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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.

UK: Nub Sound mount successful sound containment operation at Home Park Stadium

Plymouth Argyle FC recently hosted its first two-day concert weekend at its Home Park stadium. Run in conjunction with the local Depo nightclub, who also hosted the after parties, day one was EDM-oriented, and dubbed ALIVE at Argyle, followed by the more family-focused RELIVE at Argyle on the Sunday.

The two days were quite distinct in that while House music and Drum and Bass dominated the first day, with a Becky Hill DJ set, Bru-C, Ben Nicky and others, the following day saw heritage acts and radio DJ’s (including Gareth Gates, Five, Liberty X, Chris Moyles and Craig Charles).

Local production company, and Martin Audio partner, Nub Sound were brought in to provide technical infrastructure. Having worked with the promoters on various events at their nightclub, in addition to the PA, they also provided the stage structure and upstage video elements.

Explained their project engineer (and Audio lead), Gareth Fine, “Although it was our first time working at Home Park Stadium, logistically it was fairly straightforward, as our warehouse is only around two miles from the venue. The biggest challenge was always going to be getting the sound loud enough in the stadium while keeping the offsite noise as low as possible.” Not always an easy balance when the promoter’s primary request was to “keep it bangin’”.

However, Fine knew that in the advanced software platform of Martin Audio’s DISPLAY environment he could do much to mitigate what he describes as “a major concern!”

He explained, “Alongside deploying an audio package we were also in charge of noise management for the weekend and as such were involved with the Council’s Environmental Health Officer (EHO)—from planning right through deployment and delivery of the event. We managed to negotiate 70dB offsite limits at three key locations around the venue.”

Nub Sound achieved this by fielding two hangs of 14 WPC line arrays, and applying the ‘Hard Avoid’ setting in the optimisation software, to taper off at the perimeter. Of equal concern were the sub frequencies, and Nub Sound fielded 17 of Martin Audio’s SXH218 cardioid subs in bridge mode, but with six of them rear facing. “We used these to great effect,” said Fine, referring to the amount of rear rejection achieved.

The system was powered by 24 Martin Audio iK42 four-channel DSP amplifiers.

In addition, 12 WPS divided into six pairs, were used as front fills, and six WPC, in two sets of three were deployed as outfills. Meanwhile, on stage a pair of SXC118 subs and TORUS T1230 were used for fills, stage left and right, along with six LE1500 wedge monitors, for any performers requiring stage foldback. Finally, the all-important DJ monitors comprised a Martin Audio WSX18 and LE1500, left and right. And with an 11hr session on the opening day the PA needed to work hard as DJs performed in a steady stream—some featuring live vocal performances to track.

Supporting Gareth Fine at front-of-house was Nub Sound project manager and system tech, Josh Small, while Lee Chance was stationed in monitor world.

The concert, which is now being conceived as an annual event, certainly got off to a positive start, as Fine reports. “Both the Council and EHO were extremely happy with what we able to achieve with offsite noise, while at the same time managing to maintain a consistent and even coverage of the audience area of 98dB(A) over 15 mins—with the tonal response you would expect for drum and bass and house music DJ’s.”