Audio Pro

Rumours regarding the brand and supplier of the sound system for this year’s Glastonbury festival had been rife for some time before the event began, but those involved were careful to keep the necessary details close to their chests, finally releasing the long-awaited information well after the clean-up staff had moved in.

When asked about his company’s involvement in Glastonbury 2008, two weeks prior to the event, Martin Kelly, export sales manager at Martin Audio insisted: “No one at Martin knows what is happening. There are lots of rumours going around, but as far as we’re aware no one knows who is doing it.”

His reaction was understandable given the substantial degree of negative press regarding the sound at last year’s event, particularly during The Killers’ performance. It has now emerged however, that the PA system was indeed by Martin Audio.

The system, supplied by South London-based RG Jones – part of the Synco European network – comprised dual 15-deep left and right hangs of Martin Audio’s W8L Longbow high power line array, each with W8LD downfills and complemented by W8LC stereo infills, and was configured by Martin Audio's Jim Cousins and Jason Baird, using the company’s Display 3D predictive software. The company dry-hired the Martin Longbow packages from London-based Capital Sound Hire and had on-site support from Ian Colville.

The monitor system consisted of 20 Synco CW15A low-profile dual concentric 15-inch monitor wedges, complemented by STS Synco subs for the drumfills. System equalisation was achieved using XTA digital eq controlled by a wireless tablet and Klark Teknik DN360 for grab eq. Three delay hangs of Martin’s Synco W8LC-based line array hangs, with eight WLX units forming steered sub-bass arrays from RG Jones’ rental stock also employed to help ensure clarity across the 80,000 capacity arena.

Meanwhile, acoustician Andy Pardoe devised a special bass array configuration which consisted of a row 54 WS218X subwoofers, arranged in blocks of three (two front-facing, one rear-facing) to provide optimum directional control.

Chris Beale, managing director of CBA, Glastonbury 2008’s audio system design and project management company, goes some way to explain the choice of the Martin system. He notes that those who slated UK-based Funktion One for its performance last year failed to take interference from other stages into consideration.

“Last year there was a problem with the audio, not with the Pyramid stage specifically, but with interference between other stages,” Beale comments. “So we decided to take a new view on the criteria for all three stages (Pyramid, Jazz and Other) this year, which required a review on how they were designed and addressed.

“We did not dictate the audio system that the respective audio rental companies had to use, rather we set a criteria for many things, including levels achieved, angles of elevation and considerations for wind effects. It also addressed low frequencies, horizontal coverage and several other specifics.”

All three contractors subscribed to the criteria set forth by CBA when choosing their sound systems. APR chose an EV system for the Jazz stage, while Chris Fitch of Skan PA chose the d&b audiotechnik J-Series system for the Other stage, with L-Acoustics DVosc centre line array, all amplified by d&b D12 amps with a Midas XL4 in place at an analog FOH.

For the Pyramid Stage, the criteria called for a main PA with top cabinets angled down by eight degrees to get underneath potential wind effects, and a bass array design that took into account low frequency pressure limits in the audience areas near to the stage, relative to the low frequency sound pressure distance. The delays needed to be proportionately as powerful as the main system, again angled down and with individual cabinet control.

“RG Jones was more comfortable with the Martin system and it proved to be the right choice,” adds Beale. “The results were good and it met the on-site criteria. We ran the show at proper levels, the sound was propagated all the way to the back and it achieved clarity in the far field. The only problem was a power outage during Neil Diamond’s set, but that was due to a backline failure of his radio rack transformer.”

The main stage FOH setup this year offered engineers a pair of Digidesign Venue consoles in an A/B flip-flop configuration, with a D-Show Profile serving as FOH matrix, linked to stage via an Optocore DD32E digital fibre-based network system and in turn via AES to the XTA loudspeaker processors. This maintained a digital signal path all the way to the DP226 outputs, while the consoles’ integral processing and plugins eliminated the need for effects racks.

In charge of RG Jones’ team was FOH engineer Simon Honywill with Diarmuid McLennan at his side and system engineer Mark Edwards. While heading up the on-stage operation, Mark Isbister acted as overall pre-production supervisor and monitoring was looked after by Steve Watson and Isbister, alongside ‘the patch master’ Ali Viles. Steve Carr, Ben Milton and Laura Yensen took care of the stage.

The ever-popular John Peel stage once again proved a big hit, hosting 32 artists over the weekend, including Spiritualized, Biffy Clyro, The Futureheads and The Kills. Handled by South West Audio and Yamaha, John Peel was the first stage at a major UK festival to employ 24-bit 96kHz digital audio from microphone to amp.

The sound system was designed by Yamaha installation manager Scott Fraser and Yamaha technical sales specialist and freelance sound engineer Nick ‘Biggles’ Pemberton, who also handled FOH for the stage on a Yamaha PM5D.

“The console side of the system is driven by engineer demand,” says Pemberton. “The industry has now changed and many sound engineers are speccing digital consoles as standard, so SWA stated that it wanted digital consoles on the John Peel stage and that they had to be Yamaha PM5Ds.”

A dual Neutrik Opticon fibre optic trunk linked FOH and monitors, while a digital audio Ethersound network linked the control via an MY16ES64 interface card and three DME8o-ES satellite interfaces, to 16 of Yamaha’s T5N amplifiers, which in turn powered a large EAW K850 line array PA. Monitoring was on HK Audio and handled, as last year, by Mike Taylor.

“With monitors being mainly in-ears, there was no analog in the system at all,” adds Pemberton. “All signals were split to monitors and FOH at the stage box, with a further set of splits taking the signals to the BBC for broadcast and a recording truck.”

While reports in the national press would indicate that not all festival goers were entirely satisfied with this year’s event, its future would once again appear to be secure as Mendip District Council, which grants the licence for the event, hailed it as “very successful”.

Although wind and low cloud meant that some Mendip residents who have normally not been able to hear the festival could hear some noise this year, Mendip’s director for planning and environment, Charles Uzzell, advised that noise monitoring had taken place, there were no significant breaches of the licence, and the levels of noise were within the national recommended guidelines.