The the assembly repaired to an adjacent park – which also happens to be the location for the dance festival, Tomorrowland – where the site measures 80m wide by 160m deep. Here two PA wings were set at a distance of 24 (with 12-box hangs per side trimmed at a 10m height). A further 12 MLX subs were stacked adjacent to each other – forming a single broadside array – along the front. To give the ‘festival site’ further authenticity, a mix tent (which also contained drinks and heating) was sited at 70m distance from the MLA. Source material was provided by carefully-chosen CD tracks, to demonstrate a wide range of music.
Assisted by Peter van der Geer from Event Acoustics Projects, onscreen readings were taken at 20m, 60m, 80m and the final one at 130m – with one overview screen placed at the mixing position. ‘We could clearly see the four levels – at the first three measurement positions the level was the same but the drop off was -15dB at the 130m mark – which was quite impressive,’ says FACE’s Steven Kemland. ‘The environmental people from Antwerp [who had sanctioned the event on the Groenplaats] also used their own measurement instruments as proof of concept.’
Knowing that all feedback had to be supplied to the Minister by 11 February, FACE believe the exercise was vital. ‘It was necessary that our guests could experience the technical solution for themselves – proving that the system would deliver an identical SPL to everyone throughout the site, with a steep ‘tapering off’ outside the festival zone.
‘After the demonstration, those present were still marvelling at how the system could throw consistently over that distance and then suddenly fall off,’ says Kemland. ‘I think as a result everyone will know that there is a future beyond line array. The event was a complete success.’
Karel de Piere adds: ‘This was a perfect situation to prove to festival organisers, sound technicians, politicians and press the validity of this system – and we believe we have gone a long way towards establishing MLA on festival riders should this 100dB sound threshold become law.’
More: www.martin-audio.com
