Author: ContentAdmin

Occupying the stunning Tudor courtyard, the two-week Hampton Court Palace Music Festivalreturned recently with a top-grade line-up, performing in this spectacular Grade I royal palace setting, dating back to the early 16th century and once home to Henry VIII.

Working within constraints of heritage buildings, and tasked with creating a technical infrastructure for the event in recent years has been SWG Events.

A major investment in the manufacturer’s cutting-edge technology has enabled them to field an end-to-end solution (the latest acquisitions being further TORUS T1215 speakers and SXC118 single 18in cardioid subwoofers). This is in support of their flagship WPL Wavefront Precision line array which was deployed as the main PA hangs.

All of which has this year delighted the many visiting sound engineers accompanying artists ranging from Gladys Knight, Kaiser Chiefs, Soft Cell, Kool & The Gang and Tom Jones, who have been playing to capacity audiences of 3,000 immersed within the Palace surrounds.

“NOT ONLY DID I HAVE A REALLY GOOD EXPERIENCE BUT THE ARTIST HERSELF WAS PARTICULARLY PLEASED AND SAID HOW GREAT THE SHOW SOUNDED.”

Working again for promoters IMG, according to SWG Events Head of Audio, Simon Purse, this product streamlining has made their task a lot easier. “It’s the first time we’ve had a complete flagship Martin Audio system in our inventory and as a result we’ve been able to refine the design,” he confirms. “Everyone has been very complimentary—the FOH guys are loving the system.”

Despite having established a proven design template, rigging this 50ft x 50ft courtyard certainly wasn’t without its challenges. “It’s a massive, cobbled courtyard surrounded by walls and turrets,” he says. “And being a Grade I-listed building you have to be careful not only with cobbles but also shaking the ancient windows.” This required working within specific frequency response curves and managing content within control software. The lower frequencies are most problematic, but the DISPLAY software also needs to be programmed to ‘hard avoid’ the back wall.

Facing his third year of providing technical services for Access The Festival (ATF), the three-day EDM dance party in Warwick’s Sherbourne Park, events specialist Sound Access turned for the first time to Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision (WPS) for the sound reinforcement.

The Festival, organised by DJs Will Darley and Alex Neidhardt, continues to evolve its concept (this year adding a third day). But mindful that with three stages in close proximity, and a lot of low-frequency energy to contain, Sound Access owner Joe Baker’s rationale was simple. “The organisers wanted to upgrade the audio this year because we all felt that the listening experience was the most important.”

In order to mitigate sound spillage, tight control was required. “Last year, noise rejection out the back was quite bad with the system we used,” acknowledged Baker. But there were no such problems this year.

Sound Access have collaborated with Martin Audio partner dBS Solutions on several tours — including Burn The Floor, where they carried a WPS rig. “It was the first time I had used it, and I had the best time. I never had to change my mix even when we dropped boxes for smaller venues, whereas with other systems you have to work hard to get that consistency.”

When ATF came around Baker was back in contact with Chris Bogg at dBS Solutions who was happy to cross-hire his WPS and TORUS systems for the summer party. Sophia Livett from noise consultants Acoustec set site sound thresholds, which Joe Baker knew he could meet by deploying Martin Audio’s ‘Hard Avoid’ feature in the proprietary DISPLAY software.

Due to the spread of the coronavirus, many outdoor festivals have been forced to be canceled or prohibited from speaking out in recent years.

In the past, there were various restrictions such as limiting the number of people and requiring masks to be worn. However, this year, all regulations have been lifted, and large-scale rock festivals have returned to scene.. Voice production including audience chorus and call-and-response became possible.

There are many residential areas and commercial facilities in the neighborhood of Chiba City Soga Sports Park.. This year, when the restrictions of the audience has been lifted, a higher SPL is required. At a venue where it is necessary to place emphasis on noise control, we needed to create a system that was different from the conventional system.

Therefore, a system that followed the “ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2022”, which was a great success last year, was used.

Each of the two main stages have eight MLAs at the front. In addition to this, 7 MLA towers were installed at 4 locations each, for a total of 8 locations. Normally, this delay tower is installed on both sides of the audience area, but it is installed only on one side, making it possible to minimize sound leakage outside the venue.

We interviewed Mr. Shuzo Fujii, Chairman of MSI JAPAN, who was in charge of the JAPAN JAM system.

“We had to control sound leakage to the outside of the venue to an unprecedented level, but the results were easy to obtain. Inside the audience area and outside it was a completely different space. It was amazing how much sound pressure and quality was provided that it didn’t leak out.I felt that this outdoor festival was a moment that once again proved the high level of MLA’s controllability.”

This year, MLA will play an active role at three venues: SKY STAGE, SUNSET STAGE, and BUZZ STAGE. Enjoyed Golden Week.

*JAPAN JAM 2023 was held on April 30, 2023/May 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. Unfortunately, the SUNSET STAGE was canceled on the final day due to strong winds, but all five days were held without incident.

Over the years, Soundworks of Virginia has built a reputation for providing advanced sound production for national tours passing through the state. As one of the first live sound production companies in the world to acquire Martin Audio’s large format WPL line array at the beginning of 2019, their early adoption has paid handsome dividends.

Recently they provided sound production for R&B vocal group, Boyz II Men, when the group visited the Atlantic Union Bank Pavilion, a 6,500-cap outdoor amphitheatre in Portsmouth, VA.

It was a venue familiar to the Soundworks team and while load-in and rigging protocols are straightforward there are acoustic challenges to be met, since the venue deploys a tent-like material to cover the first 3,000 seats nearest the stage. Bryan Hargrave, Soundworks’ engineer and system tech for the show commented, “Since we did not have serious noise abatement issues to address, I used the Hard Avoid feature available in [Martin Audio’s proprietary] DISPLAY software to prevent reflections and interaction with the tent cover.

This makes a very positive impact on the sound quality and is appreciated by both band engineer and audience alike.”

Bobby Scherberger is the venue production manager and since Martin Audio was listed on the band’s rider, once he had cleared the WPL rig with the Boyz II Men production team he contacted Soundworks. “We have worked with Bobby for many years and at numerous different venues. He is aware of Soundworks’ equipment and has total confidence in our experience and capability. It’s fair to say he has become a fan of Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision,” suggested Soundworks president Grant Howard.

“WITH WPL WE BID IN TOTAL CONFIDENCE ON EVERYTHING THAT COMES OUR WAY. WE KNOW THAT WE CAN COMPETE NECK AND NECK WITH ANYTHING OUT THERE. IT’S A GREAT FEELING.”

Boyz II Men’s trio of vocalists, fronting a full backing band, required 56 channel inputs from the stage. And while it was the band production team’s first experience with WPL, according to Bryan Hargrave “it was definitely a two thumbs up situation all around.”

Headed by their flagship WPL line array, Martin Audio systems have been specified throughout the vast 250,000 sq. ft Armory complex in St. Louis, MO.

Originally constructed in 1938 as an Armory for the Missouri National Guard—part of the New Deal after the Great Recession—it later became a US tennis HQ before transforming into a concert venue in the 1960s and 1970s (featuring Ike & Tina Turner and the Grateful Dead among others).

More recently it has had a chequered life, before falling into disrepair. Several times it went back to the drawing board before Jake Miller and Chris Honstain of hospitality specialists Brick + Bev, an affiliate of local developers Green Street Real Estate Ventures, took it over. Honstain and Green Street’s Phil Hulse put their heads together and the project then went into overdrive.

The operators’ principal focus was The Commons, the huge 85,000 sq. ft main concert hall, with a 60ft x 32ft stage—the first of three spaces that will feature Martin Audio components over a phased opening. They were put in contact with Brad Stephens at Martin Audio North America, and their integration partner AVI Systems, who had worked with some of the facility’s operational staff over the previous six years, were awarded the contract.

They in turn specified Martin Audio’s WPL line array as being the optimum solution for the 5,200-cap space—a decision endorsed by both Honstain and Production Director, Rek Mohr.

The former described the sound system as “incredible”, adding “it really blows you away.” He characterises the building itself “as one of a kind; there’s no way anyone would build it again.”

“I HAD NEVER WORKED WITH MARTIN AUDIO BEFORE, BUT I JUST LOVE THE SOUND—AND THE QUALITY YOU GET IS INCREDIBLE”.

Rek Mohr also gave the sound system an unconditional thumbs-up. “I had never worked with Martin Audio before, but I just love the sound—and the quality you get is incredible. All the different boxes we have in here sound fantastic in their own right and I’m very impressed.” By this he is also referring to TORUS, CDD and ADORN series, which feature elsewhere.