Kent, UK (October 11, 2019)—Leeds Castle recently marked its 900-year anniversary with a massive event, the Leeds Castle Classical Summer Concert. An audience of 11,000 were in attendance for the world premiere of the fanfare, A Tribute to Leeds Castle, composed by Tom Hodge and performed by the Band of the Royal Marines and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Ensuring they heard every historic note, RG Jones Sound Engineering fielded a Martin Audio Wavefront Precision Longbow system for the event.
Working for concert organizers Heritage Events, the sound production company, under project manager and FOH engineer Ben Milton, had to contend with a site that was both deep and wide (590 ft. x 656 ft.), with a steep incline.
Programming the optimization for depth in the dedicated DISPLAY software, Milton said, “We produced a very even tone, deploying a system optimization at 3 dB drop between the auditorium boundary and the downstage edge. This produced a totally even coverage throughout.”
The production required 16 WPL elements per side for the main hangs, with eight Wavefront Precision Compact for the outfills, a dozen WPL for the Hill Fill (the single auditorium right delay position) and four-a-side Wavefront Precision Mini for the infills. In addition, four tiny Martin Audio DD6s were spread across the front for near-fill coverage and six-a-side Martin Audio SXH218 subwoofers provided low-end extension in a non-cardioid configuration.
Milton stated, “The PA system sounded fantastic. WPL is every bit as accurate as its big brother, the MLA. I thought the low end and mids were particularly coherent and offered even greater headroom.”
Martin Audio • www.martin-audio.com
