DPA Soundco Brings Power To The Masses At Roskilde Festival With JBL VERTEC® Line Arrays and V4 DSP Presets

Demonstrating the industry-leading sound, reliable coverage characteristics and easy setup features of JBL VERTEC® line arrays, more than 67,000 fans flocked to Roskilde, Denmark this year to witness Roskilde Festival 2008, the largest annual rock music festival in Northern Europe. This year’s Roskilde Festival featured performances by Radiohead, Neil Young, Gnarls Barkley, My Bloody Valentine, Jay-Z and many more.

DPA Soundco A/S of Soborg, Denmark, once again provided concert sound services for the legendary festival. A total of 60 VT4889 full-size line array elements were suspended using ground-support trussing structures which flanked the festival's unique, orange tensile-membrane outdoor stage covering. Each main left/right array included 18 VT4889's, supplemented with out-fill array hangs of 12 boxes each. DPA Soundco’s Paul Hammann and Claus Pedersen headed the onsite crew responsible for system deployment and operation.

"This is the first year we have deployed JBL's VERTEC system for Roskilde, after using another system for many years," advised Sten Jensen of DPA Soundco. "The large VERTEC system went up very quickly. We relied on JBL's new V4 DSP presets and found that we did not have to use very much EQ on the system. The long-throw capabilities were as expected, so some additional delay arrays that had been provided on towers at 50 meters (164 feet) out from the stage were more to bring in some additional high-frequency energy than for providing any additional output power, as there was a constant headwind of up to 8-12 meters per second [18-27 miles per hour]."

JBL VT4888 midsize line array elements were used to cover areas close to the stage. "The front fill system that we had designed for the event worked well for the audience pits in the middle, intended for a throw out to about 25 meters from the stage," explained Jensen. "Each year we make gradual adjustments and improvements to the overall sound system, and we already have ideas for refining our approach for next year."

Jensen noted that the sound crew and guest engineers were very pleased with the overall results. "We were especially happy with summation of the main and the offstage VERTEC array hangs. And, we were able to get perforated net in front of the offstage speakers (rather than solid plastic) so this was a help," he observed. "All in all we were quite pleased with the performance of the system. We think that VERTEC will experience a second wave of interest and excitement in the industry, with JBL's new V4 DSP presets."

For more information on DPA Soundco, please visit http://www.dpasoundco.dk/

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