EM promenades at Pontefract with Halo-A
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Local full-service production company, Sound & Light UK, put an EM Acoustics HALO-A large format line array system through its paces for the first time on a live outdoor event.
SLUK has been looking after the event since 2015 with an active system that required covered PA towers to protect the internal electronics. The client was extremely nervous about changing the system which, according to SLUK’s Chris Bottomley, had always done the job well enough, but as he pointed out, the opportunity to put HALO-A on the event was too good to miss.
“Ian Downes [programmes and events officer, Pontefract Castle] was very uneasy about changing anything. I had to use all my powers of persuasion to let us try out HALO-A, and he’s now very glad we did.”
The West Yorkshire Symphony is a 60-piece orchestra. The brief was to individually mic each instrument which resulted in 96 channels of audio and provide sound reinforcement capable of covering quite a large area - 50m wide by 80m deep with the FOH position at 60m down the the field. SLUK provided four HALO-A cabinets per side flown from traditional truss PA towers supplemented by two MSE-218 subs on the ground.
“The sheer power delivered by HALO-A was incredible,” says Bottomley. “Even when the tops are just ticking over, it’s such a big sound. It’s clean, it’s fast, it’s accurate and the amount of information and detail is unbelievable, as is the amount of headroom in the HF. Compared to our previous system, it was like night and day.”
(Jim Evans)
