Plus 4 provides Martin Audio MLA for UK’s National TV Awards

The UK National TV Awards (NTA) took place at the O2 in London recently, where a Martin Audio MLA system was used for the first time.

The event, which has been held annually at the venue since 2010, recognises the most popular TV shows of the past year.

Plus 4 Audio of London took care of the sound this year. The firm decided to try a different array design after discussing the system capabilities with application support specialist Andy Davies.

“Key to the design was finding a system that could deliver consistent audience coverage whilst dramatically reducing the on-stage sound,” commented Davies. “With most of the acceptance speeches given from an open lectern position gain before feedback was critical to the live sound mix.”

The solution was an MLA set-up, which also allowed system tech Mark Edwards to reduce reflections from the glass-fronted VIP sections via the optimisation software.

The Plus 4 crew deployed 22 MLA enclosures and two MLD Downfill cabinets for the main system, with infill and outfill handled by the company’s existing cabinet stock.

The use of self-powered cabinets meant the unobtrusive MLA distro racks could be hidden in the roof of the arena, greatly cutting down cable and mains distribution requirements.

“The MLA really proved itself to us on the very first challenging show we had used it on,” added Plus 4 Audio’s senior engineer, Mark Ballard. “We pride ourselves on achieving excellent sound quality in difficult situations and this year’s NTA show was a great result for us."

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