"This wasn't just an act of veneration," explained Grant, "Pavarotti touched many people in his lifetime, particularly through his work as United Nations Messenger of Peace. It's rare to see stars the calibre of Sting and Zucchero rubbing shoulders with the likes of Carreras, Domingo and Bocelli, but that was the nature of the man."
Naturally, such a potent mix of performers brings its own challenges, the services of Britannia Row being engaged to bring their own particular expertise to bear on the audio environment. Over all organisation was by Harvey Goldsmith's company ignition, with Jim Baggott as production manager. Performed live to an audience of dignitaries and leading humanitarian figures, the proceeds of the event from Broadcast and DVD will benefit UNHCR projects in Afghanistan, the World Food Programme, and a Jordanian charity supporting disabled children.
"A local company, Tritec AV, provided the PA system," Grant continued. "Our role was control and infrastructure for simultaneous live and recorded sound. Tritec did an excellent job, the d&b Q system they supplied was ideal for the audience of 500, their people were very good, and their general professionalism was first rate."
"For us, the critical issue was live and recorded sound; analogue splits we decided were not an option as we knew nothing of the mains electricity supply, plus we knew in advance there would be little time for sorting any hums and buzzes we might encounter. The safest way to go was MADI links," Brit Row providing three DiGiCo D5s - one for live, one for monitors, and one for recorded sound to keep the entire signal path regime totally coherent, unified and robust. An equally robust team of engineers was assembled to run it - Richard Sharrat front-of-house, Graham Blake for monitors, and Toby Allington for recorded sound. "I was in my usual role of audio coordinator," said Derrick Zieba, "and Bryan added Dave Bracey to the team for his depth of experience with the D5."
Beyond his technical and diplomatic role providing the interface of sanity between audio and broadcast, Zieba found himself behind a console, providing a premix of the 68-piece Prague Symphony for Richard Sharrat. "Not unreasonably, the members of the orchestra with wooden instruments did not want to rehearse in the full heat of the day." A difficult situation in any circumstances. "Fortunately, the cliffs that backed the performance area blocked the afternoon sun, so we were able to start working around 3:30pm. Overcoming these sorts of problems is the key to making a success of such events: the combined experience of the Brit Row team is enormous and we anticipate as much as possible; as such we had the time here to focus fully on rehearsing once the heat subsided."
In the event, the show was a complete success; from an audio perspective Andrea Bocelli's sound engineer Andrea Taglia summed up the enigmatic nature of the show best: "I'm here in the middle of the desert and Brit Row are here; I'm so happy to see you."
(Lee Baldock)
