NEW MARTIN AUDIO W8L LONGBOW ROCKS NESS

Production Hire unleashes a monster on the banks of Loch Ness

When Production Hire realised the amount of summer festival work and Autumn dance events on offer if the company could provide adequate PA coverage, proprietor Mark Neal decided it was time to invest in a potent line array system. And the move paid instant dividends.

After evaluating a couple of leading systems he purchased 24 x Martin Audio W8L Longbows, and gave them a powerful initiation at the RockNess Music Festival near Inverness this month, where Prodigy, Basement Jaxx, Dizzee Rascal and Flaming Lips were among the headliners.

'Knocker' Neal ran 12 W8L hangs a side, with W8LD Downfills on the front corners providing the necessary infill, while Martin Audio's predictive 3D Display software made sure the coverage was fully optimised.

The Production Hire man instantly knew he had made the correct decision. 'The system definitely throws and there must have been 25,000 in front of it when Prodigy appeared on stage,' he reports.

Explaining the rationale behind the decision, he said, 'I have a good relationship with Martin Audio, and already run their W8LC Compact line array and Wavefront boxes in my hire fleet.

'We always knew Longbow would handle live shows but we first tried it out at a dance music event -and it was sensational.' But the clincher, he said, was the power of the low-mids. 'We really like that because it's 1' instead of 1.4'. This leads to a very sparkly system which goes all the way up and down the frequency range, which a lot of line arrays don't do.'

He also noted that because the system is horn-loaded the sound tends not to flap around in the wind. 'Again, this is a problem with many other systems I have experienced,' he notes.

Mark Neal's marketing rationale also appears to have been spot on. Whereas last year he had only been able to cover Stage 2 at RockNess for production company Loud Sound Events (using the seven-a-side W8LC rig) this year he could handle both, adding W3's for infill support on the second stage.

'Aside from the additional festivals we can now do this summer, we have a series of Autumn dance events lined up, and Longbow will be perfect for that.'

Further information from:

Maureen Hayes, Martin Audio
Tel: +44 (0)1494 535312
Fax: +44 (0)1494 438669
E: maureenh@martin-audio.com

Jerry Gilbert, JGP Public Relations
Tel: +44 (0)1707 258525
Fax: +44 (0)1707 267140
jerry.gilbert@ntlworld.com