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US: All-female Mexican vocal groups, Pandora and Flans recently undertook a 17-city theatre and arena tour of the US, mostly visiting the Southern States.

The Inesperado (‘Unexpected’) tour, as it was known, was supported by a large inventory of Martin Audio WPL line array, provided by New Mexico-based rental partner, High End-RG Productions.

The high energy show itself, which combined the two legendary groups in one spectacular event, had never previously been presented, and it picked up 5-star reviews wherever it played.

We used the ‘Hard Avoid’ whenever it was needed, and I must say what a beautiful tool this is.

Martin Audio’s market leading Wavefront Precision PA was deployed, 12 boxes per side for the group’s FOH sound engineer, Luis Quiñones. High End-RG Productions president, Enrique Ortiz, confirmed that the PA set-up had been designed in collaboration with system engineer, Orlando Calzada, with the 12 SXH218 subwoofers set in an L/R cardioid configuration, six enclosures per side, providing the LF extension.

Responsible for outfill dispersion were eight W8LC on each wing, with eight Martin Audio FlexPoint FP8 acting as front fills, with eight WPS on top of a pair of SX218 subs providing sidefill coverage. This was all powered in 2-box resolution by a combination of four Martin Audio iKON iK42 four-channel amp racks, while a pair of Linea Research M48-20 racks, from their Focusrite Group partner, powered the W8LC outfill hangs. With just two exceptions, the full complement of speakers was deployed at all venues.

From a sound perspective, the tour was split into two, with Orlando Calzada taking on system tech duties for the first half, to be replaced by Enrique Ortiz for the latter part. “Between us, we made the design and prediction in DISPLAY 3, and Luis Quiñones then optimised the alignment of the PA,” explained Enrique. He added, “We used the ‘Hard Avoid’ [function] whenever it was needed, and I must say what a beautiful tool this is.”

His production team had worked closely with Martin Audio tech support to achieve the optimum result, and win the satisfaction of both Miriam Rodriguez, the group’s production manager, and Felix Ovalles production manager of the promoters. Enrique confirmed, “Martin Audio were extremely supportive. Jim Sage provided some additional equipment to ensure we achieved the best outcome, and we received excellent tech support at the start of the tour, when it was especially important, from Will Harris.

“This created a great impression with the artists’ production and the promoters. They loved the idea that we were not just another supply company, but one with active support from a leading brand behind us.”

UK: Fabric London has extended its relationship with Martin Audio dating back nearly quarter of a century, by announcing a substantial upgrade to its flagship Room One.

Since the installation of Martin Audio W8C, Blacklines and WSX subwoofers at the start of the new millennium the club has never looked back, having gone through several generations of Martin Audio systems—maintaining its faith in the state-of-the-art sound systems, offered to its roster of world class DJs.

But when it came to the latest refresh, technical manager Matt Smith decided to follow a different path. Nervous at the prospect of losing what he describes as “that distinctive Room 1 sound” he asked Martin Audio if they would overhaul the existing 20-year-old W8L line array by fitting it with new drivers. And such is the close relationship that has endured between these two premier brands, the High Wycombe manufacturer was happy to oblige.

However, it was quite a journey before that decision was reached, and involved auditioning several different brands. “Although they all sounded amazing it was just going to change the character of what the room was about,” Smith acknowledges. He was also mindful that it had beenfabricfounder Keith Reilly who had countenanced the original switch to Martin Audio “and that there was a romanticism about this system.”

Finally, he consulted the club’s inner pool of promoters, DJs and sound engineers, along with his in-house team: “they were unanimous that we should renovate in order to retain the signature Martin Audio sound and preserve what is quite a historic installation.”

There was a romanticism about this system.

Where Matt Smith has been particularly clever is in supporting the re-energized mid-tops with an entirely end-to-end Martin Audio infrastructure, including SHX218 2 x 18” subs, iKON multi-channel DSP amplifiers, new FlexPoint speakers and XE300—at the same time repurposing the classic and utility Blackline F12s that have delivered DJs’ reference sound up in the booth.

The new Room 1 layout offers the familiar sight of the four newly powder-coated four W8L, two left and right on the stage, matched with repurposed W8C, two left and right at the back.

The eight SHX218 subwoofers, designed in a broadside array under the front of the stage, represent a piece of construction genius, once the club had decided to revert to a horn hybrid. Because these are much bigger, we had to take the wheels off and enlarge the cavities under the stage. Now you can barely get a Rizla between the bass bins and the wall!” quips Smith. Providing design support for time alignment of the sub arrays were Martin Audio’s technical support team of Dan Orton, Ben Tucker and Paul Connaughton.

But it’s “under the hood”, to use Matt Smith’s words, that the magic tales place—with 10 Martin Audio iKON amplifiers (9x iK42 running the bulk of the system, with a single iK81 driving the MF / HF for the main enclosures).

The club’s original DSP and networking had been entrusted to the Soundweb environment but the DSP for the sub array, along with delay times and all presets have now transferred to the process-controlled iKONs. “The amps are immensely powerful,” notes Smith, “and I think we would do some structural damage if we turned them up to their max.

“It’s nice because we are just ticking over with our outputs on the amps whereas before we would have physically needed to constantly check [our amps] just before peak. The beauty of the iKONs is that they self-monitor and with the processing now taking place in the iKONs, we can monitor them remotely via [Martin Audio’s] VU-NET software.”

Meanwhile, four of the recently launched FlexPoint FP12’s have replaced those original, custom-built Blackline F12s in the DJ booth, the latter redeployed to rear downfill duties “to make the size of the dancefloor a bit bigger.” New X15s distribute sound at mezzanine level along with two further repurposed Blackline F15s. Finally, four additional XE300 are available for nightsfeaturing live bands or MCs.”

Although the installation is taking place in phases, the verdict to date fromfabric’s technical manager is already 100% positive. “The new system delivers a lot more power, and with the power availability of the amps we are never going to get near peaking. It’s very clean, tight and punchy … but it’s not about volume for us, we want to keep it sounding good rather than loud.”

And, of course, aside from the romance associated with preserving Martin Audio’s legacy system, there is also the emotional attachment with the custom F12s. “The number of DJs they’ve seen in Room 1, those F12s … you just can’t get rid of them ,” concludes Matt Smith. “Fortunately, we’ve found a really good use for them, and they are doing a great job in their new place.”

UK: SWG Events joined forces with fellow Martin Audio network partner 22live recently to field a massive 80 premium loudspeakers from the British manufacturer at Ashton Gate, home of Bristol City FC, over a memorable weekend.

The Saturday event, called ‘Ashton GatePresentsBS3’, saw American singer-songwriter Ne-Yo headlining an all-star 10-act bill, that included Craig David, Jess Glynne, Dizzee Rascal, DJ Spoony and local legend, Roni Size, which had the 27,000-capacity crowd in raptures.

The staging then changed for the Sunday, which saw Kings of Leon playing the venue as part of their‘Can We Please Have Fun’ worldtour.

SWG Events’ head of sound, Simon Purse explained the PA design, which he had overseen. Left and right main PA comprised drops of 16 WPL, supported by two outhangs of 12 elements in each.

We had excellent intelligibility across the entire site.

There were a further two delay towers of 12 drops each, making a total complement was 80 flagship WPL line array cabinets deployed. These were driven in 2-box resolution from Martin Audio’s process-controlled iKON amplifiers. A further 24 of the smaller Martin Audio WPS arrays provided frontfills, with TORUS on sidefills and XE500s as optional reference monitors for those artists not on IEM.

Reproducing the low frequencies were a total of 40 SXH218—30 in a split broadside array across the front of the stage, to enable a stage thrust to move in on the Sunday, with a further three in each delay position and a monitor for the DJ.

Simon Purse’s original CAD design was transposed into Martin Audio’s D3 software, where system tech Ryan Bass took over. “I made a few tweaks, but everything was largely based on Simon’s original design,” he said.

Purse added that the biggest challenge had been in mitigating typical stadium reflections. “There were a lot of hard surfaces, a lot of weird roofs, strange reflective screens that we had to try and avoid. But we used Martin Audio’s modelling software to optimise where and how we deployed and pointed the system.

“At the same time we used ‘’Hard Avoid’ [in the D3 software] in the areas that we were actively trying to get rid of. So a mixture of PA design and software enabled us to achieve full system optimisation once everything was in place.” The cooperation with 22live, he said, had been 100% successful.

Simon Purse reflected further on the success of the event. “The PA design worked really well; we had excellent intelligibility across the entire site, and while being noise considerate of the neighbours, we made no compromises to the audience.

“There are a few gigs every year where I stand back and think what an awesome rig this is—and this was one of them.”

Click here to watch the full video:https://youtu.be/TjvWwEtgYbA?si=p39lUk2dC6pjlAu9

UK: SWG Events extended their long association with the Glastonbury Festival, again deploying Martin Audio systems in a number of feature areas.

According to Head of Audio, Simon Purse, they made significant changes to two stages: BBC Introducing and Woodsies, while also providing Martin Audio systems for The Park Stage and Leftfield.

BBC Introducing embraced Martin Audio for the first time, having traditionally had its sound delivered by another brand.

The move from its usual enclosed tent behind the Pyramid Stage to a more open, saddlespan structure required a fresh, upscaled approach to the PA, as it was able to attract a larger audience. “We were able to swap out the previous system for a ground-stacked [Martin Audio] WPS system—so it was quite a major upgrade. Having more PA meant we were able to deliver a superior sound,” stated Purse.

Beneficiaries of this included Antony Szmierek, FIZZ, Jordan Mackampa, Paris Paloma, Pixey, Kingfishr and Maruja.

With such a demand on their Martin Audio inventory this summer, SWG Events had thought strategically, arranging for the six-a-side WPS rig and eight SX218, that they had recently installed at Cardiff Students Union, to move back into their rental stock at term end, and in this instance take up occupancy at BBC Introducing, where they functioned as Left/Right stacks (to avoid intrusion on camera positions) driven in 2-box resolution from the iKON amps. Four Blackline X8 acted as frontfills and a pair of TORUS T1230 as outfill. “The advantage of this arrangement,” noted Purse, “was that we could get greater height on the PA, which is precisely what we wanted.” Martin Audio LE1500s, were provided for artist monitoring, underpinned with SX118 subwoofers.

Meanwhile, nightly headliners at Woodsies were Gossip, Jamie xx and James Blake but the highlight was the surprise appearance of ‘secret act’, Kasabian.

Knowing the importance of this stage, Simon Purse managed to push for a full 12 a-side WPL rig in 2-box resolution, with split L/R ground stack sub system comprising 12 SXH218—providing ample coverage in a 75m diameter big top holding around 6,000.

“However, when word got out about Kasabian there must have been 15,000 people trying to get in,” he observed. Adding to his rig were eight WPC on front fill “which worked extremely well, and something I’ll definitely adopt again next year. It gives you the power you need for a big stage and avoids the risk of running out of headroom on the front fills.” Four TORUS T1215 sidefills (two a side) provided stage monitoring along with two cardioid SXC118s—along with a full package of XE500 monitor wedges.

A measure of this stage’s success (and a source of personal satisfaction for Simon) was the number of emails received from band productions afterwards, praising their experience.

Sitting high over the festival site, The Park Stage was another area SWG Events can look back on with pride as they helped gild the performances of headliners, Fontaines DC, Peggy Gou and London Grammar.

Here they fielded 12-a-side W8LC, and two W8LCD a-side Downfills, with 16 WSX 218, in L/R stacks. The stage package comprised 12 XE500 monitors with SX118 subs. “Although it’s older tech, the W8LC rig is almost iconic to that stage,” says Purse.

Combining pop and politics, Leftfield’s sound requirements tilt more towards reinforcing the spoken word. Currently this used Martin Audio’s W8LM. This was flown, eight-a-side chain hoisted onto a goalpost truss structure. For artist reference monitoring, 12 LE12J wedges were available.

Summing up the weekend, Simon Purse was delighted with the company’s achievements. “We had a really good team, the bands worked extremely well, and overall it was just an exceptional year where the atmosphere throughout was fantastic.”

Crew on Woodsies stage consisted of Sam Jones (FOH);Xav Booth (FOH tech);James Marsh and Dylan Jones (patch); Oliver Haward (monitors) and Tom Malin (monitor tech).

The Park Stage crew comprised Joe Bailey (Project manager); Adam Andrews (FOH); Ian Williams (Systems); Fraser Wilks, Tom Baxter, Laura Evans and Ieuen Fishburn(patch); Will Fisher (monitors) and Kieran Jordan (monitor tech).

On BBC Introducing, crew boss/patch was Dan Jenkins; Jack Kenyon (FOH); Harrison Burdon (monitors) and Callum Jones (patch).

Photography by Lee Perry and Jamie Gomez.