India - Shillong, with its vibrant music culture and awe-inspiring landscapes, has once again proved itself as a premier live music destination – all thanks to the Cherry Blossom Festival 2024.
Manoj Singh, director of live events technical solutions provider KG Movie, says that for his team, the festival wasn’t just another project – it was a labour of love. “From breathtaking performances by global legends and Indian stars to the flawless sound engineering that elevated each act, the Main Stage at the Cherry Blossom Festival 2024 has become a testament to what’s possible when artistry and technology align,” he states.
Held on 15-16 November at the sprawling RBDSA Sports Complex, this celebration drew an attendance of over 50,000 visitors on each of its two days. Acts featured on the main stage included AKON, Boney M, and Clean Bandit, sharing the spotlight with Indian favourites like Jasleen Royal, R3HAB, and Kanika Kapoor.
KG Movie collaborated with Clockwork AV (a division of Clockwork Design LLP) to deliver a seamless, immersive audio experience.
The on-ground operations team comprising Vicky Singh (project lead), Joyjeet Panday (festival system engineer), Sourav Bagchi (monitor engineer), Anil Chaudhary (show technical manager), Karan Acharya (RF engineer), Akash Deep Majumdar and Yudhajit Biswas (stage engineers) worked tirelessly to ensure that every technical aspect – from inventory deployment to system calibration and seamless wireless communication – was executed with military precision.
Supporting them were KG Movie’s talented system technicians, Surojit Dhal and Ravikant Prasad, who orchestrated equipment logistics and crew coordination with flawless efficiency.
"Our goal was simple yet ambitious – to deliver a seamless audio experience that matched the calibre of the artists performing on the main stage. The team worked tirelessly, from meticulously calibrating the system to ensuring on-the-spot coordination. Every individual member of the team played a critical role. And in the end, seeing the crowd’s reaction and hearing the artists praise the sound made every challenge worth it," shared Vicky Singh.
At the core of the production was a comprehensive d&b audiotechnik loudspeaker system. The KSL line array system formed the backbone of the main PA, with a total of 32 units of the KSLs adorning the performance stage in stereo configuration to provide coverage across the audience. And complementing the sonic fidelity of the KSLs perfectly were a total of 16 units of the SL-GSUB subwoofers and 12 units of the compact yet powerful B22 subwoofers that were strategically placed in front of the stage.
Owing to the massive expanse of the mainstage performance section, team KG Movie took special care to ensure that audience members located at the farthest ends of the section also enjoyed a similar high-quality soundscape, as they deployed a total of 24 units of d&b’s V-Series line arrays to serve as the delay reinforcement system.
KG Movie utilised d&b’s MAX2 loudspeakers as the main stage monitoring reinforcement, while also deploying a total of six units of T10 line array modules paired with B6 subwoofers as the side-fill reinforcements. And to further enhance the performers’ experience, over 24 channels of the 2050 series in-ear monitors from Sennheiser, along with an extensive deployment of the globally validated Axient wireless systems from Shure, were made available by team KG Movie.
At front of house, a DiGiCo SD10 digital mixing console, complete with multiple SD Racks for enhanced I/O expansion, ensured that every nuance of the performance was captured and delivered with precision; with a secondary SD10 console being made available to serve guest engineers when needed.
Engineers at monitor world were empowered by the DiGiCo Quantum 338 digital mixing console. Team KG Movie delivered pristine audio quality and seamless communication between FOH and monitor world, as they chose to integrate this entire setup through Optocore networking. And for additional versatility, the team also offered the famed S6L digital mixing console from Avid that was mostly used by several of the fan-favourite Indian performers that graced the stage.
