RG Jones at MCC Lords Cricket Ground
1st July 2010
RG Jones Sound Engineering began its long-standing relationship with Lords in the 1980s, working closely with Westminster City Council to satisfy the requirements of the Safety At Sport Grounds Acts which was in place at the time.
“The UK has changed dramatically since then, with stricter licensing laws being introduced to meet with both security and environmental issues,” says RG Jones’ sales and installations director Jon Berry. “This has meant that our clients have had to re-think their entire infrastructure. We understand how important it is for our designs to meet all those requirements, yet still create a solution that remains aesthetically sympathetic.
“As the legislation is continually changing, we have re-thought our own infrastructure and introduced training programmes for our project managers and engineers - on the installation side the industry-recognised CSCS cards and, on the hire side, the recommended Safety Passport Scheme.”
For cricket fans there is no more historic venue than Lord’s, owned by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and renowned as the ‘home of cricket’. Although very careful to preserve its past, the changing requirements of the ground’s use - and of cricket itself - have seen Lord’s continually embrace new developments. Arguably the best-known cricket venue in the world, it’s Pavilion, Long Room, MCC Museum and Old Father Time weather vane some of the most iconic sights in the sport. More recently, its futuristic media centre and combined sight/video screens have demonstrated that cricket is about embracing the present as well as the past.
The company has been working with consultant Roland Hemming for a number of years, appointing him to project manage the Lords site. Recently Roland oversaw the second phase of the audio improvements, covering the historic Pavilion and entrance / exit gates.
“The first things we had to bear in mind were that MCC is a very historic organisation, that there are many third parties who have their own requirements and that Lord’s is in a residential area,” says Roland. “This meant there was a great deal of collaboration involved. We were dealing with two different committees and had meetings with a range of different people in the organisation, nearby residents, the local council, safety authorities and other contractors on site. Much of the negotiation was convincing people of the need to upgrade the system and explaining our proposals.”
As the audio system has to fulfil a range of uses, a number of different criteria had to be met, including better reliability and audio quality; voice alarm compliance, the flexibility to take in different types of live event and types of cricket (from Tests to Twenty20); links to broadcast companies; better sound containment and also improved aesthetics.
Sennheiser 3000 series wireless microphones allow interviews taking place on the pitch to be broadcast throughout the ground, with all commentary and desk microphones also by Sennheiser.“It’s a very high Q system, with lots of speakers all not working too hard,” says Roland. “Not only does this mean that each is projecting at a lower volume, containing the sound and minimising spill outside the ground, but it also makes a massive difference to the audio quality. It makes for an extremely smooth and cohesive sound.
“In the old days, a stand like the Pavilion would have been done on one or two feeds,” he continues. “But we divided it up into 14, meaning that a lot of fine tuning is now capable to really optimise performance.”
Audio quality - and by association, intelligibility - was also of course a prime consideration for the system’s emergency evacuation role. Voice Alarm regulations had to be complied with, cables needed to be both fireproof and circuits duplicated - all of which added layers of complexity to a system which also has to deliver commentary, music before, during and after Twenty20 matches and also be synchronised with the ground’s large format video screens for the purposes of interviews, etc.
Things were further complicated by the piecemeal way in which the various stands at Lord’s have been constructed, meaning that each area has its own unique acoustic and architectural challenges.
“The ground is not a conventional bowl, each area needs its own sound design and the sound from each must obviously not interfere with any others, ” says Roland. “There is the possibility of future developments and phases of audio improvement, which means that each updated area has to work alongside the ‘old’ system. All of these had to be taken into account and made the design highly complex.”
He continues, “We believe it’s the largest Dante network anywhere in the world so far. Using the ASL processors means that the system is constructed like a proper security system, not ‘just’ an audio system. It’s extremely flexible, yet conforms to all the stringent requirements for voice evacuation from such a large venue.”
“Obviously it’s a very competitive market, but they deliver tremendous customer support, do IP54 weatherproof versions and custom colours with absolutely no hassle,” says Roland. “They are well priced, high quality, reliable loudspeakers which sound wonderful.
“So far we’ve had nothing but praise for the system. We’ve had very positive comments from people who don’t normally remark on something like the audio system. Senior members of the organisation have taken the trouble to seek us out and say how pleased they are, that they’ve never heard anything as good at Lords. With the phased upgrade programme, every year they’re hearing more benefits.”