ArrayProcessing simplifies audio assembly and disassembly on ColdPlay tour

Coldplay's tour of Europe and the United States, in which performances in sports venues and arenas are combined, it has been praised both for the quality of its staging and especially for the audio, thanks to the systems of d&b audiotechnik.

Currently touring the United States, the British pop-rock band Coldplay has counted during its recent European tour with the ArrayProcessing system of the manufacturer db audiotechnik, supplied by Wigwam Acoustics and with the collaboration of two audio technicians from the company Firehouse: Alex Fedrizzi and Brett Taylor, who have been instrumental in this transition phase of the tour.

Both companies provide J-Series based systems and use ArrayProcessing. "We started the tour at MetLife Stadium in the city of East Rutherford., in New Jersey, explains audio system designer Tony Smith., and the stadium management told us later that our concert had been the first in its history for which no complaints of any kind had been received about the sound.".

specifically, the entire design of the tour's audio system is based on J Series components. A main left/right arrangement of J speakers, with J-Sub flown, J side riggings and riggings at 270º J at the back of the stage.

As Smith explains, "We had an arrangement of subwoofers of J-Sub and J-Infra all over the front of the stage., and four towers of J for the delay in downfield. This distribution of the system worked well for us in Europe., since generally in the largest stadiums there is usually a cantilevered cover, so we hung an additional delay in Series V ring from the canopies above the chicken coop. This option is not available in the United States, because in these enclosures there are no canopy covers".

In most U.S. stadiums, the projection distance is usually a little shorter, but in some enclosures the height is equal to or greater than the sides. "At MetLife in New Jersey, where we started the tour, we use ArrayProcessing (AP) much more than we had needed in Europe and to take full advantage of the system. We didn't achieve the same result we would have liked with a ring system., but what the system offered and the benefit that AP brought was satisfactory".

The transition from one continent to another, and specifically the concert at MetLife "has been a classic example of how these differences in the design of stadiums between the United States and Europe are manifested.. There was a section where we just didn't get the overlap between the side riggings and the back. (270º) because we reach the maximum angle of the flying structure, because of that absence of the overlapping section and how that relatively minimal adjustment would affect the upper stands and the entire enclosure!. AP worked very well in those areas to proportionally redistribute acoustic energy where more was needed., so in the end it was a matter of balance and listening to the whole set".

After adjusting the time and applying the absolute minimum equalization of the system, "We observed that the difference between sound levels at the front of the stage and in that particularly difficult area was about -5 Db, and with the rest of the localities of the stands above some -3 Db. It was an obvious sign to leave it as it was., and achieving this has been the merit of the ArrayProcessing software", smith says.

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