The idea of covering 5,000 people with the same system would normally be laughable. How about covering 50,000 people with one mid/hi per side? Impossible? Not quite.
Essex based Maple Pro Audio were tasked with providing sound and staging for a march to mark the first anniversary of the Peoples' Assembly being established. The march ended up in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament and featured speeches by comedians Russell Brand and Mark Steel, MP Caroline Lucas and journalist Owen Jones as well as live performances.
The initial brief suggested that the event would gather up to 5,000 people and Front of House engineer Glyn Morgan watched with slight concern as the numbers grew to ten times that figure.
Glyn needn't have worried however as Maple Pro Audio's ground stacked ES System continued to cover the 50,000 attendees with the required level and definition - even more impressive owing to the fact the system was not flown.
Commenting on his experience Glyn offered the following: "We chose the ES System for both its great vocal intelligibility and it's speed of set-up. The event was a political rally and getting the message across from the speakers was paramount.
"We only had a few hours to set-up the full production leaving very little time for system EQ'ing and sound tests. The nice thing about the ES Systems is that they sound great with the EQ running flat. I was a little concerned when the numbers kept growing but the system handled it fine with only small drop offs behind a few of the large protest banners - which would affect any system."
(Jim Evans)
