularly prominent with artists on its books such as The Prodigy, Foo Fighters and Kings of Leon – to name but three – and by default, is now found at major gigs and festivals in a field near you.
Saunders and Sennheiser UK will be on site for the forthcoming Hyde Park concerts, which will see the likes of Kings of Leon, Bon Jovi, Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Chemical Brothers and Pulp adding significantly to the air movement in central London, with the main sound reinforcement gear being supplied by Britannia Row.
Saunders states that there are many challenges involved in working in Hyde Park. “Last year in Hyde Park and at V North we provided full blown support and at both sites dealt with everything from the small end of the scale – broken cables, missing clips, and so on – up to replacing stage antennas and having to get the soldering iron out to physically re-wire things,” he explains. “We even repaired non-Sennheiser equipment on site when it meant that we could be of use to someone, somewhere.”
Brit Row uses an L-Acoustics K1 Kudo system for the Hyde Park shows, a set-up the company has described as ‘stunningly
coherent’, particularly keeping the low end very tight and clean. At the Bryan Adams gig in Hyde Park a couple of years ago, Brit Row also flew some K-subs to get the sound evenly spread right to the back of the crowd.
Making music in a field is no easy task – so much so that the tour companies that provide the sound systems hold their techniques and tricks very close to their chests, but every element – and every member of the personnel – along the signal chain is crucial to making sure things work out properly. On the mic front, these problems are many. (continued on page 32)
THE ROLLING STONES may have played the most memorable gig at Hyde Park, but Queen actually holds the record for the drawing one of the largest audiences for any London gig. Over 150,000 punters attended the band’s Hyde Park performance in the Park on September 18th, 1976. The free concert was organised by Richard Branston. The band was told not to finish their set with its usual encore of In The Lap of the Gods, and during The Proghet's Song the PA- system failed and Freddie had to do his vocal improvisation on his own.
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www.audioprointernational.com audioPRO May 2011 31
QUEENS OF THE PARK…
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