Capital Sound provided 318 MLA series enclosures at Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time for Roger Waters, the largest deployment ever.
Waters had already taken his sonic and visual experimentation to breath-taking levels at Desert Trip in 2016, with the biggest surround sound system ever built. To create maximum impact at Hyde Park Capital Sound were asked to provide an additional 12 hangs of Martin Audio MLA/MLA Compact on towers positioned through the concourse for 1 night only.
These provided 12-point surround sound effects, at positions set by Loud Sound’s Dan Craig and fine-tuned by Roger Waters’ sound team, as part of the show to give the audience an immersive experience that had them gripped from the beginning as the sound chased around the site.
The auxiliary towers added a further 112 Martin Audio MLA/MLA Compact cabinets to the existing total of 206 MLA series cabinets deployed in the Park. With 318 enclosures in total, this was the largest deployment of MLA at a festival anywhere in the world, eclipsing that of Rock in Rio and Glastonbury.
The same weekend Capital Sound were also servicing the Volt/Balaton festivals in Hungary, followed by Kew the Music, which added a further 149 Martin Audio MLA family enclosures in use at the same time.
For the remainder of BST, the main Great Oak Stage is equipped with 2 hangs of 16 Martin Audio MLA and 1 Martin Audio MLD Downfill per side, with 13 Martin Audio MLA and a Martin Audio MLD Downfill for the sidehangs. The sub array consisted of 32 Martin Audio MLX in a broadside cardioid design (21 front facing, 11 rear facing).
With 12 Martin Audio MLA Compact serving as front fills all Martin Audio MLA components are operating on the same network.
Out in the field, there are 9 main delay towers, 7 comprising of 7 Martin Audio MLA and a single Martin Audio MLD Downfill, while for delay positions 10 and 11, 8 Martin Audio MLA Compacts are deployed. Four of the positions are supported by 12 Martin Audio MLX subs.
Away from the Great Oak Stage, Capital equipped the VIP Pavilion this year with 12 Martin Audio Blackline F8+.
On the Barclaycard Stage (Stage 2), 8 Martin Audio MLA Compacts are flown on each side of the stage, along with 14 of the new Martin SX218 subs, while the popular Martin Audio DD12’s provide front fills.
The Moretti Bar features a full Martin Audio system comprising a pair each of DD12 and CSX-LIVE 118 subs for the live stage with 4 Martin Audio Blackline F12 stage monitors, while the bar area features a distributed system of DD12, DD6 and PSX subs.
Leading Capital’s 24-strong crew are Martin Connolly, Account Manager, Great Oak Stage, with Capital Operations and Development Director, Paul Timmins, taking responsibility for the other stages. Al Woods returns from Dubai to serve as main stage crew chief. For Martin Audio, Jason Baird provided system alignment and propagation tests, while Chris Pyne lent additional MLA support.
Summing up the opening event, Timmins said, “This is up there in my top five shows of all time. We’ve never built a surround sound system on that scale, and we were not only firing low-level FX but high level sources around the site, which needed to be contained. But with everyone working to a common goal — we were able to meet all sound level challenges, and the reviews of the sound system in the serious media the following day were 100% positive.”
Martin Connolly agreed. “Roger Waters’ production team—including sound engineer Jon Lemon, system tech Dean Mizzi and Josh Lloyd, who did the set-up with our system tech Toby Donovan, achieved everything they wanted. All have sent us emails thanking us, and we are delighted with the result.”
A site that was once thought to be unworkable because of the way punitive offsite sound thresholds had impacted on sound levels in the bowl, has now been consolidated by Capital Sound, and a combination of Martin Audio’s flagship MLA PA and its DISPLAY optimisation software.