Postponed from its traditional dates in April due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns, music fans were more than ready to make the most of three days of China’s highest profile rock and pop acts. With over 10,000 festival-goers every day, West Lake Music Festival remains one of the most important music festivals in China, and the 2022 edition was no exception.
D&S Stage Technology – the largest rental company in Zhejiang Province, China – was responsible for supplying all of the FOH equipment for the festival. Having road-tested KV2’s flagship VHD5 high-definition Constant Power point source system for the first time at last year’s event with great success, the company had no hesitation in specifying it for 2022.
D&S owner, Mr Wang, made a special trip down to KV2’s Chinese distributor, AVMedia’s headquarters in Guangzhou last year to experience the VHD5 system for himself in an outdoor setting and understand more about setup procedures.
“They’d already attended a number of demonstrations and been impressed by what they heard, but they really wanted to see how it performed at a large event,” explained Jason Shi of AVMedia. “West Lake music festival provided the perfect opportunity. Needless to say, it was a resounding success – the comments from all the engineers who used the system were unanimously positive – so it was an easy decision to use it again this year.”
Mr Tony, a renowned audio consultant who made a special trip to Hangzhou last year to experience the system, was delighted by what he heard. “This was my best outdoor performance experience in years,” he said. “It completely reinvigorated my experience of music festivals and enabled me to enjoy the experience like never before.”
The main PA comprised L/R hangs of a single VHD5.0 mid-hi unit supplemented by three VHD8.10 low-mids and an SL412 acting as downfill. The low end was handled by a cardioid array of six VHD4.21A (active) subwoofers which also powered a further six VHD4.21P (passive) subwoofers. Front fill was provided by a pair of VHD1.0s whilst an ES1.0 combined with an ES1.8 sub formed the monitor system along with 12 ESM12 stage monitors. Power and processing throughout were provided by the appropriate KV2 device.
“The system performed exactly as we expected,” concluded Mr Wang. “We were extremely impressed by our experience last year – many people remarked that the sound was a considerable improvement over previous years – so there was no question of using anything else for 2022. It’s hard to believe that point source technology can cover such large distances effectively and with so much clarity and definition – but that’s exactly what VHD5 does, and with virtually no EQ or anything else. It sounds good straight out of the box.”