The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen took place at Westminster Abbey on Monday 19th September, with the Funeral service paying tribute to The Queen’s long and dignified reign. It was broadcast live around the world, with crowds of mourners paying their respects along the processional route from the Palace of Westminster to Westminster Abbey, and then to Wellington Arch via Whitehall and The Mall. The Royal Coffin made the procession on the State Gun Carriage before being placed in the State Hearse for its final journey to Windsor and St George’s Chapel where she was laid to rest in the Royal Vault alongside her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. 

Arcadis was contracted to provide overlay infrastructure for the event and turned to  Electronic Audio Systems & DeltaLive, long-time suppliers to both State Ceremonial events  and providers of the audio equipment & project management for this and similar events.  Together, they had the honour of providing the public audio requirements along the  ceremonial route in both London and Windsor, as well as site-wide communications. 

Although familiar with Ceremonial events, this was, says DeltaLive Director Mark Bonner,  the company’s most important project to date. With complicated logistics to deal with and substantial technical requirements – over 700 loudspeakers, nine kilometres of cable and 60 technicians were deployed along the route – DeltaLive’s skill and experience was brought to the fore.

EAS Ltd Director Andrew Latham MInstSCVE added, “I’m sure we can claim this to be one of, if not, the largest voice safety systems ever deployed, covering the biggest physical area and members of the public. All of the equipment was superb and reproduced the audio content effortlessly to the areas specified. Great teamwork and planning were key to the achievement and we continue to enjoy a long-term business relationship and trusted friendship.” 

Preparation on site started overnight on Friday 9th September in The Mall and continued along the route and throughout the weekend. “I had three seasoned project managers brought to the project,” says Bonner. “One was in charge of London, one Windsor, and one covered both areas, to ensure we had good, consistent communication between the sites.” 

For Horse Guards Parade, 18 Kara per side were hung from a crane to provide coverage across the parade ground. A further two hangs of 12 K2, also on cranes to keep them out of view of the television cameras, covered Parliament Square. Ground-stacked Kara provided coverage for the disabled area near the Queen Victoria Monument, with additional stacks at the top of Horse Guards Road. The systems were linked together from a cabin in Canada Gate where an engineer ensured signal ran to all areas. The egress route from Hyde Park to Green Park station was covered with high impedance horn speakers and similar cabinet speakers covered the public areas along Constitution Hill.  

In Windsor, the two companies had the advantage of having worked together on the most recent Royal Wedding, where they had placed loudspeakers on the battlements of Windsor Castle for the first time in the castle’s history. 

“We repeated the design and placed L-Acoustics 12-inch coaxial enclosures at strategic positions,” says Latham & Bonner. “In addition, there were nine screens sited on The Long Walk in Windsor Great Park, eight on one side, one on the other where we

deployed six Kara left and right of each screen, plus a further 100 cabinets along the length of the Long Walk, Sheet Street and the route from Chaos Corner to the Long Walk, in the high street either side of the church, town hall and castle.” 

Audio was also provided in Home Park, where a screen relayed proceedings for  thousands of spectators at Eton and Riverside station with 50 X12 throughout the town. The entire system was powered by a total of 200 LA4X, LA8 and LA12X amplified controllers. Control was provided by DiGiCo SD11s, with an SD5 at Windsor Castle providing routing for police announcements. 

“This was a challenging job. We had prepared extensively, but due to the nature of the project, planning continued even as we were loading in,” Bonner concludes. “The results speak for themselves. We are extremely proud that DeltaLive was trusted with such an important contract. Our team outdid themselves and for me personally, it is a fitting culmination to a long career in an industry I love.”

Find out more here:

deltalive.com

eaudio.ltd