The South Coast Proms
Whale Island, Portsmouth, June 2010
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Having serviced many shows with HM Royal Marines in the past, Sound By Design were the first port-of-call (no pun intended!) when they decided to stage an outdoor summer show at their headquarters on Whale Island, Portsmouth.
As the client wanted the audience to be free to sit wherever they liked and not contained in a specific area, the brief was to cover as much of the field as possible. Being a fairly large site with a 230m throw this was quite a challenge for system designer Dave Shepherd. After much work on CAD and Meyer Sound’s MAPP Online acoustical prediction software, Dave chose to utilise a hang of twelve Meyer Sound MILO per side with eight 700-HP subs and UPA-1P front-fills. To top-up sound at the rear of the site, three Meyer MSL-4s per side were hung in line with the main hangs at 120m down the field. All of this was controlled by a Meyer Galileo 616 processor and a Wi-Fi tablet. Front-of house Engineer Phil Wright chose a DiGiCo D1 Live to mix the show on. The combined microphone cupboards of Sound By Design and Chevron Recordings were on hand with models from Audio Technica, Neumann, Schoeps, Symphotec and AKG on display. Close micing with windshields was the order of the day as quite a sea breeze can develop through the site from Portsmouth Harbour. Hosted by Sally Taylor, from BBC’s South Today, the night began with entertainment from the Royal Marines Dance Band and the Royal Navy Pipers. With the Massed Bands taking to the stage, a concert full of exceptional music, lighting displays and a breathtaking firework finale followed and after the main event the Jazz Bands were on hand to serenade the audience home. Thankfully the weather remained perfect throughout the rig and show days, making for a very pleasant few days in Portsmouth. Dave began to regret having a no.2 haircut the day before the rig. Griff has been wise to this problem for years now and wore a cap! The South Coast Proms Website |
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