Behind the scenes at London's Soho House Festival

Britannia Row Productions recently provided sound design for West London’s exclusive Soho House Festival, using the L-Acoustics L2 system, control packages and technical crew.

Having already been selected as the world’s first audio rental company to deploy the new L-Acoustics L Series L2 at The BRIT Awards, and following its appearance at the vastly complex, internationally-watched Eurovision Song Contest, Brit Row has now supplied the system to an outdoor, urban environment in London.

Those in attendance at this year’s Soho House Festival were served up performances from the likes of Kelis, Sugababes, Tom Grennan, Annie Mac, Pete Tong and Gabriels to name but a few, offering fans a diverse range of genres to enjoy during the two-day event in Gunnersbury Park. The festival was launched to help raise funds for a number of charitable causes through The Soho House Foundation, which raises funds for and empowers creatives from underrepresented groups, as well as aiding disaster relief.

Brit Row was approached to provide its live sound expertise by long-time client, Judgeday production director, Dave T and production manager Chris Hayter.

Brit Row account executive, Tom Brown was on-hand for support, while Brit Row system designer, Josh Lloyd, designed the rig in-line with the event's strict noise restrictions. For control, Brit Row opted for DiGiCo SD5 consoles for FOH and monitor positions, which were utilised by all visiting engineers.

Lloyd commented on the arrival of the new system: “The L2’s design characteristics – such as the full bandwidth directivity, vertical control and auto solvers – really lent itself to this kind of challenging urban environment, which is a big, city-based residential area. Running in cardioid mode, the L2 afforded us the kind of flexibility needed to ensure a consistent sound level.

“The system also benefits from a very directional control pattern. This meant that we weren’t fighting gain before feedback on stage, and it has controllable, high granularity that you can cut off or adjust as needed. It was also amazing doing a festival with just two amp racks on either side of the stage – it makes everything much more energy efficient!

“It was great to hear the system outside too. Soho House Festival has quite a large stage, and the physical properties of the system look small in comparison, but the SPL is so impressive, with lots of low end and punchy impact, that it was an ideal solution. The mix of dance and pop acts on the line-up all sounded great, and the visiting engineers were suitably impressed.”

The team also used L-Acoustics Soundvision 3D sound design and mapping software for ultimate control.

Freelance systems engineer Sergiy Zhytnikov also noted: "The L2 may look small, but it sounds big! This high-fidelity system makes my work even more enjoyable; I used the temperature sensor plugged into the P1 USB port, and it worked very well in helping to keep the sound consistent when the temperature and humidity were rapidly changing throughout the day. The system sounded crystal clear and brought artists even closer to their audience.”

FOH engineer Tom Gelissen operated the system at both the Eurovision Song Contest and Soho House Festival. He said: “The fact that the L2 can operate in cardioid or hypercardioid mode comes at a great advantage. It offers a nice on-stage experience, and that helps indoors when used in complex PA configurations, such as Eurovision, but it also helps with offsite noise control. As with every system, it’s important to use it for the right project. When applied in the right situation, the L2 is a really great step forward.”

In closing, Brown added: “We have looked after Soho House Festival for many years now. It’s a very large ‘garden party’ in style, so it’s always important to strike a balance between the obvious need for high quality sound and not overwhelming the site. L2 certainly took the event to a new level. It was a pleasure, as always, to be involved and we look forward to returning next year.”