The Festival is now in its tenth year, and for the past seven of those, Suffolk-based Pyramid Audio has been nominated main contractor for the sound stages. For the first time this year they committed themselves to using a single loudspeaker brand - and filled all six stages with DragonSpirit systems.
Fleece, the owner of Pyramid Audio, starting using DragonSpirit speakers almost two years ago and has subsequently featured them at various events around the UK including the Glastonbury Festival, Strawberry Fair and Eastern Haze.
His company started out buying floor monitors, but sensing the responsive nature of DragonSpirit, and the fact that his feedback was being fast-tracked to the company's Chinese manufacturers to be incorporated into subsequent product upgrades, impressed him greatly. Soon he was investing in the whole portfolio.
On the banks of the Thames, the DragonSpirit rigs functioned under BSS Omnidrive system management, powered by Lab Gruppen 6400 and 4000 Series amps. The rigs ranged from a discreet bandstand on Southwark Bridge - where four DS115X (single 15" + 1.7" horn) provided front-of-house sound with a further pair for monitors - to a set of six compact DL3 line array enclosures (three per side) plus four DS215B twin 15" sub bass units on the Hubble Bubble stage in Jubilee Gardens.
The Jive and Tango stages had two identical systems; each comprised four DS112 speakers (one at each corner of the dancefloor) and a single DS118B sub-bass unit. Foldback was supplied by two pairs of matched DS115X, which were driven in 2-way active configuration. These stages created a small outdoor club environment which gave a clean controllable sound, within the Festival's strict SPL limits.
(Jim Evans)
