This special event featured the Russian national orchestra and leading singers Anna Netrebko, Paata Burchuladze, Julia Gertseva and Sergey Skorokhodov, who performed Russian classical music by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Glinka, Bortniansky, Prokofiev and Kastalsky.
Two hangs of 12 Kudo line source array cabinets were used for the main sound system, with two stacks of Kiva ultra compact line source array units and Kilo low frequency extensions for side coverage. Two Kiva speakers were also deployed to cover the front rows. Six SB218 subwoofers per side were set up in cardioid configuration to reduce low-end bleed on stage.
"Working on a square surrounded by cathedrals is tricky, especially when you're dealing with a big symphony orchestra and a 200-piece choir," says Andrey Akhromeev from Spin Music, who designed the PA system for the event. "We tried to avoid unwanted reflections while the main goal to achieve was delivering very dynamic music content with the highest possible quality."
L-Acoustics' Soundvision modelling software came in useful when sticking to the tight set-up schedule. "Our worst enemy was time, and we had to receive approval from Kremlin authorities every time we wanted to make noise," Akhromeev continues. "Thanks to Soundvision, which allowed us to prepare all settings in the 'silent mode', the system sounded amazing across the whole venue after a very quick tuning, and this was proved by the system response graphs, which overlaid each other with +- 2db difference."
(Jim Evans)
