A regular fixture for Martin Audio partner dBS Solutions saw The Hallé Orchestra back at their resident venue, The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, for Top Gun: Maverick – In Concert.
Premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in late summer with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – and attended by Tom Cruise – the Manchester event used a scalable WPS line array featuring14 elements a side, driven in optimum 1-box resolution by iKon iK42 amplifiers, with Martin Audio FlexPoint FP12 sidefills (two per side) providing foldback for the SFX and dialogue to accompany the score.
Project manager James Roberts, dBS Solutions dBS worked with creative producers, ESK Film Services, who oversaw all technical elements with the orchestration and track separation. Roberts explained that the principal musicians, percussion section and conductor were all on click tracks, but that the large concert hall with its unconventional shape and four-level tiered seating, presented its own difficulties where amplified music is concerned.
‘It’s obviously a more challenging acoustic environment than you’d expect in a venue that is designed for classical music,’ he says. ‘All the orchestra were miked, so the aim was to get optimum gain before feedback – which is why we used the Wavefront Precision.’
dBS also employed the Hard Avoid feature on the stage to keep stage levels down. Rear rejection was further achieved by the deployment of four SXCF118 cardioid subwoofers – a formula adopted by dBS Solutions for all orchestral work. Aside from the rear rejection, using a generous 14 WPS per side allowed dBS to get consistent coverage from the front rows to the rear of the room.
Although the trim height of the rigs was higher than would have been preferred – to avoid obscuring sightlines to the video screen – the splay angles were correctly calculated using Martin Audio’s proprietary Display software.
‘We’ve worked with dBS Solutions for some years now on our amplified concerts,’ says Lucy Turner of the Hallé. ‘The team there really understand what we and our players need when amplifying an orchestra. The sound of the Top Gun performance was a superb balance of orchestra and film, covering every seat in the hall. It was dynamic throughout without being too loud or bass heavy for our players on stage. We look forward to working with Chris and the team again soon.’
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