The venue chosen to stage the live events, The Pyramid Convention Centre in Downtown Johannesburg, was a shell which was transformed by the temporary installation of an enormous lighting rig, sound system and AV screens. Matrix Sound, the Johannesburg-based audio company, was awarded the sound supply contract and owner Trevor Peters created the sound design. Peters says: "It was one of the most challenging designs we have undertaken in that the show, stage and space we were working in was so fluid. Each week the line up of musicians, their positions on stage and the performance area of the contestants changed, and most times they ended up in front of the PA system."
Peters chose to install an Alcons 'The Ribbon' Line array system as the main PA, consisting of 12 ribbon-loaded LR16 line-array modules, controlled and powered by Alcons ALCs. He explains: "The brief for the show was that the live event had to have a concert feel and it should read like a rock concert on TV. To achieve this, the audience had to be enveloped in the sound and the SPLs were not the norm for the usual television studio events. The directivity and the unsurpassed gain-before-feedback played a huge role in assisting us to achieve the high levels we did with most performances in front of the PA and in an enclosed environment."
The sound quality was once again beyond reproach and the producers of the event in South Africa, Endemol and pay channel MNet were very impressed with the system, while the LR16s also received critical acclaim from industry press who attended the live shows, say Alcons.
(Lee Baldock)
