22LIVE DEPLOYS MARTIN AUDIO FOR ROYAL HOSPITAL CHELSEA EVENTS
The recent Live at Chelsea concert series took place over five nights in June within the courtyard of London’s historic Royal Hospital Chelsea, attracting audiences of more than 4,000 each evening. Providing the sound reinforcement was leading UK rental company 22live, which deployed a comprehensive Martin Audio system comprising WPC main arrays, TORUS front fills and WPS sidefills.
Founded by King Charles II and designed by Sir Christopher Wren, Royal Hospital Chelsea has been home to the Chelsea Pensioners since 1692. With the historic buildings and iconic clock tower forming a striking backdrop, the events were staged in the magnificent Figure Court, a 17th-century courtyard that hosted a diverse line-up of artists, including Holly Johnson, Blue, Sparks, The Proclaimers and The Beach Boys.
Most of the artists brought their own engineers, and the feedback was consistently positive."
“It’s unusual because it’s an outdoor event, but the audience is entirely seated,” explains Paul Timmins, Hire Director, 22live. “There was tiered seating around the sides and at the rear, so it felt much more like a purpose-built theatre environment.”
With an audience area measuring approximately 75 metres square, 22live selected Martin Audio’s WPC Wavefront Precision line arrays as the main system, deploying left and right hangs of 12 cabinets per side.
To provide coverage across the relatively wide listening area, four Martin Audio WPS line array elements were ground-stacked on grids as outfills, while six TORUS T1230 constant-curvature array elements delivered front-fill coverage. Low-frequency reinforcement meanwhile came from eight SXH218 dual 18-inch subwoofers, configured in a compact castellated cardioid array, with five cabinets facing forwards and three facing backwards. The entire system was powered by iKON series amplifiers.
“The audience area is bordered by large stone structures, so we wanted to minimise reflections from those surfaces,” says Timmins. “We also wanted to avoid directing unnecessary energy into the surrounding buildings wherever possible. Beyond that, the challenge was simply to achieve consistent coverage across the audience area as efficiently as possible.”
“It was an interesting event because each of the five nights featured a different headline artist, with a wide range of musical styles,” reflects Timmins. “Most of the artists brought their own engineers, and the feedback was consistently positive. Everyone I spoke to had good things to say about the system.”