www.psneurope.com August 2013 l 39


Bon Jovi headlined at the park


The new stage set-up


livereport


(L-R): Ian Colville, Toby Donovan, Paul Timmins (Cap Sound), Jason Baird (Martin Audio), Martin Connolly (Cap Sound), Andy Davies (Martin Audio) during the build-up


Radiohead album. That system is Martin Audio’s Multicellular Loudspeaker Array, aided and abetted by an Optocore fibre-optic redundant loop. About 180 boxes were deployed: 17 MLA enclosures per side, including one MLD downfill; 13 MLA outfills per side, also including one MLD; 16 W8LM front fills; 32 MLX subs in cardioid broadside array formation; and 10 delay towers at 90m and 160m repeating the MLA/MLD configuration albeit with just eight MLAs plus – for the big acts – two more delay points at 210m using MLA Compact enclosures. Optocore’s X6R-FX converters – with Ethernet – were used to secure the kilometre-plus delay ring. Such is the importance of getting this right, a dry run was staged where most of the conditions within and around Hyde Park could be recreated – just as negotiations between all the interested parties were reaching a peak. “We built the front end of the system in the grounds of Hatfield House in January,” recounts Ian Colville, technical manager at Capital Sound, “where there’s room to measure the equivalent off-site SPLs to here, at the correct positions. Vanguardia took very detailed measurements, not only at the noise-sensitive offsite locations


but within the audience footprint as well. We programmed various long- throw presets, and the results came out very favourably.” Indeed Capital was able to


achieve a 6dB(A) increase within the perimeter without disturbing the 75dB(A) average limit set for all the main trigger points off site. “The limits under the current Hyde Park licence were set last year, and will continue for several years,” says Olly Creedy, senior acoustic engineer at Vanguardia. “So the real task is to get the on-site levels up while staying within – or even some way below – those parameters. Repositioning the stage has certainly helped with that – essentially, away from Park Lane – along with the new system.” In order to predict the SPL over distance, Martin Audio exported the 3D balloon data of the arrays, using their Display 2.1 optimisation software. Vanguardia was then able to feed that into its long range propagation model, without the need for any third-party simulation software – which could have compromised accuracy. “It’s the same experience right


across the MLA user network,” says Ian Colville. “Other rental companies tell us that people are asking for MLA, not just for the noise control issues but because you can do things like a small festival


Martin Audio MLA among the fake plastic trees


without any delays at all, and that’s a huge saving. “It’s such a different system. You


look at it casually and think ‘line array’ but it’s nothing like that: the DSP inside it is manipulating phase, amplitude… all sorts of stuff. When the audio arrives where people are standing, or sitting, it really has all come together.”


The gods could not have


dreamed up a more testing line-up for the new solution: headliners on different nights included Bon Jovi, not known for their acoustic restraint, and The Rolling Stones, not known for avoiding controversy through several generations of self-appointed guardians of social decorum. If there are any net curtains left to twitch in Mayfair, Mick Jagger may just have enough residual testosterone to twitch them a little bit more as the band defibrillates the very last tendrils of the 1960s. However, all reports to date suggest that the sound ‘bubble’ worked: no serious complaints, no letters to The Times and no dawn raids on Capital Sound’s premises by the Vice Squad. Maybe next year the number of concerts will be allowed to go back up to 13. n www.aeg-live.co.uk www.capital-sound.co.uk www.loudsound.net www.martin-audio.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60