With this in mind, the society approached several manufacturers to provide new products to give the students hands-on experience with industry products. These came from several manufacturers the main being A.C. Lighting providing Tourwash fixtures and Funktion-One providing there latest RM12 and RM15 monitors for their very first outing. Further equipment was provided by RCH hire to supplement the university's existing stock.
The main sound system comprised two stacks of three Funktion-One 218s and two Resolution 4es with Resolution 2s providing in-fills and a further two Resolution 2's and two 218's providing delays on the balcony. The system provided seamless coverage throughout the venue. "EQ required on the system was minimal only used to remove room modes and the headroom on the system was phenomenal. The system has the low mid that most systems really lack and the subs are incredibly punchy." The use of a Mackie digital desk at front-of-house helped with the quick changeovers with the 12 bands playing.
On stage, Funktion One's new monitors proved to be a real hit with both the bands and monitor engineers. The monitors were run with three sets of three along the front with an RM12 in the centre and two RM15s, one either side. The RM12 was used for vocals and the RM15 for band mix. Sound designer Josh Lloyd says: "The first thing we noticed when plugging these wedges in instead of our usual wedges was that being a small venue (550 capacity) we had to take 10dB off each wedge, the sensitivity of them is astounding, and that was just when running each individual wedge up with a microphone."
He adds: "The fantastic thing with these wedges is the 5" driver which sounds so much smoother, and with a lower crossover point the bottom end they provide is astounding, we had one band ask if we had side-fill subs and he was shocked when he realised there were none. The set-up we used was in the end not really necessary because the SPL and gain before feedback is amazing."
RCH also provided eight Martin MAC 500s to supplement the university's moving light stock.The society would like to thank Rex Halfhide at RCH hire for all his help and time, Tony Andrews at Funktion-One and A.C. Lighting.
Credits: Crew chief, Ian Davies; Lighting designer, Joney Milmer; Audio designer, Josh Lloyd;Monitor engineers, Nathan Tremeer & James Peacock.
(Lee Baldock)
