This massive concert attracted more than 120,000 devotees plus another 3m television viewers throughout India. Sound reinforcement for an event of this magnitude required loudspeaker systems that could project over a large area with excellent speech intelligibility and music reproduction characteristics. D.A.S. Audio's Aero Series line array system was chosen for the task.
Organised in a bid to attract youth to Indian folk traditions, AbhangaNaad featured devotional songs and meditation as its base. Further, the concert was officially entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as one of the largest such events of its kind. This all took place on the biggest stage ever erected in Kolhapur and the venue had a circumference of almost 20 acres.
Mumbai, India-based Sound and Light Professionals was contracted to handle sound reinforcement for the event. Manish Mavani, the company's director, discussed the project and his reason for selecting D.A.S. equipment.
"The concert took place on a magnificent multi-tier stage that was around 200ft wide by 80ft deep, and 15ftin height," Mavani explained. "Sculptures from various temples and replicas of Lord Mahalaxmi, Jotiba, and Vitthal adorned the stage. Accompanied by the choir and the drums, noted devotional singers Ajit Karkare, Balasaheb Waikar, and Tukaram Powar sang abhangs and bhajans (devotional songs). The fact that the venue grounds were arranged in two levels posed a special challenge for us. Secondly, with the stage being 200ft wide, the sound convergence at the centre of the ground from the left-right stacks posed additional issues. Fortunately, our EASE Focus calculations and the broad horizontal dispersion of the Aero 48's really helped us achieve remarkably even coverage throughout the area."
For the primary FOH (front of house) hangs, Mavani and his crew, which consisted of system engineer OS Cijith, FOH mix engineer Ramdas Kalasker, and stage engineer Pramod Vetker, flew four loudspeaker clusters per left-right side - each consisting of eight D.A.S. Audio Aero 48 large format line array elements. For centre-fill coverage, the Sound and Light Professionals team deployed an additional stack of four Aero 48s. These were augmented by several D.A.S. Aero CA-28 line array modules spread across the front of the stage for front fill coverage. Three delay towers - each with eight D.A.S. Audio Aero 48's and positioned roughly 150 feet apart - completed the setup.
For the musicians' and vocalists' monitoring system, Mavani's crew placed another 20 custom loudspeaker columns. These columns consisted of a combination of D.A.S. Audio's Avant 12A powered two-way loudspeaker enclosures and Sound and Light Professionals' own proprietary loudspeakers. Lab Gruppen PLM 10000Q Powered Loudspeaker Management systems and XTA DP448 processors completed the system.
(Jim Evans)
