D-Block Europe in Arenas
January 9th 2023
22live has delivered its first string of London O2 Arena show dates for UK rap artist, D-Block Europe, in collaboration with Hire Consultant Aaron Boothe.
Following the success of the collaboration with Aaron Boothe, for delivery of the Central Cee European tour, it wasn’t long before Aaron brought another opportunity to 22live. Aaron has a close link with Production Company ‘The Team’ who currently provide their services to a number of UK hip-hop artists including D-Block Europe and Wizkid.
Aaron, when working with D-Block Europe and ‘The Team’ wears a number of hats. He was aiding the Production Management team, acting as the audio consultant, and also mixing FOH himself. Aaron comments “I’d been so impressed with the assistance I’d received from 22live on the Central Cee tour that I wanted to make use of their services again for D-Block Europe. Although the run was only 3 nights of shows, they were arena shows, and I really wanted the opportunity myself to hear the Martin Audio Wavefront Precision system.”
Aaron Boothe
“I’d been so impressed with the assistance I’d received from 22live on the Central Cee tour that I wanted to make use of their services again for D-Block Europe.
The job was pretty straightforward to specify for the 22live team, the run was two nights in London’s O2 Arena, followed up by one night in Manchester’s AO Arena, and was a great opportunity for the new company to get stuck into a larger PA specification. Simon Gladstone, 22live’s Technical Director comments “We had all the PA infrastructure available it was just a case of scaling up the box count to meet the demands of a bigger space. The O2 is known to be one of the largest arenas in the UK and we wanted to make sure we put enough in there to give a great result to all at the show, and to again demonstrate the competence of the Martin system.”
Stefan Phillips, 22live Operations Director added “We already had multiple jobs out the door with Sigur Rós, The Australian Pink Floyd Show, and Central Cee all at the same time, so it was tight on the control side to get the D-Block spec together.. Being a new start-up in its first few months of operation this was quite a lot for us to be delivering simultaneously. We were fortunate enough to have planned ahead with cable infrastructure, and power distribution, and we had the FOH console choice available, so there wasn’t too much additional kit to source to get this out the door”
Simon Gladstone
“We had all the PA infrastructure available it was just a case of scaling up the box count to meet the demands of a bigger space. ”
Aaron Boothe comments “I was really pleased to be able to use my desk of choice, the AVID S6L which was available from 22live for the D-Block shows. It was great to get an opportunity to mix on the Martin system, ahead of the Central Cee show in Ally pally too, which gave me confidence there would be no issues there. Although I knew the stocks were starting to run low at 22live the guys worked hard to ensure the whole thing ran smoothly. Everything was well presented with the same high standards I’d seen on other jobs they’d been delivering. All of the speaker cable infrastructure was their standard using the LK24 multi’s. All mains distros were 22live branded. The networking commissioned by Simon was all robust, and we had the returns running over Dante from the 22live drive rack again. So in short despite this show running alongside others and clearing the shelves, the presentation and packaging did not suffer at all for it, and I was very happy.”
Aaron Boothe
“I was really pleased to be able to use my desk of choice, the AVID S6L which was available from 22live for the D-Block shows.”
The PA design and specification was put together in collaboration between Simon Gladstone and Martin Audio to ensure the O2 shows could be used as a benchmark for the Martin Audio Wavefront Precision system. The spec comprised 2 x main hangs of 20 x Martin Audio WPL (2 x 12”), 2 x side hangs of 14 x WPC (2 x 10”), 2 x 270˚ Out hangs of WPC (2 x 10”). The main system was supported by 2 x Flown arrays of 6 x SXHF218 Cardioid Subwoofers and a further 18 x SXHF218 on the ground. Additionally 6 x Martin Audio WPS (2 x 8”) were deployed as a lip fill, and with a further 6 x Martin Audio TORUS T12 15˚ boxes covering out fill. The whole system was run from a 22live Drive rack at FOH utilising the Outline Newton processor and a Dante Fibre returns system.
Aaron Booth comments on the PA “For me I try not to come to any new system with pre-conceptions or comparisons in mind. I want to assess a system on its own merits and so the main focus initially is always to ensure that the design and box count is where it needs to be. On arrival at the O2 I was immediately impressed, we had good consistent coverage across the venue, the clarity was great and I didn’t need to mess with it too much. I made a couple of minor tweaks in the newton to make the system my own, and then we were ready to go. The whole experience for me was stress free and the system delivered what I wanted. We achieved a great dynamic response, and it was easy to keep the vocal at the lead of the mix . The production team in general were impressed and so I wouldn’t have any issues with specifying this system again for my work.”
Time lapse 360˚ view from FOH as doors open for D-Block Europe, Nov 22nd 2022
Aaron Boothe
“The whole experience for me was stress free and the system delivered what I wanted. We achieved a great dynamic response, and it was easy to keep the vocal at the lead of the mix .”
Paul Timmins, 22live Hire Director comments “It was fantastic to be able to pull this out the bag for Aaron and ‘The team.’ Providing the system for the D-Block Arena shows came in as a relatively late request, and we did have a very busy time of it to get this together bearing in mind we have only been operational for less than 6 months, and while we already had 3 tours out on the road! It’s been very important, and part of our ethos from the start to not bite off more than we can chew, so we had to take this on with our eyes open to what was involved. The fact that we delivered without a hitch I think is testament to the experience of our team. The company may be new but we certainly aren’t. It was an absolute privilege to put a Martin Wavefront Precision into the O2 Arena, and the result it produced seems to have exceeded expectations on all fronts. All in all this was a great result for 22live, Martin Audio, Aaron Boothe and D-Block Europe and we very much appreciate the opportunity to have been involved. What a show case for us in our first 6 months!”
Paul Timmins