X-LINE IN ACTION AT LONDON’S BIGGEST SHOWS

O2 Wireless and Hyde Park Calling Festivals

The “festival“ format of the O2 Wireless and Hyde Park Calling events is uniquely urban, with most fans attending for a single day. Topping the bill on different days were Peter Gabriel, Aerosmith, The Kaiser Chiefs, White Stripes, Faithless and Daft Punk. For the fifth successive year, Brit Row put forward the EV X-Line system as the main PA for summer events in Hyde Park-“tweaked and trimmed each year to accommodate changes in the site configuration and because we’re always trying to work out how to do it better,“ says Grant. “This year, the arrays were flown quite a lot wider, on the outside of the video screens. The side hangs were therefore very close to the main system hangs; not conventional, but I was pleased with how well that worked.“

The Concert for Diana, Live Earth, Metallica

From Hyde Park the EV inventory was shipped across town to the new £800 million national stadium in Wembley. With live audiences of 70,000, The Concert for Diana-staged to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana-was watched by many millions around the world.

The massive EV X-Line rig used for the Concert for Diana, Live Earth and, just one night later, Metallica, consisted of main left and right hangs of 12x Xvls and 4x Xvlt per side and left and right hangs of 12x Xsubs per side, all flown. Side left and right hangs upstage comprised of 14x Xvls boxes per side and an additional 24x ground-stacked Xsubs. Britannia Row MD Bryan Grant commented: “We used a lot of distributed fire power to fill the space, and, thanks to the construction of the roof area, even with Metallica, we didn’t upset the neighbors while achieving levels of over 104db at the console-a challenging 77 meters from the downstage edge.“

In the stadium to mix front-of-house for the band Razorlight, engineer Ian Laughton gave his impressions of the Live Earth experience. “It was an amazing day, to walk into the new Wembley stadium after all these years, and to see my favorite PA system flown there. I won’t leave home without the X-Line system and have used it on the last two Razorlight arena tours. I wasn’t mixing on my normal desk, but I wasn’t worried because of the X-Line-the coverage and quality is fantastic.“

Bryan Grant says he’s ecstatic about the success of the Wembley events. “X-Line is the ideal system for a multi-band bill, as these two events demonstrate. At the Concert for Diana, the musical mood was more middle-of-the-road, easy listening, a bit of orchestra, a bit of pop. Live Earth had a much more rocking bill, going from Genesis to the Pussycat Dolls to the Foo Fighters, so X-Line had to deal with that sort of weight. And then there’s Metallica, full-on heavy rock, and we had to fill a stadium where the top seat is 47 meters above the pitch. X-Line has the flexibility to deal with the changes in conditions and the changes in demands.“

Metallica’s big London date attracted 70,000 heavy metal fans to the stadium, but the band also contributed to the Live Earth festival the day before. “The PA output for Live Earth was attenuated for the TV show, and we had presenter platforms and B stages and all sorts of things in front of the PA. Consequently, Metallica’s front-of-house engineer ’Big’ Mick Hughes was concerned that the X-Line system would be loud enough for their own show.“

Not a problem: overnight, Brit Row’s systems technicians changed the front-of-house and monitor positions, and reattenuated the system to give a lot more energy between the downstage edge and the mix position. According to Grant, “it worked really well in the end-Mick was happy.“

www.britanniarow.com



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Guy Low

Sr. Copywriter | MarCom

Bosch Communications Systems

Telex Communications, Inc.

12000 Portland Ave. South

Burnsville, MN 55337

Phone: 952-736-3935

Fax: 952-736-4582

guy.low@us.telex.com

James Edlund

Public Relations Manager

Bosch Communications Systems

Telex Communications, Inc.

12000 Portland Ave. South

Burnsville, MN 55337

Phone: 952-736-3901

Fax: 952-736-4582

james.edlund@us.telex.com