DiGiCo and KLANG on song for Jacky Cheung
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The current world tour, extending into 2024, has already broken records by selling over 109,000 tickets for the Cotai Arena and hosting 11 shows at the Singapore Indoor Stadium - a feat unprecedented among any previous artist in a single leg of a concert tour in Singapore. DiGiCo Quantum5 consoles and a KLANG immersive monitor system for the tour were provided by Rightway Audio Consultants (RAC), DiGiCo’s official distributor in China.
At the project's outset, the RAC team offered support in system design, setup, and decisions about the mixing console to be used, as well as the connectivity of the KLANG system. It was during this phase that they recommended to use the Quantum5, which comes equipped with the latest features, allowing engineers a greater space to create outstanding results.
Located in The Venetian Macao, on the Cotai Strip, the 15,000-capacity Cotai Arena was opened in 2007 and is known for hosting international televised awards shows and concerts with artists like Mariah Carey and Shawn Mendes. It is the largest single indoor event venue in Macau and one of the best-equipped integrated indoor multi-purpose exhibition and performance venues in Asia.
For the Jacky Cheung 60+ Concert Tour, the set design included a thrust stage, which provided little cover for the band but a clearer view of the stage for the audience. Departing from the previous method of concealing the concert’s band, the team set up a four-story platform on the main stage for a 53-piece orchestra.
The live performance included a large-scale orchestra. “To ensure each instrument was individually picked up by deploying a large number of microphones, and each musician required a dedicated monitor mix capable of being controlled by themselves,” says Pan Weijie, system engineer at Rightway Audio Consultants. “This necessitated monitor engineer, Mike Wong, deploying a substantial number of output busses, plus six groups of MADI outputs. The Quantum5 proved to be the ideal console for effectively managing these complexities, with a total of 175 inputs and 150 outputs being utilised.”
Weijie notes that having so many musicians on stage simultaneously requires them to not only hear their own instruments, but also be aware of the other instruments being played. “This underscores the critical importance of an effective monitoring system,” he explains. “That is why we employed 55 KLANG:kontrollers and five KLANG:konductors, creating an immersive personal monitoring system for the 53-piece orchestra. This marks the first deployment of such a large KLANG system in the Asia-Pacific region.”
