DPA and JBL put the rock in Roskilde

News

Andrew Low Aug 1 2008, 9:00am

Denmark’s Roskilde festival employed a Vertec line array system for the main stage

Radiohead, Neil Young, Gnarls Barkley, My Bloody Valentine and Jay-Z all took the stage this year for Northern Europe's biggest annual rock music festival, Roskilde. Over 60,000 fans heard music from the main stage through 60 Vertec VT4889 full-size line array elements suspended by ground-support trussing structures.

The main left and right hangs contained 18 VT4889's, supplemented with out-fill array hangs of 12 boxes each. DPA Soundco A/S of Soborg, Denmark provided the concert sound services for Roskilde.

"This is the first year we have deployed JBL's VERTEC system for Roskilde, after using another system for many years," explained Sten Jensen of DPA Soundco. "The large VERTEC system went up very quickly. We relied on JBL's new V4 DSP presets and found that we did not have to use very much EQ on the system. The long-throw capabilities were as expected, so some additional delay arrays that had been provided on towers at 50 meters (164 feet) out from the stage were more to bring in some additional high-frequency energy than for providing any additional output power, as there was a constant headwind of up to 8-12 meters per second [18-27 miles per hour]."

JBL’s VT4888 midsize line array elements were also used to cover areas close to the stage. "The front fill system that we had designed for the event worked well for the audience pits in the middle, intended for a throw out to about 25 meters from the stage," Jensen noted. "Each year we make gradual adjustments and improvements to the overall sound system, and we already have ideas for refining our approach for next year.

"We were especially happy with summation of the main and the offstage VERTEC array hangs. And, we were able to get perforated net in front of the offstage speakers (rather than solid plastic) so this was a help.

"All in all we were quite pleased with the performance of the system. We think that VERTEC will experience a second wave of interest and excitement in the industry, with JBL's new V4 DSP presets."
www.soundtech.co.uk/jbl
www.dpasoundco.dk