The regional town of Ceduna in South Australia recently played host to the second Yabaardu Festival, a newly formed annual event celebrating First Nations community and culture. Featuring local artists and ARIA Award-winning rock band King Stingray, the free event was attended by over 2000 people, with the wider community travelling from nearby areas to take part (as of 2021, Ceduna’s population itself was recorded at just 1959 people). On hand to provide event audio was Augusta Production Services (APS), who deployed a savvy mix of RCF, NST Audio and Quest Engineering solutions to meet the sonic requirements of the concert.
A premium supplier of professional audio and lighting solutions to regional South Australia, APS have come to rely on RCF’s HDL Series in weathering the demands of regional and remote gigs. The HDL line array technology was put into action for Front of House duties, whilst solutions from Quest Engineering were used for Monitors, as APS’ proprietor and engineer Alan Phillips details:
“We used 12 x HDL 20-A modules for Front of House, a hang of 6-per-side, and some additional HDL 6-A modules for front-fill. We had 6 ground-stacked Quest HPI218 units providing sub, with NST Audio’s D48X as system processor. Monitors were 8 x Quest QM700 across the stage front- paired- and a 9th QM700 with a Quest HPI-18BP sub for the drum fill.”
Solutions from RCF are often the first choice for productions faced with demanding climate and temperature factors, regularly deployed at regional shows across Australia. RCF’s workhorse HDL systems were recently seen in King Stingray’s hometown of Northeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, almost 2800km away from the diametrically placed town of Ceduna.
Considered a major success by all involved, Yabaardu Festival leaders are reportedly already considering an expansion of the festival next year and aim to ensure it continues annually. Alan attributes smooth execution of the festival’s audio component to the predictability and reliability of his equipment, emphasizing both Quest Engineering and NST Audio, with special mention of RCF’s HDL Series:
“The system ran without issue, provided plenty of solid SPL and coverage for the duration of the event, and the touring engineers were very happy with the system performance overall. We continue to rely on the HDL boxes for their intelligibility and extended throw, and we know they will continue to excel, unaffected by the often-harsh climate here in South Australia.”
