Manchester-based service provider VME and sister event company Creation Live recently supplied sound reinforcement for Edinburgh’s first outdoor dance festival – the Fly Open Air Festival.
Staged at the prime Ross Bandstand – with Edinburgh’ Castle providing a dramatic backdrop – the 3,000-capacity semi-circular amphitheatre saw local house and techno party organiser Fly Club take the party out of doors – calling on VME’s Martin Audio MLA system to comply with offsite noise restrictions imposed by the council. ‘Given the fact that this was the first outdoor electronic dance promotion, operating between midday and 10pm, the event was highly sensitive,’ agrees VME Head of Sound, Mark Cleator. ‘We needed a system that was guaranteed to pass all propagation tests.’
The solution was to set two zoned ground stacks of four MLA and three MLX subwoofers per side (since there were no rigging points) to meet the requirements of German house exponents Booka Shade, and other acts such as Theo Kottis, Detroit Swindle City Drum Ensemble and Harri + Domenic. ‘We were given 95dB (Leq at 15 minutes) at FOH – measured at the back of the dance area – and a 75dB threshold offsite,’ said Mark. ‘And we ran comfortably under.’
VME and Creation Live, represented by Live Events Director Tom Whittle, are no strangers to working with Fly Club promoter Tom Ketley, having joined forces in 2011 when the latter promoted a sell-out Afro Jack and Pete Tong show: ‘I was impressed, and was keen to use them again,’ Whittle says. ‘I also knew that the company was a stockist of Martin Audio MLA. To me the sound on an event such as this is one of the most important factors for audience enjoyment and I wanted to ensure the sound was top notch. The local authority had recommended I use the Martin Audio MLA, but this was new territory for themselves and for me.’
MLA was equal to the challenge despite buffeting winds on rig day (which saw the VME gazebo blown high up into a tree. ‘It was so windy at one point they threatened to call the event off, but fortunately it died down and MLA is a? sufficiently powerful box to cut through,’ says Cleator. ‘Because of the width of the coverage required, having MLA, with its 90° (±6dB) horizontal constant directivity, pattern control was a bonus, particularly knowing that it was usable out to 120°.’
Achieving even coverage posed no problem whatsoever, as Cleator tuned and programmed MLA using Display software and the Merlin Controller: ‘I mapped out the area and locked the preset, and then adjusted the non-audience area to make sure it was firing where I wanted. I walked the site a couple of times to check and then handed over to our FOH engineer, Oliver Fallon.
‘The ability to control the audio and keep it within the audience area and still provide smooth even coverage which is essential to electronic dance music, meant I had no concern over any off site complaints. There is no better system for this and everyone has come away impressed with its audio quality and it’s technical capabilities.’
VME also provided Pioneer and Allen & Heath DJ playback, as well as all lighting, big screen and production. ‘Many people commented on how good it all sounded and how impressive the achieved level was considering our location,’ Ketley reports. ‘The Martin Audio MLA certainly worked very well to give the audience a memorable day.’
‘MLA really delivered, we use it on a whole host of different events and I have always been so impressed with it, not just from a sound propagation point of view but also the overall quality of the audio,’ Whittle confirms.
With plans to make Fly Open Air Festival a regular annual fixture on the Edinburgh clubbing calendar, the promoters promise aim to develop the event to be ‘bigger and better’.
