Norwest Productions provides Adamson for Defqon1 Dance Party
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Norwest Productions provided an Adamson sound reinforcement system for the recent Defqon1 Dance Party outdoor festival at the Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith Lakes. Norwest also provided the staging and lighting solution for the festival, which boasted seven stages, including the main ‘Red Stage’ that drew a crowd of 22,000 people.
The audio system design was executed by event FOH engineer Scott Harrison using Adamson’s Blueprint A/V software, enabling the plotting of the four main hangs and front-fill: ‘The prediction really matched what we experienced on the day,’ said Mr Harrison. ‘And it was great being able to plot all four hangs at once, giving us a great idea of coverage and our expected SPL.’
The main Adamson E15 hangs comprised 16 boxes per side, whilst outer-hangs were made up of 10 Y18 boxes supported by three clusters of eight T21 subwoofers arrayed in a two-high, four-wide configuration. Meanwhile, front-fill comprised three stacks of three Y10s with EAW SB730 with KF730 subs for DJ monitors.
‘With an area of 80m wide by 100m long to cover – including a VIP viewing deck at the 100m mark – we needed something that was going to have the ability to make it all the way to the back without sacrificing clarity and SPL,’ he explained. ‘We have used the Y18 in previous years, so we knew an Adamson solution was going to do the job. From all reports about the Energia system, I was very excited to get hangs of 16 boxes out and give its legs a stretch.
‘It was the first time I've flown the E15,’ he continued. ‘It was down to system tech Jonathon Warren and I, and we had a 16 box hang flown to trim in 25 minutes; and most of that time was spent getting the boxes into place inside the scaffold towers. The E15 is easily the fastest and easiest rigging system I've seen,’ he enthused. ‘And there really is nothing like having 24 T21s really beefing up that low end.’
Given the width of the area the system needed to cover, the subwoofer design proved to be a challenge. ‘From an engineering and design point of view, we wanted to achieve fairly even coverage everywhere, but to also have plenty of it for those up-front and centre,’ Mr Harrison continued. ‘In previous years we have used a single centre cluster, however once you go over four subs wide the horizontal pattern really narrows up, and that wasn't going to work for the width we needed. So went with the three cluster design, which helped us to achieve that coverage, and a little bit of DSP magic reduced the destructive interference between the clusters.’
All processing was provided by Lake’s LM series, whilst amplification was provided by Lab.gruppen, amounting to four racks of six FP6400s for the subs, eight racks of four FP6400s and two 10000Qs for all the Adamson tops, and two PLM10000Qs for DJ monitors. Additionally, a DiGiCo SD8 was chosen as the FOH console due to its Optocore link.
‘It was great to get the E15 out and have a listen to what everyone has been talking about,’ enthused Mr Harrison. ‘I was impressed by the speed that the rig went up and how even the sound was from the front all the way to the rear, and how the PA sounded like it was right in front of my face – even when it was 100m away.’
Fans came to see Wildstylez, Headhunterz, Frontliner, Code Black, Psyko Punkz, Toneshifterz, Zany, Max Enforcer, S Dee vs Hektic, and XDream perform at the event, which was hosted by MC Villain, produced by Matt Chromatic and promoted by Q-dance Australia. LX- PRG, Lasers- Oracle, and Pyro-Howard & Sons provided the pyrotechnics.