Via Capital Sound Hire she sourced an inventory of Martin Audio's sleek LE1500 wedge monitors and W8LM Mini Line Array elements for side fills - emulating the set-up she had first seen Rod Matheson deploy, when she was teching for him on Kylie Minogue's 2008 tour. "He decided to deploy the LMs in an unusual way and it worked really well," she said.
The rationale once gain was simple. With Sarah and her four-piece band on in-ears, and with most of the inputs DI'd, she wanted to create an enveloping stage 'feel' in unobtrusive fashion, to preserve the overall look of the show.
"Sarah had previously used flown side-fills, but I've never been a fan of them for several reasons," says Pell. "Firstly you need to fly them pretty high in order to maintain sightlines and therefore need to drive them harder - this adds to the general noise level and creates more stage coverage than is necessary. On top of that they can be a damn nuisance to rig.
"But my main reason this time was knowing that we couldn't carry them worldwide because of the extra weight, whereas sourcing them locally really messes with consistency. It's vital for monitors that the artiste gets what they're used to every day and it is my job to minimise any disruption, so that they can forget about sound and get on with giving their best performance."
The four W8LMs came to the rescue. "They are small and yet offer a surprising amount of headroom - you get a lot of bang for your buck!" says the monitor engineer.
(Jim Evans)
