As the principle Glastonbur y stages grind to a halt after dark, Worthy
Farm offers a vast array of entertainment options for nocturnal revellers,
including legendar y areas in the site’s South East corner – Shangri-La,
Block9, The Common and Unfairground.
Shangri-La, Glastonbur y’s late-night party zone, was once again a maze
of weird and wonderful stages and venues this year, each ser ving up its
own unique vibe to festival-goers. While the area primarily came alive at
night, The Truth Stage’s all-dayers saw the likes of Craig Charles, Norman
Jay, and more take over the day duties. Sleaford Mods also performed as
special guests on The Truth Stage.
Created by designer-extraordinaire Block9, IICON, a colossal,
anonymised head covered by projection and boasting a six-point
ambisonic sound system, made its Worthy Farm debut this year.
Working tightly with Block9 during the past year, Bild Studios provided
the pre-consulting and installed the system on site, including the supply of
disguise ser vers, Omnical and projection hardware, supported by Creative
Technology. Martin Audio MLA Compact was once again deployed on
the Block9’s Genosys stage, a massive, 70ft-high post-industrial piece of
architecture draped with exotic plants and steaming tubes, at the centre
of which was a DJ booth.
System Tech, Sean Hatton, described the set-up: “We’ve got 10 MLA
Compact aside with six DSX subs either side of stage,” he began. “The
massive changes in temperature – from searing heat in the day to thenver y cold at night – have been an issue this year, but the snapshots that are
uploaded easily in an instant without artefacts have meant that we have
been able to keep the coverage patterns we need. It’s been great.”
Reflecting on the striking giant human head backdrop used for the
IICON stage, Block9 co-founder Gideon Berger described how it evokes
the per vasive nature of technology on the human spirit: “It’s a sinister
monument to the terrifying realities of this digital, post-truth age that we
find ourselves in,” he began. A mammoth 65ft sculpture of a head, it is
“anonymised by a giant block that contains an LED wall entranced by the
image of itself, and by the screens”.
The visual spectacular was matched by an audio spectacular with
Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision Longbow (WPL) making its festival
debut in a stunning immersive 6.1-channel surround sound system
designed by RG Jones’ Simon Honywill, Consultant Sound Engineer for
the festival.
WPL is Martin Audio’s new large-format optimised passive line array
from the best-selling Wavefront Precision series. It offers an adaptable
approach to optimisation of line arrays through scalable resolution where
the user decides on the number of enclosures with dedicated amplifier
channels that are required for the coverage, consistency and control of
the space.
“I thought rather than having this incredible structure and then just
using straightforward left and right standard deployment, let’s go a bit
crazy and do it in surround sound,” said Honywill. “So, we had six hangs
of 10 WPL all pointing inwards with optimisation of the sound fields to
maximise the experience through the space for a 15,000 crowd. A single
23m-long SHX218 sub array in a broadside cardioid pattern provided
the thumping bass, but also control too. Each night there was a specially
commissioned presentation where the stage structure is projection
mapped combined with 6.1 surround audio, which worked highly
effectively. Then for the DJ sets we used a Trinnov Altitude 32 system to
effectively up mix the stereo output to the 6.1 surround system and the
results of that, were frankly outstanding.”
Trinnov Audio’s Benoit Munoz commented: “Live Sound is not a
market Trinnov Audio addresses but thanks to Simon’s enthusiasm for
our products, we get the chance to experiment and realise how relevant
our technology would be for such application. We were really excited to
contribute to this unique sound system, especially with such phenomenal
results, and most certainly look forward to being there again next year.”
This was endorsed by Gideon Berger: “This was an experimental design
brief, but we’ve been really helped by Martin Audio, RG and Simon, who
gave us demo suites to mix in, engineers on the ground to support, and the
whole thing has been a pleasure to work with them.”
Summing up, John Carroll, Managing Director of RG Jones, said: “It’s
an honour and privilege for RG Jones to once again be at the forefront of
the Glastonbur y Festival. From headliners to all-night dance music, this
was a triumphant year and we are so pleased with the feedback from
audiences, engineers and organisers to what we were able to deliver. My
thanks also go to Martin Audio, who provided such unwavering support in
the planning and execution this year and we can’t wait for next year and the
50thAnniversar y of Glastonbur y Festival.”
In closing, Dom Harter, Managing Director of Martin Audio added:
“What sets Martin Audio apart is its signature sound that can faithfullySOUTH EAST CORNER
GLASTONBURY