Day: October 12, 2023

So successful was the inaugural Iron Blossom Festival, in Richmond VA, that the organisers have already confirmed that it will be repeated next year.

Contributing to this success was the exemplary sound quality provided across the two stages by Soundworks of Virginia, and featuring Martin Audio’s market-leading Wavefront Precision optimised line arrays. This ensured a first-class experience for headliners, Hozier, Noah Kahan, and Lord Huron—and the rest of the artistes performing.

The Bon Secours Training Center provided the venue for the Festival, organised in a joint venture by Charlottesville’s Starr Hill Presents, Virginia Beach’s IMGoing and Richmond’s Haymaker Productions.

Working in conjunction with Haymaker Productions owner, Tom Beals Soundworks chose Martin Audio’s large-format WPL for main stage and WPC for the second stage—run in 2-box resolution from Martin Audio’s matched iKON multi-channel amplifiers. This design was perfected by the company’s Grant Howard and Bryan Hargrave in the belief that an event of this nature deserved the best system components available.

The exact deployment on main stage comprised 14 WPL elements per side, with 16 SXH218 subwoofers, in cardioid array, with four WPS frontfills and a pair of delay towers, each with eight WPC enclosures— flown at a trim height of 22ft, and each set at around 220ft from the stage. For the subsidiary stage they flew 12 of the smaller footprint WPC elements per side, with eight SXH218 in cardioid array, and four WPS as front fills.

“WE HAVE BEEN VERY HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS OF ALL THREE OF OUR WP SYSTEMS”.

Steve Payne, CEO, Soundworks of Virginia

This provided even coverage for around 14,000 people (over the two days) spread across around 400ft x 400ft of open field, with unrestricted noise levels.

Lucca Summer Festival is one of Italy’s most highly anticipated live music events, which takes place annually in the city’s famous Piazza Napoleone.

This year Robbie Williams returned to the Bel Paese to light up one of the most historic cities in the Tuscan region. He performed to an audience of over 20,000 people on the Festival’s final evening, closing a season which again brought to the location major names in contemporary rock and pop, including Blur, The Chemical Brothers, Norah Jones, Placebo, KISS, Simply Red and Sigur Ros.

Martin Audio partner, Amandla Productions, has been a reference rental company for theLucca Summer Festivalfor many years, and again provided technical management, including a full audio and lighting package.

System engineer, Tommaso Bandecchi, and Amandla CEO, David Lapini, recognised the challenges in meeting the ever-changing requirements of different sound engineers.

For audio they again turned to the “never disappointing” experience of a Martin Audio flagship PA. Bandecchi reports that 28 MLA enclosures were used for the main hangs (14 per side), with 24 MLA Compact for the outfills (12 per side). Meanwhile, 28 MLX were used for the sub array, 24 WPS for the frontfill and 20 MLA for delays divided into two groups of ten.

The management of the signals in the two main areas was entrusted to Martin Audio’s dedicated Merlin digital matrix processors via AES, as well as remote control via the redundant VU-NET protocol.

“There are many surprising aspects of the MLA system,” Bandecchi observes. “The integration of the system with the WPS allowed control of the entire system via the VU-NET software. This allowed us to obtain great precision and control even using part of the MLA family optimisation system, and to have great flexibility and scalability even in the fills.”

Furthermore, he added, by virtue of the particular amplification and DSP management system, MLA guaranteed great flexibility in obtaining the required frequency response.

In conclusion, Amandla Productions can reflect on an excellent technical outcome—both for the calibration and configuration of the PA system. Robbie Williams’ sound engineer and tech team also reported their complete satisfaction with the set-up of the PA, pinpointing the perfect audio and excellent sound distribution across the site.

Described as a “powerhouse of music and visual arts”, the four-day Hungarian INOTA Festival was a joint initiative between the European Capital of Culture (this year Veszprém-Balaton) and the electronic music scene of Budapest (Electronic Beats)—thanks to a collaboration between promoter collective NVC and video and 3D projection company Centrum Production. The objective was to establish Hungary’s largest audio-visual festival, focusing not only on top music acts but also light installations, pixel mapping and unique visual works.

Located a short distance from Lake Balaton in Várpalota, the venue was the thermal power plant of Inota—the largest industrial investment in Hungary back in the 1950s, with its three unique cooling towers. Closed since 2001, and set on a 225,000 sq.m facility, the INOTA Festival brought the staggering 6,000 sq.m Turbine Hall back to life, along with the Boiler Room and Community Centre.

Entrusted with providing full technical implementation, including sound, lights and staging in three of the prime locations, was Martin Audio partner, BG Event. They specified Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker arrays on the Power Plant main stage, as well as the Turbine Hall, with an MLA Mini solution in the Heating Room.

Providing coverage across the (approx.) 50m x 20m Power Plant Area were hangs of nine MLA, with an MLD Downfill at the base. This was underpinned by 16 MLX subwoofers in castellated cardioid array and six MLA Compact for frontfill. Martin Audio’s powerful XE500 wedges were provided for personal monitoring.

The Turbine Hall saw a similar hang configuration for the main PA, but with 16 MLX subs in castellated cardioid array, and two MLA Compact for frontfills. DJ booths were provided in the form of four WPS on a single SX218 sub, per side.

Finally the Heating Room was equipped with a four-set MLA Mini rig, with four CDD-LIVE 12 for fills and eight SX218 providing the LF extension in quad setup.

These spaces featured a myriad of over 100 artistes and performers, including DJ Seinfeld, Extrawelt, Daniel Avery, Overmono, Lebanon Hanover and Ellen Allien.

Reviewing the challenges faced, BG Event’s Balázs Szentiványi, stated: “In the Turbine Hall, we were projecting 50m, and ‘Hard Avoid’ was programmed in the software to taper down at the end of the hall, so that an already difficult venue—full of columns and walls—would not echo. Once the room was full of people, we managed to achieve an SPL of 102-103dB LAEQ5 almost without reflection, and due to the sub arrangement without any cancellation or acoustic excitation on the stage where there were multiple turntables.”

Since the Turbine Hall was situated directly behind main stage, BG Event placed the entire stage area only in Hard Avoid, to achieve complete silence at this location. “With this solution a very dynamic soundscape was created,” Balázs continued. “For example we were able to make the harp soft and also the female singers.” Conversely, with Nils Frahm headlining on the outside stage, the production company needed to pay particular attention to reflections and feedback on stage. “With MLA and a cardioid MLX system, we were able to achieve a result we would probably not have been able to with systems of other manufacturers.”

As far as sound control went, a good outcome was achieved all round. “At the two large locations, we were able to maintain constant coverage and a sound pressure of 98-100dB(A), while at the external measurement points, we were able to keep within the maximum limit of 55dB(A). By complying with those thresholds we did not disturb the tranquillity of the people living in the area!”

“In fact overall we only received positive feedback,” Balázs confirmed, after the event. “Everyone really liked the sound setup, and several international performers praised our work on the spot. They were extremely satisfied with the sound system, as were the organisers, who said they received nothing but positive feedback.”

BG Event’s technical support team were as follows:

Miklós Ábrahám, monitor tech (Power Plant Area stage)

Daniel Kerezsi, stage tech (Power Plant Area stage)

Roland Nagy, stage tech (Power Plant Area stage)

Tamas Patko, stage tech (Power Plant Area stage)

David Rikk, FOH tech Turbine Hall

Andras Vancsay, stage tech Turbine Hall

Kristóf Neuverth, Power Plant Area stage FOH, festival system tech

Photo Credit:

Bence Szemerey – Photo: 1-4

Rudolf Karancsi – Photo: 5-7