Martin Audio and Capital Sound (Solotech UK Group) brought their UK summer festival season to a close at London’s Victroria Park for another ‘hugely successful’ outing of the annual All Points East concert series.
Often working alongside Loud Sound, Capital Sound has supported many of the music events and festivals at Victoria Park for more than a decade. It was there in the summer of 2011, first for Deadmau5 at the LED Festival, followed by other back-to-back events including Field Day, that the company demonstrated that even within a densely populated residential area, they could achieve optimum audio levels within the performance area without disturbing the neighbours.
It was at these events that Capital debuted Martin Audio’s MLA technology, and a further test at Hatfield House subsequently led to its adoption at another challenging site, Hyde Park, for BST, which continues to this day.
This year, MLA one again took its familiar place on the East stage at All Points East in Victoria Park
Solotech senior project manager Martin Connolly confirmed that, under evaluation, the same measurements had been achieved as before. “It’s good to have scientific data, but then we have proved the point over and over again with MLA,” he said.
This year the coverage pattern was tweaked in accordance with the slight reorientation of the stage away from the sensitive flank. Meanwhile, on the West stage was Martin Audio’s newer Wavefront Precision technology, embodied in the WPL.
The main hangs on East stage were made up of 13 MLA and a single MLD (downfill) box on each side per side, with side hangs of nine MLA stage right, and eight on stage left. Frontfills comprised eight Martin Audio XD12, with a castellated cardioid broadside array of 20 MLX subs along the front.
Further back, five delay points were set, populated by a total of 46 MLA Compact, with six MLX subwoofers in a cardioid design on the last two positions. Stage sidefills comprised four SXHF218 subwoofers, and a pair each of Martin Audio TORUS T1215 and T1230 constant curvature boxes.
Solotech crew, comprising system tech Dan Fathers and FOH tech Xavier d’Arifat, ensured that the likes of Gorillaz, Chemical Brothers, Tame Impala, The National, Nick Cave and Disclosure, along with their respective tech crews were given the best experience possible.
Meanwhile, headlining West Stage - situated further back on the site, and surrounded by trees -Idles enjoyed a very different audio experience, as Connolly explained. “After the huge success of BST at Hyde Park where it was featured for the first time, we took the decision to run WPL [as the main PA] on the West Stage, along with WPC - and the new SXHF218 subs in a castellated cardioid array.”
Here, levels of up to 104dBa were possible, including 103dBa for Fleet Foxes and 102dBa for Caribou.
“The implementation of WPL was a huge success,” Connolly added. “It sounded great, and we could achieve this SPL, without breaching offsite levels.”
Main hangs comprised 12 WPL per side, while side hangs consisted of 10 WPC (stage right) and 14 stage left, further augmented by eight WPS. The broadside array of subs comprised 11 SXHF218, while the two delay masts each supported 12 WPC.
Monitors on West stage comprised 12 Martin Audio LE1500, four SXHF218 subs and a pair each of TORUS T1215 and T1230. Joseph Pearce was Solotech’s system tech and Jackson Akers, tech at FOH.
As with BST, the company was working alongside production manager Mark Ward (Proper Productions). Confirming the success of the event, Ward, said: “The combination of Solotech’s expertise and Martin Audio’s advanced control technology has proven time and again that challenging sites such as Victoria Park and Hyde Park, once considered almost unworkable, are entirely viable when it comes to staging proper events.”