Beside Carreras, the renowned Croatian singer Toni Cetinski, Ireland's premier soprano Celine Byrne, the Ivan Goran Kovacic academic choir, the Zvjezdice girls choir and the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra completed the line-up.
The goal of the 'Step into Life' project is the better socialisation of children without proper parental care by means of scholarships, and the foundation has already assured more than 30 scholarships for young people who can't afford to go to university.
Audio production services for the concert at the 15,000 capacity Zagreb Arena were provided by Croatian production company Lite-Prom, fielding a Turbosound Aspect system configured as a point-source centre cluster of TA-890 loudspeakers. Lite-Prom's director Zeljko Radocaj was contracted to supply the Turbosound PA because of his experience with similar shows, and is the owner of an Aspect system which readily met the specification.
Providing systems support in Zagreb, Turbosound's Danny Cooklin reports, "We are able to achieve very good even coverage from one central cluster of speaker boxes. There's no left and right overlap in the centre of the room, which is normal for stereo systems - and this means that we are able to use fewer cabinets to get the required performance."
The main loudspeaker cluster consisted of 36 Aspect TA-890H mid/highs, hung six deep by six wide giving 150° of horizontal coverage. Stacked each side of the stage were 12 TA-890L double 15" subs, arranged four wide by three high.
Eight TQ-440SP self-powered three-ways were deployed for in-fill and, due to extra seats being sold by the promoter at the last minute, a further two TQ-440SPs provided out-fill coverage of the bleachers - with only one box per side reaching comfortably right to the top row. Positioned along the stage lip were a further four TQ-440SP cabinets providing near field coverage for the nearest audience rows.
Two hangs of five self-powered Flex Array TFA-600HDP mid/highs were hung as delays at 40m.
Due to the high number of inputs required for the choir and orchestra, a Yamaha PM5D and a Midas H3000 were ganged together, giving a total of over 70 input channels. FOH engineer for the show was Peter Schneekoth, an experienced engineer who frequently mixes Jose Carreras's live shows.
"The point-source system worked really well in this environment and sounded fantastic with great clarity and dynamics," concludes Cooklin.
(Jim Evans)
