Martin MLA marks five years at Hyde Park
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A site which was historically thought to be unworkable because of the way punitive offsite sound thresholds had impacted on sound levels in the bowl, has now been transformed. This is due to the expertise of Capital Sound, and a combination of Martin Audio’s flagship MLA PA and the constantly evolving DISPLAY optimisation software.
States Capital operations & development director, Paul Timmins, “Jim expects to see constant improvements in the service technology and that every component deployed is state of the art. AEG realise that MLA will remain the best tool for the job largely because the software updates are so fast moving - meaning that year on year we can continue to move the festival forward.”
To that end, Capital has this year implemented some significant changes on the main Great Oak Stage.
The rental company has introduced 24 of the new XE500 floor monitors, which saw their debut at last month’s Glastonbury Festival (with RG Jones). These feature unique Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology with a patent pending third static waveguide. This is designed to deliver perfect monitor sound at very high SPL output with a defined coverage pattern that allows the artist freedom of movement, while reducing overlap with adjacent monitors.
Driven by Martin Audio’s new iKON iK42 advanced 4-channel power amplifier, combining very high power density with superb audio performance, state-of-the-art DSP and network control, the XE monitors have already been used by bands performing at the event, including Blondie and Starsailor, confirms Timmins. They will also be used by The Killers. “We saw these monitors at the development stage - they are slightly smaller and lighter than their predecessors, and the indications are positive.”
Capital has replaced conventional W8LM Mini Line Array front-fills with 12 MLA Compact - so that all MLA components can now run on the same network.
Elsewhere, they have replaced old Martin Audio W2 technology in the VIP Pavilion with 14 x Martin Audio XD12’s in landscape mode to make the coverage pattern more uniform (without the need to rotate the 80° x 50° horn).
Another key change this year has been the new optimisations created by the event’s long-serving system tech, Toby Donovan, to keep the sound contained independently within the Great Oak and Barclaycard stages. Because the venue now gets a lot midweek usage, as far as sound pollution goes the site is heavily regulated and no audible offsite sound is permitted. This is particularly challenging when the crowds are so much smaller and it required some clever optimisations by the system tech with the field delays to pull the sound in. Donovan praised the additional lower frequency control of the new DISPLAY 2.2 software, using it on a grand scale for the first time.
(Jim Evans)
