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dBTechnologies Takes The Heat at Malawi Festival for The Maccabees
By supplying a complete DVX monitor system to the four-day vinspired Lake Of Stars (vLOS) festival recently, dBTechnologies helped raise the bar several notches providing headliners The Maccabees and many other UK and African bands with a calibre of sound reinforcement never before heard on the palm-fringed shores of Lake Malawi.
A total of eight DVX DM15s, a DVX12 and a DVA S10 subwoofer were loaned to the festival, much to the delight of vLOS Stage tech/engineer, Craig Williams. "They were incredibly easy to set up and had a sonic clarity and detail you would not usually expect from a self-powered monitor," he explains. "They are awesome products that I would take anywhere in the world, especially in a situation where weight, size and reliability are an issue," continues Williams. "The limiting system meant I could spend more time with the African artists and less time worrying about blowing wedges!"
Listed as one of the Top 20 Festivals in the World by The Independent and the ninth best in the world according to Horizon magazine, the vinspired Lake Of Stars festival has surprisingly humble beginnings, having been borne form a desire to raise money for a developing economy.
vLOS founder and director Will Jameson explains: "We rely on artists, professionals and companies like dBTechnologies lending their support and expertise free of charge. Big thanks to Dave Kelland at dBTechnologies for arranging it; the monitors made a big difference this year."
Williams agrees. "Compared with previous years on the vLOS stage when we only had ancient - and unidentifiable - Malawian systems to work with, these were great," he says. "Every Malawian musician that played on our stage was literally dumbstruck and most grateful for the ‘beautiful sound'."
DM15s provide powerful low-end performance, and as with the full DVX range boast an impressive feature set, including high quality input board and flexible configuration options, whilst still managing to keep their weight to a minimum. "We only had limited freight allowance, so it made perfect sense to take these dBTechnologies speakers on a trip to Africa," Williams says.
"I was surprised that the amps held up to temperatures as high as 45 degrees for 12 hours a day. They certainly coped with the heat better than I did," laughs Williams. Jameson explains more about the motivation behind the vLOS festival. "We use ‘music-tourism' to generate revenue and exposure for Malawi, with proceeds from the festival being donated to charitable projects in the festival site area. This way as the festival expands, so too does its positive sphere of influence.
"The vinspired Lake Of Stars event was supported by v, The National Young Volunteers Service. We are also hoping to team up with Voluntary Service Overseas charity this year to develop an exchange program where UK sound engineers work alongside their African counterparts and share skills with one another."
15th January 2010
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