Pop star Will Young completed a 22-day UK tour supporting his latest album, 85% Proof, which went number one on the UK Official Albums Charts. London-based production company Britannia Row Productions provided an Outline sound system that featured 36 Butterfly for mains, six Mantas for fills, eight DBS 18-2 subwoofers, Outline T-Nine amplifiers and Lake LM26 controllers.
FOH Mixing Engineer, Davide Lombardi, explained the main sound system expectations and requirements: “When approaching the Will Young tour the requirements are very specific. His music varies from a quiet ballad to disco songs. Dynamics are very important; every single person in the audience needs to be able to clearly hear his voice. The mix and coverage needs to be very balanced, regardless if it is the front row or the last one. When I was offered the Outline Butterfly system I did not hesitate because I knew it could give me what I needed. The physical size of the box and the weight helped avoid problems with rigging and sight line issues and yet, it delivered a big sound without compromising dynamics or volume control.”
When asked what sound challenges he encountered during the tour, System Engineer Alessandro Cestaro said: “This kind of tour was a challenge every day due to the different size venues and acoustic considerations. I had to often adapt and modify the main PA system design configuration to accommodate the different room acoustics and coverage needs.
“I found Butterfly was a great choice as it’s a simple and quick system to rig in different environments and it’s extremely reliable and precise in terms of coverage and throw. Since we had to set up in many different kinds of venues, from little old theatres to bigger auditoriums, to wide arena-style rooms, my goal was to give Davide the best balanced system for him to mix on without compromising the coverage of the room. To make it all work I often had to split the main system using ground stacks and flown arrays, and sometimes with additional side hangs as well.”
Cestaro commented on the performance of the system: “This was the first time I had used the Outline Butterfly on tour and I have to say I was very positively surprised by the performance. Once I started to know the behaviour of the cabinet and array, I discovered it offers linearity and balance from very low volume up to the highest show volume.”