Energia on the run in Columbia

2 July 2012

Columbia - Adamson Systems Engineering recently placed their first E15 system in Latin America with respected sound company and new Energia Beta partner, C. Vilar Amplificacion Professional. During Sir Paul McCartney's last leg of the On The Run tour which had started in the US & Canada last year, after which it headed to Europe and the UK, finally landed in South America.

FOH engineer Paul 'Pab' Boothroyd found out that there was a new e15 system available with a significant quantity of Y18, Y10 and T21's to support the stadium show in Bogota and jumped at the opportunity.

Ewan McDonald and Leo Vilar of C.Vilar, provided the system design with left and right main hangs, each made up of 15 x E15 above two SpekTrix 5 degree enclosures, and two SpekTrix W 15 degree enclosures. The design for side-hangs featured 12 x Y18's with an under-hang of four Y10's per side, 16 T21 Subs on the ground took care of the low-end. Four Y10's aside were stacked on top of the T21 Subs for front-fill, and four SpekTrix were evenly spaced across the stage as lip-fill.

Six delay stacks were distributed around the edge of the stadium to cover seating areas, four risers held four stacked E15's in each, two facing left and two facing right, and two delay stacks of eight Y10s each were loaded on scaffoldings facing out towards the middle of the seating area where most of the audience was concentrated.

"This was one of those shows that it is a privilege to work on. Sir Paul and band put on an amazing show, but from an audio perspective this was a fantastic performance by all parties involved. C Vilar proved that you can receive world class gear and service in Latin America and Pab's mix was impeccable in every way," reports McDonald.

"Chris Nichols (Paul McCartney's systems engineer) ensured that mix was delivered to the PA as Pab intended it to. As for the E15, it definitely delivered in the way we knew it could. Stadiums can be a challenging environment, but the PA had absolutely no issues in delivering the performance as intended; with clarity, punch, headroom and the throw was effortless. A great result by all."

Pab adds, "The delivery was fantastic, really in your face. I sometimes get frustrated at shows when the sound is all the way down far away by the stage rather than coming at you, enveloping you. Obviously the way the (E15) has been designed, the physics of it delivers very, very efficiently and in a very uniform way."

Pab says he likes a PA he can to tune rather than ready out of the box approach - "The problem is sometimes a PA loses too much headroom, punch, and clarity in the process, so I still like a PA that I can shape, and bring the PA to my mix".

The first E15 show for C.Vilar was on all accounts mightily impressive. "Everything came together that night. The E15 has gone to the top of my very short list of things I ask for around the world," concludes Pab.

"With a band and a mix engineer of their calibre, it is truly fantastic what can be achieved when given the opportunity to do so," says Jesse Adamson.

(Jim Evans)