FRONT of HOUSE • November 2018 • Global News

SINGAPORE — The Sun Princess, built in 1995 and operated by Princess Cruises, underwent a major upgrade in Singapore recently. Along with a major retrofit of the ship’s existing AV systems — it is slated to serve as a floating hotel for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — the cruise line also invested in a new outdoor speaker system for the pool deck area in a weather-resistant design.

Princes Cruises turned to Miami-based Control AV for the update its pool deck sound system. Control AV provided DAS Audio WR Series line arrays on both sides of a large weather-protected LED video display. The L-R setup includes eight WR-320FX and four WR-322FX subwoofers per side, with an additional eight WR-6412FX two-way systems.

WR Series products, which feature stainless steel, fiberglass and water-repellent parts for protection from the corrosive effects of moisture and salt, are well-suited to installations like the Sun Princess, which are exposed to both the open air and open sea. DAS Audio’s WR systems are available in white as well as black. For this project, the white speakers were chosen as the best aesthetic fit.

Along with the need for equipment that would blend into the ship’s surroundings and stand up to the elements, the Control AV installation team overcame challenging time constraints with this install. It had to be done in just 17 hours. And the project’s whereabouts were not a given, either. As it turned out, the project would take place in Singapore.

Along with its willingness to overcome those challenges, the team from Control AV and DAS Audio custom-designing a set of upper and lower angled bumpers in white duplex stainless steel for the Sun Princess. In addition to the joint brackets between the double-sized enclosures, it was essential that the custom rigging be protected from adverse weather conditions, including hurricanes, typhoons and tropical storms.

2018 Emporium Festival in The Netherlands Rocks with System Provided by Story Event Engineering

WIJCHEN, Netherlands — Story Event Engineering deployed JBL VTX A12 and V25-II line arrays, Crown amplifiers and Soundcraft mixers for the 2018 Emporium Festival, which drew 29,000 attendees with an EDM lineup including Showtek, Lost Frequencies and Warface, among others.

“We’ve been providing sound for Emporium Festival for over 10 years, and every year our company grows along with it,” said Paul Lehmann of Story Event Engineering. “This year alone we used more than 400 JBL speakers and 200 Crown amps. Nine independent systems at a festival of this size can be a lot to keep up with, so it’s important to have reliability and consistency among all the gear.”

For the two main stages, Story Event Engineering selected VTX A12 line arrays, which enabled production manager Koen Wijnands and his team to achieve power, depth and clarity with minimal system tuning.

“From the first time we heard the VTX A12, we’ve been extremely impressed by its sound quality and performance,” continued Lehmann, “and the best part is it doesn’t require a lot of tweaking to make it sound good. From electronic styles like house, EDM and techno to live bands playing pop and rock, the A12 can handle any genre of music right out of the box. And the rigging is so simple and well thought out — as long as you do your calculations beforehand, you just set up the A12’s, turn up the volume and it sounds great.”

In addition to VTX A12 line arrays, Story Event Engineering supplied VTX V25-II line array systems for the remaining seven stages, with V20 speakers providing out fill coverage. VTX S28 and G28 subwoofers delivered the deep impact necessary to get the dance floor rumbling. VRX932LA1 speakers and VRX918S subwoofers provided powerful and accurate on-stage monitoring for DJs and performers. The VRX932LA1 also served as downstage front fills for the audience members in the front rows.

Crown I-Tech 12000HD, 5000HD and 4x3500HD amplifiers powered all speaker systems at the festival. The main stages were equipped with Soundcraft Vi2000 consoles with Realtime Rack effects, while the other stages used Soundcraft Vi1 consoles.

“So far everyone who heard the VTX A12 system is blown away by its sound quality,” concluded Lehmann. “Electronic music has a lot of subtle effects that sometimes get lost in other systems. Because of the clarity of the A12 system, you can hear every detail in the music and that’s what drives the audiences crazy.”

LONDON — British prog rockers, The Pineapple Thief, recently completed a short run across Europe, supported by soundco Reece Productions. The tour promotes Dissolution, the band’s 12th studio album, with the last show taking place at the O2 Empire in Shepherds Bush, London, earlier this month.

A.C. Entertainment Technologies supplied a complete Allen & Heath dLive FOH rig for the tour, including a dLive C2500 surface and a CDM32 MixRack. Simon Baxter, FOH engineer, specifically requested the dLive surface. “I needed a small footprint desk, but with the power and flexibility that dLive provides.”

The band’s tour management, Swex Booking and Productions, were impressed and have also requested a dLive system for band’s 2019 European tour, which kicks off next February in Florence, Italy.

“I loved using the console on tour,” Baxter said. “The on-board FX are fantastic, the multi band EQ was really useful and I was impressed with the ease of the workflow throughout.” He was also impressed with the sound quality. “It was fantastic — such a transparent sound and sensitive EQ allowed me to create the mix I wanted to achieve. I loved the desk and stage box combination — so much so, I am taking it out again in February.”

James Reece-Ford, Reece Productions founder and long-time user of Allen & Heath products, further added, “We’ve been big fans of the ecosystem Allen & Heath have been developing for their live digital consoles. The whole console feels like it was designed with me in mind, rather than the console. The sound quality is way beyond my expectations.”