Yasha Morgenstern, deputy production manager of Glastonbury Festival, commented, "We asked RG Jones to provide a redesigned arena system for the Pyramid Stage, to give better coverage and less overspill in that notoriously difficult arena. We are more than pleased with the result, with many reports of improved arena sound this year. Control, monitors and stage ran faultlessly, and visiting artists' systems were dealt with smoothly. Overall a first-class job."
Among the Pyramid Stage lacts that made this weekend their own were Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Blur, Lily Allen, The Specials, Madness, Dizzee Rascal, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Kasabian, Tom Jones and Fleet Foxes.
RG Jones returned with an advanced version of the Pyramid Stage PA design created last year in conjunction with Martin Audio's Jason Baird and Jim Cousins - both of whom joined the system design team again this year, along with Chris Ekers.
The main PA consisted of two 16-deep hangs per side of Synco by Martin Audio Longbow line array, powered by Synco drive racks and aligned via XTA AudioCore software. Coverage was extended to the rear of the huge bowl by a broad line of four 16-deep hangs of Martin Audio W8LC compact cabinets.
A new cardioid sub-bass array, arranged along the width of the stage front, also played a huge part in directing audio energy into the audience, while eliminating sound interaction between the Pyramid, Other and Jazz World Stages.
It comprised 35 Synco WS318X triple 18" sub-bass cabinets, with one rear-facing cabinet placed, out of phase and precisely delayed, between every pair of forward-facing cabinets. The design allowed the array to self-cancel rearwards bass spill, making both the stage itself and the backstage areas free of unwanted sub-bass. The horizontal directivity of the sub array was also adjusted to match the shape of the field, using computer-modelled time delay techniques.
Says Chris Ekers: "The combination of the line arrays with a cardioid sub array produced excellent directivity and propagation into the audience areas, often leaving some on stage to wonder if the PA was on! The addition of a fourth delay position this year provided near seamless horizontal coverage across the wider part of the field beyond 100m and up the hill to the boundary 250m from stage. Each hang was zoned so that the upper array sections were independently adjustable, helping reduce noise levels in the village of Pilton 1100m from stage."
Working closely with the noise monitoring teams, Ekers added, "When we breached our limit at the measurement boundaries and were asked to reduce levels, I was able to make small level changes to the system without affecting the engineers mixing at FOH or the enjoyment of the majority of the audience; it worked well."
FOH control comprised a pair of Midas XL4 consoles, with a Heritage 1000 as the central signal matrix serving the main system drive racks. The team opted for an all-analogue set-up at FOH this year as the XL4 had turned out, in pre-production discussions between RG Jones audio production manager and FOH engineer Steve Carr and this year's bands' engineers, to be the majority's preferred choice. System EQ was achieved using XTA digital EQ with a wireless tablet and Klark Teknik DN360 for grab EQ. Working alongside Steve Carr were Diarmuid McLennan and system engineer Chris Ekers, while Ampco's Remco Ver
