Salvador - Bahia, Brazil-based Arena Áudio Eventos Ltd., a sound equipment rental firm and a provider of live sound reinforcement for a wide range of concerts and special events, was contracted to provide sound services for the event. Alberto Viana, Managing Partner for Arena Áudio Eventos, discussed the challenges of running sound for this year's festival.
This event attracts huge crowds, Viana explained. We had audiences in the range of 50,000 people each day at the main stage in Castro Alves Square. Being outdoors, we not only had to ensure adequate sound to cover a crowd this large, we also had to compete with the surrounding sounds of the city. These factors made it critical that the SR (sound reinforcement) system not only provide suitable SPL (sound pressure level), it also had to provide even coverage, and this is where the D.A.S. Aero system excelled.
The D.A.S. Audio equipment arsenal was formidable. The left-right mains included a combination of twenty-four Aero CA-28A 2-way, mid-high line arrays (flown twelve elements per side on the outsides) plus twelve CA-215 subwoofers with dual 15-inch transducerssix enclosures per side flown adjacent to the Aero CA-28A's. Sixteen D.A.S. Audio Aero 182A 2K powered, arrayable, high performance subwoofers provided plenty of low end punch. These units were ground stacked in a 2-wide / 4 high configuration on each side of the stage and were vertically aligned with the overhead loudspeaker clusters.
Sidefills included a combination of D.A.S. Audio Compact 2 powered, 3-way, mid-high enclosures stacked atop D.A.S. Audio Compact 218 self-powered subwoofers. There were four such systemstwo per each side of the stage. D.A.S. Audio SML-12A powered, multi-purpose stage monitors and Avant 18A powered subwoofers rounded out the monitor systems. Yamaha PM5D-RH digital consoles handle mixing chores for both mains and monitors.
The D.A.S. Audio equipment did a great job for us on this project, says Viana. We were able to assemble the system with a configuration that gave the technicians the comfort of having all the SPL they required with sound quality that was ideal for everything from rock to jazz. No matter where you stood in the audience, the sound was loud, clear, and very musical. Our client was extremely happy with the sound system's performance and all the technicians, producers, performers, and mix engineers involved with the various acts had nothing but incredible praise for the system. This was a fantastic job from planning to completion of execution.
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