Held at St John at Hackney Church in London for Relentless, Capital's production manager Charles Ellery knew straight away that the gig was going to present him with an acoustical challenge
"Essentially, St John's is a stone box that measure 45 x 45 metres, with a domed roof 18 metres high and the natural acoustic properties of a swimming pool!," says Ellery. "Initially, we looked at a system comprising Martin Audio LCs and WS218X subs, but in the back of my mind I knew we should be looking at the Martin Audio MLA Compact system for this, as it would be a great test of what the system can do in a challenging space. It was just unclear if we'd have access to the MLAC system with the DSX subs.
A few days later and good news, the MLA system was available for the gig.
"Robin Conway, one of our MLA certified system techs and I went down early on the load in day to laser measure the space and we input the data into the drive system. Whilst the computer was crunching numbers we, along with our crew of Nathan Hayward, Marek Komenda and Jimmy Parkin set about getting the gear in to the venue. We stacked three DSX subs and then six MLA Compacts on top, with the top of the array set to cover the VIP balcony area. Control was via a Soundcraft Vi6 console into Martin's Merlin drive system."
Professor Green's Front of House engineer Pat Tunbridge arrived and, once the backline was up, he listened to the rig and commented on how smooth the system sounded.
"And that was while the venue was empty," smiles Charles. "During the sound check it performed perfectly. 'Hard avoids' on the ceiling and side walls ensured minimum reflections and Pat was blown away by the clarity and richness of the audio in such a challenging space.
"It made for a phenomenal gig all round, with the MLAC system driven hard in a very demanding space, and a fantastically clear result for every single one of the 1200 guests."
(Jim Evans)
