This summer’s NEON Festival in Trondheim, Norway, held at the Bryggeribyen EC Dahls Arena for capacity audiences of 18,500 on hand for a line-up of Norwegian electro and hip-hop artists such as Karpe, Highasakite, Emilie Nicolas and Lemaitre, featured performances on two stages that were both equipped with main systems headed by Alcons Audio pro-ribbon loudspeakers.
The EC Dahls Arena is located very close to residential buildings, and while it was imperative to deliver high-quality sound reinforcement to the crowd, it was also necessary to contain excess sonic energy to avoid unnecessary disturbance to local residents. In previous years, the Trondheim Rocks festival has shown the Alcons loudspeakers to be suitable in meeting the needs of this application.
“The NEON festival was basically a ‘smaller’ version of Trondheim Rocks,” explains Erwan Thomas, sound and systems engineer for sound provider Trondheim Lyd. “For this event, the main stage had an extra structure on each side for LED screens and PA hangs, while we use our 5C corner stage as the B-stage.”
For the main stage, system designer Arnstein Fossvik chose to deploy 32 LR28/80 larger-format line array modules joined by 30 BC543 triple-18-inch subwoofers complemented by an outfill array of six LR18/90 modules on stage right, four VR12/90 monitors for frontfill and two more VR12/90s plus two BF181 compact subwoofers for nearfill.
Meanwhile, the B stage was equipped with LR24 mid-size line arrays as the main PA system for the first time, along with 14 LR28B bass modules. Six more LR18/90s, two BF151 compact subwoofers and two VR8 monitors deliverred nearfield. All loudspeakers were driven by a total of 188 drive channels supplied by 45 Sentinel10 and two Sentinel3 amplified loudspeaker controllers.
“Being an electro/hip hop festival, it was no surprise that the LR28 performed so well, thanks to its clarity, throw and coherent pattern control in both the horizontal and vertical planes,” Thomas says. “It’s a very well-designed large format PA and is always a pleasure to work with.
“I wanted to make sure that the subwoofer array would perform the best it could, in order to satisfy every band’s need. Arnstein created a solution that performed really well — 30 BC543 stacked two-by-two in a tight, inline arc delayed array delivered a tight, powerful, punchy and even response which was perfect for every performer. It was one of the best sub arrays I have worked with.”
Thomas and the Trondheim Lyd team received positive responses from the artists, including the Saturday headliner, ‘darkpop’ artist Highasakite. “It’s no secret that I like Alcons pro-ribbon systems. The clarity and the sound suits my mixing perfectly,” says the band’s front of house engineer Johan Kristian Berntsen. “The new album’s sound is rich and covers a wide range of frequencies and, at outdoor shows, it’s always a challenge to get full frequency coverage for the whole arena, especially in the low end, since the bass in many songs lays in the 29 Hz to 40 Hz range.
“I have worked with Trondheims Lyd´s excellent technician Erwan Thomas before, once in Nidarosdomen (Nidaros cathedral) with Emilie Nicolas, which was an epic experience,” he concludes. “The system at NEON Festival was very well tuned, it took me less than a minute to realise it was exactly how I wanted it. The low end coverage was probably the best I’ve ever experienced at a Norwegian festival and the system delivered a typical Alcons pro-ribbon sound — crystal clear and enhancing my mix to perfection.”
