Enrique Iglesias Tours UK with JBL VTX from SSE Hire

Working with US audio company Sound Image as part of the UAC collaboration, SSE Hire supplied Enrique Iglesias with a JBL VTX system for the artist’s October 2018 UK dates.

Spanish born, but resident in the US for most of his life and with over 170m record sales worldwide, Enrique Iglesias is deservedly referred to as the King of Latin Pop. Still only 43, Enrique has already clocked up 24 years as a successful solo artist.

In March 2018 Iglesias kicked off his ‘All the Hits Live’ show in Budapest, Hungary, the start of a schedule that continues right through to 2019 and include dates in Europe, the UK, Russia, South America and North America.

SSE Hire supplied a JBL VTX system for the five UK and Ireland arena dates that took place in October 2018. SSE Hire manager Dan Bennett explained,  “JBL was specified by FOH Engineer Brad Divens throughout the tour and it’s one of systems we carry at SSE. We’ve found it is particularly popular with US engineers and we have previously deployed it for a number of high profile US artists.”

“This was an example of our United Audio Companies partnership with Sound Image in operation. Sound Image look after Enrique Iglesias live so it was logical for them to pass over the project to SSE in the UK. Sometimes they will ship over the control package and we supply the PA but on this occasion we supplied the whole system.”

The JBL system featured main hangs of 16 VTX-V25 cabinets per side with out hangs of 14 VTX-V25, which was reduced down to eight VTX-V25 in smaller venues. Flown next to the main L-R hangs were VTX-S28 subs with VTX-G28 subs ground stacked in a delayed horizontal arc across the front of the stage.

Delays were required for Manchester Arena and The O2 in London. For this SSE deployed the new JBL VTX A12 cabinet, opting for hangs of eight boxes each positioned left centre and right to the rear of the arenas.

Brad Divens is a long term advocate of the JBL system: “VTX simply performs flawlessly night after night. No matter what type of arena I was mixing in, the power and clarity was all there, 100%. It all has to do with the detail and imaging - I can hear every single element of my mix.”

At FOH Brad Divens opted for an AVID S6L-32D, a console he moved to in 2017 having previously used an AVID Profile. Speaking in 2017, Brad explained, “I have developed a certain way I like to mix and I was able to continue that same approach on the S6L. I was a Profile user since 2007, so it was an easy switch.”

At the other end of the snake monitor engineer Eddie Caipo was also behind an AVID S6L-32D. There are only two L-Acoustics X15 cabinets and two L-Acoustics KS28 sub bass cabinets on stage but in addition to this Eddie was producing a further 18 stereo monitor mixes delivered wirelessly via IEMs to the artists on stage.

The wireless count for the show ran to 60 channels. In addition to the 18 channels of IEM there were 22 radio mics and a further 20 channels for backline.

SSE's RF and Comms Manager Marcus Blight explained the wireless challenge: "You need to spread the channels evenly across the available spectrum, then you need to factor in that the spectrum you are allocated at each venue is different. London can be particularly difficult to manage as there's so much RF traffic there. Added to this we sent the package to Europe for Enrique's European dates, where the available spectrum is different again, so you get some idea of the scale of the task 60 channels presented!"

SSE System Tech for the tour was Nick Lythgoe: “The Enrique production is very exacting and they expect the whole tour to be as slick as possible, but thanks to the time the time we spent preparing this in advance, we were able to deliver and exceed their expectations.”

Dan Bennett added, "It was an absolute pleasure to work with the Enrique Iglesias production team for this project. Special mention should go to Production Manager Andres Restrepo whose attention to detail and organisational skills meant everyone knew exactly what was required to produce a great show."

The tour was handled by SJM concerts and Head of Production Andy Redhead was delighted with the service from SSE and the crew: “Just to say a personal THANK YOU to everyone for the great work on the Enrique shows. It was a pleasure to work with you and thanks also for your patience, perseverance and understanding.”

 “It sounded great and didn’t look half bad in the end…!!”

SSE Crew

System Tech: Nick Lythgoe
PA Tech: Glen Little
PA Tech: Dave Ryan
PA Tech: Adam Walker