Although the Leeds Castle site in Kent is isolated – and is therefore free of restrictions on sound levels, the contour of the land brings its own acoustic issues – with a steep hill on which crowds up to 10,000 congregate to watch the annual Leeds Castle Concert.

Featuring the world-famous Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, highly experienced classical music sound engineer Phil Wright likens the site to the Red Rocks amphitheatre.

‘It measures around 210m from the stage to the top of the hill, and it was important to get enough up-angle on the PA,’ says RG Jones Sound Engineering tech, Sam Millen.

Leeds Castle is among the many long-standing clients that have relied upon RG Jones for decades. In the case of this site, the company has been providing sound systems since the very first show in the early 80s and fielded a Martin Audio MLA to meet the coverage challenges this year.

The sound company’s team had drawn on the optimisations created by Martin Audio’s Robin Dibble for the 2019 event, which featured Martin Audio’s WPL line array. ‘But due to having different PA towers this time we needed to make a few tweaks,’ Millen says.

He and fellow MLA tech Graham McGarrick also needed to time-align for the changing humidity and temperature. But in setting a single delay tower of 12 MLA elements, Millen’s inspiration was to add three MLX subs, in broadside cardioid at this position. ‘I would really recommend that for next year as it made a real difference and provided a necessary low-end boost,’ he says.

The main LR PA comprised two 16-element MLA hangs, with a single stack out fill of eight MLA Compact, while eight ground-stacked MLA Mini elements providing in fill. Subwoofers comprised nine MLX in a reverse cardioid broadside set-up. To this, Millen added an arc pattern into the optimisation software ‘to bend the sound around the front.’

But the necessary rear rejection afforded by this inventive sub design tells only part of the story. As Wright points out, while a PA system can be more forgiving when reinforcing a rock band, purity is the watchword when it comes to classical music.

‘I have 150 mics open, which are often parked in front of quieter instruments. Therefore transparency and lack of colouration are vitally important. The aim with a classical concert, he says, ‘is for the music not to sound like it’s coming through a PA system.

‘This is why MLA is my system of choice for orchestral events, for how little sound comes off the back. Because with MLA you have a Hard Avoid function [in the Display software] you can get a much cleaner sound off the stage begin with.

‘I can’t think of another system that would get you up that hill,’ he adds. ‘It worked fantastically with one hang of MLA Compact and another for the VIP area off to the right. The site ‘hooks’ round and you are playing almost through 180° in terms of site coverage.’

Millen was equally effusive about MLA’s dexterity. ‘I was extremely happy with the way it covered up the hill,’ he says in conclusion.