(03/12/2013) When experienced monitor engineer Becky Pell was asked to join Sarah Brightman on her world tour, she decided to take a creative approach to designing her stage rig. Via Capital Sound Hire she sourced an inventory of Martin Audio's sleek LE1500 wedge monitors and W8LM Mini Line Array elements for side fills emulating the set-up she had first seen Rod Matheson deploy, when she was teching for him on Kylie Minogue's 2008 tour. He decided to deploy the LMs in an unusual way and it worked really well, she said.
The rationale once gain was simple. With Sarah and her four-piece band on in-ears, and with most of the inputs DI'd, she wanted to create an enveloping stage feel' in unobtrusive fashion, to preserve the overall look of the show.
Sarah had previously used flown sidefills, but I've never been a fan of them for several reasons, says Pell. Firstly you need to fly them pretty high in order to maintain sightlines and therefore need to drive them harder this adds to the general noise level and creates more stage coverage than is necessary. On top of that they can be a damn nuisance to rig.
But my main reason this time was knowing that we couldn't carry them worldwide because of the extra weight, whereas sourcing them locally really messes with consistency. It's vital for monitors that the artiste gets what they're used to every day and it is my job to minimise any disruption, so that they can forget about sound and get on with giving their best performance.
The four W8LMs came to the rescue. They are small and yet offer a surprising amount of headroom you get a lot of bang for your buck! says the monitor engineer. So my solution was to have two pairs of LE1500s, one upstage and one centre stage at Sarah's main performance areas, and then the LMs on a stereo mix sitting across the downstage edge, tilted up in a somewhat low-tech fashion with some black blocks of wood!
Their wide dispersion means that I get a nice wash' and create a real stage vibe but angled towards Sarah's centre position so as not to bug the band. All in all they give me a great deal of control and consistency in creating Sarah's onstage environment. Within this environment she is also joined by two dancers and guest tenor Erkan Aki (on two songs).
Becky Pell adds that she has also used the same idea on Anastacia's shows, stating it's brilliant in this kind of application.
However, it was only after Anastacia had been diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time, causing the postponement of her tour, that Becky became free to join the Sarah Brightman tour. I hadnt worked with her before but I had worked with her tour manager Debbie Bray on A-ha, while the production manager Kenny Underwood I had known from way back. And when Kenny contacted Martin Connolly at Capital, saying that he was looking for a monitor engineer, Martin told him that I was available.
Pell says she has been a staunch user of Martin Audio monitor solutions for many years. And I keep coming back for more. In fact I've been a Martin Audio fan since first hearing LE700s a long time ago (and I still believe they are a great wedge)!
The thing for me is that Martin Audio wedges generally need very little doing to them they sound great straight out of the case. I literally put one or two tiny notches in the EQ and I'm good to go.
Mixing on a DiGiCo SD10, she says, Although I'm not driving anything very hard on this gig, the LM's have lots of headroom for more rock-oriented use, tight punchy low-end and great definition in the highs.
They're very natural sounding too which, for this kind of show, is important. The classical/pop crossover nature of Sarah's material means that sometimes it's got to rock, sometimes we're in Nessun Dorma territory. The Martin Audio system handles the spectrum with ease.
And so the monitor engineer is clearly happy, but what about the artiste? It was a gamble using this set-up with an artiste who was used to flown fills, admits Becky. In fact I had Capital on standby with additional speakers and rigging just in case. I was confident that Sarah would like it happily she was willing to experiment and has been pleased with the results.
And a final word on the monitor rig? It really comes back to one thing how do the speakers sound? And the answer for me has always been great'!
About Martin Audio
Founded by audio engineer David Martin in 1971, Martin Audio pioneered the use of all-horn-loaded bass designs in world-class touring loudspeaker systems for groups such as Pink Floyd, ELP and Supertramp. Located outside of London, Martin Audio now embodies a sophisticated mix of acoustic design, research, mathematical modeling and software engineering for a wide range of products in the installation, cinema and touring sound markets.
About LOUD Technologies Inc.
As the corporate parent for world-recognized brands Alvarez , Ampeg , Blackheart , Crate , EAW , Mackie and Martin Audio , LOUD engineers, markets and distributes a wide range of professional audio and musical instrument products worldwide. Our product lines include sound reinforcement systems, analog and digital mixers, guitar and bass amplifiers, and acoustic and electric guitars. These products can be found in professional and project recording studios, video and broadcast suites, post-production facilities, sound reinforcement applications including houses of worship, stadiums, nightclubs, retail locations, and on major musical concert tours. The Company distributes its products primarily through retail dealers, mail order outlets and installed sound contractors. The Company has its primary operations in the United States with operations in the United Kingdom, Canada and China.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
(03/12/2013) When experienced monitor engineer Becky Pell was asked to join Sarah Brightman on her world tour, she decided to take a creative approach to designing her stage rig. Via Capital Sound Hire she sourced an inventory of Martin Audio's sleek LE1500 wedge monitors and W8LM Mini Line Array elements for side fills emulating the set-up she had first seen Rod Matheson deploy, when she was teching for him on Kylie Minogue's 2008 tour. He decided to deploy the LMs in an unusual way and it worked really well, she said.
