Ibiza Rocks 2008 - promoted by Andy McKay and production managed by Mike Darling - was staged at two 1500 capacity outdoor venues - the Ibiza Rocks Hotel in San Antonio and The Hipódromo de San Rafel in Sant Rafel de sa Creu. It featured a host of international artists including The Enemy, Dizzee Rascal, The Streets, Soulwax, Pendulum and many others.
The sound system was spec'd by Adlib's Andy Dockerty and built and commissioned on site by engineer Declan Fyans who stayed out for the duration of the four-month season which is just drawing to a close.
The biggest and most important challenge for the sound system was durability. The system needed to be able to withstand the heat and dust of four months constant use in Ibiza without flinching. Although well equipped with spares, it's a long way from home, and the island has no large PA suppliers - so the nearest replacements for elements like consoles or large system components would be Valencia on the mainland.
Adlib's system has been a similar spec for the last three years, but this year the venues were slightly larger, and crucially, it had to be a touring rig because of the multiple venues involved, rather than the one installed system of the past at Bar M.
The main PA consisted of five JBL VerTec VT4888 enclosures per side. These were flown on chain hoists attached to the truss making up the stage canopy - which was the same at all venues.
There were three Adlib DF418 subs per side. In the Ibiza Rocks Hotel these were ground stacked either side of the stage in a stack of three, and at the Hipódromo they were configured as three stacks of two - two subs on a platform on the left of the stage, two stage centre on the ground and the final two on another platform at the right of the stage.
Fyans also utilized six Adlib AA122 fill speakers. At the Ibiza Rocks Hotel, two were used for a centre-fill, two for a VIP balcony-fill and the other two as occasional far left or far right fills depending on the audience configuration. At the Hipódromo, two made up the centre fill and three dealt with the VIP bar area.
Eight Crown VZ5002 amps were used to drive the VerTec, four amps each side; Four Crown VZ5002s drove the subs and two QSC RMX 2450 drove all the fills.
System processing was achieved using three BSS FDS-366T Omnidrive Compact Plus units, one at FOH, one each on the stage left and right PA amp racks.
At the Ibiza Rocks Hotel, the FOH processor was used to make a left and right full range signal for the main PA and four channels for fill speakers. At the Hippódromo, the FOH processor was again used to make a left and right full range signal for the main system, then one channel for the centre sub position and three channels for fill speakers.
The FOH console was a Yamaha PM5D-RH. For monitors, Adlib supplied a Soundcraft SM20-48. Monitors consisted of 10 Adlib AA152 speakers and one of Adlib's special drum-fills. The side-fills were two Adlib FD2 mid-highs with two DF415 subs.
One of Adlib's standard touring mics/stands packages was also supplied, consisting primarily of Shures and Sennheisers.
Fyans was joined for the season by Adlib's Chris Smethurst who looked after monitors. The crew included lighting engineer Gavin McFerran, stage manager Joe Clark and stage crew Cliff Dooner, Brendan Maxwell and Arron Watson.
(Jim Evans)
