“As a filmmaker, there’s no other forum like Sony Tropfest. All you want to do is get your film seen by the biggest audience and it’s here at the largest short film festival in the world. Winning this festival opens doors, it’s a dream!” Thus spoke Luke Eve the first prize winner at this year’s Sony Tropfest for his comedy/drama Australian Summer about two homeless guys going on a surfing safari – in their minds.

In 2005 over 130,000 watched as the 16 finalists’ films were beamed live via satellite to venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Hobart and Brisbane.
The number in Sydney’s Domain was estimated at somewhere close to 100,000 so production and services were all on a grand scale. A triangular stage occupied the middle of the park with live bands and announcers including host Adam Spencer. Three videowalls were suspended from a truss tower above the stage. As all three screens showed the same movie simultaneously the audio requirement was essentially for 360° of coverage, with patrons spread up to 300metres from
the stage.

Event specialists 3200 Lighting were on hand with an arsenal of Martin Audio Wavefront cabinets. The venue was split into six audio zones each receiving a mono signal. The three zones directly facing the screens were treated to four Wavefront Compact Line Arrays, each delivering 90° of coverage. The off-screen axis zones received audio from a combination of W8CT and W8CM Longthrows and standard W8C cabinets depending on the length of throw required for each zone.
In previous years, 3200 had utilised a design that relied heavily on delay towers, however, the ability of the W8LC’s and W8C Longthrows was so effective that the delays became virtually redundant, and an unnecessary line of sight interference.
An array of W8C’s on stage delivered full impact to the enthusiasts in the ‘pound seats’, who turned up early or even camped overnight. Three banks of four WSX monster subwoofers were also stacked at the stage and provided enough bass reinforcement for the entire 100,000 — quite a tribute for Martin Audio’s horn-loading and coupling technology.

“The flexibility of the Wavefront family really makes it ideal for an event like this.” Explained 3200 Production Manager Ojay English. “Because the voicing of the Line Array, W8C and W8C Longthrow cabinets is essentially the same, they can easily be mixed in a single system. As you walk through the 360° degrees and six audio zones the sound remains remarkable constant — even in the few small zone overlaps.”

“Every year we receive accolades for the system and this year was no different,” commented Iain Reed, Technical Director of 3200 Lighting.”
An Allen & Heath ML5000 occupied FOH with a GL2200 feeding foldback to Martin LE350 and LE400 Monitors. The total of 40 Wavefront cabinets was ably powered by 30 QSC PowerLight 2’s with Martin Audio DX1 digital processors providing system limiting, control and delays.