RCF celebrates 70th anniversary in style
- Details
To help them celebrate this milestone, they flew in nearly 500 distributors, dealers and customers from all points of the globe, who arrived at the ocation via a 45-minute boat journey on 19 September.
First, guests were treated to cocktails and a buffet, courtesy of two-Michelin starred chef Massimiliano (Max) Alajmo (of Le Calandre fame), along with a special 70th birthday cake.
Suitably replete, guests were then invited next door, where RCF Group CEO Arturo Vicari was introduced to spontaneous applause. He emphasised the fact that what RCF had really been selling this past 70 years, as much as transducers, was “emotion” - a fact confirmed by a short company video.
This was followed by the announcement that RCF would now be celebrating this landmark year in the company of Andrea Bocelli, “one of the most loved and appreciated voices in the world”.
As the curtain rose, the tenor took the stage, and for the next 60 minutes-plus, guests were treated to their own mesmerising recital of world-class light opera and popular classics, with the orchestra boosted by Cuban soprano Maria Aleida, Ukrainian principal violinist Anastasiya Petrishak and another regular of Andrea Bocelli’s ensemble, Italian singer Laria Della Bidia.
The set of popular classics ended much applause, which brought the ensemble back for two encores, firstly for Sartori’s Con te partirò and finally a moving version of Nessun Dorma starring Bocelli and Petrishak.
The concert also brought the best out of RCF’s cleverly designed PA. Given the opportunity of reproducing a pure, unamplified classical concert in a potentially reverberant environment that was somehow reflection-free, they worked some magic.
Credit for this is due to the expertise of RCF’s Engineering Support Group (ESG), whose inspired central cluster design not only met the artist’s rider requirements but also the goal of every member of an audience that is constantly seeking pristine sound reinforcement.
This cluster comprised 10 elements of the active HDL 26-A in a compact, curved line array configuration, with single TT 2-A satellite speakers out wide on each side giving the image full separation. A straight line of seven TT 10-A enclosures, electronically curved using RCF’s proprietary RDNet, provided front-fills, while a large complement of 13 SUB 9006-AS in a straight line, was also fully optimised thanks to the curve created in RDNet.
Mixing Andre Bocelli’s vocals and the soloists on a DiGiCo SD7 was Andrea Taglia, the artist’s long term FOH engineer, who also received a separate orchestra mix from a second SD7, created by another long-term collaborator, Francesco La Camera. Every detail in the sound was received with absolute clarity at each seat.
(Jim Evans)
