Nick Chubb of Show Hire purchased a number of Electro-Voice Zx100T loudspeakers and PA2400T amplifiers from Shuttlesound, after a successful test-drive of the equipment at the Badminton Horse Trials earlier in the year. At Burghley, the new 100V line compact cabinets were mounted on poles around the large arena, where the dressage and show-jumping elements of the three-day eventing competition are staged, along with demonstrations, workshops and prize-giving ceremonies.
"Everything we do at Burghley is temporary," explains Nick Chubb. "We can't even concrete a pole into the ground. This is a total greenfield site, and all the cables we use here will have to be taken up at the end of the event."
The very nature of a greenfield site creates lots of possibilities for error. "We spend a big chunk of our time saving our equipment from other people," says Chubb. "When it came to choosing loudspeakers for such work, we had to consider how robust they were. These are all-weather conditions; the rain gets into equipment, the winds drive at the speakers. When it's sunny and hot, we get the opposite problems, but the Zx cabinets have proved themselves to be up to the job."
(Jim Evans)