Martin Audio MLA Compact for Outside Live
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Sound designer Jason Fenn deployed a full Martin Audio system for the event, preferring a combination of MLA Compact cells with MLX subs in cardioid format. He says: “The concerts were sold as a ‘picnic’ style event so we knew we had to have even SPL from the front row to the very back. On top of that, the event site was very close to a neighbouring village so keeping our off-site noise to a minimum was essential.
“The other deciding factor for choosing Martin Audio MLA was the superb audio quality and sonic excellence that the system delivers.” Additional Martin Audio DD12s were deployed for in-fill and centre-fill duties, with the entire system managed by Martin Audio’s dedicated Merlin control rack.
Jason reports that their clients from Outside Live were “over the moon with the audio quality from the moment we turned on the system.” He adds, “Our ability to move the audio coverage meant during sound checks we could really contain the offsite audio spill and then open the array back up to cover the whole site for the show.”
Event Sound and Light’s front of house engineer for the weekend was Tristan Mallet, who remarked, “I’ve had numerous experiences with MLA and never had a bad one yet. ESL are masters of patch and thanks to MLA we had a seamless operation all weekend.”
With a multitude of guest engineers and 120 mics to comply with the 60-piece Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra’s requests, ESL’s system tech Mark Wass had his hands full. However due to Event Sound & Light’s on-going investment in infrastructure in he was able to create a versatile system that could accommodate the variety of acts turning up throughout the weekend. The crew was complemented by Dave Bland on the house monitor board and Richard Coombes providing the never easy task of patch.
(Jim Evans)
