W8LC gets them Square Dancing

The UK went dance crazy recently when a number of world record attempts were made around the country during a TV and radio-broadcast Dancing in the Streets extravaganza.

The resulting BBC TV special, compered by Bruce Forsyth and Zoe Ball, included highlights of events across the country, the winners of the Ballroom Blitz talent search and the Big Dance Class record attempt. London’s Trafalgar Square, featuring around 800 dancers and over 45 different dance styles.

Those who assembled in and around Trafalgar Square were able to hear the action from a Martin W8LC Compact line array fielded by System Sound. The PA company were contracted to BBC Documentaries and Specialist Features, and their sound designer, Simon Biddulph, makes no secret of the fact that his favourite line array is the Martin W8LC. Because of the restrictions placed on production by the television requirements subwoofers had to be kept to a minimum. “But such are the full range capabilities of this system that we are able to do that,” said Simon.

He added that the event required a complicated rig design, set in several positions (including the presenters’ positions at the side of the stage). While eight W8LC’s were hung each side of the stage from a 10ft Pam Mast, specially developed for the Martin Audio line array system, four separate W8LC’s were flown in similar fashion in front of the National Gallery’s North Terrace, with a further speech PA facing back towards the stage for broadcast purposes. The system was correctly set up and optimised using Martin Audio’s ViewPoint™ software.

“The W8LC performed magnificently,” Simon said. “The BBC loved the sound in the Square and it caused no colouration of the broadcast. It was easy to rig and provided good coverage right across the frequency spectrum.”

Simon mixed the show from a Yamaha M7CL while the remainder of the sound crew included Pete McGlynn (crew chief), Mark Isbister (system tech) and Chris Vass (mixing monitors on a Yamaha DM2000). BBC’s Tim Davies was the overall sound supervisor and the BBC’s production manager was Emily Samson.