In a repeat of its deployment at OVO Arena Wembley in London for last year’s 25th MOBO Awards, production services provider SWG Events recently headed north with its flagship Martin Audio WPL line arrays to the Utilita Arena in Sheffield to deliver sound reinforcement in support of a range of live performances and presentations in the 12,500-capacity venue for this year’s event.
Performances included Soul II Soul, Ghetts, Sugababes, Cristale, Byron Messia, King Promise and Camidoh, plus a garage set from DJ Spoony. The event was hosted by Babtunde Aleshe, Indiyah Polack and Zeze Mills.
It required SWG Events to increase the WPL box count from 16 to 18 elements for each of the main L/R hangs, compared with last time; and more significantly, was the increased number of outhangs, comprising 12-per-side WPC arrays, all driven in two-box resolution via iKON iK42 power amplifiers.
“It was a fairly standard arena set up, and [Sheffield] is a very pleasant-sounding space as far as arenas go,” says Simon Purse, head of audio for Bristol-based SWG Events. “But the additional outhangs enabled us to better cover the raked seating in the nearfield. That was a massive benefit as the tonal response from WPC and WPL is really similar, so when you walk around the rig it just really works well.
“There’s the additional benefit of being able to use the same amp racks in the same configuration, in terms of the LK connectors, breakouts and big multicores that Martin Audio can provide. All of that worked brilliantly at the stage end.”
As with the previous MOBO Awards, SWG Events chose an 18-box SXH218 subwoofer array in end fire configuration, with three rows of six subwoofers delayed to a central point. Purse: “That works well in these arenas because you can achieve the broadside array coverage without intruding on the set design — it can sometimes be quite challenging with such a visually oriented set.”
To avoid interference with the LED screen, the PA was trimmed at little higher than normal. Below, there was just a single stage but with a catwalk thrust on stage left, while on stage right there was a smaller thrust for the guest presenters.
SWG Events also provided numerous Martin Audio’s XE500 monitors for foldback on stage, also adding stage side fills on each flank with TORUS T1215 loudspeakers stacked on a pair of SXC118 cardioid subwoofers on each side.
Freelance engineer Matt Pope handled system tech and alternated FOH duties. “Matt focused on the musical performance elements while I handled presenter mics and guests,” Purse explains. “There were a lot of different intricacies, and the infrastructure behind the show was complex compared with a standard headline arena show. We had our stage system, which was split to FOH and monitors, and another split to an OB truck, which is handling the live broadcast mix. Finally, there were further split heads to a TV truck that was dealing with the presenter microphones and presenter IEM units as well as a separate broadcast mix for presentation later in the week.”
The sound team also includes Will Fisher (monitors); Ian Williams (playback/comms); Phil Hughes (RF tech); Fraser Wilks, Sam Jones, Laura Evans (stage patch and general audio engineering); Mark Bott (SWG operations manager) and Henry Roper (SWG production assistant). All worked under overall production manager Rob Smalldon of Marvellous Incorporated Ltd).
For the MOBOs, having received the CAD files from the venue, Purse was able to plan ahead, arriving on site with all presets stored and ready to go. “For due diligence I then always take additional measurements,” he adds. “You never know exactly what you will find so I was able to fine tune it and utilize the array snapshot feature to update my array optimizations.”
Smalldon concludes, “The team worked tirelessly to make sure we had a great sounding show especially with a few curve balls thrown in during the weeks leading up to the event. The support pre-event was magnificent, ensuring all the acts got what they needed audio wise, and the system sounded great in the arena. A show like this only works when the experts in their particular field bring their A game and work together with the rest of the production teams to deliver. It felt very calm on site, and everyone did a magnificent job.”
