Gospel events make distinctive demands of professional sound reinforcement systems. So says sound system designer and FOH engineer Schon Emmanuel, who has worked with the KICC since 2003. "It requires rock 'n' roll levels, R&B-type production quality, and corporate sensibilities."
In the featureless and acoustically challenging environment of the ExCeL convention centre, the IGOC event serves up dynamic public speaking, gospel singing from a 40-plus choir, a live band and extensive participation from its multinational audience - it is a hugely enthusiastic, emotional and energetic celebration despite its rather sterile surroundings.
A powerful Electro-Voice XLC line-array system plays a key role in creating and sustaining the atmosphere. "The main criteria is intelligibility," explains Schon Emmanuel. "There is substantial musical content, but the preacher is paramount - if people can't hear his words, we're in trouble. In addition to that, my principal concern in the system design is to get even coverage across every seat in the house, in what is a challenging acoustical space."
Working on his sixth IGOC, Emmanuel has chosen an Electro-Voice XLC line-array system, powered by EV's Tour Grade and Precision Series amplifiers. "I'm relatively new to XLC, but I've used it very successfully over this year's season, both outdoors and in arenas and theatres." The PA inventory, which includes a sizeable EV stage monitor system made up of Phoenix cabinets, has been provided by London rental company Systems Etc, supervised by project manager Ricky Ramsay, working with production company GB Events.
The main PA comprises left and right hangs of 12 XLC cabinets, with 12 Xsubs, four EV's compact XLE cabinets for front-fill and two DeltaMax as out-fills. Flown halfway back through the wide hall is a delay system, comprising L/C/R hangs of six XLC modules apiece. "The brief is for the musical content to be full-impact but the intelligibility of the speech is so important - it's as if we have to have two PA systems in one. The subs are run on a separate aux so they're not in use when the preachers are on stage. The choir is all-important, and, when they all get going, the audience will be louder than the PA."
For the first time, Emmanuel has specced a NetMax digital controller for the PA, "which enables me to keep an eye on amp loads and temperatures when I'm 36m away from the stage. I also use it to check levels and for a bit of system EQ."
Emmanuel is a long-time fan of Electro-Voice microphones, notably the RE-1, but has been debuting the REV UHF wireless system at the KICC event. "I put 24x EV RE510 condenser microphones on the choir, but used the EV's new REV handhelds as the two main preaching microphones, chosen because of their vocal quality, very very reliable RF and because I get such excellent support from Sean Maxwell at Shuttlesound," says Emmanuel.
For the 80 channels of audio coming off the stage, Emmanuel persuaded Midas to lend him an XL8 digital console. Splits from the XL8 feed the monitor mixes, engineered by Micoma Bell, and also the OB truck, which is broadcasting live to a potential audience of 55 million people. Additionally, Emmanuel is multitracking everything through a Klark-Teknik DN9696 hard-disc recorder with two mirrored Glyph drives for further post-production and eventual DVD release.
(Jim Evans)
