It’s already been described by organiser Michael Eavis as the “best ever” Glastonbury and for audio rental company RG Jones Sound Engineering it marked the third year in succession in charge of the legendary Pyramid Stage. This year the London based company, a member of the Synco Europe Network founded by Ampco, supplied a full Synco package including Synco by Martin Audio W8L Longbow main PA line arrays and Martin Audio delays, a massive Synco cardioid sub-bass array (custom-designed by Martin Audio) and a complete Synco stage monitoring and drum fill system.

Yasha Morgenstern, deputy production manager of Glastonbury Festival, commented: “We asked RG Jones to provide a redesigned arena system for the Pyramid Stage, to give better coverage and less overspill in that notoriously difficult arena. We are more than pleased with the result, with many reports of improved arena sound this year. Control, monitors and stage ran faultlessly, and visiting artists’ systems were dealt with smoothly. Overall a first-class job.”

Among the Pyramid Stage legends that made this amazing weekend their own were Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Blur, Lily Allen, The Specials, Madness, Dizzee Rascal, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Kasabian, Tom Jones and Fleet Foxes. Performances from Dizzee Rascal’s Bonkers to Neil Young’s storming Keep On Rocking In The Free World, from Madness’s Our House to Blur’s Park Life were among a host of great Glastonbury moments. And many of headline acts’ production crews were quick to praise the quality of the sound.

RG Jones Sound Engineering returned with an advanced version of the Pyramid Stage PA design created last year in conjunction with Martin Audio’s Jason Baird and Jim Cousins – both of whom joined the system design team again this year, along with Chris Ekers.
The main PA consisted of two 16-deep hangs per side of Synco by Martin Audio Longbow line array, powered by Synco drive racks and aligned via XTA AudioCore software. Coverage was extended to the rear of the huge bowl by a broad line of four 16-deep hangs of Martin Audio W8LC compact cabinets.

A new cardioid sub-bass array, arranged along the width of the stage front, also played a huge part in directing audio energy into the audience, while eliminating sound interaction between the Pyramid, Other and Jazz World Stages.

It comprised 35 Synco WS318X triple 18” sub-bass cabinets, with one rear-facing cabinet placed, out of phase and precisely delayed, between every pair of forward-facing cabinets. The design allowed the array to self-cancel rearwards bass spill, making both the stage itself and the backstage areas free of unwanted sub-bass. The horizontal directivity of the sub array was also adjusted to match the shape of the field, using computer-modelled time delay techniques.

Says Chris Ekers: “The combination of the line arrays with a cardioid sub array produced excellent directivity and propagation into the audience areas, often leaving some on stage to wonder if the PA was on! The addition of a fourth delay position this year provided near seamless horizontal coverage across the wider part of the field beyond 100m and up the hill to the boundary 250m from stage. Each hang was zoned so that the upper array sections were independently adjustable, helping reduce noise levels in the village of Pilton 1100m from stage.” Working closely with the noise monitoring teams, Chris added, “If we breached our limit at the measurement boundaries and were asked to reduce levels, I was able to make small level changes to the system without affecting the engineers mixing at FOH or the enjoyment of the majority of the audience; it worked well”.

One of those who spent much of the Festival at the mix riser was RG Jones audio production manager and FOH engineer Steve Carr. He confirmed Ekers’ assessment of the excellent coverage, crediting the assistance provided by Jason Baird.

“It was great to have the input from the Martin Audio system designers. Having Jason around, with all his experience of the box, meant that there were questions we could ask him on the fly which would otherwise have involved a lot of research time; so we truly appreciated their help.”

He was full of praise for Martin Audio’s in-house sound design — particularly Baird’s development of the custom-built Synco sub-arrays. “They gave us such a clear and precise shape,” he said. “Aligned to a cardioid array pattern across the front it certainly provided enhanced coverage.”

Sound propagation further back on site had been boosted by the extra delay tower, he confirmed. “We tried to push the sound a bit more this year and that really helped with the horizontal spread.”

Summarising the PA’s performance, Steve Carr said, “The dispersion was great, the throw was great and the containment was great. To have been able to control a long throw like this with such precision was remarkable — Longbow really responded.” This is because RG Jones assigned a dedicated XTA rack at FOH comprising three DP-448’s running AudioCore software — specifically for system EQ, alignment and long throw attenuation. Carr went on to say “as well as the zoning that already goes on in the array we added some extra giving us independent control of the top sections of each hang in the design” “This was controlled from a drive rack at FOH which allowed us to leave the XTA processors local to the amp racks alone to do the job of the crossovers only so if we lost the data line for any reason we would still have complete control from FOH”

All of which resulted in a lot of happy production crews. “The people from Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Blur all complimented the sound and a couple of people thanked me personally,” notes Steve Carr.
And RG Jones’s Sarah Muggleton, on site throughout the weekend, added: “After all the positive feedback from Glastonbury and the artists we particularly want to thank our fantastic crew for delivering great results all weekend long.”

Photographs © Mike Lethby Media 2009