ALTHOUGH VERONA Arena is best known to non-Italian audiences for its opera programme, the Roman amphitheatre (built in AD30) has in recent years also become a prestige venue for top rock stars. It was therefore a dream come true for the young contestants on Amici, the popular Italian TV talent contest conceived and presented by Maria De Filippi and produced by Fascino P.g.T. for broadcaster Mediaset, to perform there during the show’s semi-finals and finals. The venue is renowned for
its excellent acoustics when unamplified events such as opera are hosted, but Madema, the sound contractor called in for the event, had to cater for a totally different situation. As well as getting the young singers’ voices, the 49-piece band and the opinions of the panel of judges over loud and clear to a packed audience of enthusiastic fans, it also had to ensure quality audio for viewers at home, who voted for their favourites and decreed the winner. Madema fielded a 19-man team, led by technical director Davide Michele and audio chief Luca Molinari, a huge array of equipment (including Soundcraft Vi6 and SM20 desks, a Yamaha M7CL, five Yamaha PM1D), and an impressive JBL VerTec system. Alessandro Gianelli of Sound Light & Technologies, who was called in to design and align the PA, explains: “Due to camera sightline and production requirements, delay systems were ruled out and stageside video screens obliged me to split the subwoofers into two groups on either side of the set. However,
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livereport Talent show contestants took to the Verona Arena stage
JBL VerTec and eight audio consoles handle ancient Roman acoustics for live TV show, writesMike Clark
with AFMG’s EASE for acoustic simulation and JBL’s VerTec Line Array Calculator II, I established the best array positions and formats – the main rig consisted of a front hang of 16 VT4888 and a side hang of 12 VT4888 on either side of the stage, plus eight VT4880A subs ground-stacked four-up on either side and seven more on the set on either side (below the screens). The points of emission of the low frequencies
were therefore divided but, using a delay, I managed to get even ‘smooth’ response at the very low frequencies.” Confirming the venue’s
excellent acoustics, Gianelli said very little correction was required: “The good mechanical alignment of the main system enabled me to start from a very good basis and, although the side hangs caused reflections on the Arena’s stone steps/seats,
‘throwing’ the sound on to the stalls, this was solved as soon as the venue filled up, thanks to the absorbent bass of the audience.” Music and vocals were mixed
by one FOH engineer and speech microphone by another (the former manning the Vi6 and a PM1D, the latter the M7CL); the SM10 and another PM1D were on monitor chores and three PM1D made up the broadcast audio chain, with FOH and
New talent Arenaenters the
broadcast providing each other a precautionary back-up of the final mixdown. Recorded on two recording systems (a dual Nuendo 4.3 set-up and a Pro Tools system), the show had a peak audience of over 6 million, maintaining its great success for the 11th year. n www.jbl.comwww.madema.itwww.soundcraft.comwww.yamahaproaudio.com