Adamson on song for The Edinburgh Mela
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Founded in 1995 to showcase the talents of Edinburgh’s ethnic minorities, Edinburgh Mela has now grown to regularly attract thousands of people to its extraordinary range of theatre, dance, music and art.
Taking its name from the Sanskrit word for 'gathering' or 'to meet', Mela has come to represent the widest reaches of the Edinburgh festivals, attracting the most exciting and colourful acts from southern Asia, as modern Scotland's diverse mix of heritage and culture is celebrated in style.
For 2017 the Mela evolved into a week-long festival culminating in an outdoor weekend event on Leith Links. Many communities came together on Leith Links on the first weekend in September to enjoy a diverse programme of music and dance which incorporated local and international acts, representing a wealth of countries and continents, from India to Africa to China, and the Arab nations.
Live Systems Ltd provided the event with all their sound, lighting, staging, video and power requirements along with a large team of technicians and crew to deliver the project successfully.
The main stage this year utilised their popular Prolyte ArcRoof stage with the addition of a catwalk for the fashion elements of the festival.
Sound was provided by some of their new Adamson S10 line array loudspeaker system, consisting of only four S10 and two S119 per side powered by Lab Gruppen PLM20K44 amplifiers running Lake Processing that covered the substantial main audience area.
The front of house console was an Allen & Heath GLD112 console with AR2412 and AR0804 stageboxes. The microphone selection needed to cope with an eclectic mix of instruments. In addition to the usual standard instruments there was a wide variety of ethnic instruments from India and the Far East. Various microphones by AKG, Shure and Sennheiser were used with DI’s from BSS and Radial.
Steve Robb, managing director of Live Systems commented: “Our investment in Adamson comes after many years of looking at a variety of manufacturer’s offerings. In terms of equipment, we have always tried to bring something different to the rental market rather than simply jumping on the same bandwagon as everyone else. In this way, we aim to set ourselves apart from our competition while at the same time giving our customers access to the best quality products.
“As such, we were keen to wait until we found the right line-array system that would offer a quality that exceeds the other main brands on the market and also offers a strong return on investment, Once we heard Adamson products, in particular the S10 System, we knew this was the right choice for us. The Edinburgh Mela is a magnificent display of diverse music so the sound system had to be right. Adamson proved to be perfect for this popular festival.”
(Jim Evans)
