The inaugural run of the new Now or Never festival in Melbourne, Australia, which attracted more than 150,000 attendees during a run of 17 days that featured over 300 local and international artists, culminated with four nights of live music and visual performances in the 143-year-old Royal Exhibition Building (REB) at the World Heritage Site of Carlton with sound reinforcement delivered by a system headed by L-Acoustics K2 and Kara arrays.
The Royal Exhibition Building has Renaissance-style cathedral in which Gig Control Australia, which was appointed to deliver the event for Now or Never, designed a 16-meter-high video scrim that became a canvas for visual displays. L-Acoustics Certified Provider Novatech co-designed and deployed the audio system to accompany the lighting and video.
Along with Gig Control, Novatech’s imperative was to deliver full-range coverage to large audience while supporting the audio-visual acts. It had to be done inside a World Heritage-listed building that imposed strict audio limits, with Leko Novakovic, managing director of Novatech, explaining that the team needed to pay strict attention to guidelines so as not to cause structural damage to the building. “Calculating the system’s output Peak Particle Velocity measurements associated with ground vibrations was essential to ensure the preservation of the building’s structure,” he notes.
The system utilized left-right arrays of eight K2 elements per side with a delay system of eight Kara per side. The adjustable Panflex horizontal directivity of K Series allowed Novatech to direct sound away from empty balconies and reverberant walls. Four ground stacks of three KS28 subwoofers each provided low-end extension.
Another 12 Kara boxes placed evenly across the stage provided frontfill while six Kara were used as outfill to cover the audience areas on the sides of the main hall. DJs and live electronic music artists on stage received monitoring from 14 L-Acoustics X15 as well as six Kara over four KS28 subwoofers. A dozen LA12X amplified controllers drove the entire system.
“It was monumental to witness one of Melbourne’s iconic, historical buildings filled with the sounds of live music for the first time in over two decades. Novatech is proud to have been involved in delivering a world-class sound system as part of a larger festival that emphasized the highest production values,” concludes Novakovic.
