Convened and hosted by Pastor Paul Adefarasin, the event featured some of today's best-known musical talents, such as Sammie Okposo, Freke Umoh, Frank Edwards, Eben, Donnie McClurkin, Glowreeyah Braimah, Tye Tribbett, Yolanda Adams, Don Moen and Midnight Crew, among others.
The Experience - a colossal 11 hours of non-stop prayer and live music - has become known as the largest concert in Africa, with over 500,000 worshippers.
Quality audio is obviously the key factor for the success of such a large-scale event. Sound production was handled by Nigeria-based Cytech World Communication which is also the country's Outline distributor. In fact, in November, Cytech purchased a GTO C-12 line array system along with DBS-18-2 subwoofers and T-Series amplifiers from the Italian loudspeaker manufacturer.
The Experience's FOH audio system comprised 30 GTO C-12 plus two underhung GTO-DF (down-fill) modules, while sixteen DBS 18-2 and four LAB 21 HS subwoofers provided low and infra-low frequency reinforcement.
Twenty Butterfly elements were deployed to provide the necessary coverage width for the audience near the sides of the stage. Six Outline two-way DVS 12 provided front-fill coverage and twenty-four Butterfly and eight Subtech 218 were deployed as delay units. The whole system was powered by Outline T-Series amplifiers.
Cyril Utomoibor, owner and managing director of Cytech World Communication, states, "For many years I've owned a number of Outline Butterfly systems, which are constantly out on rental, but it's thanks to the new GTO C-12 that my company got 'The Experience' aboard. The C-12 is a beautifully engineered product. What I appreciated most during the concert was the apparently effortless way in which really high-quality sound was delivered over long distances, with unbelievable consistency. As with all Outline products, it's more like listening to a big studio monitor system than a large-format PA setup. My client, Pastor Paul Adefarasin, was in fact amazed and extremely happy, and I'm looking forward to the next great show."
Outline's Openarray-3D acoustical prediction software was used to guide the installation of the whole sound system, which had the job of covering almost all Tafawa-Balewa Square: an area 200m by 280, bounded by tiered seating 20m high and 30 deep running the full length of its long sides.
"The challenge, particularly in such a vast area, was to manage to reach the crowd in the bleachers with sufficient sound pressure", comments Carlo Gennaro, the event's sound system engineer. "We easily overcame this challenge. In terms of precision, this new array has the merit of 'behaving' like the Butterfly, which I've used for ten years, but with headroom and throw capacities close to those of the GTO. Having said this, I don't think anything else needs to be added."
(Jim Evans)
