Audile and SSE use XTA at hot summer festivals: UK-based Audile and SSE provided sound for some of this summer’s biggest festivals with the help of XTA processing.

Despite what has seemed like an even wetter summer than usual, 2008 has been another huge success for the ever-expanding UK festival market. Many thousands of people have enjoyed the unique atmosphere of music played outdoors and XTA processors have played a major part in bringing the music of hundreds of bands to their ears.

Audile and SSE Audio are two of the most prominent audio companies using XTA equipment on many of the main festivals. Between them, they serviced stages at events including Reading and Leeds, both V2008 venues, the Isle of Wight Festival, Glastonbury, Download, Cropredy, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Creamfields, Global Gathering, Latitude, Oxegen, Gatecrasher Summer Sound System, Escape In The Park and Beach Break Live, along with brand new events like Summer In The Park and The Hop Farm Festival.

Audile’s festival rigs comprise Funktion One self-powered Resolution 5s with F-221 subs (the latter featuring Funktion One/XTA A6 amp modules) and passive Resolution-5s/4s with F-218 subs, driven by MC2 amplifiers. Control for the systems is by XTA DP448s and GQ600s, with C2 compressors, G2 gates and a D2 dynamic EQ in the inserts rack.

 C2s and G2s are also a mainstay of SSE Audio’s festival rigs, with DP226s and DP448s controlling L-Acoustics V-Dosc systems.

With the diverse range of festivals that Audile works on, it is very important that the company’s systems can cope with any style of music. So the pure sound quality of XTA processors is extremely important.

"We strongly believe that an audio system should be transparent, from the signal entering the drive to sound exiting the speakers,” says Audile director Rob Ashworth.

“The sound of a particular music style is shaped on the mixing console, so a correctly specified and set-up system will cope with any style. Our gear is chosen for its transparency and XTA drive is the best there is. It sounds great with any music.”

Spencer Beard, Operations Manager at SSE Audio agrees, adding, “The audio quality is very good and, most importantly, XTA is accepted by a lot of engineers. The processors are also very easy and intuitive to use.”

Ease of use is maximised by XTA’s AudioCore software and wireless control, which helps to make the pressured environment of a festival set-up just that bit more straightforward.

“We always run AudioCore. It definitely makes set-up easier, particularly when EQing the system,” says Rob. “Running wirelessly it really comes into its own on the dance music shows where we don't have a FOH position. It eases set-up immensely.”
However, despite this level of sophistication being available, there are also times when the good old fashioned ‘grab and tweak’ approach is necessary, especially to give mix engineers peace of mind.

“While any required system EQ is applied in the DP units, having a GQ600 at FOH is indispensable to allow mix engineers to make on-the-fly adjustments,” says Rob. “Even if they don't need to use it, it's important for them to know that it’s available. “Similarly on monitors, you can't beat the instant access of a rack of GQ600s. Even if we're running a digital console with internal graphics available, we'll still tend to use the GQ units alongside it.”

Together with the GQ600s, Audile also uses XTA DP224s and 226s for controlling the company’s Turbosound TFM-450 wedge monitors, ensuring that the onstage sound is as tight as that out front.

“The artists deserve the same sound quality as the audience and using alternative control for the monitor system would compromise that,” Rob continues. “We get a lot of compliments from bands on our monitor sound, so using XTA processing on monitors certainly seems to make a noticeable and significant difference.”

Back out front, although power and clarity are extremely important, nowadays environmental noise control is the number one challenge for audio companies at UK festivals. Balancing the need to adhere to strict SPL limits against the expectations of both audience and artists alike is, as Rob Ashworth says, both difficult and frustrating.

However, XTA technology certainly aids getting the balance right, helping companies like Audile and SSE to keep everybody happy.

“The XTA SiDD and D2 processors are invaluable tools,” says Rob. “Their exceptional compression, limiting and dynamic EQ capabilities make it easy to stay within the limits we have to work to. And where those limits are particularly low, they make it possible to gain in perceived level.”

Overall it seems that the use of XTA equipment on this year’s summer festivals has been another huge success story, success that shows no signs of abating. “In a festival situation, with many visiting engineers, it’s very important that we provide equipment which as many of them as possible are happy, familiar and comfortable with using,” says Spencer Beard.

“XTA is both widely accepted and highly regarded by sound engineers, so the company’s processors are the obvious choice. “The XTA equipment has proved exceptionally reliable in some very challenging situations throughout a very busy summer season,” adds Rob Ashworth. “We are very happy with the sound, usability, build quality and reliability of it.

“In addition, we like the fact that XTA is a British company with whom we enjoy an extremely good relationship and whose staff are eminently approachable if we need support.”
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