Staged at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos, Nigeria, the massive musical extravaganza brought together worshippers from throughout Africa to revel in performances by artists including Kirk Franklin, Donnie McClurkin, Don Moen, Fred Hammond, Kurt Carr, Chevelle Franklyn, Gospel duo Mary Mary, and UK-based recording artist and radio presenter, Muyiwa Olarewaju.
The main sound system deployed left and right arrays of 10 Meyer Sound Milo loudspeakers each, augmented by side-arrays of 12 Mica loudspeakers per side. Low frequencies were covered by nine 700-HP subwoofers per side, along with two more at centre-stage, all configured in cardioid formation to prevent low-frequency build-up near the stage. Six UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers provided front-fill, while a Galileo loudspeaker management system with two Galileo 616 processors covered system processing.
As GQ's Peter Iriah explains, covering the vast expanse of the venue was a challenge that the Meyer Sound system sufficiently met. "We were initially a bit concerned about covering such a wide area, and had originally considered a system design that would include five different delay stacks," he says. "But when we turned on the system, the combined coverage of the Milo and Mica arrays made the extra delay stacks unnecessary, and we decided to remove them."
Onstage, 16 MJF-212A stage monitors, four MTS-4A full-range loudspeakers, and four USW-1P subwoofers covered the performers. System design was handled by Meyer Sound's technical consultant Dave Dennison using the MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction programme.
(Jim Evans)
