The first Festival Supplier Awards took place at Newbury Racecourse on 22nd October 2014, an event billed as "a dedicated awards evening to highlight the creativity and innovation that festival suppliers deliver on every occasion."
During 2013 SSE Audio Group supplied audio systems to 30 major festivals ranging from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival to Download at Donington. SSE supplied a further 15 major festivals up to the end of July 2014 (the period covered by the awards).
As part of the awards submission, SSE focused particularly on their work at the Calling Festival, which moved to Clapham Common for the first time in 2014. Sited in the middle of residential South London the event was subject to extremely strict off-site noise limits which many in the industry thought impossible to achieve. After the original audio supplier pulled out, SSE were tasked with designing a system using LAcoustics K1 which could meet the licence conditions while delivering the SPL levels and quality required for the festival's audience.
Throughout the weekend there were no off site noise issues while at FOH the L-Acoustics system received acclaim from engineers such as Danny Leake (Stevie Wonder), Scott Ragsdale (Joe Bonamassa), Huw Richards (Paloma Faith) and Mark Woodcock (Richie Sambora).John Probyn, Chief Operating Officer at Live Nation and Promoter of the Calling Festival paid tribute to SSE's contribution: "SSE has been a trusted audio supplier to Live Nation for many years. When other companies were doubtful they could deliver a solution within the noise limits required for Clapham Common, we contacted SSE, set them the problem and they came up trumps. SSE's team were confident they could design an audio solution that would deliver the festival sound at the quality and level demanded on-site, without compromising the off-site limits and that's precisely what they delivered."
The 2014 Best Sound Award is testimony to the success of SSE's audio system design and the skill and dedication of all the SSE Teams involved in delivering throughout the festival season. SSE Hire Director Yan Stile was at the event to pick up the award, "It was a great night tonight at the inaugural festival supplier awards, winning the Best Sound category. Well done to all the team at SSE - I picked this up for you. I'll keep the champers?"
Senior Project Manager Miles Hillyard added, "It's great to see SSE get recognition for this. To all the crew, both permanent and freelance, thank you for all your hard work throughout the summer."
