The recent Brighton & Hove Pride 2023, which raises funds for the Brighton Rainbow Fund supporting LGBTQ+ groups and organizations within the local community in attracting a crowd of about 250,000 to the seaside resort in England, was supported by Solotech UK providing sound reinforcement, including a “Fabuloso” main stage system headed by Martin Audio WPL line arrays.
Working once again alongside production manager Dean Parker of Wilde Ones International Events, the sound design incorporated main PA hangs of 18 WPL enclosures per side, with a stage right side hang of six of the smaller WPC modules and a larger drop of 12 WPC elements stage left. According to crew chief and system tech Joseph Pearce, this was in response to general site sensitivity, and with the stage pointing parallel to the road, the proximity of the housing on the right side.
Eight WPS enclosures provided nearfill coverage while low-frequency extension was provided by 20 dual-18-inch SXHF218 subwoofers deployed in a castellated cardioid broadside array across the front of the stage. Solotech also provided stage monitoring in the form of 16 Martin Audio LE1500 floor wedges, with six TORUS T1215 constant curvature arrays and four SXHF218 subs on stage. Set some 70 meters back from the stage were three delay towers. These comprised a further 24 WPS set across the three positions, with three SXHF218 subs on each mast providing LF.
Solotech partnered with Robert Miller of F1 Acoustics to set and achieve both the onsite and offsite sound thresholds, with Pearce optimizing the sound with the help of Martin Audio DISPLAY software. Miller confirms that the off-site level had been set at 78 dB(A) Leq15 at the nearest problematic area. Following propagation, Pearce had a strategy of setting relatively low SPL caps, rising incrementally to 100 dB(A) for the headliners. “You have to give yourself room—you don’t want to experience a noise infraction early in a programme that starts at 2 pm,” he explains.
With the presence of fairground carousels and the second stage/dancefloor tent set 300 meters in front of the main stage, the Hard Avoid function of the DISPLAY2 software was applied to all the hangs, even taking the precaution of avoiding potential reflections off vendor booths. Pearce, on his fourth outing at Pride, says the team was able to call on last year’s measurements, ”since we hadn’t moved the PA. The only slight adjustment took into account the fact that the bleachers were slightly smaller.”
Pearce was supported at front of house by William Phillips, who notes, “WPL displayed extremely even coverage right across the park — the drop-off was minimal and even with rather high winds and wet conditions, the HF was still extremely present. The close residential properties meant we needed to be considerate with levels, although no guest engineer found their mix to be limited, due to the sheer impact of the system. All were impressed by the overall sound, and this was helped by Martin Audio’s technology and off-site steering.”
The cardioid broadside arrangement of the subs proved to deliver the desired impact without overpowering the mix, he adds. “The low end was even across the field and a set of three subs in cardioid pattern at each delay tower allowed those at the back to experience a full mix as well. The cardioid array also helped with low end rumble on the stage which meant any wedge mixes were unaffected and allowed the monitor engineers to have a clean stage sound.”
