The regional capital of Shillong, in Meghalya state, has recently hit the headlines for propelling local singer Amit Paul to the title of Indian Idol. The city's musical reputation is now firmly in the record books, after it hosted a massive outdoor concert at which more than 1700 guitarists joined together to play Bob Dylan's classic Knocking on Heaven's Door.
This unusual concert took place on the first day of Meghalya's Festival of Rock, which organisers intended to be nothing less than "the biggest-ever rock show in the country". Amit Paul was on stage to open the festival, backed by Moonwind, an experienced local band from Assam. But the star attraction was a show by American rock band Mr Big, fronted by singer Eric Martin.
Staged in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Mr Big's concert attracted 20,000 people. PA company Delta Sound brought its newly-acquired Nexo Geo D Series tangent-array system, needing to fly just six cabinets a side to handle the main audience (delay towers located 75m back from the stage took up the rest of the crowd.).
Controlled by a Nexo NX242 digital processor with additional ES4 card to provide EtherSound functionality, the system was powered by CAMCO Vortex 6 amplifiers, with bass from ten 18" subs. The show was mixed out front on an Allen & Heath GL4800, with monitor mixes going through a Soundcraft desk.
Nexo's Indian distributor Sun Infonet supplied the Geo D10 cabinets and processor to Delta Sound, and technical services manager Shiraz Bhardwaj was in Shillong to oversee the big concert debut of the new boxes and act as system engineer. "This was a prestigious event, held in a huge venue, so it was satisfying to hear that Mr C.L Para, the owner of Delta Sound, and Mr Aaron, the band's sound engineer, were both very happy with the sound. The SPL from the D10s carried comfortably to 75m from the stage, which is where we erected delay towers for the back of the stadium."
(Jim Evans)
