Martin Audio and RG Jones help Ministry of Sound celebrate thirty years of music

With the installation of MLA systems Martin Audio, sound engineering RG Jones has deployed in the O2 Arena (United Kingdom) audio technology for the concert of the thirty years of the company and club Ministry of Sound.

With a concert in O2 Arena (United Kingdom), the London multimedia entertainment and nightclub company Ministry of Sound has celebrated its thirty years of dance music, in which the London Symphony Orchestra, with his musicians accompanied by Paul Oakenfold and other guest DJs have performed his songs.

The show Ministry of Sound classical presents three decades of dance offered his followers a tour through the dance anthems of the past. The characteristic sound of Martin Audio, present in this company's clubs around the world, was contributed by sound engineering RG Jones and mixed by Phil Wright.

Coalition Presents, company that produced the event in collaboration with the music entrepreneur Raymond Gubbay, RG Jones deployed eighteen MLA systems, Martin Audio flagship, on each side of the stage.

With a configuration similar to that deployed for the musical war of the worlds (War of the worlds), presented in the same venue, RG Jones used twelve MLA Compact hung for the outfill for each side of the stage.

To this were added sixteen subgraves MLX in a wide cardioid configuration, with a central space of 2 m for a protruding stage platform, surrounded by a circular screen where the DJs performed. Eight units were placed as front filling. DD12, along with some enclosures MLA Mini.

The components were selected by Jack Bowcher, by R.G. Jones, y Sam Millen took care of the preparation, rack assembly, network deployment (under a structure Dante y AES), next to Doug Hunt, as direct engineer.

“We collaborated to achieve a great-sounding PA system,” explains Millen.- using Merlins (Martin Audio's digital speaker management system) to have more outputs that would allow us to have control over the system. “Then we align the PA and adjust the entire system”. All of this provided a perfect environment for Phil Wright to mix sound on a console. 96 canales.

Among other challenges and being the first time that the sound engineer works at the O2 Arena, and in front of 18.000 personas, “although it was a performance with a very high sound level, with four DJs, We had to make sure that the orchestra remained the main element - he remembers -. Local promoters feared that we had reached the maximum level, since Paul Oakenfold came to him relatively early, but the production went up when the orchestra came in”.

Regarding the use of MLA systems, “we manage it to avoid too much slapback using the function Hard Avoid, present in the software Display, and the direct/reverberated sound ratio was amazing”, duck.

The orchestra had intra-aural monitoring, and most of the instruments were captured with the microphones Core 4099 of DPA. “The combination between these and PA was fantastic,” he says.. Despite the proximity to the PA system, we got a huge amount of rejection in the back of MLA, which meant I could mix it comfortably at 105dB with no feedback. The crowd screamed at 102dB, so I had to put the show on top of that.".

For this sound engineer, The power offered by the MLA/MLX combination meant that “it had another 15dB (in the bedroom) if I needed them; crazy. By installing a really large system and using it below its power we get a totally visceral response, capable of hitting you in the center of the chest”.

was also represented Focusrite, parent company of Martin Audio, with your solution RedNet Audio-over-IP, an analog interface A6RKA for Dante that sent the signal to the in-ear headphones Shure PSM1000.