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Solskin is a three day festival celebrating the past, present and future of pagan roots and traditions.

We worked closely with the husband and wife organising team from early planning stages of this boutique festival. PA, lighting and staging were provided for the main tipi, plus a smaller PA for the ceremonial area. Site power and distribution were also provided, along with festoon and wash lighting for other site areas.

Music formed the central entertainment, ranging from chants, acoustic and dark folk, through to folk rock. The very varied lineup included:

• The Trouble Notes
• The Dolmen
• Nytt Land
• The Captain's Beard
• Damh the Bard

Preparation work included lighting design and making up cables for our newly-purchased Prolight 18T3 Pro outdoor lighting fixtures.

To minimise crewing costs within a tight budget, a two-man Mainline crew set off for a two-day site prep and build before the festival opening.

Main stage PA included two Martin Audio ground stacks of 4 WPM plus two SXCF-118 subwoofers and 6 LE200 stage wedges powered by iK42 and iK81 iKon amplification. Front of house and monitors were controlled from an Allen & Heath Avantis sound desk plus GX4816 stage box linked via ethercon CAT5 cable. Stage lighting comprised a set of Chauvet COLORdash Battens, Chauvet Rogue R2 LED washes and mini movers controlled by an Avolites Titan Mobile lighting desk.

The ceremonial area PA included Martin Audio Blackline XP12 with an Allen & Heath CQ-18T mixing desk. A mic, stand and DI pack was also supplied.

Client: Solskin Festival

Mainline were delighted to supply audio visual equipment for England's first European Championship game. An outdoor event was held at The Collecting Yard, Preston, by the English Football League.

An outdoor weatherproof modular LED screen was provided in a 5m x 2.5m layout, rigged using two Manfrotto Black Magic winch stands.

The accompanying audio used two stand-mounted Blackline XP15 speakers by Martin Audio.

Client: The English Football League
Venue: The Collecting Yard

Bury Pride continues to grow, with production values increasing this year to include a road closure in the town centre for its first outside main stage. We were very pleased to deliver the main stage production this year, providing stage, PA, lighting and generator power.

Hosted and stage-managed by Roch Valley Radio, a good variety of acts graced the stage from soulful and pop to full-on outrageous drag queens and drag kings. Great weather topped things off, with everyone enjoying the sunshine once the clouds cleared.

The PA system included a ground-stacked Martin Audio rig with four WPM elements plus two SXCF118 subwoofers per side. Simplified stage monitoring was provided using Blackline XP12's, plus IEM's for the BSL signers. FOH control employed an Allen & Heath SQ-5 sound desk and laptop PC playback via Dante for backing tracks and background music.

Lighting comprised a backdrop of Chauvet COLORdash Battens and grid-mounted Chauvet Rogue R2 LED washes which were more than a match for the sunshine. Lighting control employed a laptop running Avolites Titan Mobile.

Client: Bury Pride
Venue: Bury Town Centre

Through our work with Glaston-Bury fundraising over the years, Mainline were happy to be a sponsor for Simply The Fest. A great range of tribute and cover acts performed during the day. This was a small direct fundraiser event, with all proceeds going to Bury Hospice in memory of Susan Joyce.

Originally planned for outdoors but scaled back due to weather issues, we supplied a Martin Audio PA comprising a pair of BlacklineX XP15 cabinets plus XP118 subwoofers.

If you are considering an event of any size, our scalable PA solutions will fit the bill - contact us today.

Client: Simply The Fest
Venue: Walshaw Sports Club, Bury

Chinese New Year celebrations saw an outdoor production held in the Chinatown district of Manchester city centre. Mainline supplied a modular LED screen backdrop for the stage in a 5m x 2.5m format.

A host of acts took to the stage during the day including dancers, singers and other performers.

Client: Pixite

Congratulations to Stanley's, making a very welcome return to Bury nightlife after reopening their doors in December, with Mainline providing temporary PA installation.

The bar had been closed since Easter 2023 following an arson attack that destroyed the interior and damaged adjacent properties.

Two Martin Audio XP12's were installed temporarily after problems were discovered with the client's intended speakers.

Client: The Woodcock Group
Venue: Stanley's of Bury

Originating in Manchester in 2005, this well-established metal festival moved to a new home at Trafford Park in 2022, after 15 years at Leeds University. Now billed as Europe's largest indoor metal festival, the event was held over two days, the first evening being A Night Of Salvation. Mainline supplied PA and lighting systems for The Eyesore Merch stage at this year's event.

Two line array hangs of 8 x Martin Audio WPS boxes were matched with 8 x SXCF118 and 4 x SXH218 subwoofers. Downstage front fill used four pairs of Martin Audio WPM array elements, with XP15 boxes as side fill.

LE100 and LE200 stage wedges were also supplied, with drum fill using an XP118 plus XP12 combination. An Allen & Heath dLive S5000 desk was supplied for FOH control, with an Avantis desk on monitor mixing duties, plus a microphone, DI and patching package.

An Avolites Arena desk controlled a flown lighting rig of Chauvet Rogue R2 LED Wash, Rogue RH1 hybrid, Strike 4 LED wash and Chauvet COLORdash Par-Quad 18 static LED wash units.

Client: SBS Audio Visual
Venue: Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester

With Bury's Blind Tiger Bar being a regular haunt for our crew over the years, Mainline were pleased to get the opportunity to quote for, and win, the job of repairing, refurbishing and refitting their installed sound system. The system is used for background / jukebox music, a rock and indie DJ roster, through to regular live band reinforcement. It had not been fully working for some time while awaiting a decision on its future.

Work comprised repairing damaged drivers in the main PA Electro Voice 3-way speaker cabinets, rewiring cable runs to all speakers; replacement amplifier; addition of a speaker processing unit for improved control of zoning and limiting, extending the speaker life expectancy by preventing damage.

With budget constraints, cost-effective repairs to an active subwoofer unit saw it converted for passive operation. A dedicated amplifier channel was used, with bandpass EQ applied using the new speaker management system. With the subwoofer now back in service, some low-end was rolled off from other speakers during system tuning to give a far better sound experience and again, extend speaker life expectancy at the venue.

Client: Blind Tiger

We were pleased to provide lighting for Pink Floydian, having worked with a number of Pink Floyd tribute acts in our time.

Avolites Arena headed up lighting control for a rig of Chauvet Rogue RH1 hybrid, Chauvet Rogue R2 LED Wash and other hired-in moving head fixtures, along with Showtec stage blinders and an Equinox Stage Hazer.

Client: Pink Floydian
Venue: Fleetwood Marine Hall

In a proven arrangement, the PA employed four ground stacks of Wavefront Precision WPS set well back from the main audience areas, each having two SXCF118 subwoofers with four WPS array elements.

This year's production was more challenging due to rain on the preceding few days making the pitch impassible for anything other than 4x4 vehicle. Our Ford Ranger was pressed into service ferrying the PA equipment to and from the various locations (and assisting another van that became stuck). We really had four seasons in one day, with frost on flight cases and speaker covers adding to a very damp and muddy load out.

FOH employed our new Allen & Heath CQ-18T sound desk with mono analogue feeds to two Martin Audio iK42 amplifier racks. Infill for the bar area was handled by a Blackline XP stack using an XP15 / XP18 subwoofer combination.

The light show employed ten Chauvet Rogue RH1 hybrid beam fixtures on the ground controlled by Titan Mobile. The show was prepared in advance and triggered by Titanium Fireworks' FireOne control system. This provided the SMTP timecode to Titan Mobile and synchronised audio to the sound desk.

Bolton FM provided background music and compering, with a mono feed into our sound desk.

Client & venue: Bradshaw Cricket Club

Glaston-Bury's 2023 festival featured a DJ Arena with PA audio and lighting production by Mainline..

The DJ Arena was one of six outdoor stages and a first for the annual festival. The lineup included Ian Van Dahl, Genie MC, live vocalists Karen Parry (Flip n Fill), Rebecca Rudd (Ultrabeat) and Suddi Raval, with Decade of Dance and Elouise finishing the day.

The sound system featured two Martin Audio ground-stacked line arrays of six Wavefront Precision WPS with 3 x SXCF118 per side, with 4 x SXH218 subwoofers. Monitoring comprised an SXCF118 plus an LE200 wedge per side for DJ’s, plus two LE200 wedges downstage for vocalists.

Sound design allowed plenty of volume and overhead, while optimisation minimised noise overspill to other nearby stages.

Lighting comprised an Avolites Arena desk controlling Rogue RH1 and R2 moving heads, plus Martin Atomic 3000 strobes and Strike 4 wash fixtures. Many thanks to our colleagues at Decade of Dance who completed the visuals with their LED video wall and lasers.

Mainline also provided an LED screen backdrop and rigging for the Peel Stage, and various power and stage logistics.

Client: Glaston-Bury

A repeat client invitation saw Mainline providing an outdoor screen and PA system for Coronation Day.

FOH control used a Windows laptop running dLive Director, with Dante Virtual Soundcard feeding live audio from BBC iPlayer to a DM48 rack. The same laptop streamed live video via HDMI to the screen scaler / controller.

The PA rig and screen both demonstrated their combined exceptional clarity and detail, with enough brightness headroom for outdoor viewing, and enough volume headroom for everything including the Sunday evening concert.

Equipment overview - Screen: 4.5m x 2.5m modular LED Screen 5.3DPI. Structure: Prolyte X30V truss on Manfrotto Black Magic winch stands. PA system: Martin Audio ground stacked Blackline XP18 subwoofer plus XP15 per side, plus XP12 delay fills at 25 metres; Allen & Heath dLive DM48 rack. Power: 20kVA generator supplied by Generator Hire Cheshire.

Client: Laneshawbridge Parish Council

Mainline were happy to be involved with Bury Pride 2023.

Equipment hired for one of the stages comprised a Behringer Xenyx small analogue mixer and two Line 6 radio microphones, plus a ground stacked Martin Audio Blackline XP18 subwoofer plus XP15 per side. GigBarflex was also supplied for lighting effects.

It's great to see this event developing again and we look forward to supporting the event in 2024.

Client: Bury Pride
Venue: The Elizabethan Suite, Bury Town Hall