EM Acoustics reinforces Marines on the Green
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System tech Dave Shepherd, who has been involved with the Marines on the Green event for many years, felt that with the increased audience expected for the 30th anniversary concert, Halo-B would be the right choice. “We’ve used the Marines’ own Halo-C system in previous years, but with so many more people expected this year, it was the ideal scenario for the Royal Marines to experience HALO-B in action.”
Shepherd specified two ground stacks of four Halo-Bs on top of a single ST-215 sub per side for the main L/R system supplemented by two hangs of seven HALO-Bs and an MSE-218 sub on either side of the bandstand to cover the audience to the sides that stretched to over 120m away.
The system was driven from two DQRacks, EM Acoustics’ flagship touring rack comprising three high power DQ20D amplifiers plus a bespoke unit for signal/data/I/O and a mains power distribution/speaker output unit, which gave Shepherd detailed system control to ensure perfectly smooth coverage from the front row right to the very back of the audience.
“The location of the bandstand and the nature of the event means that our capabilities of flying the size of PA you’d normally expect to cover 12,000 people are very restricted, but Halo-B was more than capable of doing justice to the sonic prowess of the Royal Marines bands, as well as clearly delivering the words of the various speakers to the entire audience during the memorial service,” says Shepherd.
Andy Deacon, director of Zen Broadcast with over two decades of experience with the Royal Marines Band Service in recording and production, was one of the prinicipal coordinators of the event and also mixed the concert on the day. “The people of Deal are a fantastic crowd, with many still deeply affected by the IRA bombing 30 years ago, so it’s always an honour and a privilege to be part of this event which continues to draw a huge crowd,” he says.
“The combination of Halo-B and Dave’s system design was simply stunning. There was an even spread across the whole site and the new boxes sounded phenomenal – the mids were smooth and even, and complemented the orchestration perfectly.”
(Jim Evans)
