Meraki Festival is a fast-growing and well respected music and arts event held at the Hertfordshire County Showground. Hire Frequencies covered sound, lighting and video for both the main stage and a secondary stage. The 3 day event sees over 7,000 festival goers in attendance over the weekend. The festival hosted numerous well known acts such as The Shires, Judge Jules Live Band, and comedian Sean Lock.
The Main Stage consisted of a 10m x 6m platform with two d&b Audiotechnik V-Series line arrays, and two overhead trusses with a mixture of Robe and Chauvet Pro lighting fixtures. FOH & Monitor consoles used were MIDAS Pro 2 and DiGiCo SD12 respectively. A full complement of stage monitoring, IEMs, microphones, stage crew and technicians were all provided.
We deployed a d&b Audiotechnik V-series line array in two hangs with a V-SUB subwoofer array. In each hang we rigged 6 x V8 and 2 x V12 line array speakers flown from stage PA wings. The sub array consisted of 8 x 18” V-Subs allowing us to control the directionality of the low frequency content. We had 4 V10s as in-fills to add coverage to the front of the stage.
As with all large scale events we utilised Array Calc to determine the sound pressure levels (SPL) across the audience areas and help minimise sound spilling to the other areas of the festival site. The sound system was powered by a rack of D80 amplifiers connected together with an DS10 Audio network bridge, allowing easy control of the amp rack remotely from a networked laptop.
12 x d&b V8s
4 x d&b V10s
8 x d&b V-SUBs
3 x d&b D80 amplifiers
1 x Midas Pro2 Console
1 x DiGiCo SD12 Console
10 x Sennheiser G3 radio mics
10 x Sennheiser G3 IEM systems
10 x active stage monitors with sidefills
Full range of mics and DIs from Shure, Sennheiser, AKG and BSS
Our lighting rig consisted of two truss hangs and four tank traps plus a line of floor mounted fixtures. The front hang supported all of the front lighting and stage wash, as well as crowd lighting, strobes, blinders and beams dancing to the beat over the audience. Behind the bands we had a comprehensive array of lighting to achieve a large variety of effects for visual impact. The rear lighting layout was designed so the tank traps and rear truss would act as a dynamic background to backlight the bands and create a large variety of looks.
The rear truss was hung low, narrowly clearing the tank traps. Together they formed four rows of lights creating a variety of moving ‘lightscapes’. Due to the huge variety of acts, the Chamsys lighting desk was set up so that every effect could be called upon and ‘busked’ in time to the music by the engineer. This was achieved by designing a number of different scenes and reassigning as many buttons as possible of the lighting desk to be live triggers, so the operator’s fingers can dance along to the beat creating the live effects on stage.
Front Truss
4x Tungsten Fresnels for warm white stage wash.
4x Rogue R2 Wash lights for stage colour and effects.
4x LED Pars for additional colour combos.
6x Robe Pointes
3x Elumen8 LED blinders
3x 1500W Strobe
Rigging
10m x 6m stage
2 x Line array hangs flown from stage wings
2 x Hangs of Prolyte H30V truss
2m x 2m stage risers
Rear Truss and Tank Traps
4x Chauvet R1 FXB Dual Axis Rotating Batons
4x Chauvet Rogue R2 Spot Moving Heads
8x LED Par cans
4 Chauvet Hybrid Moving Heads
2x Chauvet Hurricane 1600 Foggers
2x Chauvet Hurricane 4D Hazers
The Second Stage was situated in a big top tent with a wide variety of performances including DJ sets, stand-up routines, and film screenings. We needed a robust set-up to accommodate these varying performances which was optimised for quick switch overs as the schedule was very tight. Full kit list below.
Audio
d&b audiotechnik T Series tops
d&b audiotechnik B Series subs
Midas M32R Digital Mixing Desk
Sennheiser EW 300 G3 radio mics
Pioneer CDJ-2000 NXS2 decks
DJM-900 NXS2 mixer
Video
Philips 65″ 4K Ultra HD LED Screens
Roland V-60HD vision mixer
Rigging
6m x 4m stage platform
‘Goalpost’ truss structure for lighting rig
Lighting
12x LED PAR Cans
6x LED Battens
2 x 1500W Strobes
4x Robe Spot 250XT spot
2x Chauvet Intimidator LED 350
2x Laserworld CS-1000RGB MKII lasers
With over a decade’s experience in putting on impactful events with excellent results we have the experience, professionalism and dedication to deliver in all situations. Meraki Festival was no exception, and it certainly presented various challenges with its wide array of acts each requiring fast and complex stage changeovers for three days. We relished the opportunity with plenty of good will and smiles and the result was a great sounding and impressive looking festival we were all proud to be involved with.
