Pronorte Chooses EAW For Hot Events In Spain
Now that the sun is finally beginning to sink lower in the sky, premier Spanish rental company Pronorte Sonido in Asturias, Spain has found the time between events to report a highly successful summer/autumn festival season with EAW line arrays.
Pronorte put their EAWKF760 and KF730 line array systems through their paces at several shows this summer, including a concert for veteran UK rock band Simple Minds as well as several major festivals. Among the biggest were the Bilbao Live Festival that took place in Bilbao in July, the Noroeste Pop Rock festival, a huge four-day free gig held in a spectacular beach setting in La Coruna at the northwestern tip of Spain (pictured above), and the Azkena Rock Festival in Mendizabala, Vittoria, also in northern Spain.
The principal attractions at Bilbao included Guns 'n Roses, Ben Harper, the Pretenders, the Cardigans, Placebo, the Fun Lovin' Criminals and the Cult, while at Noroeste, fans turned out in their thousands to see the likes of Paul Weller and the Sunday Drivers as well as many top-ranking Spanish artists. Azkena offered festival-goers a far more hard-core rock experience with Iggy Pop & the Stooges, the New York Dolls and headline act Pearl Jam.
Pronorte was responsible for supplying the PA equipment for the main stage at all three events. The configuration for Bilbao and Azkena (pictured left) comprised a total of 24 EAW KF760 and eight KF761 cabinets deployed in right and left hangs of 12 KF760 long/medium throw cabinets and four KF761 nearfill cabinets each, plus 32 SB1000 subwoofers and six KF600 three-way loudspeakers acting as frontfills.
Noroeste demanded a slightly different approach due to the long, narrow nature of the area to be covered, constrained by a high boardwalk on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. As a result Pronorte opted for a somewhat smaller main PA (20 KF760 cabinets, eight KF761 and 24 SB1000 subs plus four KF600s as frontfills) and two delay towers each comprising a hang of 12 KF730 compact line array cabinets and six groundstacked SB1000 subs.
"The results were spectacular in every case," affirmed José Javier García Osorio, owner of Pronorte. "All the festivals were sell-outs with Azkena reporting record-breaking attendances this year, but Bilbao was just amazing – 51,000 people through the gates in its first year is a huge achievement. The atmosphere was fantastic, due in no small part to the excellent sound quality. Our KF760 rig performed magnificently, delivering smooth, even coverage right to the back of the site."
Franc Gatell, managing director of Pro3, EAW's distributor in Spain, noted that Pronorte's success was well deserved. "Pronorte have over two decades experience in live sound production, and they have been champions of the EAW brand from the beginning," he remarked. "They were looking to invest in a high quality brand that would deliver the very best in terms of audio and features in addition to standing the test of time, and time has proved that they made an excellent choice in EAW."