It was the second year of the London Electronic Dance Festival (LED) - and since Deadmau5 is a client of Capital Sound Hire, the London based sound production company were brought in by the consortium of promoters (Cream, Goldenvoice and Loudsound) seizing the opportunity to fire up the MLA system outdoors for the first time.
"We knew how the system sounded indoors, but I wanted to evaluate it outside, and see how it would fare in propagation tests," said Capital technical manager Ian Colville. "Thanks to the tight micro-control the system can be programmed to enable the sound to taper off at the site perimeter - vital in a heavy residential area such as London E9."
According to Martin Audio research & development director, Jason Baird, "There is a 75dB(A) offsite limit in Victoria Park - and that is often a tricky threshold to stay within. However, [noise consultants] Vanguardia were able to measure 105dB(A) at the mix position and 68dB(A) offsite, so the authorities were delighted. Using drawings of the site, our Display 2.1 optimisation software calculated how to minimise the sound outside of the audience area."
Capital Sound rigged 16 MLA enclosures and one MLD down-fill per side, with six ground-stacked W8LC Compact line arrays each side, providing out-fills to cover the far corner areas. Delay masts were provided purely as a precaution.
However it was in the sub frequency range that the design really excelled. Jason Baird proposed using 22 x MLX cabinets - 15 forward facing in a broadside array and seven stacked on top facing backwards to cancel the rear radiation. "This combination of broadside and cardioid arrays provided control of the horizontal dispersion at the low end, minimising the spillage, with the seven rear facing subs minimising the rear radiation of the array."
To prove his theory, on stage during the full-output propagation tests he muted the rear facing subs so that there was no such cancellation. "The low end became so intense it was making me physically sick ... however as soon as we switched them back in the rear radiation was dramatically reduced to a level that was very comfortable."
(Jim Evans)
