SOUNDING OUT IN HYDE PARK

Transcription

1 SOUNDING OUT IN HYDE PARK IN THE SUMMER OF 2012 THE ONE WORD TRIPPING OFF MOST LONDONERS TONGUES WAS LEGACY. WHILE GREAT THINGS WERE TAKING PLACE EAST OF THE CITY (FOR THE LONDON OLYMPICS), OVER IN THE WEST END, HYDE PARK WAS SUFFERING THE COMBINED PROBLEMS OF RESTRICTIVE SOUND LEVELS, ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE POLLUTION AND CURFEW INFRINGEMENT DURING ITS CONCERT SEASON. TPi HIT HYDE PARK ONE YEAR ON TO HEAR ABOUT THE LATEST SONIC DEVELOPMENTS... This original problem resulted in artists being frustrated, audiences not being able to hear properly and local residents still complaining in their droves, leading to a curtailed programme of just six events being licensed by Westminster Council for Therefore, when AEG Live was awarded the five-year contract and took over the tenancy to promote the recent Barclaycard British Summer Time festival over 10 days, they needed to mount a PR offensive as well as a major rebuilding exercise. As Jim King, AEG Live Event Director, admitted, We had a number of hurdles to reestablish confidence with the artistic community as well as ticket buyers. The previous operation had left a poor legacy and negative PR. But anyone saying that Hyde Park was not fit for purpose and that bands didn t want to play there had it completely wrong. In fact both customer satisfaction and band satisfaction reinforced this, as technical teams for headline bands like the Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi were soon to prove. Critical to solving these issues was the deployment of the new award-winning Martin Audio MLA Multi-cellular system while another factor in enabling production to gain an additional 6dB at the sound desk was the reorientation of the Hyde Park stage by around 30 from north facing to north-west (directing it away from Park Lane). So while all eyes (and ears) were focused on both onsite and offsite thresholds, the fact that there was no repeat of the problems which had blighted previous years was largely due to fastidious management and sound preparation. King explained, We wanted to manage the whole process dynamically without having to turn [volume levels] down. We needed to set a system in place that would deal with the issues. The process towards achieving this had actually begun a few summers earlier at Victoria Park in Hackney, when Capital Sound first trialled the nascent MLA system. It was here that Loud Sound, production and site managers for AEG Live received categorical proof of MLA s wizardry - first in 2010 at the LED (London Electronic Dance) Festival and the following year at the back-to-back Underage, Field Day and Apple Cart festivals. Complaints about sound leakage and environmental noise suddenly ceased while the production company also managed to achieve higher levels at the mixing console - a point noted by Jim King, who also happens to run Loud Sound. Capital Sound s bid for the Hyde Park contract was based on the same scientific proof that the Multi-cellular Array principle had exhibited in Hackney - but first they had to set up a real-world simulation (rather than visualisations in the software world). 22

2 Opposite: When AEG Live took over the tenancy to promote the Barclaycard British Summer Time Festival at Hyde Park, the company needed to mount a major rebuilding exercise. Below: Critical to solving any audio issues was the deployment of the new award-winning Martin Audio MLA Multi-cellular system. The test track selected for both the promoters and acoustics consultants Vanguardia Ltd - who were brought in to carry out measurement and analysis - was the snowbound Hatfield House stately home in Herts. This picturesque location had been chosen because of its similarities in shape, size and contouring to the Hyde Park site, and it was here that evaluation took place against other systems. Vanguardia recorded near and far field measurements, and led by Martin Audio R&D director, Jason Baird, two different presets were assigned, which set coverage at 100 metres and then 50 metres. The measured SPL data over the site was then fed into Vanguardia s own environmental model before the system was given the thumbs-up. However, Vanguardia also believed that a lower offsite sound could be achieved than with a conventional system. It was left to Ian Colville, Capital Sound s Technical Manager, to turn predictions into actuality by designing a system and deploying their own MLA inventory. So how did the data stack up? Aware of MLA s advance level of control, he was confident of being able to maintain an offsite level beneath the stipulated 75dB(A) threshold, while being able to raise the levels by as much as 6dB from previous years to around 100dB(A) within the audience area. This ensured that the entire audience was united in the experience. The figures were verified by both Colville and Jim King himself. The latter confirmed that headline bands had played at an average of 99dB, a significant hike on the previous year. But another vital requirement was to get the average level up across the entire day - with the support bands as well as the headliners. These too averaged significantly higher and even with the bands playing at dB we were within 23

3 Below: Capital Sound believed it was crucial that fans positioned towards the perimeter could enjoy an identical sound experience to those at the front of the stage; The MLA system offers an advance level of control; The audio experience for fans attending gigs and festivals at Hyde Park has been revolutionised. our offsite limits, confirmed King. Sound levels therefore became a non-issue. Most played within that level - not because the engineers were restricted to it, but simply because that was the level they wanted to play at. Meanwhile Colville had nothing but praise for the MLA technology that allowed the site to be mapped and areas separately addressed and optimised for audience, non-audience and complete hard avoid zones. As a result, the coverage pattern could be programmed into the MLA software, placing the sound only where it was required. An increase of 6dB across the entire audience area whilst keeping below the stipulated off-site maximum level was a very significant improvement, he stated. MLA has enabled us to focus energy accurately and create a very even soundfield throughout the entire site. There were very few aspects of the system s performance that we did not have immediate access to, and direct control of. Aware that some of the offsite monitoring points had relocated this year, Martin Audio s research team had also provided support in achieving maximum rejection on non-audience regions - via hard-avoid caps at the far end of the coverage region - while using the importance balancing controls to keep the audience output consistent. The result was that fans positioned towards the perimeter were able to enjoy an identical sound experience to those at the front of the stage, noted Capital Sound General Manager, Paul Timmins. But walk five yards outside the 24

4 Below: Toby Donovan, System Engineer and MLA Technician. soundfield and it would vanish. Such a rapid loudness drop-off is a key feature of MLA. According to one sound engineer, who had earlier worked with the system, It is as if an invisible ring has been drawn around the site. It was this that will have impressed those monitoring the offsite sound at locations such as the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane. So how was the Hyde Park system conceived? Sculpted into the oak shrubbery of the concept stage s proscenium - the inspiration of set designers, MDM, working with Star Rigging - were left and right hangs of 16 MLA elements (with a single MLD Downfill box at the base). Outfills were provided by 12 MLA (and a single MLD each side), with eight pairs of the small footprint Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Arrays for front fills. The subwoofer cardioid broadside array - made up of 32 MLX subs - is now a tried and trusted electronic arc concept; with two forward facing enclosures for every backward facing one, this provided cancellation at the rear. The beauty of this design, said Colville, is that you can adjust the horizontal dispersion (asymmetrically if required) and the rear rejection electronically, without the need to physically move any of the elements. In addition there were 10 delay masts. The front two arcs of four MLA masts each contained seven elements and a single MLD. For the larger shows, two further delay towers at the back were enabled, made up of eight MLA Compact. Critical distances were 50 metres (from FOH to stage), while the delays were set at 90m (from the stage), 160 and 210 metres. Stated Jim King, Capital Sound absolutely delivered, right on the money. The sound coverage across the whole audience was fantastic and that was due to the position of the delay towers and the way they were configured. The way in which the sound was transported to the 65,000 or so fans situated in proximity of any of these 10 delay towers was via an expanded Optocore redundant fibre distribution system. Capital Sound deployed the Optocore system that it had previously purchased for the Take That Progress Live stadium tour, supplemented by a further six XR6-FX converters. Said Ian Colville, We realised some time ago that fibre was the only viable option for transporting signal and data over these distances. There are other systems available, but we believe that Optocore products are significantly more reliable and much easier to use than anything else on the market. The two redundant Optocore units at the FOH tower addressed nine delay towers, VIP stand and second FOH tower via the fibre network, carried on catenaries and delivering AES-EBU audio feeds. Connectivity to the Capital Sound absolutely delivered, right on the money. The sound coverage across the whole audience was fantastic and that was due to the position of the delay towers and the way they were configured. Martin Audio MLA VU Net control network, running the dedicated Merlin management system, was via an Ethernet tunnel - with RS485 data connection to XTA DP-226 processor ports located in the VIP stand and at the second FOH tower. Boosting the control at FOH were a pair of DiGiCo SD10 consoles; these were running through an SD9, which controlled all the media, and then into a distribution unit. Said Capital 26

5 Sound s Martin Connolly, We chose the SD10 s because they re high end desks, which sound fantastic. We have a great relationship with the guys at DiGiCo and they provided us with technical backup on setting up the desks and how we needed to run the show. A significant number of the bands opted to use the house consoles, including Chic and Lionel Richie, both regular DiGiCo users, whilst Bon Jovi s FOH engineer chose to bring in the band s own SD7. Coupled with other industry standard tools to meet band riders, including Shure and Sennheiser mics and IEMs, the result was a perfect example of how audio should be deployed and networked. In addition to system designers, Ian Colville and Martin Audio R&D Director, Jason Baird, Capital Sound s support team included Al Woods (Crew Chief), Toby Donovan (System Engineer and MLA Technician) and eight other crew. Account Manager was Martin Connolly and Project Assistant was Michele Conroy. Andy Davies and Chris Pyne, from Martin Audio s Tech Support team, also provided assistance. Summing up, Jim King said, Our objectives had been very clear. It was to improve the onsite experience for customers and for bands while maintaining offsite limits within the license - and we absolutely achieved this. There was a significant reduction in complaints and a significant increase in sound levels on site. However, this was not simply down to the sound system, but the work done by Vanguardia, ourselves and all the key stakeholders. It was a massive amount of work. We recorded the stage positions and noise sensitive areas. There must have been 10,000 sound measurements taken in total. This bespoke solution was tailored to the event we wanted to run and - and we found in Capital Sound a company who understood that we needed a tailored system. I was here for the Stones 1969 concert and you could hardly hear anything, even near the stage, remembered Connolly. This year, with MLA, every member of the 65,000 audience heard a rock show at what I believe is the perfect SPL level. And Ian Colville added, The Hyde Park concerts were the ideal showcase for the MLA system and its associated technology, not just the containment aspect but also the quality, power and incredible consistency that this system delivers. The end game, of course, had been to re-establish the relationship with Westminster Council s environmental health team. We operated an open book with them and they received all the data measurements, confirmed King. We put in place a comprehensive operating platform and we met every month and discussed openly the operating parameters - and the results were most rewarding. Planning is already underway for next year s event - and based on the data they have collected this year, AEG Live are confident of further improving the experience. TPi vanguardiaconsulting.co.uk BARCLAYCARD PRESENTS BRITISH SUMMER TIME HYDE PARK Attitude is Everything supports the music industry to make live music events more accessible for Deaf and disabled customers, performers and staff. AEG Live and Attitude is Everything have been working in partnership over the past year to ensure that the Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time Hyde Park fetsivals were as accessible as possible. AEG were offered advice and guidance to go beyond the legal minimum and aim for best practice, by implementing an ambitious accessibility plan and signing up to Attitude is Everything s Charter, demonstrating an on-going commitment to improving access at AEG events. The access facilities at Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time Hyde Park were first class, with luxurious accessible toilet facilities, including a fully inclusive Changing Places unit, and a large viewing platform with a fantastic view of the Great Oak Stage. It was also the first outdoor festival in the UK to implement a standing area for disabled customers at ground level, offering a less crowded environment to watch the concerts and increasing the capacity of the platform. Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time Hyde Park were awarded the Silver level of the Charter of Best Practice in their first year of operation and Attitude is Everything are looking forward to working with AEG to continue improving their access at future events. 28