As with all modern festivals, there are a variety of performance and presentation venues, the two largest, the main stage and the tent (a four king-pole circus tent supplied by Albion Woods) both sport large d&b audiotechnik C4/C7 PA systems, while the 25 other smaller venues catering for audiences of between 50 and 1,000 people use a variety of sound systems, generally d&b or Ohm Industries equipment. "We spent a lot of time looking at sound systems for the smaller venues," said Fernihough. "Because of the six week running time of this event, and the fact that each day live programmes run from nine in the morning until midnight, it’s just not economic to have that many professional sound engineers on site. So we recruit a volunteer squad and train them here - a task undertaken largely by Charlie Jones from Wigwam. What we need from these smaller systems is ease of operation, and that’s about well matched speakers, amps and processors - these systems will be running anything from stereo tape/CD source, through spoken voice, to a 10-piece electric band. You can’t have a system that requires to be re-EQ’d for each different performance type, the small d&b and Ohm systems fit this requirement well."
In the tent, a more sophisticated approach is taken. Although the stage has a typical stereo PA, levels are kept to a minimum by using an extensive distributed system around the further reaches (the tent is 79 x 69 metres). A C4 is rigged on each of the king poles, while further out are C6 and E3s flown from wire catenaries. "This tent is used primarily for Worship," explained Charlie Jones, "what we found early on is that if you bring the PA down from 98dBA, which is where we were at the beginning, to 93dBA, the kids all sing more - a positive result which raises everyone’s enjoyment."
Since Fernihough started working this event for New Wine 10 years ago, it has grown from a gig needing six people and a 7.5 ton truck load of gear, to a crew of 250 and 14 articulated lorry loads. Most of the smaller PAs are run from Allen & Heath 3 and 4000 desks, while in the bigger venues are a trusty old Yamaha PM4000 surrounded by Neve comp/limiters, BSS 902 and 901s.
(Lee Baldock)
