Dubai-based production company Events Productions deployed multiple hangs of Outline Butterfly line arrays to cover the large-scale indoor venue at the Al Maktoum Wedding Celebration hosted last month by the ruling family of Dubai (UAE).
To meet the needs of such a huge venue, Events Productions decided to significantly increase its stock of Outline equipment by purchasing more than 80 boxes, including Butterfly Hi-Packs, subwoofers, HARD monitor wedges, and more.
Hosted at halls 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the Dubai World Trade Centre Exhibition Halls, occupying a total area of 14,400 square meters and with a Royal Banquet seating capacity of 6,000, this was one of the largest sit-down dinners ever hosted in the region. A total of nine line arrays were deployed to cover the area and ensure the clear, consistent audio.
According to Carol Olympus, technical manager and systems engineer for Events Productions, “You could walk right across the venue and further away from the array and still have an uncanny consistency in both SPL levels and frequency response, especially in the vocal range. The Butterflies amaze me every time we use them, in small venues as well as large-scale applications.”
A DigiDesign D-Show was used as the primary mixing console with a 48 x 32 Stage Rack to take advantage of plug-ins and parallel multi-track recording on Pro Tools. Performances from prominent Arabic Artists included Hussein Al Jasmi, Rashid Al Majid, Mohammed Abdou, Alisha, Mehad Hammad and Abdullah Bulkhair.
Hammad Al Ansari, an audio engineer noted for his widespread experience with Arabic bands, handled the master mix. A Fujitsu Siemens T-Series Lifebook and HP tablet computer were used to remote the D-Show to balance levels initially. EAW Smaart with an Earthworks S30 measurement microphone aided the engineers in balancing the system as well as monitoring the PA indoors.
There were two band setups with 10 Outline HARD 115 SP and twelve Outline HARD 212 SP foldback wedges. High consistent levels are normally expected by Arabic musicians, especially the percussionists, and the monitors met this requirement over the course of the nine-hour event.
Further, eight Outline SPECTRA 5040 were used as stage fill and four Outline Kanguros used for drum fill. Shure UR4Ds paired with KSM9 UR2 wireless handheld microphones and Shure PSM 700 in-ear monitors were used by the singers.
