Concert producers Kinda Dusty approached us last year to see if we would be able to provide Audio support for their Concerts By Candlelight shows which would be performed in Cathedrals and Theatres across the country. With talented West End singers and top class musicians, showcasing legends like Elton John, Elvis, Meatloaf and any more, dBS Solutions were only to happy to provide a package solution designed for our client delivering exactly what was required.
Some of the venues these shows visit are the most challenging spaces to work with due to their design and acoustic qualities. This project has really made us think about what makes the best sound systems to use in these cathedral venues, what makes installing and commissioning these systems easier, quicker and how can we improve the listening experience. dBS have a fantastic team that look after Dusty for us. Theo designs audio packages individual to these unique venues, agrees logistics and staffing for all shows that dBS have responsibility for and is becoming very good at liasing with our clients, venues and looking after their needs.
We now have two Candlelight packages out on the road every week providing audio reinforcement in most of the UK’s Cathedrals from St Pauls, Durham, Litchfield and more. A key part of our approach to these unique events is to provide energy and intelligibility to every seat. In these reverberant spaces this usually involves rigging speakers on every pillar in the main Nave as well as outfills and delays for outside the pillars too. This approach often uses in access of 20 speakers in order to deliver the optimum audio. Ensuring all our audience are as close to a speaker as possible but also that the image of where the audio comes from is realistic and could be perceived as coming from the stage. After all our research tells us that shows that sound natural and imaged correctly make for the most enjoyable for the audience.
Every speaker is time aligned to the main PA system at the front of the room and to the band. This is even more important when in reverberant spaces to ensure that the audio feels like its arriving from the stage but also all arrivals are in time with each other and not contributing to the reverberance in the room. This helps keep vocals and transient instruments such as drums feeling tight and intelligible. With so many speakers this can often be complex to design however we utilise a speaker system with digital signal processing built in allowing the timing of the system to be completed inside the box. This saves cable and time on the set up.
As all of these beautiful venues vary so much and our approach changes to match the venue. We work with our clients and the events team at the cathedral collaboratively to deliver the best solution for each space. dBS Solutions are delighted that many of the venues have now asked for us to become their preferred supplier recognicing the clear difference our experience can make.. We understand the challenges both acoustically but also of working in and around listed buildings of historical value.
Of course Cathedrals are only one type of venue these shows perform in. This series of events also visit Theatres across the county large and small. dBS Solutions are familiar with most of the UK’s theatres from years of touring
and our team work with each venue to deliver the best sound system design for their space. This ranges from powerful point source systems such as our Martin Audio XD15s to solutions like the Torus Constant curvature systems, or our range of Wavefront Precision arrays. From Cardiff New Theatre to Edinburgh Playhouse we design and visualise sound system solutions to deliver to every seat.
With between 10 and 14 musicians on stage our engineers are kept busy looking after monitors. The band are all on our Allen & Heath Me-1 personal monitor systems ensuring that they can make changes to their own mixes whilst we mix in ear monitors for our singers from our dedicated monitor app and ipads.
Cathedrals can be busy places for radio frequencies with lots of old light fittings that often give off spurious frequencies. Pair this with over 600 battery LED candles and this creates a challenging environment for radio mics and radio monitoring.
dBS Solutions have invested in the latest digital IEMs and digital radio mics to ensure that our signals reach our audience and musicians crystal clear. Its one of the things that our musicians compliment us on the most.
Finally having worked with the same band and the same great shows for some time now we have managed to sample many of the mics and DI boxes across our stock. This has allows us to select the best mics for the instruments and tone of voices. We are so pleased to be working with sE Electronics across the band and vocalists with their V Beats, V7x V kick and BL8s on drums and V7’s on all vocals. These mics have constantly surprised us and delivered the exact sound we’ve been looking for.
Big thanks to our extensive team of audio professionals who work on these shows week in week out for our audiences and performers. They load in cases over cobbles, up stairs and around monuments and do it all with smiles on their faces. They are the secret source to our working success with Concerts By Candlelight who are always pleased to see us.
If you want to catch one of these events and hear the difference out you can get tickets here.
