THURLES, Ireland — Star Systems deployed an RCF TTL33-A active line array at Thurles Greyhound Stadium to support a concert featuring The Saturdays in early June. It was the largest RCF system ever rigged in Ireland.
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Presented by Kennedy’s Live Promotions under the banner, Tipp Goes Pop, the special one-off gig by the Anglo-Irish group was designed as a homecoming for the band’s Una Healey, who hails from Thurles, and is soon to marry English rugby star Ben Foden. More than 6,000 people turned out to help her celebrate — and listen to a roster of some of Ireland’s leading support acts.
Although the site was the scene of several festivals many years ago, these days it is used exclusively for greyhound racing. And with a hospital overlooking one side of the stadium, Declan O’Sullivan, of audio production company Star Systems, knew that careful optimisation of his RCF TTL33-A (Touring & Theatre) line array inventory, was essential.
The system was designed around hangs of 13 of the compact three-way active elements on each side of the stage, with a further pair mounted on top of four groundstacked centre TTS-36-A subs directly in front of the stage. Meanwhile a further two pairs of TTS28-A subs provided further low frequency extension and were stacked stage left and right.
Star Systems also provided a full monitor system (largely for the support bands), comprising six TT25-SMA stage monitors, while four TTS18-A provided low-frequency sidefill support to the full range fills and a TT25-A served as a drum wedge.
O’Sullivan said the event owed its success to the outstanding clarity and directionality delivered by such compact loudspeakers, and the ability to use RDNet, RCF’s proprietary system software, with the DSP cards to optimise the coverage.
“We’re certainly glad we chose RCF as it fully lived up to our expectations,” he said. “Everyone was happy with the system, and any initial scepticism from engineers when they saw how compact the TT33-A completely disappeared as soon as it was fired up. The clarity and power were unbelievable — it was only idling in third or fourth gear.” As if to exemplify this, he revealed that a measurement of 110db(A) at 40 metres had been recorded at the mixing desk.
O’Sullivan also emphasised that the show had been a triumph for the time invested in the CAD design. “The results were identical to what the computer had predicted. We wanted even coverage over 60m, and to a width of 70m, and that’s what we got.”
“The control RDNet gave over the acoustics was spectacular — we could place the sound exactly where we wanted. All the boxes were in front of us and we could see what each individual box was doing and its performance status.”
Equally impressed with the system was The Saturdays’ FOH engineer, Nick Warren, who said, “For a small PA it sounds like a big one … and we certainly like the sound of the big subs!”
Supporting The Saturdays was a line up that included Royseven, Smash Hits, Keywest, Boulevard, Gari Deegan (from The Voice of Ireland), and Whitewater.
Said Royseven and Key West sound engineer, Denis Powell, “The line array was very impressive, the vocal sound was great and the PA sounded very relaxed and never under stress. The subs [TTS36-A] were amazing and we loved the RDNet … it was great to view the system as it was at all times.”
In summary, Declan O’Sullivan confirmed that all the technical crews had collaborated closely to realise a first class production. This included AVC, who were responsible for the lighting and staging. “We received great support from RCF, and due to this event, I believe the TT+ system has now gained high credibility here in Ireland,” he exclaimed.
