This is an impressive debut for a new stadium sound system and a reflection of the confidence of 'early adopters' like SSE Hire (UK), Melpommen (France), DPA SoundCo (Denmark) and Show Company (Singapore) that they have put GEO T directly into high-profile live situations such as the Glastonbury Festival.
In the UK, the season of large summer festivals has been dominated by SSE Hire and the GEO T system. Over two consecutive weekends in August, the SSE team services four music events, the Virgin-sponsored V2003 held in Weston Park (north England) and Chelmsford (south-east England), immediately followed by the Carling-sponsored matching pair of festivals held in Leeds and Reading.
In the space of one week, the bands playing through GEO T included Metallica, R.E.M., Coldplay, Blur, David Gray, Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Flaming Lips, Supergrass, Blink 182, System of a Down, Doves, Beck, PJ Harvey and The Coral. This represents a number of different engineers using the GEO T system, probably for the first time. "The reaction has been really positive," says John Penn from SSE. "Blur's engineer, Matt Butcher, told me he thought the system was fantastic, and that he really enjoyed himself at the Carling events. He had bags of headroom, and said that every time he turned a knob, he could hear the details of what he was doing. Most of the engineers who are new to the GEO T just can't believe how small the PA is."
The two Carling events, which run simultaneously in Leeds and Reading, are typical of the SSE GEO T festival package. With left and right PA wings housing 24 T4805s and 2 T2815s, with 12 CD18 subs, each side, virtually the only variance is the delay system. At Leeds Festival, there were 2 GEO S hangs behind the FOH tower, each with eight S830s, and further back in the field, two SSE teepee towers, each with nine Alpha M3 cabinets.
"Over the last 10 years, we've been refining systems that will give us the highest SPLs concentrated in the music arena without spraying it around the fields," explains John Penn. "At every festival, our job is to design a system which will give us maximum rock 'n' roll and make the bands happy, while taking into account the licensing requirements and conforming to the promoters' brief. We've achieved that this summer with GEO T, at Glastonbury and the other festivals; the promoters are happy, the bands are happy and I believe the paying public is happy."
One of the world's loudest bands Metallica, headlining at the Carling Festival events, has also been doing its own select shows in Europe using the Nexo GEO T system. FOH engineer 'Big' Mick Hughes is increasingly impressed with the GEO T, declaring the band's final shows at Leeds and Reading to be "the best I've heard the system sound."
Hughes, who is legendary for his love of a sub-bass cabinet, topped up the systems with an additional eight CD18s from his own supply. GEO is not just a festival system, enjoying great critical success on current US tours with Tori Amos and David Gray. FOH engineer for Tori is Mark Hawley, who reports: "Usually, by this stage in the tour, I'll be suffering from some listening fatigue with the PA. But, with GEO, every night when I light up the system, I just think 'that's great'."
(Lee Baldock)
