Robbie Williams belongs to that category of world-class stars whose technical crew can request virtually any piece of equipment available on Earth and, with high probability, get it. Therefore, the choice of the sound system supporting Robbie’s entire concert tour, the Britpop Tour, was a thoughtful and deliberate decision by his FOH engineer, Joe Harling. He opted for cardioid systems from d&b’s SL Series. Why?
“I love d&b,” says Harling. “It’s the best all-in-one solution, including DSP and amplifiers. The GSL and KSL cabinets sound incredible with ArrayProcessing. The SL Series systems, which were designed to work with ArrayProcessing, are in my opinion somewhat unfair to everything else, because the whole family is simply far better than anything else currently on the market”
At Tauron Arena, the main system consisted of d&b GSL8 – two hangs of 18 modules each, plus a sidefill made up of two KSL hangs, each with 16 modules, plus additional hangs serving as 180-degree sidefills, also using KSL modules (8 per hang). Suspended behind the main hangs were SL-SUB low-frequency arrays (9 per side), supported by additional SL subs stacked in front of the stage, on top of which a frontfill composed of Y10P modules was placed. The entire system was powered by d&b D80 amplifiers. “The flown subwoofers do almost all the work,” states Harling. “The ground-stacked subs are really just ‘front-fill’ subs. They add about 0.6 dB to the overall level in the audience, so they’re almost inaudible. But this gives the best front-to-back response. It means you don’t blow away the people at the front, and it’s much quieter on stage in the lowest frequencies”.
It wasn’t just the low bass that was quiet on stage – thanks to the cardioid directivity pattern of the SL Series systems (with GSL, directivity control starts as low as 45 Hz), the musicians on stage enjoy greater working comfort, and engineers deal with fewer “bleeds” from the PA into the microphones. “The cardioid dispersion is extraordinary – it’s very clean behind the system,” comments Joe. “You can simply set the high-pass filters much lower on acoustic guitars and other such instruments, give them some space, without worrying about feedback. Partly it’s the cardioid pattern, and partly our approach to more linear sound reinforcement.”
The person who collaborated with the FOH engineer throughout the entire tour was the system engineer. That person was Ville Kauhanen from Clair Global, who has worked with Taylor Swift for the past three years. “I watched Ville tuning and optimizing the sound system. He was using his tablet, and I was just sitting here by his screens. And I noticed that the measurements from the front, middle, and back of the arena were essentially the same. ArrayProcessing simply uniformizes the frequency response to a degree that cannot be achieved with classic methods.” Moreover, ArrayProcessing allowed the technical crew, led by Ville and Joe, to eliminate “ring” systems at stadiums, which saved not only a lot of money but, above all, the time needed to rig and prepare the system (as well as strike it).
Another advantage of ArrayProcessing, noted by Robbie’s front-of-house engineer, is better control over volume across the entire area and easier compliance with noise regulations that apply in some countries. As Joe explains:
“The difference in decibels between the stage and FOH is 1 dB, sometimes one and a half decibels – but on average about one. In Germany, for example, they measure 99 dBA over half an hour at the loudest point. Many sound systems use lots of stacked subwoofers, which means their frontfills have to be really loud. In that case, 99 dB at the loudest point (right in front of the stage) means you can have no more than 94 dB at FOH. But we have 98! It simply makes mixing for the entire venue much easier. We had no issues with volume on the shows – throughout the entire tour, I was never once asked to turn it down at the stadiums”
Joe also explained what he meant earlier by more linear sound reinforcement. “I prefer the approach that most people use with d&b. We have appropriately splayed modules in the hangs – it’s not just a long, straight line – and we’re really selective about which frequencies come from which sources. So our main hangs, outfills, and other broadband systems don’t go very low. Then the flown subwoofers seamlessly take over their role, while the stacked subs play quite quietly and simply reproduce the lowest octave. So there’s very little overlap in terms of frequency response between the different sources. In my opinion, this gives us a much cleaner and more consistent result in every part of the covered area. It’s like mixing on studio monitors – very linear, predictable, and it just allows me to be creative. I think the way we optimize the system to be quite linear also means you can basically take my mix for broadcast and it will work quite well there.”
The entire concert tour, starting with rehearsals, began on April 13 and consisted of about 90% stadium shows. The final leg of the tour – including the concert in Kraków – took place in sports arenas, where the system was less extensive, as it didn’t require additional delays. In the case of Tauron Arena, the sound crew arrived around 9 a.m., and – as Joe said – everything was ready by lunchtime. For stadium shows, rigging took place the day before the event, but – again quoting Harling – “no one worked late.”
The choice of d&b GSL/KSL systems for Robbie Williams’ current tour delivered results that were not possible during Robbie’s previous stadium tour. As Harling summarizes: “These systems are undeniable proof that newer means better, as is the enormous knowledge and work behind optimizing sound reinforcement in every venue, which ArrayProcessing technology enables. It’s a huge step forward.”
