Tucked in the foothills 50 miles southeast of Florence, Italy, the 13th-annual Mengo Music Fest in Arezzo took place in July 2017 Sinergie Group supplied a VUE system to support more than 30 acts performing over the course of the 4-day, free music festival.
Breaking from their prior system, show organisers tapped Sinergie Group, to provide PA and stage monitor support using a VUE al-12 based system. According to Livio Spallino, Sinergie’s experience using VUE with the headline acts made their engineers, and the resident sound technician’s decision to switch to VUE clear.
“We have worked with the main acts and their crews before, and they all know and now prefer the VUE system’s sonic signature. Megno is more than just a festival – each artist and engineer sees their performance as a contribution to Italian music history. So when the chance to have VUE in the festival was real, everyone voted yes,” explained Spallino.
Sinergie Group deployed 2 FOH al-12 man hangs along with h-8s as front fills and 6 ground-stacked hs-221 double 21” infrasonic ACM subwoofers. Stage monitoring was entrusted to a mix of hm-212’s and hm-112’s, with hs-221’s and hs-20’s for stage fill and drum monitor subwoofer support.
“We knew we needed versatility with incredible precision for this event, yet with power and sonic accuracy,” explained Spallino. “The local parks authority required we limit the system throw to 30-meters from the stage, yet all bands, in spite of very different musical styles, asked for a large PA. From the very beginning, we knew that VUE could deliver on all fronts.
“It was nice to have consistent sound pressure across the listening area — that’s not easy to get with a band with very diverse dynamics,” said Andrea Marmorini, FOH engineer for Fast Animals and Slow Kids. “I immediately found what I was looking for, great coverage and great sound pressure while maintaining care and accuracy in detail,” added Simone Squillario, FOH engineer for Salmo. “With the hm-212 on the stage, the vocal is always present and definite, without losing its rhythmic parts and deep in the lows, practically a personal PA for musicians,” concluded Francesco Felcini, Monitor Engineer for Fast Animals and Slow Kids.