Soundworks of Virginia returned to the familiar 100-acre Maymont Park site in Richmond, VA to help stage the Richmond Jazz and Music Festival, an event for which they have provided sound reinforcement since 2017, this year deploying their flagship Martin Audio WPL optimized line arrays on the main stage and also equipped the second stage with WPC arrays.
Working for promoter JMI (Johnson Marketing Inc), Soundworks flew two hangs of 12 WPL elements on each wings, underpinned by 12 SXH218 subwoofers in cardioid formation in a move largely designed to prevent the stage from vibrating. In addition, there was delay tower of eight smaller WPS elements set about 275 feet back and with four WPS deployed along the stage lip as frontfills. Run from iKON multi-channel amplifiers in 2-box resolution proved the right setting for an all-star line-up headed by Chaka Khan.
Meanwhile, monitors on the main stage comprised four WPS loudspeakers atop a pair of SXC118 subs, mounted both stage left and right for sidefills, plus 12 of Soundworks’ own SW2 proprietary wedges. The second stage was served by 12 WPC per side with eight SXH218 subs in a center cluster. Monitor provision again consisted of four WPS enclosures above a pair of SXC118 on each wing for sidefills plus 12 Martin Audio XE500 wedges.
Although Soundworks’ tech team has worked the site many times in the past, there is still work to be done in advance, and it is far from just applying existing site measurements, as founder and CEO Steve Payne explains.
“Maymont shows use a temporary stage, typically a Stageline SL320, and there are several different locations used within the park for concerts,” Payne says. “Additionally, the stage is never placed in exactly the same spot each time which means the spatial definition of the audience area varies each time. We have found that the more accurate the audience area definition is the more accurate the results we achieve, and for that reason, in order to get the best results possible we opt to measure each time.”
He continues, “We go in once the stage is set in place and do our laser measurements. Then we use Martin Audio DISPLAY software to predict and optimize coverage.” Any time alignment adjustments are then carried out in a Lake LM44 processor.
The PA was required to deliver coverage evenly across around four acres for the main stage and two acres for the second. It was reported that around 14,000 people attended over the two-day festival.
Soundworks found they could run the system with minimal EQ. “As a matter of fact we only had one engineer — for Dave Koz — that wanted a small EQ cut,” reports Soundworks president Grant Howard. “Then when I showed him that nothing else had been done to the EQ he laughed and made a flat line gesture with his hand, and said, ‘Well, that’s Martin Audio’”.
After the event, Mike Ferguson, production manager of Richmond Jazz and Music Festival, stated, “As a producer of music festivals and concerts for over 30 years one thing is for sure, high-quality audio plays a critical role in delivering an exceptional audience experience. Great audio coverage means you need a system that can ensure the music reaches every corner of your audience.
“Soundworks of Virginia has always done a super great job for our audience when it comes to audio. The range of bands at the Richmond Jazz Festival requires a system that has a broad, flat frequency response and a wide dynamic range. The Martin Audio systems cover all the bases. There’s no area of the audience that isn’t properly covered. Exceptional experience delivered!”
Soundworks’ Bryan Hargrave and Howard handled the overall system design (Hargrave also took care of all the measurements in advance, as well as running the software and loading the amps). Day of show duties were carried out on the main stage by Howard (FOH), Joe Carpenter (monitors), Brett Sipos (patch). Second stage duties were entrusted to Bob McNichols (FOH), Hargrave (monitors) and Jay Holland (patch).
