Held in the port town of Barcarès on France’s southern coast, Electrobeach is the country’s largest electronic music festival, featuring more than 100 DJs and hosting around 100,000 people over its three days. For this year’s event organisers broke new ground by employing Funktion-One sound systems on all four of its stages.
In the process reducing power draw for the main stage to a tenth of that required last year.
To meet the needs of such a large-scale event, Funktion-One specialists from across France and beyond came together to work on the festival. Heading up the project was Concept Group, based in the south of France, who in turn brought together Solution One from Montpellier, Remote from Paris and Think! AV from the Netherlands – each providing the equipment and expertise required to ensure this year’s sound systems would surpass all those that had come before. Further augmenting this super-group of suppliers was a crack team from Funktion-One HQ, including company co-founders and R&D masterminds Tony Andrews and John Newsham.
Leading the charge on the Main Stage, was a Funktion-One Vero large format vertical array. Though it shares the same easy-to-deploy convenience that has made line arrays so popular, Vero works on a completely different set of acoustic principles - delivering a clarity and efficiency that proved to be an unprecedented listening experience for organisers and concert goers alike. The Vero system utilises a 3x15 mid-bass horn-loaded cabinet along with dedicated 90° and 60° mid-high. These can be configured in any arrangement to perfectly suit any given environment.
The customisable nature of the Vero system delivered a number of advantages that proved particularly useful on Electrobeach’s Main Stage.
Newsham explains: “The festival site is surrounded by residential buildings, which we want to keep the sound away from much as we can. Being a completely horn-loaded system means Vero has a very accurate coverage pattern - we can control our output and keep it focused on the audience, rather than it spreading to other parts of the environment.”
An additional benefit was in the incredible throw achievable with Vero. Festival organisers wanted to avoid the use of delay towers, while at the same time ensuring good quality coverage all the way back to the huge landlocked steel boat that sits on the beach some 120m away - this was achieved effortlessly.
As well as behaving completely naturally (with no onboard system EQ), the Main Stage sound was unaffected by the coastal wind. “We’re noticing that, despite the site being really windy, we’re not getting the normal phasing problems because it’s not summing in the near field,” explains Andrews.
The Main stage hangs comprised 10 x V60 (mid-high loudspeaker providing 60° horizontal), 12 x V315 (mid-bass horn loaded loudspeaker) and 8 x V90 (mid-high loudspeaker providing 90° horizontal coverage). 32 x V221 subs and 8 x V132 super subs were stacked in front of the stage, with 4 x Evo 7/TH used as out fills and 2 x Evo 7 for centre fills. 22 x Lab.gruppen PLM amplifiers powered the system.
Yannick Hoogerwerf of Think! AV comments: “It sounds brilliant. The stereo image is the widest I’ve ever heard on a PA and the bass is really deep and firm because of the F132s - basically we have a 5-way system. It’s really even and it throws a lot further than any of my expectations.”
Chris Hawkes of Solution One adds: “It’s the first outing for Vero in France. We’ve had it up for a couple of days and we’ve had amazingly positive reactions. Everyone’s confident that we’re going to give the crowd a new experience. Certainly, the music we’ve been feeling in the soundchecks has been something that I’ve never experienced before.”
Paul Meskel of Concept Group comments: “It is the first time I’ve worked with Vero and I really like it. The low ends are really punchy and tough, and it’s got so much projection - I really love the sound of this PA. The good thing about the system is you can play really loud, but the sound is never aggressive at all. It’s really pleasant to hear. There’s a lot of pressure – a lot of impact, especially in the low end – but it stays clear and not aggressive at all.”
For the remaining three stages Funktion-One Evo systems energised each audience. On the Techno Stage, the system comprised 6 x Evo7T, 6 x Evo7TH, 6 x Evo7TL215, 2 x Evo7TH in fills, 10 x F121, 4 x F132 and PSM318 monitors.
On the Beach Stage 4 x Evo6E, 4 x Evo6EL, 8 x F124 (configured in a compact delta array) and PSM12 Monitors with Minibass 212 were used, while over on the Hardstyle Stage 4 x Evo7T, 2 x Evo7TH, 2 x F315, 12 x F121 and 6 x BR221 were on duty.
