The beach stage complete with two hangs of 10 Aero 50s
Sound on sand
This summer, Spanish loudspeaker manufacturer D.A.S. Audio provided two sizeable PA systems for the Arenal Sound festival in the small coastal town of Burriana, Castellon, just outside of Valencia, writes Paul Watson
THE ANNUAL Arenal Sound musical feast fuses homegrown Spanish talent and a handful of renowned international acts – this year’s headliners included Kaiser Chiefs, Two Door Cinema Club and The Ting Tings, plus Spanish ‘supergroups’, Second and Love of Lesbian. From 2-5 August, 40,000 punters per day partied in sweltering heat at this beach resort from noon until 7am (you read that correctly!). Spanish sound rental company Acústica backed by D.A.S. provided kit for two of the three stages: the main stage and the beach stage – the latter of which at least provided some relief from the unbearable humidity, thanks to the light sea breeze. D.A.S. also provided the PA
for last year’s event, although the main stage setup was slightly different this time round, as system designer, Joel Damiano reveals. “This year there is no cardioid element, but the principle is the same; there’s a delay on the subwoofers so that they make a ‘virtual electronic arc’, so instead of narrowing the coverage pattern, because they’re all in a line it brings it out a little bit. This means the people at the sides can get coverage,” he explains. “It’s an
Spanish Group Second took to the stage
old school way of working, but it just works. And these days, bands seem to like all that noise and vibration on stage anyway – you wouldn’t get that if we were using a cardioid configuration.” The PA for the main stage consisted of 16 Aero 50s per side and 12 Aero 12As per side for the outfills; an additional 16 boxes of Aero 50 were deployed for the delays, located just behind the FOH tower. A total of 40 LX-218A subs lined the front of the stage, and a further two stacked LX-218As and three vertically stacked Convert 15A.nets per side were deployed for the sidefills. An
LX-218A and an Aero 12A provided the drum fill, and three vertically stacked Convert 15A.nets per side with an additional four Aero 12As were positioned in front of centre stage to provide frontfill. The beach stage was essentially a mini-version of this configuration: two hangs of 10 Aero 50s; the same monitoring; a sidefill setup that relied on three Convert 12As for the mid- highs; a little less sub; no delays; and stacks of D.A.S.’s powered Aero 8A ultra-compact line arrays for frontfill. This event marked the first outing of the Convert 15A.net, D.A.S.’s latest loudspeaker, which marketing director Robert Giner is convinced is going to be a stellar product. “The [Convert] 15A.net is a unique and exciting product for us; with the digitally convertible dispersion (DCD) and a 2,000W, three-channel amplifier, it’s versatile and it’s powerful. This is its first time out on the road so there is a lot of expectation,” Giner says. “The Convert 15A.net will come standard with connectivity, so you can monitor and control the system using our new DASnet software.” DASnet is the manufacturer’s
proprietary audio management application for its loudspeakers