Alcons reinforces heavy metal at the Shenzhen New Year’s Midi Festival
Published: ASIA
CHINA: The Shenzhen Universiade Center was the site of the Shenzhen New Year’s Midi Festival, taking place over New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The festival’s chief sound engineer, Guo Jingang, engaged with EAD Digital (Guangzhou) Ltd to supply the audio setup for the festival’s Zhanguo Stage, which mostly staged performances from heavy metal bands. EAD serves as the exclusive distributor for Alcons across Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong, and therefore delivered a range of the manufacturer’s loudspeaker solutions.
Alcons LR18 pro ribbon line array cabinets were deployed on the Zhanguo Stage, flown 12 per side. These were complemented by 10 BF362 subwoofers, ground stacked in five groups of two, and driven by Sentinel10 amplified loudspeaker controllers.
‘People have the impression that a ribbon tweeter can not handle high power or deliver high SPL,’ said EAD’s marketing manager, Janice Shen. ‘Alcons has patented pro ribbon tweeter technology, now proven capable of handling a heavy-duty music festival.’
Ms Shen continued by noting that high transients are also a requirement for heavy metal gigs. ‘The high transient of the ribbon tweeter can reproduce all the details of the sound and it’s very true,’ she said.
‘Compared to a compressed tweeter, the ribbon tweeter has more even and smooth coverage, and sounds more comfortable,’ added Midi Music Festival sound engineer Chen Xianjun. ‘Our stage is not big but requires a very high SPL as it’s heavy metal. Alcons’ LR18 is a double 8-inch speaker. It has a small cabinet but can deliver high power and is easy to install.’
In addition to Alcons, EAD represents other manufacturers in varying capacities in and around China, including beyerdynamic, Quint Audio and Xilica. beyerdynamic’s TG 1000 dual receiver was also implemented for the Zhanguo Stage as were Quint branded speakers that served as monitors and were driven by a Xilica amplifier. The entire system was connected via Dante, while a Yamaha CL5 was employed as the FOH console.
‘TG 1000’s frequency response is very flat and reliable,’ said Ms Shen. ‘It can use a beyerdynamic TG MM1w capsule for testing when doing the alignment and switch to another capsule for the singers, meaning you don’t need to carry long cables.’