Canegreen designed and installed three separate PA systems for each of the stages, all featuring a range of Meyer speaker cabinets, Lab Gruppen amps and state-of-the-art control systems. Pete Hughes was Canegreen's project manager for the festival, he explained: "We selected the equipment and designed the systems to suit the dynamics and style of music played over the weekend and we have received a lot of praise from the audience about the sound, which is always great."
Production manager Ken Rankin explained: "Some of our contractors have been with us for a long time, but we do change where we feel there is a better alternative. This is the second year Canegreen has supplied the sound, they have helped by keeping noise levels outside the festival down whilst not compromising the enjoyment of our audience. The amplification on site has definitely improved; last night I was standing toward the back of the main stage crowd and the sound was so clear I could focus in on any of the instruments being played on stage."
The environment created around the main stage was unusual. The stage was located at one end of a clearspan marquee seating around 6,500 people opening out onto an outdoor area accommodating another 1,000. Canegreen designed a system comprising of: 16 Meyer MSL4s, eight Meyer 650R2P SP subwoofers, four UPA-1P SPs and two MSL2As in the marquee then, via some very carefully positioned delay speakers: four MSL4 SPs, two MSL2A and eight MSL3s, they also filled the outdoor area whilst still managing to reduce the noise levels spilling of the site into an adjoining housing estate.
Speaking from behind the Yamaha PM4000 mixing console in the marquee Pete Hughes explained: "I time-aligned the whole PA system with my trusty Soundweb and laptop. From the licensing aspect the positioning of the speakers was crucial. To reduce noise we positioned the MSL3s at 90° to the arena. These are fairly old cabs, but their wider dispersion characteristics suited this application better than newer models."
From the organizers perspective Rankin commented: "Canegreen was once again a very professional company to work with. Their constant monitoring and professionalism was superb. We received no complaints regarding the noise outside the event, which was a first for the festival."
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
