Sound designer Derrick Zieba found himself back in The Mall, where he scored memorable success with the Queen's Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace. "The X-Line arrays were suspended from 10m smart masts, erected in terrible weather with high gusting winds as the guys tried to hang half a ton of PA," says Zieba. At the stage, which was laid across The Mall with audience on three sides, Brit Row provided an EV XLC system of 32 cabinets, with 16 subs. This handled a nearfield 'ring' of some 30m, which housed the VIPs and invited audience.
The PA system was divided into numerous zones. EV's powerful management software, IRIS, was used in conjunction with BSS Soundweb to manage the distribution of signals to the various zones. EV's Precision Series remote-controlled amplifiers, which were powering all the systems on the day, were programmed with all the parameters for the enclosures, and the IRIS software also allowed real-time monitoring of every driver and amplifier via IRIA's CAN bus network. The excessive distance from the main stage meant that the amplifiers for the delay towers had to be omitted from the network, and so these were pre-programmed at Britannia Row's warehouse, and fine adjustments were made on-site by a temporary connection to a laptop during system set-up.
"At 30m out, we had the first of our 14 delay towers which went all the way down The Mall at 138m intervals," said Zieba. "In total, there were nearly 500m of delay separation, and the way that we arrayed the line arrays on the towers was designed to achieve this projection, which is right on the limit of what you can do with a line array. The sound had to carry from the stage through trees and flags, and, on the day, our worst nightmare, wet trees and flags!"
56 X-Line Xvls and 28 X-Line Xvlt cabinets were used, with 28 X-Line subs, on the delay towers. "The X-Line systems worked so well. Despite the various restrictions placed on us by Westminster Council's licensing officials, keeping us to 90dB, the sound at the very furthest point from the stage still exceeded audience expectations. EV's Xvls cabinets do have a longer projection than many other boxes, so I was happier in this instance using X-Line than any other system. It lends itself to that last 50m push in a way that other systems don't."
Britannia Row's system also featured four DiGiCo digital consoles, two at either end of the multicore. For the first time ever, the BBC accepted digital MADI signals from a third-party supplier. According to Zieba, the collaboration worked brilliantly. Front-of-house duties were eased by the format, originally proposed for the Queen's Jubilee concert, which provided a house band and orchestra to perform with each artist.
(Lee Baldock)
