The festival has learned well from its forebears: this is not a 'cram them all in a big field and gouge the wallet' event; two main stages, and two lesser venues give fans the chance to sample a broad cross section of world class acts as well as some up-and-coming bands.
For Britannia Row Productions Ltd (Britrow), charged with servicing three of the four stages, the demands were clear. "They needed the controlled release of power," said Bryan Grant of Britrow. "That's what these bands are all about; audio power."
On the main 'Apollo' stage that power came in the form of L'Acoustics' new K1 system, Britrow's latest addition to its enviable stable of PA systems.
"We've been using this new system on a wide variety of musical styles since we bought it in the spring and it's never yet failed to please. The L'Acoustics V-Dosc PA has a great reputation for clarity within the heavy rock fraternity, especially on the vocals, but engineers have been surprised at the appreciable improvement of the K1 throughout the frequency bands."
'Big' Mick Hughes, the famed front of house engineer for headliners Metallica adds: "I had used K1 once before, in an amphitheatre in Southern France. Not really the right environment for a proper trial, so I was really looking forward to this. Did I think it would be the miracle PA? Not really. Was it? No, but then I don't think there will ever be that system where you just put it up and never EQ anything. But for me it was a great day. Outdoors, with 180° audience it worked great. The Subs are fantastic; such a tight punch; incredible."
Now the show is over, does Hughes have any reservations? "I do worry about that 12 a side thing, I know there are four Sub boxes at the top of the hang and two at the bottom, but I'd have thought for a festival site this size a bigger rig would have made sense. V-dosc you'd have put 16 a side, Milo probably 18. But the desk position was 56 metres from stage and like I said, it sounded great there. Will I use it again? Of course; I have to say I'm really looking forward to it."
"Mick's absolutely right in his assessment of the relative power of the K1," concluded Grant. "The 12 K1 a side were at least equivalent to 16 V-Dosc or 18 Milo, and, to my ear, still had the overall clarity and more grunt in the low mid and bass than anything I've heard out of either of those systems.Obviously we had delays to cope with potential adverse wind conditions so the system covered exactly where we wanted it to."
"Several artists and production people told me that the Metallica set was the best sound they'd ever heard at a festival, so well done Mick! It's been a great event for us, and overall I've been very pleased with the response to, not just the K1, but all of the PAs we had on site and our crews who got the best out of them."
(Claire Beeson)
