TALKIN’ ABOUT THEIR GENERATION, 2000
Now a staple of the Royal Albert Hall’s springtime calendar, the Teenage Cancer Trust’s annual festival of music and comedy shows has seen around 300 artists perform to over 750,000 fans, raising tens of millions of pounds for the charity since its inaugural event on November 27th 2000.
Throughout the event’s history, Entec has been proud to remain its exclusive audio provider, establishing standards of excellence that continue to evolve at the revered London venue. And it all began when Roger Daltrey encouraged The Who to play a show for TCT, with guest collaborators Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, Eddie Vedder, Bryan Adams, Nigel Kennedy and Kelly Jones.
What was originally designed as a one-off event became the driving force for an annual showcase, with each year’s bill curated by Roger alongside show producer Des Murphy.
Entec became involved from the outset in no small part due to Dick Hayes, who managed TCT’s audio infrastructure up until his retirement in 2014. He said: “I had worked for The Who since 1969 under Bob Pridden and, coincidentally, my first gig with them was at the Albert Hall. When I joined Entec in 1995, Bob was one of the first people I contacted because The Who were forever having monitoring problems. I presented our APW monitors as a solution, Daltrey and Townshend loved them, and when the first TCT show was announced, Entec was delighted to be given the job.”
VALUE
Successfully handling one of the world’s most notoriously challenging acoustic spaces carries considerable value and this is where Entec’s considerable experience has come into play. Back in 2000, the company deployed d&b’s C4 system, configuring it as a large centre cluster for the second year, before moving to the Q-Series.
For TCT’s 2006 events, Entec débuted the J-Series – d&b’s entry into the large scale line array market – and it is a testimony to its design that it remains at the core of the TCT audio spec.
As systems and technology improved, the company became increasingly digital with greater access to DSP power and expanded knowledge of the elements that affect sound in the Albert Hall. In recent years, advances have included d&b’s ArrayProcessing software, which allows each loudspeaker cabinet to be individually processed with FIR and IIR filtering to by-pass some of the limitations associated with line array cabinets, particularly the directionality and level distribution of the low-mid frequency range.
ArrayCalc, the simulation tool within this processing suite, crucially helps to design an array based on a map of the venue, providing system performance prediction, time alignment, rigging and safety parameters.
With Entec’s custom-packaged, highly scalable Dante networking system adding even greater sophistication and flexibility, the sound of TCT remains in very safe hands.
Equally secure is the TCT production team, which has remained stable throughout the show’s existence with Steve Allen in residence as production manager since the first event, when he was brought in by promoter Harvey Goldsmith.
In 2016, Matt Grounds graduated to project manager and crew chief for Entec after originally running monitors. He commented: “The consistency of the crew over the years has been key to maintaining a good working relationship with TCT’s production. We are very fortunate to have highly skilled people whose personalities are a very good fit.”
The Who with Noel Gallagher, TCT 2000
