Attracting around 11,000 concertgoers, the spectacular open-air Leeds Castle Classical Summer Concert included the world premiere of ‘A Tribute to Leeds Castle’, composed by Tom Hodge and performed by the Band of the Royal Marines and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Rigby.

In the venue’s natural amphitheatre with the castle as its backdrop, RG Jones Sound Engineering ensured clarity, coherence and even distribution of sound with the use of a Martin Audio Wavefront Precision Longbow (WPL). The scalable resolution of WPL offers greater coverage consistency and control than a standard line array, and provides a flexible pathway to advanced array control.

Working for concert organiser Heritage Events, RG Jones Sound Engineering under Project Manager/FOH engineer Ben Milton, had to contend with a site that was both deep and wide (180m x 200m), with a steep incline. But Milton knew that the WPL system would mitigate many of the idiosyncrasies and even out the 180° sound dispersion required to cover the audience area.

Programming the optimisation for depth in the dedicated Display software, Milton says: ‘We produced a very even tone, deploying a system optimisation at 3dB drop between the auditorium boundary and the downstage edge. This produced a totally even coverage throughout.’

This was achieved using16 WPL elements per side for the main hangs, with eight Wavefront Precision Compact (WPC) for out fill, 12 WPL for the Hill Fill (the single auditorium right delay position) and four-per-side Wavefront Precision Mini (WPM) for in fill. In addition, four Martin Audio DD6s were spread across the front for close-fill coverage and six-per-side SXH218 subwoofers provided low-end extension in a non-cardioid configuration.

‘Having worked for many years on the Leeds Castle site, as soon as we heard the WPL at demonstration we knew it would be perfect for this event,’ says RG Jones Director, Andrew Williamson.

‘The PA system sounded fantastic,’ Milton adds. ‘WPL is every bit as accurate as its big brother, the MLA. I thought the low end and mids were particularly coherent and offered even greater headroom.’

‘I have had the privilege of working with RG Jones for many years and there was certainly an appreciable difference to the quality of the sound reproduction this year; this was noticeable across the site, which is a difficult thing to achieve,’ says event director, Richard Millward. ‘We have been working together with RG Jones on this event for many years – long may that continue, with their WPL.’

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