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JBL VerTec at Download 2004
Birmingham-based sound rental house SSE Hire once again chose a JBL VerTec line array speaker system for the main stage at the main Download 2004 Festival’s Donnington Park site.
VerTec is an ideal - and elegant - sound system for loud, ass-kicking heavy and speed metal music . . . and another huge, 64 element VerTec system from SSE is out on Metallica’s extensive European summer tour, mixed by “Big Mick” (Hughes).
The Download concept was started in 2003 by Clear Channel to revive the awesome genre of metal and rock orientated ‘Monsters of Rock’ events, offering the additional bonus to fans of being able to download portions of the live performances after the event.
The Castle Donington site – with its legacy of hosting Monsters and many other legendary rock shows - was the obvious choice. The 2004 Donington Download site was extended from two to four stages, and the event as a whole was expanded to incorporate the Scottish Download Festival at Glasgow Green.
At Donington, the front of house PA comprised 64 JBL VerTec 4889 elements with 48 Nexo CD-18 sub-bass cabinets, powered throughout by Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers. BSS OmniDrive Compact 366 processors provided VerTec crossovers and the overall system control. BSS’ Rich Rowley supplied new Thiele filter parameters for the OmniDrive Compacts to improve the system sound over previous VerTec crossover setups.
Apart from the sound quality, the speed and ease of rigging the lightweight VerTec elements is a massive asset in large PA situations, and the system’s power means that fewer enclosures are needed, which has benefits in saving structure loadings and leaving plenty of room for other production elements such as video.
Donington’s FOH babysitters were SSE’s Dennis Fernandez and Rob Hughes The system was used by a myriad of engineers from the eclectic line up of international artists including Metallica, Linkin Park, Korn, Slipknot, Lost Prophets, Iggy and the Stooges, HIM, Machine Head and the Distillers.
SSE’s Chris Beale comments: “I have to admit, when it comes to pure ‘horse’ power, VerTec is hard to beat. At Copenhagen (for Metallica) the system produced 110dBA and 123dBC at the mix position. Whilst I find these levels difficult to justify . . . there is no doubt about VerTec’s capability.”
10th June 2004
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