Known for servicing a number of stages at the annual Glastonbury Festival with Martin Audio-based systems, Bristol, England-based SWG Events recently took a similar approach in supplying sound reinforcement for the second year at the Hampton Court Palace Festival in London.
In addition to the single large stage, which incorporated two main hangs of eight Martin Audio MLA Compact array modules and six MLX subwoofers, SWG also provided BlacklineX for a small bandstand in the East Front public picnic area prior to the show. Specifically, to provide even coverage for audiences up to 3,200, the production provider supplemented the two main MLA Compact hangs with DD12s for center and left/right outfills, with eight WPM for front fills and six Blackline X8 for balcony fills.
A monitor package in the shape of 16 of recently added XE500 wedges was powered by Martin Audio iKON iK42 amplifiers. This year’s festival line-up included UB40, Elbow, George Benson, Jack Savoretti, McFly, Kacey Musgraves, The Human League, Michael Ball & Alfie Boe and Crowded House.
The orientation of the stage that enables the Palace to provide a spectacular backdrop adds another compelling element to the event, as SWG Events technology specialist Ian Williams explains: “The idea is to create the illusion that the audience felt they were inside the palace rather than just in front of it. We illuminated it and handed control over to the lighting designers so it could be used as a spectacular backdrop.”
Williams served as project manager, leading a team comprising Matt Pope, Ryan Bass and Kieran Jordan. Engineers plugged consoles into a pre-time aligned, pre-optimized system,and were provided digital inputs for left, right, sub and fill. “Our system technicians then worked to keep the optimization as current as possible, working with the engineers to find ideal times within their sets to load in new profiles to the rig,” Williams concludes.
