London, UK (August 2, 2023)—House music aficionados have always been particular about sound quality and that may have been one of the reasons the UK’s Britannia Row Productions—part of Clair Global—fielded an L-Acoustics L2 System, along with control packages and technical crew, for West London’s Soho House Festival. Acts on the two-day bill included Kelis, Sugababes, Tom Grennan, Annie Mac, Pete Tong and Gabriels, among others.
The event marked the first time Brit Row has supplied the system to an outdoor, urban environment in London in Gunnersbury Park. The festival was launched to help raise funds for various charitable causes through The Soho House Foundation, which raises funds for and empowers creatives from underrepresented groups, as well as aiding disaster relief.
Brit Row System Designer, Josh Lloyd, designed the rig in-line with the event’s strict noise restrictions, and the team used L-Acoustics Soundvision 3D sound design and mapping software. For control, Brit Row chose DiGiCo SD5 consoles for FOH and monitor positions, which were utilized by all visiting engineers.
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Lloyd noted about the new system, “The L2’s design characteristics, such as the full bandwidth directivity, vertical control and auto solvers, really lent itself to this kind of challenging urban environment, which is a big, city-based residential area. Running in cardioid mode, the L2 afforded us the kind of flexibility needed to ensure a consistent sound level. The system also benefits from a very directional control pattern. This meant that we weren’t fighting gain before feedback on stage, and it has controllable, high granularity that you can cut off or adjust as needed. It was also amazing doing a festival with just two amp racks on either side of the stage; it makes everything much more energy efficient.
“It was great to hear the system outside too. Soho House Festival has quite a large stage, and the physical properties of the system look small in comparison, but the SPL is so impressive, with lots of low end and punchy impact, that it was an ideal solution. The mix of dance and pop acts on the line-up all sounded great, and the visiting engineers were suitably impressed.”
Weighing in on the L2, FOH Engineer Tom Gelissen, who operated the system at both the Eurovision Song Contest and Soho House Festival, noted, “The fact that the L2 can operate in cardioid or hypercardioid mode comes at a great advantage. It offers a nice on-stage experience, and that helps indoors when used in complex PA configurations, such as Eurovision, but it also helps with offsite noise control. As with every system, it’s important to use it for the right project. When applied in the right situation, the L2 is a really great step forward.”
