This is the largest and most comprehensive gathering of global financial representatives in the world. In addition to the meetings - of which there were over 250 this year - there are numerous seminars, some conducted by staff members for members of the press. In all, 27,500 participants from 184 countries travelled to Dubai for the event. The hosts, James D. Wolfensohn, president of the bank, and IMF director Horst Köhler, left nothing to chance - certainly in respect of the audio-visual equipment.
In mid-August, a flotilla of cardboard boxes sporting the EV logo set sail for Dubai, with others making the same journey by air. DIS (the rental division of Informations Teknik Skandinavia A/S), which is based in Copenhagen and is a customer of the Danish EVI Audio distributor, ASCON, along with its Dubai-based partner, Bond Communications, had been charged with responsibility for the entire audio-visual installation. The guidelines, Helge Stensballe of ASCON told us, were brief and to the point: "The clients wanted optimal quality, the highest possible degree of flexibility and absolute reliability."
A tough brief for such a massive undertaking! DIS decided to despatch a 50-strong team of technicians to the UAE, most of whom were to remain in place for the entire month. The calibre and strength of the workforce was clearly important, but no more so than the quality of the equipment, especially in view of the magnitude and importance of the task. For most of the conference rooms, Claus Hammerby of DIS and his opposite number at Bond Communications had a simple formula: four Electro-Voice Sx300E enclosures and as many Electro-Voice Polar choice microphones as it took, but in the seminar rooms and some of the smaller lecture halls, less powerful configurations were called for. In all, the Danish/Dubai team installed some 130 Electro-Voice speaker systems in the Dubai International Convention Centre, including - 86 EV SX300E, 22 EV Sx80BE and 22 EV Sx80SM cabinets.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
