MANCHESTER, U.K. – The final show in a tour for former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown took place at the Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena, and rental companies Metro Audio, STS and Viking Sound collaborated with a sound system featuring Turbosound's Flex Array PA system.
The 20,000 seat venue would seem to call for a large format line array, but Paul Collis, STS's director, noted that the Flex Array proved to be more than up to the task at hand.
"Even though on paper Flex Array would be considered a small box for the room, it has plenty of level," said Collis. "It was loud, and it was clear. Ian Brown's is a loud band, and although we were running at around 104 to 105dB at front of house, we still had headroom. Even the venue staff commented on how clear the sound was."
Preparations for the MEN show started early. Turbosound's Dan Orton ran advance EASE plots of the venue, which determined the number of loudspeaker boxes required to do the job and where they needed to be positioned.
The resulting EASE plots called for main left and right PA hangs consisting of nine TFA-600H narrow dispersion and three TFA-600HW wide dispersion mid/highs per side, with out-fill hangs of eight TFA-600H mid/highs per side to cover the bleachers.
An additional three TFA-600Hs were ground-stacked as outer side-of-stage fills. A total of 30 TSW-218 double 18" horn-loaded subs were ground stacked for solid sub-bass support in five-high columns each side of the stage, powered by Turbosound T-90 amplifiers.
Delay clusters were hung at 43 meters, in line with the FOH position, and consisted of four hangs of six TFA-600H narrow mid/highs, giving 130° of horizontal coverage. In all, a total of 16 LMS series controllers were networked using TurboDrive software to provide complete control of the system. Amplification for the whole system was provided entirely by Turbosound T-25, T-45 and T-90 amplifiers.
Even with three PA companies involved, each was responsible for their own part of the PA, and the rigging and setup went surprisingly smoothly. "It was easy to work together," says Viking Sound's Steve Williams. "We all knew exactly what we had to do from the results of the EASE plots, and having Dan Orton there to tune the PA with TurboDrive made the setup very easy."
Even a request from the promoter to raise all the PA hangs to improve sightlines proved to be an easy work-around for the TurboDrive control software. "Because each group of three cabinets basically came back to its own control channel, it was easy to compensate for the extra height by re-aligning the lower boxes and then simply raising the level and trimming the groups – all from a laptop at the FOH position," adds Williams.
The sound quality and coverage from such a small PA was exceptional, according to Collis. "The drums and percussion in the band makes for a complex mix, but all the detail was there with more than enough level."
Systems techs for STS were Paul Danson and Joe Heaton; Metro City PA's crew consisted of Paz "Taxi" Brennan and Bjorn "Again" Gale, with support from Dan Orton and Paul McMullan from Turbosound.
For more information, please visit www.turbosound.com.
