Soul SurviVor

Soul Survivor is a large Christian festival that runs annually in the summer, attracting tens of thousands of people across sites in Stafford, Scotland and Shepton Mallet.

There are daily morning and evening meetings in the big top for the whole site, and then many smaller, across site venues for the afternoon and late evening events.

SFL have a long standing relationship with Soul Survivor, spanning 15 years and have seen the event change and grow in that time. Part of the task we face is being adaptable to the ever-changing needs of the event – remaining flexible to last minute alterations while also providing the high quality audio and video solutions that are expected.

From a technical point of view, the setup is advanced in many ways. The complex system consists of a large adaptable stage package, extensive audio distribution, latest mixing consoles and outboard technology through to fully array processed line arrays covering the big top that can see up to 10,000 people attend.

On stage, we are constantly adapting to meet the needs of the band, which can vary from the house band (Beth Croft and Tom Smith) to an eclectic Irish worship band (Rend Collective) to guest worship leaders including Tim Hughes. By using our hybrid stage boxes, we are able to distribute power, audio and networking around the stage while minimising the amount of cable needed, keeping it cleaner and neater. As the event is being streamed live on God TV, and also being recorded for the live album, we focus on keeping stage noise to a minimum and isolating sources, so using a drum cage with drum triggers allows us to have granular control over each source and provides more accurate gating of drums. High quality microphones are selected to provide smooth transient response and retain detail in the reproduction of instruments, for example we use Neumann 184s on drum overheads, Radial and Klark Teknik DIs and a 4 way KSM9/QLXD digital wireless system for speech, an important aspect of the event for the preaches.

For control, we use the latest Midas and Waves technology to achieve an efficient, expandable and powerful system that allows us complete control over every aspect of the system. By using DL231s for our band inputs, the dual head-amp system allows FOH and monitors to have separate gain controls. The control system tours across 3 sites, so it was important the main audio rack was ready for any challenge thrown at it. An active split system was used that allowed God TV, Soul Survivor’s streaming partner, to take a split of every input and mix in their OB truck. Thanks to the powerful new Midas PRO X control centres complete with Neutron DSPs, we were able to use Klark Teknik DN9650s to provide us with an AES50 to Dante interface that was providing us with a split of the post-preamp inputs for virtual soundcheck using Neumann near field monitors at FOH and also to provide the live album recording with all the inputs.

As well as providing feeds for God TV and the live album recording, we also had to distribute audio via auxiliary feeds to loop systems, BSL signers, VT and words systems, recordings, overflow venues and comms. With the PRO X’s massive 168 input channel / 99 mix bus count, this was not an issue. The advantage of this technology also means we can run FOH from 2x fibre channels (main and redundant), without the worry of length being an issue. The surface also gave us AES50 connections at FOH position, allowing us to run Waves on an external server via a separate SoundGrid network. For example, C6 was used to help with multi-band dynamics of vocals and mixes, while InPhase was used to time align a kick sub group to the trigger, to ensure complete phase coherence. Waves’ H-Reverb was also used to provide us with ultra-smooth sounding reverb on the harp, snare and vocals.

At monitoring, full stereo mixes were provided to the band through the use of wired and wireless in ears. Ambient mics were incorporated to help band members gauge the room and feel immersed in the event, while a complex talkback system was used between the worship leader, MD, drummer, keys player and monitor engineer to allow everyone to communicate important changes in the set due to the fluid nature of the meetings. A matrix system was employed so that the monitor engineer constantly had TB in their ears, and also distributed to people manning song words so they were ready for last second, in-meeting changes.

The stage package and control systems were complemented with a full deployment of d&b audiotechnik speakers. This included M4s for the hosts and worship leader on the monitoring side, as well as a large selection for the main PA hangs. J-SUB in an end-fire configuration was chosen either side for its ability to reduce the level at the rear of the sub array, reducing noise for the surrounding villages. The main hangs were d&b J series complemented with out fills of Y series, with T series clusters filling the front few rows, and Y10 on front-fill duty. Utilising Midas IO boxes equipped with AES3, we fed the amp farm a combination of AES digital audio and backup analog feeds for redundancy.

The latest d&b amplifier technology was incorporated thanks to D20s and D80s which provided the venue with full Array Processing (AP), that gave a balance between constant ‘power’ (level) and ‘glory’ (tone) across the venue, which helped us keep reflections from the back and sides of the tent down, System control was taken charge by d&b’s R1 software, utilising both OCA and CAN bus to control all the amps.

The event is ever changing and evolving year on year, and SFL continue to respond to the changing dynamics of the demands of the big top. Committed to high quality audio and sensitive mixing to the atmosphere of the meetings, we continue to develop the production of the event, pushing further for excellence and facilitating this annual Christian festival.

More information about Soul Survivor can be found here.