Wigwam Hire were able to give a full run to their Martin Audio line array systems on the recent Girls Aloud theatre tour, the wide variation of venue capacities enabling the set-up to be easily reconfigurable between the Compact and Mini enclosures.

The W8LC had already proved its worth on sidehang duties with Westlife, and once again production duties were in the capable hands of Production North — with Iain Whitehead taking responsibility.

While 24 Martin W8LC Compact Line Arrays and 12 x WLX subs were provided as the core system, two dollies of six W8LM Mini Line Arrays gave the FOH team of Mark Littlewood (sound engineer) and Sid Rogerson (system tech) options of groundstacking or flying depending on available rigging points and weightload restrictions.

“Typically,” said Mark, “this would be five of the larger enclosures flown and firing at the balcony and three a side stacked on the subs for the ground floor. This combination worked well.”

The largest show was at the 12,000-capacity Sheffield Arena, and production deployed 16 x LC’s and 12 x LM’s per side. “This covered the arena superbly; it was easy to set-up, using the ViewPoint™ software, and quick to rig and derig,” continued Mark. “Generally we tended not to use side hangs because it has a very wide dispersion, and we didn’t need delays.”

And Sid Rogerson added, “At the Glasgow Armadillo we had two rigging points per side and were able to cover the whole venue with just one hang of 12 x LC’s — with other line array systems I couldn’t have got as much uplift. The dispersion is amazing — it must have been usable up to 150°.” He added that the Martin systems offered better sightlines than other line arrays Wigwam have used because the boxes are so shallow.

“As for EQ, I was able to sort out the presets as we went from gig to gig — and just EQ the array rather than the room. As a result I now have a set of Martin room measurements.”

The WOMAD organisation staged its first-ever festival in Madrid this summer at the La Casa de Campo park in the heart of the city.

WOMADRID, which featured four live performance stages plus a programme of workshops for adults and children and a Global Village of international food and merchandise stalls, was a co-production between WOMAD and Dania Devora’s DD & Company Producciones, WOMAD’s Spanish partner for the past 11 years.

Providing sound for all four stages, as at all other WOMAD events world-wide, was Holland’s Ampco Pro Rent – continuing a relationship which stretches back over a decade – who supplied Martin Audio line array systems for two of the stages.

On the Open Air main stage, APR provided a Synco by Martin Audio W8L system. For the Saddle Span Stage, where Billy Cobham wowed the audience in a memorable set, APR supplied ground stacks of Synco by Martin Audio W8LM cabinets.