Yamaha Rivage monitors Marco Borsato
- Details
Borsato has consistently been one of the Netherlands biggest and most successful singers since winning Dutch TV talent contest Soundmixshow nearly 30 years ago. Playing to 50,000 people at each show, the four evening and one afternoon concerts ensured that fans of all ages were able to enjoy a huge and spectacular stadium production. It included an 80m wide stage set, pyrotechnics and a 1000sq.m. LED video screen, the largest ever used on a Dutch live show. The singer himself said: “It doesn’t get any better than this!”
The shows needed an equally impressive audio production, supplied by Utrecht-based Peak Audio, who have worked with the artist for many years. Experienced FOH engineer and system designer Barak Koren deployed multiple line arrays, ensuring that a high-quality mix could be heard in all seats. This resulted in an unprecedented zero number of complaints from the 250,000 total audience.
Good course good sound out front requires good sound on stage to begin with, which is where monitor engineer Paul Duwel has held the position for Marco since 1996. It was Paul who helped to persuade Peak Audio to recently invest in a Yamaha Rivage PM7 system.
The monitor set-up for the shows featured 118 inputs, including 16 channels of backing tracks and 12 talkback mics for the seven onstage musicians and five crew. There were 70 outputs, mainly stereo in-ears and a number of wedges, keeping onstage SPLs low, but not compromising on atmosphere for the performers.
Aided by the experience of Peak Audio production manager / engineer Bart Schouten and the rest of the Peak Audio crew, Paul enjoyed five successful shows. Despite the size and profile of the shows - meaning huge pressure on the production team - the Rivage PM7 console ensured that everything in monitor world went without a hitch.
(Jim Evans)
