Adlib was working on the event for the fifth year running - supplying audio equipment and crew for six stages including the Word Arena, Film & Music Arena, Sunrise Arena, The Lake Stage, the Cabaret Arena and a mobile system which was for various events around the site.
The 15 Adlib crew were chiefed by Hassane Es Siahi fresh from T in the Park the previous week. He also co-ordinated FOH at The Word Arena, assisted by Kenny Perrin who also looked after monitors there.
The Word Arena featured a lively mix of bands including The National, Wild Beasts, Richard Hawley, The Horrors, Jonsi and The Coral among many others. To provide good all round coverage for a variety of sounds and styles, a JBL VerTec system was specified, which was flown from a ground support, consisting of seven VT4889 boxes a side, with another three 4889s a side ground-stacked for in-fills plus three L-Acoustics dV-Doscs per side for centre-fills, along with VT4880 subs.
Despite the large line up, the stage space was tight and to cover all bases at FOH, Adlib supplied three consoles. The 'house' desk was a Soundcraft Vi6, and this was used by the majority of acts. A Midas Heritage H3000 was specified by Grizzly Bear's engineer Drew Malamud and DigiDesign Profile was requested by Brandon Reid from The National.
The house monitor console was a Yamaha PM5D and ADLIB also supplied another DigiDesign Profile as a guest monitor desk. Assorted bands also brought in their own consoles, presenting the biggest challenge of the weekend - in finding the physical space to accommodate all of them.
The monitor system consisted of 12 ADLIB MP3 low profile wedges, two d-V subs for the drum-fills, with one ARCS cabinet and an SB28 a side for side-fills .These were all driven by Labgruppen PLM 10,000 amps, with Camco Vortex 6s for the VerTecs and PLM 140000s for the VerTec subs.
For the Music & Film Arena, an Adlib FD speaker system was provided to facilitate a stimulating programme of art house and thought-provoking movies punctuated by some inspired live performances. A DigiDesign SC48 console was used to mix both FOH and monitors, with more of the ubiquitous MP3 wedges for onstage sound. This was looked after by Adlib's Alan Harrison and Aide Bryan.
With a diverse line up from Tokyo Police Club to Darwin Deez, the Sunrise Arena was Adlib's Michael Flaherty's domain, and featured a Nexo Alpha sound system, with left and right stacks comprising two M3 mid highs, two B2 bass cabinets and S1 subs, all ground-stacked, complete with MP3 wedges. At FOH was another Soundcraft Vi6 console and a PM5D for monitors.
Overseen by Chris Smethurst, the audio system for the Lake Stage was the same spec Nexo Alpha as Sunrise, all mixed from the side-stage position via a DigiDesign SC48 desk and once again the Lake proved popular throughout the weekend.
The Cabaret Arena utilised another Adlib FD system with double 15-inch subs and a Yamaha LS9 desk, mixed by Carlos Herreros.
To catch those spontaneous performance moments - from juggling to live art of all descriptions needing a bit of amplification - Adlib's Hannibal Chaabouni negotiated the thrills of improvisation site-wide in a van, complete with a set of Adlib AA122 speakers-on-sticks, a 16-channel Yamaha LS9 mixer and a selection of mics.
Adlib client manager Phil Kielty comments, "Latitude is one of the more different festivals in which we are involved, and it provides its own challenges as it should with an event of its size. But thanks to an excellent relationship with Festival Republic and some superb planning by Nick Davies there, it all goes extremely smoothly each year -. and we all love it."
(Jim Evans)
