Indonesian rental company Megaswara handled the sound requirements for the evening which included an Innovason Eclipse digital mixing console on monitors, with support from Innovason's Indonesian distributor, LaMesa.
LaMesa's Didi Kartanegara explained that the Eclipse was selected for monitors on this event - along with LaMesa engineer, Ahmad Rapii - as it was by far the most hectic situation for a live set up with an orchestra, and Megaswara didn't want to take any risks on this highly prestigious event.
"We were managing a 40-piece orchestra with an additional choir and several soloists. That gave us a total input count of 80 channels," says Kartanegara . "We routed the 56 microphone inputs via the remote DioCore stagebox, and the remaining 24 channels were connected locally at the back of the Eclipse. We used 16 line in/outs located directly on the DSP card itself and a further eight mic inputs via an SI-8D3 mic input module.
"There were 12outputs used to feed in-ears, stage-fill and floor monitors to the pianist, conductor, choir and soloists. As the stage was so wide, the monitor engineer couldn't actually see the whole stage himself, so we had the stage manager stationed next to him who in turn received a signal from the crew communicator on stage if there were any levels that needed to be adjusted. However, even with this somewhat less than ideal set up, we didn't have any problems at all since the console was very well laid out with instant access to all the faders."
Kartanegara also noted that the M.A.R.S. onboard digital multitrack recorder was put to good use. "We recorded the whole show using M.A.R.S. and got fantastic 64-track professional quality audio with virtually just a click of the mouse."
(Jim Evans)
