Entec has supplied audio to TCT at Albert Hall since it started 12 years ago, and for the last four years, the system has been designed and overseen by Liam Halpin for the west London based rental company. Entec has used d&b on TCT for all 12 years, ever since it became their first-choice rental brand.
The RAH event involves installing a high quality and very flexible audio system - to deal with a vast array of musical styles and genres - this year from Paul McCartney to Florence + The Machine, plus a raft of top comedians - into one of the most acoustically demanding spaces for amplified performance, to ensure that all the 5000 plus capacity audiences experience great sonic pleasure.
This year, they supplied a Midas Pro9 console for FOH. This was run with a DL431 mic splitter as the main active split to an additional I/O rack, which was used to facilitate additional elements like Florence + The Machine's live webcast, sent via a Klark Teknik DN9650 format converter direct to their incoming webcast console.
These splits also fed into the dual redundant Pro Tools systems used to multi-track record each night's show. The Pro Tools suites were a collaboration between Entec and FX Rentals.
A DiGiCo SD7 console was supplied by Entec for the house monitor system.
Two artists brought in their own control consoles, but for everyone else using the 'house' system, Entec also provided a variety of specified outboards including a selection of valve compressors & pre-amps, BSS 901s dynamic equalisers, TC M6000 & D2 effects.
The main PA speaker hang comprised 14 x d&b J8s per side, with a centre cluster of six J-Subs, a model that has worked very successfully for the last five years. Hanging the subs in this position provides low even coverage very nicely around the venue. There were also four B2-Subs under the fore-stage.
The side-hangs this year were six of the new V8s (left and right), with a pair of V12s flown at the top of each hang to spread the sound image smoothly across and around the circle.
A wide selection of in-fills and out-fills are utilised, Q7s & Q10s for shooting into the choir stalls with Q7s, Q10s, Q-Subs & E6s which were used for front fills in the stalls area and covering the first tier of seating.
The whole system was powered by d&b's proprietary D12 amps, and the time alignment was calculated in advance using d&b's ArrayCalc software.
For monitors, the Entec house system provided d&b M2 wedges and C7 side-fills, together with a comprehensive mics-and-stands package.
Entec's sound dept manager, Dick Hayes, comments, "We were very pleased with the performance of the V-Series and its seamless integration with the J-Series. We received loads of positive feedback about the sound generally from artists & their engineers & it is always an honour to be involved in such a worthwhile cause."
Other crew on the job were Matt Butcher who oversaw all things FOH and also mixed Pulp the Saturday night headliners and one of his regular clients. Mark 'Magic' Ellis-Cope masterminded monitor world keeping all visiting engineers happy, while James Kerridge and Adam 'Shabby' Draper made it a smooth operation on stage. Entec's new technical manager Ed Hammond was the sixth member of the team.
(Jim Evans)
