Sadler's Wells resounds to the Flamenco Festival with d&b T-Series
The 2009 Flamenco Festival that took place at the Sadler's Wells theatre, London earlier this year featured six companies in a non-stop two week programme. The system included the new d&b audiotechnik T-Series loudspeakers supplied by Orbital Sound comprising sixteen T10s and T-SUBs configured as a mix of vertical point source stand-alone cabinets and horizontal mini line array groups. This is the fourth year that Orbital Sound has been involved with the Flamenco Festival, working with resident sound technician Tom Hares.
The festival kicked off with less than twenty four hours to load in and test the system before the first performance, involving two teams working back-to-back to get everything in place. Tom Hares elaborated: "Every year is different with one exception, it's always demanding! On the Friday night before the Flamenco Festival started, we had one hundred and twenty children on stage in "Dance United", with no spare time whatsoever before the first performance the following evening. Luke Hyde from Orbital worked with our in-house team of five technicians, putting in a full concert set-up that included the loudspeaker system, monitor desk, all the microphones, HME wireless comms, on-stage loudspeakers and most of the cabling. Our long-standing relationship with Orbital is an essential component as we each know how the other works, and do lots of preparation in advance. Importantly, we always feel that they will go the extra mile for us and think the whole project through in advance, so that it all comes together when it needs to. I have always regarded the Q-Series as being a perfect complement to flamenco music, but this year, we decided to try the T-Series and in the event, they were great to work with, particularly in terms of their size and weight, and sounded very good."
Directed by José Antonio, this year's Festival programme featured choreography from three of flamenco's brightest talents: Fernando Romero, Ángel Rojas and Carlos Rodríguez (founders of Nuevo Ballet Español), as well as Antonio Canales.
