Having supported popular stand-up comedian Michael McIntyre tours for many years (as Capital Sound) with Martin Audio, Solotech UK has again been entrusted with providing sound reinforcement on his “Macnificent” 2023-24 arena tour.
MLA had graced the last two tours, but this time Solotech switched up to the British manufacturer’s newer flagship large-format line array, WPL. The Off The Kerb production team behind the tour remains the same, with Neil McDonald once again overseeing the tech.
“It’s a pleasure to be working again with Neil and the team at Off the Kerb,” states Solotech UK senior account manager Robin Conway. “We discussed the tour back in late 2022 and the only thing we’ve changed is the model of PA. The design is very similar, and Wavefront Precision is a newer and more lightweight cabinet than the MLA. I was 100 percent confident it could achieve the same success as MLA has on the previous tours.”
Conway developed the system design that the new front of house sound team would be working with, knowing it would need to be scalable. The tour’s system tech, Rylan Machin, is experienced in working with the Martin Audio platforms. “Once out on the road he and Tim [crew chief and monitor engineer Tim Paterson], Sam [PA tech Sam Brazier] and Jason [FOH engineer Jason Barton, mixing on a Yamaha QL5] have been fine tuning the deployment.”
The PA is scalable, depending on venue size, but in all instances is driven in the optimum 1-box resolution from multi-channel iK42 DSP amplifiers. “For instance,” continues Conway, “by the time the tour hits the big rooms including the O2 and Manchester Arena in 2024 we will be fielding the full inventory.” This comprises 22 WPL (per side) for the main hangs; 18 of the smaller WPC per side (for the out fills, with an additional six WPC at The O2); eight WPS delays at each of three positions and four SX218 subs per side.
Filling other gaps in the coverage are four of the obligatory XD12 (out fill) and eight DD6 for nearfill along the front. Providing monitoring duties on stage are TORUS T1215 and T1230 constant curvature enclosures as sidefills, along with four wedge monitors.
I“Providing full range power at the front end is something we’ve long practiced with on the comedy circuit,” Conway says. “MLA was a killer at delivering a great vocal without exciting the room, and over previous tours for Off the Kerb, we realized that carrying delays for the entire tour wasn’t as important as it had been with the previous system; the complex optimization really does work with spoken word.”
Machin has been using Martin Audio’s proprietary DISPLAY control software to productive effect, depending on how the sound is contoured for each venue. He explains: “While WPL is a really good system, enabling us to get really consistent coverage throughout the audience area, speech has to be intelligible everywhere … you have to keep it off the walls and avoid the reflections whereas with music you can cover it up more easily.”
He cites Cardiff’s Utilita Arena as an example. “There are big bits of glass at the back of the arena which reflects all the sound straight back to the FOH position — so we’ve been able to optimize that out of the prediction and reduce the level on the back wall.
“I’ve been using [the ‘Non-Audience’ feature] in all the places we don’t want it, like the glass at the back of the room, and focusing ‘Hard Avoid’ on the stage, because he is using a DPA headset mic, so we’ve been able to reduce that feedback quite considerably.”
Conway concludes, “The onstage rejection of the PA is great, so the focus can be more on the quality of the vocal sound, rather than cutting it to pieces by looking for more gain before feedback.”
