FESTIVAL FOCUS
The Music Support team backstage.
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were on stage,” he said, reserving individual praise for the Star teams “amazing attention to detail” on the two different thrusts added for the Stones and Adele’s performances – with Adele’s B-stage coming in from Stage One to connect to Stars thrust. “There have been challenges, but our suppliers have been great.” Taking note of the additional 5m height gain of the Titan stage, which reached 19m off the ground, Solotech extended the two main PA and sidefill hangs and streamlined the 11 delay towers, introducing its recently acquired Martin Audio WPL scalable line array. This resulted in no fewer than 182 Martin Audio line array elements being deployed at the event as well as 44 subwoofers. The main PA this year was increased by four elements and comprised 19 MLA and a single MLD Downfill each side, with 15 MLA and an MLD Downfill as side hangs. Arranged in a broadside cardioid array were 32 MLX subwoofers while six pairs of MLA Compact provided front fills. The delay positions were also extended with longer hangs. Of the 11 masts, positions one to five were configured with seven MLA and an MLD Downfill; the Delay masts six to nine behind the FOH mix tower comprised an extended 10 WPL and three SXH218 in a cardioid stack, while Delay points 10 and 11 were each populated with eight WPC elements. Wavefront Precision enclosures were driven by Martin Audio iKON multi-channel amplifiers in the optimum one-box resolution, and the sound was again carried site wide on an Optocore fibre ring, which offered full redundancy. As for the video displays, Solotech provided a near 1,500 sq m LED screens measuring over 16m high for the main stage including 4,500 Saco tiles and 540 ROE Visual CB5 LED panels on the main stage screen. A further 300 CB5 panels were deployed for delays, relays and for Stage 2. “There were a lot of conversations about how to make the PA sound great and feel
in proportion on Star’s Titan stage. Solotech and Martin Audio got fully engaged in figuring out solutions and we more than achieved the result we were after – both sonically and aesthetically. It looked ‘right’ and sounded great,” Ward enthused, citing the sitewide support of AEG Presents (promoter), LS Events (event management), Star Live (staging), Capital Sound (audio), and Vanguardia (sound management), Solotech (video), PRG (lighting), First Call (rigging) GIG (catering) and Stage Miracles and The Production House (crewing). “We are always open to new ideas but if we’ve been given great service, we’ll stick to it,” Ward said, praising the roster of vendors. “The site staff have also done an incredible job of putting this together. Arranging fencing, ground cover, services and toilets and all the other stuff no-one really notices is, in some ways, more challenging than technical production gear.” With the schedule upped from two to three weeks, Ward was conscious of the demand on crew. “If you put together a reasonable schedule with the manpower to achieve it, nobody should be getting pushed too hard. We staff this project accordingly, tell everyone what is expected and if they’re struggling, we help them out,” he noted, citing the presence of Music Support on site. As a founding member of The Tour Production Group (TPG), Ward places great emphasis on sustainability in his decision making, with the site using Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) for power generators and enlisting the support of A Greener Festival’s Claire O’Neill as a Principal Advisor. “It’s gradually becoming part of the process for event organisers to respond to increasing demand for sitewide eco-friendly practices from artists and management,” Ward remarked. Supporting Ward with the day-to-day was Senior Production Coordinator, Tyler Cole; Production Coordinator Owen Donkin and