Leeds Castle near Maidstone in Kent (“The Loveliest Castle In The World”) recently hosted a two-day musical event with large Outline GTO and Butterfly line arrays deployed by SRD Group to serve both concerts.
The Heritage Events Leeds Castle Open Air Classical Concert 2011 featured the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by John Rigby, playing a wide selection of popular classics.
The next day offered a complete change of pace with”‘Live At The Castle 2011” featuring top European “boy band” The Wanted alongside performances from Alexandra Burke, new “girl band” Fanfare, Stacey Solomon, Eliza Doolittle and Aggro Santos, and others.
The main left and right of the system was headed by Outline’s new flagship GTO line-source enclosure, flown 12-deep at each side of the stage. Dual delay towers, each comprising 12 Outline Butterfly elements, were also deployed and combined seamlessly with the main system to provide the necessary coverage of a very large and awkwardly-shaped audience area.
Another six ground-stacked Outline Butterfly elements per side provided front of stage fill. All loudspeakers were powered by Outline T11 amplifiers and controlled by Lake LM26 processors via Dante networks.
The first day, the primary orchestra mix of 128 channels was handled by Ian Barfoot with 10 digital stems sent to front of house, handled by Chris Beddall mixing on an Allen and Heath iLive digital console. A further iLive handled the complex on-stage monitor mix. The next day’s headliners The Wanted were mixed by Andrew Thornton on an Avid Profile, with all other acts mixed used an iLive 112 surface.
Barfoot also designed the system using Outline’s proprietary Open Array prediction software, noting, “The software predicted exactly what we consequently achieved and was flawless in its execution.”
After the show, Beddall stated, “The GTO system can certainly handle the subtleties of orchestral music as well as rock with its huge dynamic range, and has long throw capabilities without compare. I am truly impressed.”
