With production duties returned to the hands of Method Events’ Mia Barrett and Matt Hendry, the 2025 South Facing Festival saw Solotech field Martin Audio’s WPL line array again after it replaced its long-serving forerunner MLA multicellular array last year. With audiences of up to 8,000 daily at the Crystal Palace Bowl in South London was considered the best to date.
Since this year’s programme leaned more heavily than previous years towards EDM and DJ-oriented acts – with Nile Rodgers & Chic, Basement Jaxx, Skepta and Busta Rhymes among the prominent acts, Solotech Account Manager David Preston, took a diligent approach when it came to sound containment.
South Facing is unusual in that its Orbit stage sits on a pontoon on the lake. Here Solotech rigged 15 WPL elements per side as main hangs, with four WPC per side acting as outfills and a further five WPS performing front fill duties – all driven in 1-box resolution from Martin Audio’s iKon iK42 process-controlled multi-channel amplifiers.
But it was the low frequencies, and the design and placement of the 15 SXHF218 subwoofers that required an astute technical approach. System tech Ryan Bass adopted a castellated broadside array, stating: ‘After using the sub array features within Display 3 [prediction software] I was able to design and tweak the array to ensure solid bass onsite while maintaining suitable levels offsite and on stage. In Display 3 I was able to adjust the sub spacing, arc delay and gain shading to achieve my desired results. This eliminated any guesswork and delivered a great result.’
The fact that the site is in a bowl naturally helps minimise sound spill. ‘Care was taken with the design to ensure I wasn’t overshooting, but still hitting all the way to the back of the arena,’ Bass says. ‘Similarly with the WPC side hangs, one of which was pointed straight towards an offsite measuring point, flying them a little higher and down into the crowd helped to contain the spill.’
Under crew chief Oli Fallon, the Solotech team worked alongside noise management company Vanguardia to ensure ‘everyone had a great time whilst keeping the local residents happy’, according to Bass. Following offsite monitoring, the PA company realised there was further headroom available, and consequently ended up with a limit of over 100dBA at FOH ‘which, in a park in London, is excellent’ Bass says.
Reflecting on the response to WPL, he adds: ‘The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Every guest engineer had a good show, comments from production/promoter were positive and the crowds certainly seemed to enjoy it as well. Several engineers commented on just how good the coverage was and how consistent everything sounded across the site.
‘Being able to preset angles on their carts means it takes no time at all to get the PA up in the air, a big improvement the four-point rigging of MLA. Tuning WPL is always an easy task, I never feel like I’m taking too much out of the system or fighting it in order to end up with a great result.
‘From designing a system, rigging and implementing it to hearing the show and end result, the quality of sound is always excellent, with consistency right across the site. Martin Audio products always outperform for their size, while having tools such as Hard Avoid can often be a game changer.’
‘The WPL performed brilliantly again this year, and with the use of Martin Audio Display software and all the optimisation tools they provide for the system we achieved great levels across the site – and importantly also off site – always staying within the dB limits set by Vanguardia at the offsite measurement locations,’ says David Preston.
See also:
Solotech delivers MLA at South Facing Festival
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