Concerns over sound spill from the Hyde Park festival were further quelled through the use of Martin Audio’s MLA technology at the recent Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park festival.

Event promoters AEG Live adopted a similar set-up as the last event but with significant enhancements – Capital Sound used MLA and MLA Compact to guarantee coherent site coverage, but new optimisations gave an additional 3dB at front-of-house without increasing offsite pollution.

As a result, 102dB(A) was achieved for McBusted, with 73dB(A) recorded offsite, comfortably within the maximum allowable of 75dB(A), while both Tom Jones (during his more strident numbers) and Black Sabbath nudged 103dB(A). Martin Audio R&D Director Jason Baird explains that the journey to accomplish this had begun three months earlier, with the concept tested and proven on the Glastonbury Festival delay rig, the week before.

‘We conducted the propagation tests based on what we learnt last time around,’ he says. One of the key offsite measurement points identified by both Westminster Council and acoustics specialists, Vanguardia at Hyde Park was on top of flats in Mayfair’s nearby Upper Brook Street. ‘When I visited the property last year I was able to look at the complete spectrum of the signal,’ says Baird. ‘You could hear there was only LF and low mid that was contributing to the A-weight measurements and we realised that if we could reduce that frequency band we could have a better differential.’

And so his R&D team set to work on the optimisation routines across the full frequency range to improve the differential between on- and off-site levels without extending latency – and this trial optimiSation will in time feature in new data firmware. While Baird maintains that testing remains ongoing, he says the success at Glastonbury gave him the confidence to deploy it on additional arrays in Hyde Park including house left side hang and the two delays nearest to Park Lane.

He describes these early tests and the additional increase of around 2-3dB in max FOH levels over the previous year as ‘encouraging and significant’. ‘There were no issues with the three arrays we used the new optimisation algorithm on,’ Capital Sound Technical Manager and Systems Designer, Ian Colville, confirms.

The site design replicated last year’s when the stage was turned through 30° to point it away from sensitive offsite areas, and included ten delay towers (in two rings of four plus one ring of two). However, there was one exception: ‘We dropped a delay position [in Ring 3] which didn’t need to be there because the design of the back of the field changed,’ he says.

For the main PA, Capital deployed two hangs of 16 MLA and an MLD Downfill per side, with 12 MLA and an MLD Downfill for the side fill. The sub array consisted of 21 MLX in a broadside cardioid array, with a further 11 enclosures back facing.

The three delay rings comprised between seven and nine MLA element hangs (supported by MLD Downfill and MLX subs). Ring 3 featured eight MLA Compacts. These were set at distances from the stage of 90m, 160m and 210m (for the MLA Compacts). Distance from FOH to stage was 50m.

Capital and Martin Audio deployed a team of technical heavyweights, including Chris Pyne, who handles Martin Audio product support for SE Asia, and has worked closely with Capital since piloting Kylie Minogue’s mix in the 1990s; Capital had Dave Roden babysitting consoles, the accomplished Toby Donovan again acting as system engineer, while Martin Connolly was the account manager.

With FOH engineers no longer worrying about trading offsite noise pollution with audience sound levels, it meant they could really focus on the mix they wanted and appreciate the musicality of the system.

‘What FOH engineers want at festivals is plenty of headroom and not to worry about offsite restrictions,’ Baird says. ‘Having reduced the low mid and LF spectrum this year, we’ve been able to further ensure this, and that means the power, depth and definition of the system can also really shine too.’

‘We have been able to achieve further increases in sound levels over and above the significant improvements we already made last year,’ says AEG Live event director, Jim King. ‘Headliners at Hyde Park are now performing at levels well in excess of 100dB which was unthinkable only two years ago. This has been achieved whilst maintaining even better control at off site monitoring location and with consistently lower number of complaints from the community.

‘Capital and Martin have done an excellent job and the system data and know-how about the site is there for visiting FOH engineers to get the very best levels and sound coverage for their artists.’

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