Laureus Awards
February 2008
DIMENSION AUDIO HAS RUSSIAN VENUE COVERED FOR LAUREUS AWARDS
This year’s Laureus World Sports Awards was staged in the historic Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall (formerly known as the Kirov Opera and Ballet), in St Petersburg, Russia, on February 18, 2008 and was televised to a worldwide TV audience. The event is now in its ninth year and was put in place to recognize the achievements of teams and individuals that symbolize the very best in sport.
Dimension Audio was brought in by production company Done and Dusted to address the audio requirements in the concert hall, providing a d&b loudspeaker system and Yamaha PM5D mixing console at front of house to cover the venue’s various levels, alongside Sennheiser radio mics and a proportion of the in-house equipment available on site. “We used two drops of d&b Q-Series line array,” explains Dimension’s Staf Rowley. “This comprised six Q1 passive two-way cabinets with a Q7 per-side, plus two Q-SUBs per-side positioned at the top of the array.”
The audience numbered only 500 specially invited guests, but they were seated in a horseshoe shape, so Dimension supplied a number of small d&b cabinets as infills, which were hung from the truss, to ensure that each and every occupied seat was covered.
“The Mariinsky was designed as an acoustic venue,” says Rowley. “But when you’re putting on a big television production you have a different set of parameters from those for which the room was originally intended and this meant we had to put in a PA, which included amplifying the orchestra. We used the number of cabinets we did in the line array because of the steep rake of the seating. It was quite extraordinary: from top to bottom the drop was around nine metres, so we needed a significant number of cabinets to ensure complete coverage.
“We tried to use as much in-house kit as we could - it makes economic and environmental sense to transport as little equipment as possible. The Russian OB truck owned quite a lot of microphones that were ideal because we were simply lifting the orchestra and various other acts.”
As with any event such as this, Dimension had to make sure they catered for the unknown, as well as the known. “We’re usually given confirmation of the line up and running order a couple of days before the event,” says Staf. “But when you’re working in a remote location such as St Petersburg, you have to make sure you can account for the unforeseen and be as adaptable as possible. We achieved that with a flexible system and an excellent crew. In particular, Bill Birks, who was at front of house and is extremely good in any situation you care to throw him into, and George Hogan who is a radio mic expert.
“As you can imagine, working in Russia with local radio mics and bringing some of our own meant we had quite a complicate system running, but George worked with all parties to ensure that none of the frequencies used caused any problems.”
Mark Boden, Head of Dimension Audio adds, “All in all, with a combination of the right equipment and great crew, the event went extremely well,”
