Cloudy skies but crystal clear sound with Yamaha amplifiers and Consoles at this years Glastonbury Festival
Yamaha's large format consoles have been a regular feature of the world famous Glastonbury festival for many years, with a selection of PM5Ds continuing that fine tradition on the Pyramid and John Peel Stages this year.
However, Glastonbury 2007 was most notable for two Yamaha 'firsts' - the M7CL and LS9 small format digital consoles were used on several stages for the first time, and the new Tn series amplifiers made their first high profile public debut to widespread acclaim.
South West Group (SWG) is the audio contractor on the John Peel Stage and BBC Introducing Stage, and it was at the latter where the Tn amplifiers and a pair of M7CLs made their mark.
"The whole debate about the use of digital desks had been roaming round SWG for quite a while prior to Glastonbury & I have to say we were, like most audio companies, slightly reluctant to charge down the digital route," says Mark Bott, the company's Operations Manager.
"The usual arguments applied - not all of our engineers could use them, we were still getting band riders through saying 'no digital desks' - the 'analogue versus digital sound arguments' were still being bandied around.
"We decided that the answer was actually to bite the bullet, use them on a big show, and evaluate them properly. When Michael Eavis asked SWG to do all the tech production for the new Park area at Glastonbury, which was going to include the new BBC Introducing Stage, that - along with our existing production at the John Peel Stage - gave the perfect opportunity to put them to the test."
Mark discussed the potential of the situation with Yamaha and decided that while the John Peel Stage would be the perfect location for them to deploy a PM5D while the nature of the BBC Introducing stage made it the ideal location to give the M7CLs and Tn amplifiers a thorough workout.
"Firstly, all the bands were new and unsigned, so we knew that we were not going to get problems with visiting engineers - our guys were going to be doing 100% of the engineering," says Mark.
"Secondly, 24 bands over three days was certainly going to put them through their paces! And thirdly, we didn't have a great deal of offstage space, so the fact that the desk is very small and that we didn't need a small mountain of outboard racks was a great advantage for the monitor position.
"In the event, the same went for the FOH position. The tower that was ordered did not materialise and a smaller makeshift shelter had to be constructed which, again, meant that the normal monoliths of outboard racks would have been a monumental pain!"
The desks were used with one of SWG's EAW KF853 PA systems. These would normally be driven by Crest amplifiers but, as part of the 'testing ground' Yamaha supplied the new Tn amplifiers, racked up & pre-configured for the system.
"All of our engineers just fall in love with the 853 boxes, so it was going to be hard to make improvements on that side of things," says Mark.
"But the Yamaha amps performed superbly. They produce a great deal of good, clean punch that the 853s need to perform well. In addition, they were out in a very damp environment for four days and they didn't miss a beat.
"I don't think Yamaha has the name in professional amplifiers in this country yet, but that I think will change - we will certainly look seriously at Yamaha for amplifiers from now on."
Julian Spear, SWG Director, agrees. "Overall, despite the challenges that an horrifically wet Glastonbury added to our first year working the new Park area as well as John Peel Stage, the SWG team were extremely pleased with how the Yamaha equipment performed."
"All in all, it was a very impressive system that worked perfectly, and the engineers loved using it all," says Julian. "I think the analogue versus digital debate will go on for some time to come, but the number of engineers that are reluctant to use them is falling as more become familiar with them.
"We have now purchased our first M7CL, and also an LS9, and we are now using them on our orchestral shows, an area in which we at SWG have a leading reputation to maintain."
Meanwhile, Adlib Audio also had smaller Yamaha digital consoles at work, with an M7CL in the Circus tent and another plus an LS9 for monitors at the Outdoor Theatre, known this year as Dance Saddlespan. And while these stages spent most of the time quietly going about their business, Dance Saddlespan saw a huge audience for performances by talented musical comedian Bill Bailey.
"This was the first time we had done these stages with digital consoles and in typical Glastonbury conditions you're never certain of the reliability of anything," smiles Adlib's Dave Jones. "But we've been using the consoles for the past 18 months with absolutely no problems, so we were quite happy to use them."
On these two stages, many acts appeared several times over the weekend, so it made the Adlib team's job much easier to save the settings for a particular act and then hit recall when they played again. "They were tremendously easy to use, all our lads were very happy," says Dave.
"We had absolutely no issues whatsoever, throughout the weekend. Once we'd got the consoles set up for each act, they were set up for the entire weekend. And of course we didn't need cue sheets, either!"
