XTA's Personal Service at the Royal Albert Hall

Two consecutive days in September saw London’s Royal Albert Hall host two very different shows - German musician Herbert Gronemeyer one day, followed by the multi-artist Peace One Day gig the day after - that had one significant similarity: XTA digital signal processing.

Audio equipment for the shows was provided by Concert Sound, who specified XTA DP448s and 446s to control a JBL Vertec line array, with DP226s controlling Adamson infill / groundfill cabinets. XTA’s Audiocore 8.5 plus a WISER wireless kit and tablet was used for overall system control.

“For the Herbert Gronemeyer show, the lighting and sound rig were tied together. Unfortunately there was a problem with the lighting and so we couldn’t get the PA hung until late,” says system tech Aron Ross. “Time was very tight, but I’ve worked with FOH engineer Colin Norfield quite a lot, so he was more than happy to do the main system EQ on his graphics. We then tuned the rest of the system with the XTAs and they allowed us to still get it all done in time.”

The following day’s Peace One Day event featured appearances by Annie Lennox, Jude Law, Corinne Bailey Ray, the Dalai Lama, Yusuf Islam, Marc Almond, Kate Nash and others. DiGiCo D1 and D5 consoles were at FOH, with Paul Ramsay the main FOH engineer, while analogue consoles were used on monitors.

Parts of the PA system had to be moved for this show, with the time delays and system EQs being re-done, meaning another tight timescale and it was here the ability to wirelessly control XTA processors really came into its own. But Aron didn’t use too much system EQ, the primary intention was to make it sound consistent throughout the venue.

“Both shows were fantastic, both with engineers I admire,” says Aron. “The Herbert Gronemeyer gig was the first time I’ve ever seen crowd surfing at the Royal Albert Hall - and I suspect it’ll be the last!”

He continues, “With the Albert Hall you have to cover every seat and gallery perfectly, even if a show isn’t sold out, because some of the seats are owned outright by people who could turn up at any time and they would complain if they were to turn up and the sound wasn’t great.”

The WISER system really came into its own, allowing Aron to quickly and easily correct the problems. “I was able to go to those seats and quickly adjust the system via the tablet, a level of ‘personal service’ that is one of the huge advantages which XTA wireless control offers in the Albert Hall,” says Aron.