Big loudspeakers and the big audio systems made up of them are synonymous with music festivals and concerts arenas and stadiums. This has been the norm since the early 1970s, when band touring truly came into its own and the biggest acts of the time played major venues round the world, often pummelling their audiences with sound courtesy of the new breed of loudspeaker rigs designed specially for the purpose rather than relying on their backline amps.
The underlying technology – drivers, amplifiers and the cabinets themselves – has developed considerably over the last 50-plus years, with the massive bin and horn systems of those days eventually giving way to the now ubiquitous line array. But the aim remains the same: to accurately cover the ever-growing outdoor spaces and indoor areas played by bands and artists on the festival, stadium and arena circuits with consistent, high quality sound.
As Ed Jackson, senior technical sales manager for HARMAN Professional, which includes long-standing loudspeaker brand JBL in its product portfolio, comments, current technologies – both line arrays and the resurgent point source systems – have advanced significantly over the past decade. “Line arrays have become and continue to be the go-to solution for large audiences,” he says. “They have advantages in providing even horizontal coverage, vertical control, ease of rigging and minimal sight-line obstruction, which makes them the right choice for big productions. But in a comprehensive stadium set-up, a combination of line array and point source speakers is often necessary, with the point source boxes covering difficult to reach areas.”
VENUE FOCUS
Among the venues using HARMAN systems are: the SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome and UBS arenas in the US; and Twickenham and Tottenham Hotspur stadiums in the UK, respectively the headquarters of English rugby and the home of the Premier League football club, both of which host concerts and entertainment. Jackson comments that touring acts will typically bring in their own sound systems, preferring a “blank canvas” in a venue to installed systems, which could create “challenges” that would frustrate both promoters and production managers.
But, he adds, many arenas are now investing in high-end sound systems to stage smaller shows by artists who are performing only a few regional dates without a full touring package. “These must meet the standards for regular tours and be designed for flexibility, allowing them to be repositioned as needed within the venue,” he says. “We’re also seeing the integration of venue and touring systems becoming more common, with the in-house rig providing additional ‘delay’ speakers for higher balconies and hard-to-reach areas.”
HISTORICAL NAME
JBL is a historical name in the big loudspeaker market and continues to do well in the US. The choice of system, which is predominantly down to the front-of-house engineer, has changed over the years, influenced by which brands are considered to be ‘in’ at the time. The current leaders in the field are generally agreed by rental companies and other manufacturers to be d&b audiotechnik and L-Acoustics, with Clair Global’s proprietary Cohesion system also a mainstay due to the hire giant’s dominance of the touring market.
There is also a degree of local loyalty, with manufacturers doing well in their home markets. Because of this, comments Andy Plunkett, UK sales manager for pro audio solutions at distribution and integration company POLAR, Martin Audio is prevalent in Britain, alongside d&b and L-Acoustics. “These brands have built a reputation over many years through technology development and superior marketing, which has led to them being termed ‘rider friendly’, he says. “This means touring acts will feature these brands on the lists of equipment requested for festival shows, for example. As a result, brands that may perform equally well but which do not appear on ‘the list’ find it very difficult to make their way into the mainstream. From a venue perspective the key brands can be important in attracting touring acts when considering equipment for fixed installations.”
Plunkett agrees that line array systems continue to dominate the large-scale loudspeaker market but says two brands POLAR represents, Turbosound and HK Audio, are seeing success with powerful point source systems. “These can have advantages in terms of space and rigging simplicity,” he explains. “In general terms, though, point source is mainly used to fill in areas where the line array may not practically cover, which is usually close up to the stage.”
The majority of manufacturers, including d&b and L-Acoustics, produce both line arrays and point source systems to offer users all required options. These are used for touring and installations, with, as Steve Jones, head of education and application support for EMEA at d&b audiotechnik, observes, increasingly more venues to work in. “We’re seeing new arenas being built, such as Co-op Live in Manchester, and more stadiums,” he says. “Larger venues such as stadiums have a desire to hold more concerts, so large capacity events seem to be doing well. We’ve come out of the immediate post-Covid period, which condensed a large amount of backed-up tours and pent-up demand but now we’re into a more standard cycle of touring schedules and capacity.”
EMOTIONAL DECISION
As for the choice of loudspeaker system, Jones observes that while some rental companies might stock a selection of brands, many are primarily linked to a single name. “It can be an irrational, emotional decision because it’s identity linked,” he says, “but it is also about technology. And for us right now, it’s all about our cardioid technology. It’s the ability to put the sound where we want it to go and stop it from spilling into unwanted areas that decrease sound quality.”
From its first foray into loudspeakers that include the ability to control all frequences with the large-form GSL system, d&b has produced a progression of cardioid-based cabinets, each more compact than its predecessor. “Noise propagation is becoming more of an issue, particularly at outdoor festivals,” Jones says. “The number one goal for us has been to control every frequency and put it exactly where it should be – containing the sound where it matters. Since launching GSL people asked if we could make it smaller and more accessible. We did and at the start of this year we launched CCL, a system with which we’ve worked out how to manipulate the laws of physics to allow small format speakers to control the largest wavelengths and lowest frequencies.”
Another company making use of cardioid technology is Canadian manufacturer Adamson, which does well in its home North American market and is also used widely in France. Last year it introduced the large-format line array VGt, the first product in the new Vergence Group, which can be configured with both cardioid and non-cardioid technologies and also offers variable low frequency coverage patterns.
EXPANSIVE SOUND
Business development strategist Pieter van Hoogdalem describes VGt as a “fairly big speaker” that is also very powerful. “It’s got two 13-inch subwoofers, two mid drivers and two high frequency drivers,” he says. “On the sides there are ten-inch woofers that are deployed for cardioid operation, which is an important aspect of the speakers. In the future we will expand this technology to other products.”
The VGt also features AVB Milan signal distribution and networking capability, which van Hoogdalem views as a technological breakthrough: “It gives us redundant connectivity, which we are taking full advantage of for both VGt and the accompanying subwoofer. We refer to our speakers, which are powered, as being intelligent because as well as AVB Milan connectivity they are loaded with DSP calculating power and have proprietary control software. It is also changing how people work in both live touring and installs because the rigging [system] is different and more efficient, although people may have to get used to it because it is a new routine.”
TREMENDOUS DEMAND
The practical aspects of loudspeaker systems for large-scale touring and installation have also been addressed by Meyer Sound, which introduced its latest big linear line array, PANTHER, in 2022. “We’ve seen a tremendous demand for large format loudspeakers, which ties in with what bands or promoters are asking for,” comments senior director of product management, Andy Davies. “We focused on the largest venue performance metric but in a package that has a size and weight to make transportation and set-up efficient and green. When hire companies are transporting a lot of gear to site, if they can reduce that by a truck it makes a big difference to what they can quote compared to their competitors, which might be offering something that achieves the same SPL but in a much bigger package.”
While Meyer believes line array is still the right choice for the largest venues, Davies says, it is now shipping the ULTRA-X80 large format point source speaker. “There is absolutely a need for both,” he confirms. “They fulfil different needs, although we don’t see the days of the old point source clusters coming back. Point source fills a different role now, particularly if it has the size and power to replace multiple small line arrays. Where you have short hangs, sometimes doing delays on festival sites, instead of hanging four or five small line arrays, a single point source can be much more flexible.”
Another new point source system was launched earlier this year by Nexo. The Alpha+ is described as ‘hybrid source’ and is based on the original Alpha point source series introduced by the French manufacturer in the 1990s. Sales and marketing director Gareth Collyer explains that the hybrid aspect comes from being “point source at its heart” but with line array technology for the HF. He adds that the Alpha+ is aimed at small to mid-sized venues requiring a high SPL, rather than top-end festivals and arena/stadium tours. “If you’re talking about the large festival, stadium and arena markets, line array is still the king,” he says. “It’s by far the most consistent technology for delivering a solid result with even dispersion over long distance. There are different stages of line array but the [basic] technology is the same for all of us [manufacturers].”
As Collyer says, the concept for line arrays goes back to the 1960s and most commonly featured in column loudspeakers for churches and PA in public spaces. “The idea hasn’t changed,” he explains. “Equal distance spacing of drives producing a coherent sound wave over a distance. That technology isn’t new, it’s just been adapted for much larger rock and roll systems. What people have to think about is how many speakers can they afford in their budget to put up in the air for a touring system.”
ARRAY DOMINANCE
Alessandro Manini, director of R&D at RCF, agrees that line arrays “continue to dominate large venue sound reinforcement due to their ability to provide even coverage and high output.” He also observes that a “notable trend” right now is the replacement of “aging systems”, typically those that have been in service for ten to 15 years. “Those are now being replaced with modern solutions that offer enhanced sound quality, reliability, durability and fast set-up processes,” he says.
In response to this RCF introduced the TT+ Audio brand in 2023, with two line arrays as part of the GTX range. Manini comments that these have featured on tours in the US and Europe, as well as being installed in UEFA football stadia and being used for Olympic events. The RCF Arena, claimed to be Europe’s largest outdoor music venue – with a capacity of up to 100,000 – is located near the manufacturer’s factory in Reggio Emilia, Italy and features a permanent installation of 250 GTX line array boxes. “Our infrastructure allows visiting productions to integrate their main systems with our fixed arrays, enhancing coverage and ensuring uniform sound quality throughout the venue,” Manini says.
Sports stadiums and arenas have always featured a sound system of some description but this would have been primarily for public address (PA) announcements and voice alarm (VA) use. Increasingly today these installed systems are based on – or feature – pro audio equipment, with the implication being they could be used for entertainment and live music performances. “There are a few stadiums where maybe you can use the house system for delays but maybe not as many as people would think,” says Andy Dockerty, founder and director of Adlib, the biggest independent rental company in the UK. “Some promoters will tend to want to use the delays that are in, for argument’s sake, the O2 Arena, but that’s an exception as opposed to the norm. When Sam Fender played St James’ Park [home ground of Newcastle United football club] in 2023, we had to put in all the ring delays. It was the same for the Burna Boy gig the following year at London Stadium [West Ham United’s ground].”
Adlib supplied L-Acoustics systems for both Fender and Burna Boy but also provides d&b rigs and is a UK distributor for CODA Audio, which has featured on some of its tours. “For stadiums your main PA hangs are going to be either L-Acoustics K Series or d&b GSLs,” Dockerty says. “You might find more Clair boxes in Europe but it’s still predominantly L-Acoustics and d&b. CODA sounds amazing and what we’ve found is that during the autumn touring season there’ll be none of it left in the building. But when the summer tours and festivals come round, all the L-Acoustics is out and there might be some CODA left here. As a brand it does have a bit of a journey to go on but it is a phenomenal product.”
LOCAL CHOICE
Britannia Row is part of the Clair Global group and, like other companies under that umbrella, stocks Cohesion, L-Acoustics and d&b, along with Adamson. “It used to be the case that bands would carry their entire PA from territory to territory but now they will often just have the control and monitor packages and pick up speaker systems locally,” says Bryan Grant, a non-executive director of Britannia Row. “This is especially true of Clair customers because we can supply any of the main speaker brands globally or the entire system if required.”
Grant observes that loudspeakers have “become wildly more efficient in terms of power and dispersion” over the past 50 years, as well as being smaller, “more truck pack friendly” and quicker to install. When it comes to audio systems that go with the main rig, he says some bands, particularly those in the heavy rock genre, prefer a mixture of in-ear monitors (IEMs), stage monitor wedges and side fills. “Obviously a total IEM stage is the FoH engineer’s favourite because a quieter stage causes less colouration to the house mix,” he adds.
While IEMs have given artists a clear, clean feed of the monitor mix straight into their ears, they have also led to there being less sound on stage due to the reduction in the number of monitors. But, as Gareth Collyer at Nexo comments, this has made the humble side-fill a more important component of the overall sound set-up. “Stage monitoring still happens but it has been overtaken by IEM,” he explains. “In order to get direct energy on to the stage, we’re now seeing much bigger use of quite high power side-fills. Performing artists need to feel that energy when they are on stage. That’s particularly true for DJs playing big arena or stadium gigs and festivals. Very large fill systems are being specified for these, which we jokingly call DJ headphones. All that seems to be driving the side-fill market.”
Andy Dockerty at Adlib observes that DJ monitoring “has always been ridiculously over the top” but confirms side-fill systems are becoming larger and more powerful. “A conventional side-fill stack would have probably been something like a double 18 with a couple of point source boxes on top,” he says. “Now you’re seeing mini line array boxes, which is completely the wrong box for that job but the DJs like it.”
Which just goes to show how much the line array has become such a vital part of today’s large-scale performance sound market. While point source clearly has its place, line arrays will continue to be the main choice for festivals, arenas and stadiums, with the technology only set to develop and evolve in the coming years.
