Speaking on the future of mankind, Barack Obama stood on a dramatic stage in the Hrad?anske nám?stí, the area outside Prague's famous castle which overlooks the city. The White House communications team brought along the President's podium and microphones, but everything else for the show - from stage to screens to flower arrangements - was provided by RentalPro, one of the largest rental companies in the Czech Republic.
The stage was situated at the narrowest point of this funnel-shaped area, although foggy weather prevented the TV cameras from making the most of the dramatic view over the city behind. In order to preserve all-important sightlines, a single 14-module array of Geo T was flown to the right of stage, backed up by four single Geo D10 cabinets, arranged as front-fill around the stage edge.
RentalPro's successful bid to provide the audio services for this historic event owed much to the cardioid properties of the Geo loudspeakers. "We were very clear about this in our proposal," explains Tomas Ourednicek of Music Data (Nexo's distributor in the Czech Republic). "Obama's people were sold on the fact that we could promise, in writing, that there would be no sound leaking back onto the stage, because of the cardioid characteristics of both the GeoT and Geo D systems."
Ourednicek designed the system configuration, running on an EtherSound network, and built in maximum redundancy; all the amp racks, containing Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers and Nexo NX242 TDControllers fitted with ES4 EtherSound extension cards, were doubled up, and the EtherSound signal was backed-up with analogue lines. The system included a second Innovason SY48 front-of-house console for safety. "The most important factors were sightlines and clarity. The White House team was insistent that we use whatever equipment we needed to ensure that the last row of the crowd could hear every word." For the 30-minute occasion, RentalPro provided more than 160 broadcast splits to all press and media operations, relaying Obama's words to a TV audience around the world.
Two delay positions were set up, each featuring a 6m x 4m screen, and a L/R PA system of Geo S12 boxes. Located some 80m back from the main PA, these supplementary systems comprised seven Geo S1210s plus a Geo S1230 in each array. Taking no chances, Ourednicek posted a RentalPro technician with a Riedel intercom system on top of all main and delay PA towers.
Another smaller stage was built, equipped with Nexo PS Series, to entertain those arriving early in the Hrad?anské nám?stí. Signal from this stage was relayed to the main delay points so the crowd could enjoy music from Lubo Andrt Blues Band until President Obama's arrival, and from bluegrass band Druhá tráva after the welcome ceremony.
(Jim Evans)
