Rental company XCPH took care of most of the technical aspects of the tour and provided an RCF audio system for the second year in a row. Several HDL20-A had been used to cover a crowd of over 8000 people in 2015; however, this year Vibration anticipated higher attendance, therefore XCPH suggested the use of HDL50-A, the latest addition to the D Line.
The HDL50-A is an active three-way line array module with a built-in 2200W RMS digital amplifier, with 2x12'' woofers, four symmetrical 6.5'' midranges and two 2'' drivers. For all five dates of the tour, the system comprised 8 + 8 HDL50-A cabinets (as a main PA), plus several HDL20-A as out-fill.
Eight SUB9007-AS subwoofers in endfire configuration provided reinforcement of the low frequencies. The SUB 9007-AS active high power subwoofer is powered by a 7200 W digital amplifier, and has been conceived as the perfect companion for the HDL50-A and HDL20-A line arrays. It is one of the most powerful 2x21'' subwoofers in the field of live sound.
Before the first date in the city of Tours, the XCPH team had received a specialised two-day training session from the RCF staff, who demonstrated how to make the best use of the HDL50-A system. Everything was managed with the RCF proprietary RDNet networking board and the recently released CR 16-ND control rack, designed to handle the HDL50-A line array.
Nicolas Fournier, XCPH's sound manager, stated, "We really appreciated this all-inclusive system with its easy wiring solution. The rack is very useful in live situations, with the whole power supply contained in one box. The configurable mechanics with 0.2° minimum angle is very convenient. Thanks to the advanced mechanics, the set-up of the angles can be made before rigging, when the modules are still in their cart, thus reducing assembly times - it is extremely practical.
"Furthermore, thanks to the support of the RCF team we learned a lot about the wide range of possibilities provided by RDNet." The CR 16-ND control rack with built-in DX 1616 matrix audio processor was also used to manage the processing, EQ and delay of the HDL20-A outfill cabinets.
The Vibration Tour was attended by a total of over 50,000 people, with a crowd of 22,000 for the last date of the tour in Orléans featuring Fréro Delavega. "We were very impressed by the system, that provided high performance with only a few cabinets and kept the intelligibility constant even at 65 metres from stage!" adds Fournier. "The HDL50-A is very cost effective among large-format line arrays and will be our target investment in 2017."
(Jim Evans)
