The south London-based company, the UK member of the Synco Europe Network, was lead contractor for the audio production. On the busiest weekend of the European festival calendar, with over a million watts of Synco by Martin Audio line array hardware deployed by Synco Network members at festival stages across northern Europe, RG Jones brought in London neighbours Capital Sound to supply the left and right PA hangs, and co-designed a cardioid sub-bass array with a Martin Audio team headed by Jason Baird.
RG Jones audio production manager and FOH engineer Steve Carr ran the crew on-site, with his 'wingman' Damion Dyer and system tech Mark Edwards, assisted by Richard Wonnacott. The stage crew was headed by Mark Isbister working alongside Alastair Viles, George Hogan, Steve Watson, Matt Sussex and Laura Yensen.
A total of 64 Martin Audio W8L Longbow cabinets were flown in 16-deep dual inner and outer main PA hangs per side, with a further 64 W8LCs flown in four delay positions, all timed using SMAART. Loudspeaker control was achieved via a rack of five XTA DP448 digital controllers, with Klark Teknik DN360 for engineers' 'grab' EQ. Very similar in configuration to last year, a few cabinet angles were changed slightly to improve coverage and control.
The sub-bass array has been refined over the past two years, in conjunction with noise monitoring specialists RPS Planning & Development, to satisfy the complex requirements of providing full-on audience enjoyment while containing the sound in the Pyramid Stage arena, which holds up to around 100,000 people and is just 1100 metres from the village of Pilton.
54 Martin Audio WS218X subwoofers, powered by Crown Macrotech 12000s, were configured in a cardioid array, with its output electronically curved to cover the full width of the field, achieving impressive sub volumes and very even coverage to 120m out in the arena.
Jason Baird, Martin Audio's R&D Director, has been involved with the Pyramid Stage system design since 2008 and comments that "this year's design picks the best aspects of 2008 and 2009 to make 2010". He adds: "The cardioid sub array is doing two things, the main one being the broadside array: by delaying the subs incrementally from the centre outwards you can bend the overall wavefront, so it's actually tuned to fit the shape of the Pyramid Stage field. And then a third of the subs face backwards in a cardioid configuration to kill the broadside array's output on the stage itself."
As in the previous three years the FOH mix area was a feast of technology - but with a key difference. After 2008 when the majority choice of visiting engineers was an all-digital mix solution, and 2009 when the vote was for mostly analogue, 2010's FOH production saw both technologies deployed.
"We were pretty full out front," comments Steve Carr. "We had our 'house' desk system of two Midas XL4s and two Digidesign Profiles and a PM5D - plus Shakira's team brought in a PM5000, while Muse had their own Midas XL4 with seven racks of outboard kit, all of which was put to very good use."
Synco dual concentric 15" wedge monitors formed the generic 'house' stage monitor system, along with L-Acoustics ARCS sidefills and Synco STS drum-fill. The RG Jones stage and FOH patch setup, which includes the team's well-proven (and crucial) stage-to-FOH 'shout' (talkback) system based on a Yamaha LS9, was configured to readily accommodate headline bands' own touring desks and racks where required.
Steve Watson and George Hogan were in charge of monitor world, and Watson reiterates that 'analogue all the way' was the preferred solution, and that this year side-fills were flown, an improvement both sonically and in terms of sightlines. He adds:
