Two XL8s took pride of place as the FOH flip flop system at Wireless, in London's Hyde Park. A week earlier, an XL8 and a PRO6 had occupied the same position for Hard Rock Calling, while at T in the Park, Britrow deployed three XL8s at FOH on the main stage. The festival systems were all being managed by Britrow system tech Josh Lloyd.
"Having owned and toured Midas XL8s and PRO6s for several years, we felt it was time to profile them front of house at a major festival," says Britannia Row's managing director Bryan Grant. "As Hyde Park has surely become the most Iconic urban festival site on the planet now, we thought it only appropriate for this most iconic of brands,"
"It was very interesting hearing the comments of the engineers, some of whom had brought their own digital consoles but had the chance to listen to other acts being mixed through the Midases. Virtually everyone I spoke to was seriously impressed with the audio quality and a number said they'd be spec'ing them for their next project.
"It's no coincidence to me that a number of engineers in the past couple of years have gone back to analogue consoles after growing weary of the audio trade off between the convenience of digital versus the lack of audio quality and I really believe that Midas have addressed this issue. The XL8 and PRO6 have the sound of an XL4 with the power of digital; does it get any better?"
The rest of Britannia Row's extensive Midas digital rental stock is out on tour for the summer: a PRO6 and XL8 for Dizzee Rascal; dual PRO6 systems leapfrogging venues for Faithless and Florence and the Machine, who are both embarked on a busy summer across Europe; and PRO6s at FOH and on monitors for Paolo Nutini.
(Jim Evans)
