The larger of these was the Playtex Moonwalk 2006 event in London's Hyde Park, in which an audience of 15,000 packed into a 60m (wide) by 150m (long) marquee.
Hawthorn fielded eight hangs of W8LM Mini Line Array, ten deep in the front, supported by two hangs of eight enclosures at the rear.
Bands playing through this system included The Fabulous Dough Boys and Marcus Malone's Motown Party Band - in addition to aerobics instructors who warmed up the participants before their sponsored walk for breast cancer research.
According to Hawthorn's head of sound, Iain Reinhold, the brief from the organisers was for an even level of sound to be distributed throughout the marquee that would enable the entire audience to feel part of the event on stage, while still enabling the sponsors' stalls and food stations to continue operating.
"We also had to keep within a 66dB noise limit on Park Lane - and received no complaints throughout the whole night," reports Reinhold.
Hawthorns approached Martin Audio's Jim Cousins to come up with the speaker design using the company's proprietary Display software. This was based on a main left/right hang and six further delay hangs. Reinhold says: "The coverage was fantastic through out the whole marquee and one comment from our engineer was 'I had to be very restrained with the main output faders!'"
While this was taking place, Hawthorns were providing sound reinforcement for a global convention at the RAI in Amsterdam. Some 2,500 people assembled in a conference room measuring 60m by 35m and the main W8LM hangs consisted of 11 enclosures per side, working around two giant video screens and reinforced by 20 x W3's.
Meanwhile, a separate hall was set for a gala dinner for 2,500 people. The 20m-wide central stage became the dance-floor following the awards presentations, and while four hangs of six W8LM and a W8LMD (Down-fill) and two hangs of five W8LM (and W8LMD Down-fill) provided the main system, four separate hangs of two Martin Audio W8C's fired in to create the dance-floor system later on.
Entertainment was provided by Cirque Bijou. "As this involved an aerial act performing above the stage we needed to keep the PA as compact as possible while at the same time being able to fill the whole hall," saysReinhold. "The W8LM worked perfectly in both senses."
(Chris Henry)
