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Heavily supported by the local City Council, Brighton & Hove Pride—a celebration of Brighton’s LGBTQ+ community, annually attracts crowds of around 250,000 people to the seaside resort.

While the origins of the event date back to 1973 Capital Sound (part of the Solotech UK Group) has provided main stage sound reinforcement for the last three events. Having supplied PA and control for headliners Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue, following a break for COVID they were back in the 63-acre Preston Park site for the 2022 edition which featured Christina Aguilera and Paloma Faith as headliners on the Saturday and Sunday respectively.

After deploying Martin Audio’s award-winning MLA loudspeaker array for Britney Spears back in 2018, the enforced break caused by the pandemic had enabled the British manufacturer to move the ground-breaking control technology further still, now enabling the production company to deploy the new Wavefront Precision (WPL system) that proved such a hit this summer at the UK’s two predominant Glastonbury and BST Hyde Park festivals.

Working alongside production manager Dean Parker, at Wilde Ones International Events, their sound design was based around main hangs of 18 WPL per side, with a stage right side hang of six of the smaller WPC, and a larger drop of 12 WPC elements stage left.

Maintaining continuity with Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision family, filling the sound at the front of the stage were eight WPS, while providing the all-important low frequency extension were 20 of Martin Audio’s ultra-powerful 2×18” SXHF218 subwoofers, designed in a castellated cardioid broadside array across the front of the stage.

Stage monitoring comprised further Martin Audio systems in the shape of 16 x LE1500 floor wedges, four SXHF218 and six TORUS T1215 constant curvature arrays.

Now 11 years old, Chris Evans’ popular CarFests show no signs of running out of gas, as some 50,000 people again took to Laverstoke Park Farm near Overton, Hampshire—owned by 1979 Formula One World Champion, Jody Scheckter—for CarFest South. Inaugurated by Evans back in 2011, the event raises funds for Children in Need.

The event is a regular client of Martin Audio partner SWG Events, the south-west-based production company, who provided a full sound and light package. This included their market leading Martin Audio WPL line array, which provided sound reinforcement for a broad range of artists. These included Kaiser Chiefs, Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, Tom Odell, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Faithless Soundsystem, James Blunt, Judge Jules, Bob Marley Revival and Rick Parfitt Jnr, Paloma Faith and Steps.

The fast-moving performance area is built around three differently configured stages—flanking a DJ stage occupied by Chris Evans himself—all set in a line.

SWG Events have traditionally deployed their W8LC but this year that older Martin Audio system was redeployed to delay duties—in two hangs of eight—as their new Wavefront Precision (WPL) took pride of place. The two main hangs of 12 WPL were driven in 2-box resolution from iKON iK42 process controlled amplifiers, as were a stage right out hang of 12 WPL. An additional six-per-side WPC provided infills between the stages, while across the front, 20 Martin Audio SXH218 subwoofers were set in a broadside array to provide LF extension.

Further to that, four stacks of two W8LC were deployed for front fill on the larger of the stages with an additional 16 W8LM for front fill across the lip of the smaller two. Finally, 32 XE500 Martin Audio stage wedges were placed across the two main performance stages.

With two stages constantly flip-flopping this was a high energy show—as SWG’s Simon Purse, who had overall responsibility for the audio, explained. And with many of the acts bringing their own sound engineers and control the FOH position was well populated with mixing desks.

SWG put out an experienced crew, with Ryan Bass and Adam Andrews at FOH, providing mixing duties where necessary, while Matt Pope and Olly Hayward patrolled the stage. Overall project manager was Ian Williams.

Although the two-day festival was prone to sudden weather changes, the PA coped admirably and the sound crew were able to achieve levels up to 98dBa at FOH, while observing the offsite threshold of 65dB. These were set by noise consultant Simon Joynes of Joynes Nash Acoustic Consulting.

Stated Simon Purse, “We do a lot of work with Joynes Nash; they are familiar with MLA [the precursor of Wavefront Precision] and realise it’s a useful tool for councils when it comes to environmental noise on sensitive sites.”

He added that since SWG Events acquired WPL at the beginning of the summer the system has never been in the warehouse. “It’s absolutely proved its worth and has been out nearly every weekend since we purchased it. We are now able to appease local councils as well as satisfying guest sound engineers.”

Summarising CarFest, he said, “The site is challenging because it is so large, and having all stages running more or less simultaneously and sharing the same PA, certainly keeps everyone engaged. But we pulled it off … WPL worked really well, and we will certainly use it again here.”

Simon Joynes agreed. “This system deployment continues to deliver benefits in offsite noise control, measured against comparable events,” noted the consultant.

Photography by Filiz Moore.

Sue Su reports from the China Flower Expo in Shanghai, which has spent several months operating as a Covid field hospital

The Covid 19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the music industry in recent years, not least being on the international festival circuit, where many established events were forced to close.

Rock in Japan, the country’s largest festival was no exception, and suffered the same hiatus in 2020 and 2021. However, this year, it was finally ready to make its return and it did so in very different fashion. The five-day event was reborn as an urban style festival in a new location, having moved to the Soga Sports Park in the attractive coastal resort of Chiba from its previous home of Hitachinaka.

However, the change of location had been a major concern for those managing and promoting the shows. For Soga Sports Park is located near residences and in a densely populated shopping area—hardly ideal for holding a loud rock show. Additionally, it was the first time that a festival had taken place here. The potential of noise pollution problems caused huge headaches for the production team.

“We had to adopt a completely different the approach,” stated Shuzo Fujii, president of MSI Japan, the sound production company. “Up until now, we have always focused on how far we could throw our MLA loudspeaker array, but this time we had to think in an opposite direction.”

THE RESULT WAS A MAJOR SUCCESS, NOT ONLY BECAUSE OF THE UNIQUE DISTRIBUTION DESIGN BUT ALSO BECAUSE OF THE CONTROLLABILITY OF MLA SYSTEM. ONCE AGAIN, I WAS ABLE TO APPRECIATE THE WONDERFUL CAPABILITY OF THIS LOUDSPEAKER.

Visitors attending the plethora of county and horticultural fairs that take place during the UK’s outdoor season, deserve the same quality of audio as hardened music fans revelling at the UK’s premier festivals.

BSB Sound owner Martin Bickley, whose company specialises in providing PA for all manner of outdoor shows, was looking for a fresh approach to deliver first class audio for the annual Shrewsbury Flower Show as the previous design of public address system was no longer suitable due to the mounting bases for the loudspeaker masts becoming unsafe. He therefore approached a long-term associate, Robin Dibble, who also happens to be one of the Martin Audio product support team.

The show is one of the country’s premier events of its kind, attracting top exhibitors from all over the UK to the site on the banks of the Severn. After a site visit to investigate the event and its requirements, Dibble specified two hangs of Martin Audio’s WPL array cabinets to be flown from towers, with a spaced broadside array of SXH subwoofers between. This he knew would provide not only high-octane audio but evenly distributed, site wide coverage.

To supply the equipment, Bickley contacted Bristol based Martin Audio partner, SWG Events, who were pleased to sub-hire their powerful and ground-breaking Wavefront Precision WPL optimised line array. The two towers were also provided by SWG, whose head of audio, Simon Purse, assisted with the set-up.

“We needed to ensure we had consistent quality and intelligibility over the 150m throw distance whilst keeping levels contained on site, with a 74dBA limit at the borders of the event site,” noted Dibble. “The site itself is in a natural bowl and the results of any events in the show ring during the day needed to be broadcast with absolute clarity by the commentators, while in the evening both military and contemporary bands took over the stage, followed by a laser display. This is where the subwoofers—a broadside array of 12 SXH218 (2×18”) enclosures—came into their own.”

The DISPLAY 2 files were prepared by Robin Dibble and loaded into the amps ready for use by Purse, with some tweaks on set-up days. “The main challenge,” Dibble continued, “was getting accurate site information because of its unusual shape, and the fact it was the first time we had worked here. So we undertook terrain mapping with SketchUp, adjusted with on-site surveys during set up.”

Sound was mixed from a desk in the commentary box, set 50 metres behind the speakers, and Robin Dibble, who took responsibility for the overall site design, was more than happy with the outcome. “This event was all about achieving consistency of coverage rather than pushing level. It worked extremely well and sounded fantastic.”

Martin Bickley agreed. “Shrewsbury Flower Show is a favourite event for us at BSB Sound and is bigger than many realise, typically with over 10,000 people sitting on the bank enjoying a wide variety of entertainment from the main show ring.

“The results were a revelation; the improvement in consistency and quality throughout the audience was a real eye opener. All the BSB Sound team were impressed with the results, and we are looking into the possibility of purchasing a WP based system of our own on the back of the equipment’s performance at this event.”

Solotech makes a mighty statement at Victoria Park with premier line array

There can be few production companies more familiar with the challenges of east London’s Victoria Park site than sound specialists Capital Sound (part of the Solotech UK Group).

Often working alongside Loud Sound they have supported many of the music events and festivals at this location for more than a decade. It was here in the summer of 2011, first for Deadmau5 at the LED Festival, followed by other back-to-back events including Field Day, that they proved that even within a densely populated residential area, they could achieve enviable levels within the performance area without disturbing the neighbours.

It was at these events that Capital debuted, and established the unique controllability of Martin Audio’s award-winning MLA technology, and a further propagation test at Hatfield House duly led to its adoption at another challenging site, Hyde Park, for BST, which persists to this day.

But such demands place pressure on their inventory and he adds that they are fortunate to be able to utilise the growing Martin Audio network when it comes to pulling in extra inventory. “Martin Audio also provides great support where we need it and has done a fantastic job staying involved. But as the user network has grown, we have managed to rely less on manufacturer support and more on partner support.”

Once again, for reasons of efficiency, the organisers tweaked the layout of the two main stages (named Riot and Roots), while out around the perimeter the Radical (Stage 3), Rise (Stage 4) and Rebel (Stage 5) areas belonged to Martin Audio.