ESL backs Martin Audio MLA Compact for Outside Live

ESL backs Martin Audio MLA Compact for Outside Live

Event Sound and Light were contracted to provide a full turnkey production solution for Outside Live 2017, which took place at Taverham Hall, Norwich recently. The event itself was held over three nights, each with their own headline act; Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and The Shires were just a few of the acts to grace the stage.

Sound Designer Jason Fenn chose to deploy a full Martin Audio system for the event, preferring a combination of MLA Compact cells with MLX subs in cardioid format for a number of reasons. “The concerts were sold as a ‘picnic’ style event so we knew we had to have even SPL from the front row to the very back. On top of that, the event site was very close to a neighbouring village so keeping our off-site noise to a minimum was essential.

ESL backs Martin Audio MLA Compact for Outside Live

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“The other deciding factor for choosing Martin Audio MLA was the superb audio quality and sonic excellence that the system delivers.” Additional Martin Audio DD12s were deployed for infill and centre fill duties, with the entire system managed by Martin Audio’s dedicated Merlin control rack.

ESL backs Martin Audio MLA Compact for Outside Live

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Jason reports that their clients from Outside Live were “over the moon with the audio quality from the moment we turned on the system.” He adds, “Our ability to move the audio coverage meant during sound checks we could really contain the offsite audio spill and then open the array back up to cover the whole site for the show.”

ESL backs Martin Audio MLA Compact for Outside Live

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Event Sound and Light’s front of house engineer for the weekend was Tristan Mallet, who remarked, “I’ve had numerous experiences with MLA and never had a bad one yet. ESL are masters of patch and thanks to MLA we had a seamless operation all weekend.”

ESL backs Martin Audio MLA Compact for Outside Live

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With a multitude of guest engineers and 120 mics to comply with the 60-piece Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra’s requests, ESL’s system tech Mark Wass had his hands full. However due to Event Sound & Light’s on-going investment in infrastructure in he was able to create a versatile system that could accommodate the variety of acts turning up throughout the weekend. The crew was complemented by Dave Bland on the house monitor board and Richard Coombes providing the never easy task of patch.