The show took place in the city's Plac Defilad (Parade Square) and featured three stages. Televised nationally, a range of international artists joined Polishacts in playing one of their own songs and a popular Polish song, before handing over to the next act.
Such a rapid series of changeovers made the three stages necessary, so Warsaw-based production company GMB Pro Sound supplied a Yamaha PM5D-RH as the main front of house console for each stage. Two DSP5Ds and a DME64 digital mixing engine were also used for delays and speaker management of the large Nexo PA - comprising32 Geo D and 32 Geo S, supplied by Wroclaw-based PogoArt - which covered the whole square. Meanwhile, three M7CL-48s and an LS9-32 took care of the monitor mixes.
The event featured many different styles of music. On the centre stage, the Sinfonia Varsovia symphony orchestra was joined a number of solo artists and their bands - these included Kenny G, Michael Bolton, trumpeter Chris Botti and jazz pianist Leszek Mo?d?er. The two flanking stages featured performances by rock bands Myslovitz and Perfect, R&B singer Angie Stone, leftfield trio Me Myself and I, trumpeter Tomasz Sta?ko, hip-hop artist Tricky and a duet between Leszek Mo?d?er and percussionist Zochar Fresco.
"The biggest challenge of the show was setting up the system, mixing over 200 input channels and knowing that, as well as many high-profile VIPs being present, the whole show was being broadcast live across Poland. It was a historic celebration for Poland and nothing could go wrong," says Pawel Zachanowicz, commercial audio applications engineer at Yamaha Music Europe.
"It was a complex show but we had two days to rehearse and soundcheck with the artists, which helped. The organisers were really pleased after the show and we received a lotof compliments about the sound quality."
(Jim Evans)
