SoundCheck supports One Direction in Manila
Published: ASIA
PHILIPPINES: Two sold-out One Direction concerts held at the 20,000-seat SM Mall of Asia open grounds in Pasay recently were supported with audio equipment from Harman brands JBL and Crown. Having provided live sound reinforcement for previous shows at the venue and other major concerts in the Philippines, SoundCheck was confident ‘it would deliver exceptional sound and overcome the high noise level of 25,000 screaming fans’.
The chosen system featured 16 JBL VTX V25 line array elements per side for the main PA joined by eight hung VTX S28 subwoofers. An additional six S28 subs and six Vertec VT4880A subwoofers per side were groundstacked two boxes high for additional low-end reinforcement. Another set of eight V25 loudspeakers on each side at 35 degrees off-axis were set up for the out fills and eight VRX932LA Constant Curvature cabinets handled front fill. Finally, two stereo sets of delay towers with 12 V20 cabinets each completed the system.
Power for the main V25 line arrays and S28 subs was from Crown I-Tech 12000HD amplifiers, while Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD units drove the delays. HiQnet Performance Manager software was used for set up, calibration and control of the entire system.
Despite its familiarity with the both the venue and equipment, SoundCheck initially had to push for the use of the VTX system. However, SoundCheck owner and chief engineer Jaime Godinez recalled that ‘the artist’s system tech and sound engineer came in and heard the setup well before show time and they were pretty happy that we already had the whole system aligned and ready to go. Fast forward to the first concert – three numbers into the show, and we knew we had made the right decision. Even with such high stakes, with a system like VTX I knew I wasn’t taking much of a gamble.’