With bands ranging from Oasis, Kasabian, Franz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol at the commercial end to acoustic performers like Newton Faulkner, quirky performance artists with wide dynamic ranges (like Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan), leavened with some good old fashioned hard house and R&B, it added up to something of a Molotov cocktail for iTunes production manager Stuart Turvill, system tech Dave Roden - and the Martin Audio W8LM Mini line array system.
Stuart Turvill has chaperoned the event's steady growth from the ICA through nearby Koko (last year) and now to the Roundhouse, where he designed the audio infrastructure for the televised event, in collaboration with Martin Audio's Jim Cousins and Andy Pardoe, and consultant Nick Foots.
He was fortunate to have Dave Roden, the Stereophonics' FOH engineer for 14 years, as his system tech, since he has worked with the full line array family on a succession of Stereos tours. "We have only generally used the Minis as side-hangs on tour," he admits. "This is the first time I have mixed through them as a main system, and I must say they are really versatile, and a miracle for the size of the box."
As for the speakers, there are 10 W8LM per side and a W8LMD down-fill, flown either side of the stage, and a further six LMs (plus an LMD) rigged each side for out-fills. Bass hangs consist of six WMX per side, hung equidistant behind the inner/outer arrays, and a further eight WS218Xs under the stage apron. The WMX's have been designed to deliver mid bass and thump straight to the chest while the 218s provide the low bass rumble.
Jim Cousins says there is another advantage in this approach: "The reason for flying the mid-bass subs was to tame the room a bit because it gets them off stage and away from the focal point, whereas the subs under the stage are working at lower frequencies."
Down at the stage there are 14 Martin Audio LE1500 floor monitors (as there were last year) with Martin Audio W3s for in-fill and W2s on the VIP area. Providing drum-fills are Martin Audio W2/W3, with Blackline S18 subs.
Monitor engineer Will King added, "The LE1500s are pretty awesome - some of the best wedge monitors I have heard. Everyone has commented on how good they sound - though I like to think some of that is down to me."
The FOH system was set up using Display, Martin Audio's predictive software, processed by XTA DP226s in the rack and two XTA 448s at FOH, running AudioCore.
As every show is recorded (and will be televised on ITV2 - with highlights on ITV1) stage equipment needs to be discreet and sightlines unobscured, and hence the hangs are set wide and trimmed high. "Everything is dictated by the iTunes set design," says Stuart Turvill. "But it's an easier place to work here than Koko and has a bigger stage."
The production manager has masterminded all the recording (using an option of Pro Tools HD rig, 72-input Logic system and Alesis HD24 multitrack recorders). He has also set up side screens for the first time, using two Barco 6mm side screens, Element Labs Stealth at the rear with the content fired off a Green Hippo Hippotizer by video specialist, Neil Trenell. Lighting has been done largely in house, with support from PRG under Jon Cadbury.
(Jim Evans)
