Brighton, UK (June 25, 2015)—Disclosure & Rudimental Present Wild Life, a four-stage, two-day event staged at Brighton City Airport in the UK, faced a number of hurdles when it was held earlier this month: it was a first-time fest; neighbors, including churches and homes were as close as 1,300-feet away; and winds were gusting as high as 30 MPH. Nonetheless, the event went off smoothly, and promoters said the number of complaints was reportedly lower than they’d expected.
Capital Sound deployed almost 200 Martin Audio MLA elements at two festivals in early June, one of which was Wild Life. There, the company aimed to meet the 75 dB offsite sound requirements, though it reportedly hit an SPL of 105 dB at the sound desk during Disclosure’s set.
With the two Main and Dance outdoor stages complemented by two Khyam tents (including a dance tent), the challenge was to keep the sound contained without spillage. “I could progressively fine tune the optimization on the second stage while the show was running to suit changing requirements without physically needing to move anything,” said Martin Audio Product Support Engineer, Chris Pyne. “Typically, heavy dance music has a pronounced low end 30 to 80 Hz, so the sub frequencies generated are large wavelengths; but we could re-optimize our sub array to tighten the horizontal pattern control. One of the beauties of the MLA systems is that it’s an evolving system adapting to the environment and needs of our partners.”
Both the Main and Dance stages featured similar PA configurations—with 17 MLA (plus an MLD Downfill) per side and 16 MLX in a broadside cardioid array. Main stage also featured four further MLAs in a groundstack on one side—and there were two delay towers, comprising eight MLA Compact and three DSX subs, set 260 feet back from the stage.
Fellow Martin Audio partner RG Jones supported Capital Sound with equipment and personnel, notably on the main Dance Stage. Simon Barrington was the overall event production director with Mike Oates running stage and site production. Crew included Toby Donovan (system tech, main stage), Jack Bowcher (system tech, dance arena) and Harm Schoepman (Capital crew chief).
Martin Audio
http://www.martin-audio.com
