Martin Audio WPC delivers for Sam Fender
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“We have been evaluating systems for six or seven months,” explained Nub Sound system tech Josh Small. “We needed to step up to a bigger, eco-system that is also rider friendly and offers ease of rigging. It has to be sufficiently flexible to work in a number of ways, be tourable, perfect for festival use and above all, it has to be a complete system.”
When Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision Compact (WPC) was fired up recently for a Sam Fender gig at Plymouth Pavilion, a venue he describes as “a nightmare” and “notoriously challenging”, the system ticked every box.
The company, run by directors Adrian Sunderland and Rob Simpson, was already familiar with Martin Audio’s signature sound, having run LE1500 wedges in their hire fleet and also installed CDDs over the years. For the company, with facilities in Plymouth and Cornwall, is a versatile operation specialising in rental, sales and installation. While the former division is headed by Simpson, his partner oversees the installation business.
For the Fender gig, Martin Audio provided valuable onsite technical support in the shape of Simon Purse, as Josh Small explains. “Simon spent a morning showing us DISPLAY and VU-NET and then Ben Tucker did the application support, assisting with the set-up.
“As a result,” he says, “we were able to make the system sound great. It overcame a lot of the inherent problems of the venue and [Sam Fender’s] sound engineer Matt Walch was extremely happy.”
Tucker took care of the optimisations with the WPC run in two-Box resolution (powered by iKon iK42 amplifiers). The design comprised 12 WPC per side for the 4,000-capacity sold-out show, and Rob Simpson himself mixed support band Brooke Bentham.
The top boxes were run in conjunction with 12 SHX218 in a cardioid arced array for coverage in the width. Eight WPM were deployed as front-fill and eight ground-stacked for out-fill.
In conclusion, Josh Small appraised that “the system sounded one of the most natural I’d ever heard - unprocessed and open. It doesn’t sound digital at all.”
(Jim Evans)
