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ADLIB Makes Time for T ... in the Park of Course
For the fourth year running, ADLIB Audio supplied a sound system and crew to the King Tut's Wah Wah Tent at T in The Park Festival at Balado, Kinross-shire, Scotland.
A spectacular line-up where the highlights included Daniel Merriweather, Jason Mraz, The Pet Shop Boys, the Noisettes, Friendly Fires, Jamie T, The Saturdays and many more over the three days.
James Neale led the ADLIB team of five and also oversaw the FOH operation. With Ben Booker keeping monitor world in check, the omnipresent Richy Nicholson looked after the stage and patch, assisted by Otto Kroyman and Michael Flaherty. The operation was project managed in the ADLIB offices by Dave Jones.
This year, the length of the King Tut's Wah Wah tent was extended by about 30 metres, making the tent approximately 120 metres long, which needed additional PA and delay stacks to ensure an even sound all around.
The main left and right hangs consisted of 11 flown JBL VerTec 4889 elements a side, complete with 10 ground stacked VT4880 subs per side. The increase in the tent's volume also allowed the ground support system to be built higher, so with a bit more elevation on the main arrays, more boxes could be squeezed in! This was a big advantage for the audio.
At the back of the FOH tower, two delay stacks, each consisting of three VT4889 speakers, were hung on special scaffolding structures that were raised two metres off the ground.
The PA was driven by a combination of Camco Vortex 6 amps (for the mid highs) and the new Labgruppen PLMs with the inbuilt Dolby Lake processing, which powered the subs and the entire monitor system.
The FOH console was a Midas Heritage H3000. This was specified because of its' universal familiarity to all engineers, and as a "safe bet" for anyone coming in to mix their act over the three days of the festival.
System processing was achieved via ADLIB's standard Dolby Lake processors run via a wireless remote tablet, complete with BSS FCS 960 graphic EQs. They used Drawmer DS201 dual gates, and a selection of BSS 402 and dbx 160a and 160SL compressors.
Each band's spec was carefully examined by Neale in the week before the event to make sure all their requests would be accommodated in an effects rack loaded with classics including an Eventide H3000 harmoniser, a Lexicon PCM 91, a TC M2000 multi-effects unit, a TC D2 delay and two Yamaha SPX 990s.
The monitors - 16 ADLIB MP3 wedges and two L-Acoustics Dv subs as drum subs were all controlled by a Yamaha PM5d console - also a standard for ADLIB festivals.
A full mics-and-stands package was also provided.
The biggest audio challenges of the weekend were the tight changeovers, particularly on Saturday and Sunday, where the line-ups were full-on. There was barely 30 minutes between getting one band off and the next one on - but they managed it.
The FOH position was 55 metres from the stage which is not an ideal mixing distance, but it gives the best sightlines - and all the engineers' comments were positive.
Dave Jones commented: "T in the Park is one of our favourite festivals to work on. Everyone is really helpful, it's such a smoothly run event and all of our crew always enjoy working there."
30th July 2009
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