Hartwood Country Music Festival - Tambar Springs
Each Easter, Paul McCloud hosts the Hartwood Country Music Festival on his Tambar Springs property "Hartwood". As each successive event grew, Paul was hiring more and more additional sound equipment to suppliment his own. In 2006, Paul considered the event had outgrown his own equipment, and engaged us to handle production at the main stage for the three days.
The main stage is a dinkum aussie log and corrigated iron structure on a concrete slab, with a change room at the rear. This overlooks the front lawns and gardens of the homestead, and provides a relaxed, family setting for the spectators. Due to a covered spectator area and catering facities immediately to the right of the stage, the PA requirements on this side are relatively light, both for sight lines and volume level. The majority of the audience are spread out in front and to the left of the stage, and this is where the brunt of the sound needs to be directed.
In previous years. a low frequency build up on stage had been noted if the PA was placed too close, so with that in mind we utilised three of our MH28450 boxes on top of two 215 C subs for the left hand stack. This provided the wide dispersion and long throw needed to cover the main audience area. The right hand side of the stage was covered with one of the same top boxes on top of one of our new prototype Centauri HS110 sub boxes.
As the property's mains power was pretty much stretched to the limit with outdoor lighting, catering facilities and artists' caravans, we negotiated the hire of a diesel generator to supply power for the stage equipment. Unfortunately, the only unit available on the day was twice the size we really needed, but this improved regulation and reduced noise anyway.
With excellent performances by respected artists such as Paul, Peter Horan, Hank Koopman, Tom Maxwell, Costa brothers, Rodney Vincent and others, a sensible approach to volume levels, and excellent sound coverage, the many fans were pleasantly entertained.
The main stage. Despite the construction, acoustics were actually quite reasonable.
The left-hand speaker stack - vitually 180 degrees coverage.
Rear view of the left main speaker stack. The amplifier rack placed here results in shorter speaker cable runs for maximum efficiency. One of the amplifiers also fed the lower powered speakers at the right of stage.
Front-of-house mixing position at the base of a large tree. Channel requirements were fairly light, so we used our A&H Mixwizard mixing desks.
Foldback mixer, equalisers and amplifiers at the rear of the stage, easily accessable for any adjustments during a show.
Some of the crowd enjoying a performance by Tom Maxwell. Tom also hosted the night time campfire concerts at the camping area.
A view from stage of some of the 1000+ fans gathered on the "Hartwood" lawns.
20kVA generator behind the stage easily provided all the power needed.
