Staged as part of the company's lavish 30th anniversary world tour, the events took place in Turin's Palaisozaki Arena and the Stockholm Globe Arena. Each was a mixture of conference, training sessions, team meetings, awards presentations, live entertainment and high profile 'geeing-up' for the delegates, a highlight being the company's own version of Pop Idol. As such, both events required audio rigs which could deliver both clear speech and high quality music to every seat in the house, all at impressive volume levels.
Sussex-based Dimension Audio provided the audio rigs for both shows, with Yamaha digital audio consoles a central feature. With a PM5D-RH positioned at front of house and linked digitally to a DSP5D, plus an LS9-16 and an M7CL 32, the Yamaha gear provided the 'holy trinity' of important factors for the entire production - sound quality, flexibility and cast-iron reliability.
"The events are very 'American', a curious mix of corporate conference and rock 'n' roll," says Dimension Audio project manager Staf Rowley. "We're very busy all the time at them, so the reliability of the Yamaha equipment gives us that all-important confidence that things will go smoothly."
The PM5D did the front of house mix for the entertainment parts of the event, the DSP5D handled all the conference-related radio microphones (12 handhelds and six lavalier), along with audio for the many VT segments, computer-based presentations and other playback elements, plus record feeds.
Meanwhile, the LS9 handled the distribution core feeds, translation feeds and ambient microphones, while the M7CL handled monitors.
"We've done these productions before and you have to be prepared for anything," says Rowley. "Everything from a single mic for a speaker to a full rock band - Herbalife tends to change things very quickly, so we can't leave anything to chance. As it was, this year all the musical entertainment was done to playback tracks, but we didn't know that until after the get in! But they're really good guys to work with."
Using an E-V line array in both venues, the main challenge for the Dimension team was the acoustics of the Globe Arena. "It's a big echoey dome and not great for audio," says Rowley. "Because the show is very loud and in your face, placement of the line arrays and careful EQing was very important. But the onboard processing of the Yamaha consoles handled it with ease."
He continues, "Using the PM5D and DSP5D gave us completely separate surfaces for the conference and entertainment parts of the show, but without taking up more space at the mix position."
(Jim Evans)
