Hosted by Sir Terry Wogan, the open-air concert featured a multitude of musical stars, including Proms in the Park favourites the BBC Concert Orchestra, under the baton of Richard Balcombe, and special guests Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo, soprano Pumeza Matshikiza, Rufus Wainwright and Earth, Wind & Fire.
With such a diverse line up and so many fast changes between band to orchestra to single voice announcement plus playback to deal with, System engineer, Toby Donovan explains Capital Sound's choice of PA System: "Martin Audio MLA was the best solution for this event as there is a lot going on throughout and we are governed by very strict noise levels beyond the perimeter of the site. We used a similar system earlier in the year during the Barclaycard British Summertime Festivals and it worked really well. One of the key features of Martin Audio's MLA is that you can fine-tune the SPL profile across the whole site, whether it be an arena or an open-air festival. This means we can keep the SPL high in the audience areas, but we can keep noise pollution low beyond the barrier."
In addition MLA enables the system tech to achieve an extremely smooth transition between main PA hang and delays across the site from the barrier at the front of the stage to the rear, as Donovan discusses: "On this site we have a diverse audience both in taste and age range. Some like to sit up at the back, bring picnics and relax, while others like to dance down at the front. We have purposely incorporated a drop off across the site so if people want to find a quieter spot they can, however at the same time we want the output to be intelligible so that no one feels too far away from what's happening."
Working alongside Donovan was Capital's crew chief Andy May, perhaps better recognised for being Status Quo's FOH man: "The site is very long but we're also in the centre of London so ensuring noise levels are low beyond the boundary is a big focus for us. MLA is the ideal system for this as it can be programmed to put a virtual canopy on the sound and send it to ground at a specified distance. Capital Sound has done a number of propagation tests with the authorities here now and they now know exactly what they want."
Taking care of visiting artists' FOH engineers for Capital was Dave Roden, more usually found at FOH for the Stereophonics: "I am often sceptical when new products come out but the first time I heard MLA I was pleasantly surprised. I walked with my back to the PA away from the stage and it felt like the PA was coming with me - it just didn't get any quieter."
(Jim Evans)
