Britannia Row Productions (a Clair Global brand) is supplying a large-scale main sound reinforcement system for Peter Gabriel’s i/o — The Tour of Europe and North America that’s headed by L-Acoustics K1 and K2 arrays joined by KS28 subwoofers and supporting components.
Gabriel is one of Britannia Row Productions’ oldest accounts, dating back to the early 1980s and has carried L-Acoustics loudspeakers on his tours since the mid-’90s. The Live Nation-produced tour kicked off with 22 European and UK dates in May and June, and beginning September 8, it will travel across North America, performing 25 shows through late October.
Richard Sharratt, who has been in Gabriel’s front of house mixing seat since 2010’s New Blood tour, says, “I’m loving mixing on K1 for this tour as it gives the mix a wonderful warmth, depth, and clarity that really draws the audience in. Peter’s show is very dynamic, from softly spoken song introductions and solo pieces at the piano all the way through to the likes of ‘Sledgehammer’ and ‘Red Rain,’ and this system brilliantly presents the full spectrum. More than any other system I’ve mixed on, K1 makes me feel like I’m listening to everything on a set of audiophile nearfield monitors, even at the back of the room, which really helps, especially in venues where delays are not an option.”
System engineer Ben Webb describes the typical setup of 14 K1 over four K2 down per side for mains, paired with a center hang of two A15 — one Wide, one Focus — plus left and right arrays of eight KS28 subs flown in a cardioid configuration. Twelve K1 over four K2 per side serve as the outfill hangs, while a dozen more K2 per side cover the 270-degree seating sections.
Twenty-two ground-stacked KS28 subs are deployed in a cardioid array with four A15 per side for outfills and four A10 as lipfills. In larger venues, four hangs of six K1 are flown for delay. The loudspeakers are powered by 72 LA12X amplified controllers and processed via two P1 Milan-AVB processors using M1 for tuning. Sharratt also has two X8 and one SB15 sub as a reference system at FOH.
“On the recent European run, we were playing quite a range of venues, from amphitheaters to outdoor fields to arenas,” Webb notes. “Peter’s music is incredibly dynamic, so getting a consistent sound from the very front row to the top back seat is critically important.”
Webb points to the manufacturer’s Soundvision 3D acoustic modeling software as being helpful in delivering the desired consistency: “Most of my designs are done in advance from a mixture of CAD drawings and touring through the venues before. Every morning, I verify my design with the stage and rigging positions and then make any final tweaks. In my initial designs, I rely a fair amount on the Autosplay and Autofilter functions since they give me a very good starting point to work from. And with the mixture of venues we are playing, especially the outdoor shows, P1’s Autoclimate tool for temperature and humidity compensation is particularly helpful.
“At FOH, we are running two P1 with AES from Richard’s SSL L550 Plus console, then sending AVB to the amps with analog backup throughout the system,” he adds. “P1 with AVB straight to the LA12X has been fantastic. Not needing any other processing not only helps reduce the latency, but it also eliminates introducing additional processing in the chain.”
