F1 gets K1
Published: MEA
UAE: Delta Sound used its new L-Acoustics K1 system to cover the three main after-race concerts at the Abu Dhabi Formula One grand prix. The rental company was again chosen by event organiser Flash Entertainment to provide the audio equipment for the concerts at the du Arena.
The after-race concerts saw performances by Kylie Minogue, Nickelback and Eminem. ‘They were three very different acts as always, which I think is always part of the challenge and part of the fun. It was trying to come up with a configuration that you know is going to work for all the engineers, which we think it did this time,’ said Delta Sound managing director Andy Jackson. ‘We didn’t have to change any of the system configurations between the bands. Last year and the year before, we had to change a lot of the sub configurations because of the engineers’ requests. With this it worked quite well.’
Delta supplied an extensive system for the concert series including its K1 and V-Dosc cabinets. ‘Our system that we had for this show was the K1 as the main hangs with flown K1 Sub, then our outfills and delays were V-Dosc,’ explained Mr Jackson. ‘I know there is lots of talk of K1 and using Kudo, but to be honest, it works differently for different companies. For us, having the option of the V-Dosc system to add to the K1 works really well and we’re really happy with it. It shouldn’t be a set formula, you need to have that flexibility to try different setups.
‘We had 24 K1, 12 K1-Sub, 24 SB28 subs, 40 V-Dosc including sidefills, and an additional 20 SB218s,’ noted Mr Jackson. ‘On top of that we had 18 dV-Doscs as frontfills and six Kara as downfills from the main hangs, so all in all quite a big system. We used 16 of our XT115 wedges as well for Eminem.’
The Eminem concert saw Delta called on for further equipment. ‘We supplied everything for Eminem, so that was an SD7 at front of house, a Profile on stage and an Avalon VT-737sp was used for the vocals,’ said Mr Jackson. ‘We supplied all the in-ears, which were Sennheiser G3s. We supplied the radio mics which were the new Sennheiser 5000 series – again a new purchase for us.’
Mr Jackson describes the performance from Kylie Minogue as ‘very polished’ and that the engineers for each act were ‘very happy’ with the system. He saves the biggest praise for Nickelback though. ‘That was a four-piece rock band and in my mind that was what K1 was designed for. You cannot beat it, it was loud, clear, punchy and there engineer was having a great night, he was really happy with it.’