TIGNES, France — Since 1922, students at Oxford and Cambridge universities in the U.K. have participated in a winter trip to the Alps. For the 2013 outing, close to 2,740 students traveled to Tignes, France. Along with skiing and snowboarding, the event featured live music, with support from Bristol, U.K.-based Production Audio’s XLC DVX line array elements and other Electro-Voice gear.
More details from Electro-Voice (www.electro-voice.com):
Each year, thousands of British students visit the Alps for the largest student snow sports event in the world – the Varsity Trip. Initiated in 1922, the event is the official annual ski and snowboard trip organized by and for students of the Oxford and Cambridge universities. In December 2013 around 2750 students attended the seven-day trip to Tignes, France. After days on the ski slope, pool parties, comedy nights and mountaintop parties offered varied off-piste entertainment. Highlights were the opening and final night parties with performances by Katy B, Redlight and Breakage as well as Rudamental, DJ Cheeba and Kove.
For the realization of these two events, the organizers once again relied on production company Okoru. The Bristol-based firm has been producing events – such as the Varsity Trip – in the Alps for the last four years, with this year seeing operations expand into all alpine corners. For sound reinforcement, Okoru teamed up with rental company Production Audio, also from Bristol, UK. “The parties took place in a sports hall in Tignes”, recalls Ben Robinson, General Manager of Production Audio. “Getting the right sound mix with a plenty of sound pressure, even coverage and a high level of intelligibility in such a surrounding is quite challenging.” The ideal solution was a sound reinforcement system from Electro-Voice.
The main system consisted of 12 Electro-Voice XLC DVX line array elements, with six of each ground-stacked on each side of the stage. To ensure sound pressure in the low frequency range, the team from Okoru and Production Audio opted for 12 Xsubs from Electro-Voice as ground stacks in front of the stage. Additionally, four Electro-Voice XLE and two Xsubs were positioned as delay stacks. For power amps, the team relied on 12 Electro-Voice P3000RLs. Two Electro-Voice QRx115 monitors rounded off the set-up.
“We have worked with several systems over the years“, says Mark Henninger, Project Manager at Okoru Ltd. “With Electro-Voice we have finally found what we were looking for. The Electro-Voice XLC handles all of our heavy-duty power requirements whilst having a delicate touch to manage the finer elements. Overall, it’s a stunning system that simply sounds fantastic.” So satisfied were Henninger and his team, that the XLC system will see a further deployment at student ski events in January.
