Martin Ruff
A Case Study of the Hertford Castle Christmas Market Event
We were contacted by a long standing customer to provide a small stage with a PA system and lighting for their Christmas Market at the end of November.
The brief was to have a stage big enough for small groups of no more than four people, and sound to cover the majority of the lawn at Hertford Castle, but at background level.
The budget was relatively small for the two day event.
We immediately recommended the use of a modular stage system with a gazebo covering. It’s the most cost effective covered stage we offer and is perfect for smaller events. We chose a 5m x 3m option, which not only allows the space for four to 5 people, but also room for additional equipment and decoration.
There were several ways to approach the sound aspect for a project like this.
With the client wanting sound coverage to the whole lawn, but not being the main focus of the event, they wanted to allow people to take in the experience of looking and buying from the traders at the market whilst being able to enjoy the live entertainment as they sipped on their mulled wine.
A couple of speakers on stands would give amplification to a small band, but with limited coverage, and a lack of full range sound without turning it up. Another approach that we could’ve done was to place multiple speakers around the venue, at a much lower level, but giving ideal coverage to the whole site.
The real complication was the layout of the site. The lawn is a 50m square, with the castle building on one side and a terrace in front. The terrace area is raised from the lawn by a metre, then banked down to meet the lawn. Most events at the castle have the focal point on top of the bank facing the lawn. In this case the client had planned the same, with the stage at the top of the bank.
The lawn was then divided in two. One side had rows of chalets for the market stalls, and the other half was filled with fairground rides and food and drink vendors. The stage then pointed down the middle walkway.
This meant there would be general noise from the other activities, and a number of obstructions in the way of sound getting to the far end of the lawn.
Using multiple speakers around this site would have been a perfect solution, and worked really well, however there were a number of factors that made it difficult to implement.
Speaker placement
We often place speakers on long poles driven directly into the ground. At Herford Castle that’s not an option, as there are archaeological ruins of the old castle buildings under the lawn. Putting speakers on shorter tripod sands would have been the only option.
Cabling from the stage to each of the speakers
The lawn is accessible to the public on three sides, and there are a number of thoroughfares that cables would have to cross. We have already concluded that poles in the ground is not an option, so we can’t run the cables high.
So cable tracks across the pedestrian routes would have to be employed.
The layout of the site
The design of this site works well for the public moving around the market, but creates lots for little pockets where we would need to get sound. Meaning there would need to be many speakers needed to evenly cover the area.
This all comes at a cost, and for larger events would be worth the additional outlay, but in this situation the benefit would not outweigh the cost.
We opted for a compromise in the design of the system, provided a smaller sound rig, with speakers either side of the stage, that gave a full range sound for the bands at a lower level, yet have the power (if needed) to cover the whole site for public address announcements. We proposed this solution to the client who accepted and booked us for the event.
We find it’s important to discuss the options with our clients, and to briefly outline the complications there may be with different setups. There is nothing worse than turning up on the day with good intentions to provide the service you have quoted for, only for the client to be unhappy with what you did because they were expecting something different.
