The newly-purchased SD7 was supplied by Mac Audio, one of Rio's leading audio production companies. As the audio supplier for event production company SRCOM, the Mac Audio team has considerable experience of large-scale events on Copacabana's 2.5 mile beach, but this was the first time they had used their new DiGiCo consoles.
"We invested in the SD7 because of its sound quality and dual engine redundancy," says the company's Frederico 'Fred' Coelho. "On huge events, like the Pope's visit, you cannot allow anything to go wrong and so the dual engine redundant capability of the SD7 provides peace of mind."
World Youth Day is one of the Catholic Church's biggest youth festivals. The 28 July Mass was the finale to a three-day event on the beach, which saw over 90 live bands providing live entertainment and an all-night vigil - also led by Pope Francis - leading into the final day.
The SD7 was the true heart of the audio system, with two SD Racks hosting 112 analogue inputs, 48 analogue outputs, plus 16 AES inputs and outputs. In addition, the console's 12 local analogue i/o and 12 AES i/o were all in use. A Purple Box was also linked to an aux MADI output, feeding external submixing consoles for the global media audience, while HD SDI modules in the SD Racks fed video and the SD7's embedded audio for lines to relay screens and delay speakers. Given the vast audience, these were very necessary.
Many of the musical acts who performed on the three days leading up to the Mass were high profile Brazilian artists, who provided pre-recorded backing track files. These were fed to a DiGiCo SD11 via a UB MADI USB interface the backing tracks and vocal performances being mixed live.
"Time was very tight between the acts and many performed without rehearsing, but the results were great," says Fred.
(Jim Evans)
