As a venue for trading ‘pieces’ of woven woollen fabric, the architectural grandeur of Yorkshire’s Piece Hall has stood as a symbol of the region’s history since its construction in 1779. Today, it hosts site-specific performances and contemporary music concerts as part of the Live at The Piece Hall summer season of gigs, this year featuring The Lumineers, Limp Bizkit, The Charlatans and Johnny Marr.
The 5,500-capacity venue presents unique acoustic challenges, however, including a stage that is positioned in the corner, an open courtyard and VIP balconies. The PA system had to deliver high-quality sound to an audience standing in compact spaces, while minimising spill behind the stage.
Hull-based L-Acoustic Certified Partner HPSS Ltd shares a longstanding relationship with The Piece Hall team, built on a mutual commitment to creating high-quality sound experiences. HPSS has been working with The Piece Hall since 2017, as the Live at The Piece Hall events have grown in both popularity and ambition.
Tasked with designing a sound system for the concerts, HPSS worked to the venue’s brief that included a noise containment objective, since hall is located in a town centre.
‘For the 2023 events, there was a requirement for a sound system capable of delivering premium audio throughout the entire audience, while respecting the local surroundings,’ explains HPSS MD and Sound Engineer, Hugh Jones. ‘To deliver on this brief, the L-Acoustics K Series was the obvious choice, not only to enhance the sound quality, but also to provide comprehensive coverage and a system that would inspire confidence in visiting sound engineers.’
HPSS Project Manager and Sound Engineer Iain Firth turned to Soundvision, L-Acoustics’ 3D audio modelling software, to design a system that would meet the audio requirements while keeping spill to nearby neighbours to a minimum. ‘We use a combination of L-Acoustics K2 for the main hangs and Kara II for the side arrays with A Series enclosures as front-fill,’ he explains.
The typical configuration for the summer concert series, overseen by lead System Tech Mark Hughes, comprises an LR system of 12 L-Acoustics K2 per side, accompanied by 18 KS28 subwoofers. Four centre-flown L-Acoustics Kara II serve the front rows of the audience as the front fills are, for line-of-sight considerations, lower than is optimal. Out fill is provided by an additional six Kara II per side while five A10 Focus and two A15 Focus are spaced across the front of the stage for lip-fill.
The musicians onstage are served by a monitor system of 12 X15 HiQ as well as two-KS21 compact subwoofers. Four ARCS on top of two SB28 per side provide side fill. The system is powered by 19 LA12X and four LA4X amplified controllers.
‘Our goal is to present the artists in the best possible light,’ continues Jones. ‘We have quite a tight window to run the soundcheck, starting at 4pm for the headliner and a couple of support bands, and the show must start promptly at 6pm. Therefore, it’s essential to have a reliable sound system that engineers can trust to produce exceptional sound, in a limited time frame. Moreover, when artists bring their own engineers, it’s important that they feel comfortable with the system. L-Acoustics delivers on all these fronts.’
‘At this year’s Live at The Piece Hall summer gigs, we wanted to continue building on our reputation for a quality sound experience for artists and visiting engineers,’ says Piece Hall Production Manager, Martin Clarke. ‘We’ve continued our relationship with HPSS who have delivered a design that met our values and goals. The feedback from engineers, artists, audiences and our neighbours has been excellent. This is testament to an excellent product and first-class design.’
