MANCHESTER, UK – Tube uk provided sound systems and engineering services for the four largest live performance stages at the Worldwide Music Expo (WOMEX).
More details from tube uk (www.tubeuk.com):
Billed as “The most diverse music meeting in the world”, WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) is an international music event, renowned for staging a vibrant annual gathering of music professionals and music enthusiasts. WOMEX features live music, films, a trade fair, panel discussions and presentations in a different European location every year, showcasing breakthrough artists and talent from around the globe.
2024 was the 30th anniversary of the WOMEX Festival event, and it was brought to Manchester, UK by host partner Manchester Music City, where locally based creative audio specialists tube uk provided sound systems and engineering services for the four largest live performance stages. The event is renowned for offering the very highest production values to all its participating artists.
Says tube uk’s Melvyn Coote, “We were hugely excited to be asked onboard for this event, in our home city and to work with some incredible line-ups and musicians. We enjoyed lots of new music and with some shows encountered some more unusual musical instruments and learnt the best ways of dealing with them!”
tube became involved through production manager Helen Gorton, working closely with her and WOMEX technical director Toshi Rösner. Both were impressed by tube’s passion for their work and ability to think out-of-the-box to deliver the very best audio experience for all the bands and music acts performing daily across these four spaces.
Aviva Studios Double
The two big stages were set up in the Aviva Studios facility in the city center, positioned opposite to each other in the main Warehouse space. The evening shows followed a festival-style ‘flip-flop’ format, where one band would finish their set on one stage, and the audience would simply turn around to enjoy the next performance on the other stage.
It was an exciting fast-paced and high-pressure environment which kept the tube technical teams on their toes.
Two identical d&b KSL sound systems were supplied for this 3000-capacity layout, each comprising two 10-deep main KSL plus four KSL-SUBS a side flown, with the SUBS upstage of the main hangs, with left and right ground stacks of double V12’s with a single V-SUB on top, completed by four Y7P front fills.
These were all powered by d&b D80 amplifiers, 12 per stage.
For monitors, a full 12way d&b M4 package was specified, d&b Y-SUB drum fills and Y-series side fills comprising 3 x Y8’s, two Y-SUBS and a V-SUB per side, all running off 5 x D20 amps.
Each system featured a Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 mixer at FOH, supplied with an RPio stage Rack with Rupert Neve pre-amps, with a Yamaha CL5 for mixing monitors, running together with a pair of Yamaha Rio3224 stage racks.
The systems were based on a combination of getting the best sounds in the room – with which tube uk is already familiar – and assessing all the artist rider requirements.
Integral to the audio setups were festival-style mics-and-stands packages including 3-way splits allowing multitrack records for each artist, and a standard choice of Shure Axient wireless handhelds, Sennheiser 2000 series IEMs, plus two Sennheiser 5200 presenter mics.
On top of that, tube supplied a full wired and wireless GreenGo comms system for the stage, audio and production teams.
Staying Central
Across the city in the 800-seater auditorium at Manchester Central venue at the Conference Centre (MCCC), tube uk supplied another sound system – a d&b V-Series PA which was ground stacked on the front of the stage with 5 x V8s a side plus two V-SUBS and one KSL sub a side, again with Y7P front fills.
Monitors mimicked the Aviva Studios stages with a B22 sub and a Y7P top per side as sidefills.
Two of tube uk’s brand new Yamaha DM7-EX consoles dealt with the FOH and monitor mixes both running with two Rio3224 stage racks each console, and once again a 3-way line system was supplied to include recording facilities, together with mics-and-stands and a comms package.
Albert Hall
The fourth venue for tube was Manchester’s Albert Hall, a dynamic, lively and popular performance and live music space, where tube is the house audio supplier.
The venue’s PA is a d&b V-series, with 5 V8s, 2 x V-subs and 2 x B2s a side covering the ground floor, plus four Y8s and a sub left and right front for the balcony, together with a rear-wrap of d&b Q7s, an innovative and awesome arrangement to ensure The Albert Hall offers some of the best sounds in the city!
All of these are powered by D12 amps. There’s a full M4 monitor system with Q-Sub drum fill and two Yamaha CL5 consoles at both ends of the multicore.
The challenges of delivering such a major project event in a compressed timescale were – naturally – logistics, and diligent pre-planning and co-ordination underpinned a highly successful operation.
Melvyn Coote was the main project manager for tube uk. He collaborated closely with the company’s senior project managers Adam Taylor and John Redfern, plus 17 other engineers daily to ensure the systems in all these venues were optimized to offer the 46 artists – 14-a-day playing across the four stages – a superlative sonic experience, from outstanding sound to straightforward configuration and friendly expertise.
“All the performing bands go through a rigorous selection process. One of the features offered by playing the WOMEX Festival – apart from getting in front of an enthusiastic and a wider audience – is the chance to work with top productions and get some excellent recorded collateral,” explained Melvyn.
It was also one of the largest events tube uk had implemented this year in terms of supplying this many fully specified systems simultaneously.
The multi-recording elements required some intricate integration, especially with the instruments presented by some bands, noted Melvyn, adding, “We all thoroughly enjoyed WOMEX, and appreciated the 30th anniversary event being staged here in Manchester. There was so much more to it than a standard music event. Apart from working with some brilliant music from all around the world, we learnt massively about rarer instruments including some that we were encountering for the first time.
Some of the bands’ mic lists were as extensive as they were educational, sending the tube team drilling down into their audiophonic sensibilities to find the best mic options for cool traditional instruments like piker (a bamboo cylinder struck with two sticks), kayamb (a shaker idiophone), sati (a metal instrument), roulèr (a low bass drum – played whilst sitting on it), takanba (afro guitar), tanpura (long-necked four-stringed instrument) and doum (another variation of bass drum).
There was never a dull moment, with plenty of smiles all around as everyone engaged in this unique celebration of music’s power to unite cultures and communities, creating joy and entertainment for all.
