OFF, an eclectic festival held annually over three days in Katowice, Poland, included the deployment of Alcons Audio pro-ribbon loudspeakers and supporting components in support of performances at the event’s T Tent for the third consecutive year.
The festival’s audio contractor, Pro Sound Kaszynski, chose Warsaw-based AudiofriQ to install and manage all audio systems. At the T Tent, the front of house system needed to cover an audience area within the tent of approximately 30 meters (98 ft) deep, plus a further 20 meters (66 ft) in the open air beyond it.
The design incoporated eight per-side flown arrays of LR18 three-way, twin 8-inch compact modules, with 12 ground-stacked BQ211 single 21-inch subwoofers in mono mode and two QR24 two-way, twin 12-inch pro-ribbon line-source columns delivering front fill. All loudspeakers were powered and controlled by 28 channels of Sentinel10 amplified loudspeaker controllers running Alcons’ proprietary ALControl remote-control software.
AudiofriQ was supported by Radosław Strzeżek from Aplauz Audio, Alcons Audio’s Polish representative and distributor, who set up and supported the system throughout the festival. “With its simple, fast setup and tuning process, its exceptionally natural sound and long throw, the LR18 system was the perfect solution for the T Tent,” says Radosław.
Grzegorz Fotek, Aplauz CEO, adds, “It sounded fantastically natural. Even at 105 dBA levels it didn’t ‘scream’, the sound remained undistorted and pleasant at all times,” he says. “The tuning also required minimal effort, because the factory presets are basically ready to play. Importantly, there was no need to interfere with the 2 to 3 kHz band, and if we did make any changes, they were only because the material needed it.”
Artists from Poland, the USA, UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany performed on the T Tent stage, with the system making an impression. “We had very positive feedback from the mix engineers for Q (USA), Altin Gün (Netherlands) and Amenra (Belgium). Their immediate reaction after the first sounds when soundchecking was a wide smile and questions about the name of the system,” says Radosław.
Grzegorz adds, “We are proud that an Alcons pro-ribbon system was again used at the OFF festival. It is at the forefront of such events in Europe and we are very pleased that the artists and their engineers really appreciated the quality of the system.”
