Moving away from thoroughly chilled into the Hot and Sultry end of the Spectrum, Chill Out have started the Latino Fiesta. An event designed to cater to the increasingly popular Latino Music Market (Salsa Dancing is the latest big craze in the UAE) and in it’s first incarnation the festival ran for one day with an estimated audience of over 3,000. Not a huge number, but if you consider that the promoter was hoping for only 1,000 spectators then you can imagine the atmosphere in the tightly packed yet still not overbearing venue. Additionally, and unlike your average festival, the toilets were clean and a can of Australia’s Favourite was only 10 Dirhams (1.50 Sterling or $2.72 USD). So, a good night was had by all.

Turning to Artes Audio Visual in Dubai for their Lights, Sound and Video requirements also proved to be quite a sensible choice. Being no strangers to the Concert Market, having already serviced Bryan Adams, Simply Red and Ronan Keating over the last 18 Months, Artes grabbed the bull by the horns and set to work.

With the never-ending popularity of Line Arrays it’s hardly surprising to see one used on this show. Sound Designer Avril Rodrigues opting for a primarily M3D system from Meyer. The FOH system consisted of 5 M3D’s and 2 M3D Subs a side.

“I like the sound of the Meyers. I find it very warm and transparent. That and the Directionality of the boxes was a big deciding factor. The venue was a bit of an obstacle as on the opposite side of the stage was the U shaped hotel building, but the Broadband Q Technology of the Array made life much easier due to the tight directional control of both the vertical and horizontal coverage over the full frequency range. The M3D Calculator was a huge help here as I could set the dispersion of the system with great ease. Yes the boxes are big and heavy but I think of them as being among the Rolls Royce of the Line Array world. You get what you pay for. Not having to set up a load of Amp Racks also makes life much easier.”

Using Smart Live from SIA to tune the system Avril created a very rich sound from the M3D’s that wasn’t overpowering despite the Artists request for a very strong top end. At the Front of House there was the usual array of toys including XTA DP226’s and an Allen Heath ML4000. Outboard kit consisted of Lexicon PCM81’s, Yamaha SPX990’s, TC Electronics B2’s, Drawmer DS201’s, BSS DPR402’s and DBX160A’s. For Graphic EQ Avril always chooses the Klark Teknik DN360’s “Its an industry standard and serves a purpose. I tend to find that the M3D’s need very little EQ Though,” says Avril.

Given that the audience area directly to the front of stage was not very deep and considerably wider than the stage itself, there was a need for out-fill’s and to complement the 90 Degree dispersion of the M3D’s themselves, a small but powerful front-fill was required.

For the out-fills Avril chose CQ2’s, again from Meyer, and to provide the Front Fill 4 of EmPad’s B7 Satellite’s. A Relatively new Speaker Manufacturer, Avril has quickly become a big fan of the EmPad range saying, “For the size of the boxes, the EmPad’s are unbelievably loud and clean. I used four 2 a side? of the EmPad CC35’s on stage to provide the Side-Fill for the Band and Dancers across its 40’ width. To give you an idea of the power. We were using them at about 50% and they didn’t even break into a sweat. In fact there were two requests from the bands to turn them down!”

Production Manager Ashley Rodrigues also doubled up as Monitor Engineer for this show using a mixture of Martin Audio, Meyer and of course the previously mentioned EmPad’s for the stage sound. Given the diversity of instruments on stage Mic choice needed to be equally diverse. “I’m very fond of the Shure range and pretty much the whole range was used. They seem to have a mic for every instrument and the frequency response is fairly good across the product line.”

Overall the Audio for the show was very rich and as mentioned earlier, not at all overpowering. I came away from the show after having listened to some 6 hours of music that was (at the artists request) very strong in the top end without a feeling of ringing in my ears. Having walked all over the venue I found the coverage to be very even and at the back of the venue there was absolutely no drop off in volume. Admittedly the Hotel did get in the way but the Slap Back felt minimal and on stage was hardly audible at all. I can also vouch for the EmPad’s being unbelievably loud. Down at the front edge of the stage the B7’s were doing a great job. For a box that’s only 240 x 295 x 255 mm they were complementing the M3D Rig either side of them with no trouble at all. Definitely a manufacturer to watch out for.