Combining a festival and conference, the annual The Next Web (TNW) sports the tag line ‘innovation through inspiration’, and is one of the largest and most influential European new technology gatherings.
The event has grown from around 200 attendees to more than 15,000 in its 13 years, with the 2018 edition backed by major brands and held in Amsterdam’s Westerpark. Jurjen ‘Jur’ Hesseling – founder of Badhoevedorp-based full-service technical production company, JUR (formerly Jurlights) – has provided the production infrastructure for the event since it began.
‘Because TNW is all about new and future technology, the production for the many presentations, lectures, discussions and other live events has to be at the cutting edge of our industry,’ he says. ‘The whole event is executed on a really high level and our assignment is to make everything look and sound extremely cool – they want the best technology to make it a fantastic showcase. We have used Alcons loudspeaker systems here for many years, ensuring that it always sounds as good as it looks.’
Westerpark includes the former Westergasfabriek gas works site, whose Dutch Neo Renaissance-style buildings are now used for a range of events. Its largest space is the Gashouder, a former gasholder, which has been repurposed as a 3,100-capacity, circular venue. This was the centrepiece of TNW2018, where Jur used Alcons LR18 Compact mid-size line array modules to deliver the event’s first in-the-round presentation space.
Being a giant cylinder, Gashouder presents challenging acoustics. At 53.8m in diameter and 14.5m high, its 5m high circular brick wall is topped with several more metres of vertical steel, which then forms the roof. ‘There are a lot of drapes, but significant acoustic challenges remain. However, Alcons speakers can be aimed so accurately that we were able to design a focussed centre cluster, which overcame any issues,’ Hesseling says.
This circular cluster featured six arrays of nine LR18, complemented by six BC543 very high-output cardioid subwoofers. The system had to deliver speech and playback for presentations, as well as live music for the event’s opening show.
‘The high and mid-frequencies of the LR18 are so easy to listen to, and so good for quality speech, that it was a huge advantage for the Gashouder system,’ Hesseling continues. ‘Unlike video and lighting, where it is easy for people to see really high standards, loudspeakers look like the most ordinary things in the world. People also often expect poor sound from large PA systems but, as soon as the LR18 system was in use, they were visibly surprised. It definitely had the “wow factor”.’
As well as the Gashouder system, JUR used many more Alcons systems throughout TNW2018. This included a system of 24 LR14 ultra-compact line-array modules in a second 600-capacity area, several systems of VR12 mid-size versatile monitors and BF181 compact subwoofers for audiences of 200-300 and many smaller spaces using VR12s or VR8 compact versatile monitors.
‘Every year the organiser says “make it great again”, and look forward to the results, because we will,’ says Hesseling. ‘We are given a lot of freedom, but with it comes responsibility.’
‘Sound done really well is still comparatively rare. It is but a lot of companies don’t focus enough and you need the equipment as well as the people,’ says The Next Web producer, Xander Kranenburg. ‘The sound we achieved with JUR and Alcons has always been really good, but this time, it was truly excellent. It gave us the confidence to ask ourselves if we could we do Gashouder in the round, and the answer was an emphatic yes.’
‘We actually received a lot of compliments about the sound throughout TNW2018, surpassing the high expectations of both the organisers and visitors,’ Hesseling concludes.
