UK - The concrete is dry, the first crowds have walked the terraces, and just after Easter it was time to test the sound. "When we were approached to test the house sound facilities at the new Wembley Stadium in conjunction with a concert system set-up, we were of course delighted," said Mike Lowe of Britannia Row Productions Ltd. "We expect to be servicing many shows here over the coming months and years, so the opportunity to be the first to get a real feel for the building was not to be missed."

Over three days (11-13 April) Britannia Row crews rigged the stadium for 'end on' and 'side on' concert configurations. "We rigged an EV Xline system off 15 metre SmarTmasts from Summit Steel as for a main stage system, and then added Outline Butterfly delays off 11 metre masts out in the field. The system was then linked into the house EAW installed system and we spent a great deal of time walking up and down the three levels of the grandstands listening, measuring, and tweaking."

In attendance for the Stadium were Joe O'Herlighy and Steve Jones of Vanguardia, and Mick Williams and Laurence Dunnett on behalf of Honeywell (responsible for the house system installation) and the system designer, James Hurst. "Besides myself, Bryan Grant and Roly Oliver, we also brought in several regular Britannia Row top system techs," added Lowe.

That's a muscular team of audio experts. "Absolutely: from our point of view it was an incredibly worthwhile exercise," concluded Lowe, "we wanted to expose as many of our top system guys to the environment as possible. We now know what to expect, and are confident in our approach to system design for the venue in either configuration."

(Lee Baldock)


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