Held in the former Polish capital city of Kraków, World Youth Day attracted 2.5m pilgrims from around the globe to a 1,200-acre site at Brzegi’s Campus Misericordiae. Clarity and intelligibly were essential consideration for the sound company serving the event – Poznan-based Gigant Sound Letus.

Under the guidance of company owner Jerzy Taborowski, the Gigant team constructed 66 delay towers (with equipment on two towers and altar doubled, to create 70 towers), spread over huge distances, all of which comprised Outline premium GTO, C-12 and Mantas line arrays powered by Powersoft K Series and X Series amplifiers. It is one of the most extensive deployments of the two Italian manufacturers’ inventories to date.

This required an international collaboration due to the amount of equipment required – enter Capital Sound and Britannia Row (UK), EQ Audio & Events (Ireland), Szimpatech Showtechnika (Hungary), Invi AS (Denmark), Trius (Germany), Soundtech, Planet Service and Blackout (Italy) and Rent-All (Netherlands).

The set-up extended to 600 line array modules and 200 amplifiers (34x X8 Dante ) and 80x K10, 30x K20 and 56x series T7/T9/T11 DSP + KAesop. These were connected to a single TCP/IP network and controlled using the latest release of Powersoft’s Armonía Pro Audio Suite for time alignment and system fine-tuning.

‘Armonía is a very easy and user-friendly environment,’ offers the event’s Senior System Tech, Pawel Zakrzewski. ‘I split control over the system into four PCs for more flexibility and convenience, which was crucial as I had to cooperate simultaneously with several crews working out in the field. We had to deliver sound over a radius of 1,650m and between the furthest delay line towers the distance was 2.4km, so adding a pre-delay to specific tower feeds was also necessary – but the majority of system tuning was done via Armonia Pro Audio Suite.’

With the extended functionality, he describes working on a system of that size as ‘a piece of cake’ with the latest version of Armonía. Also essential to delivering the required coverage within budget was Outline. ‘After the initial calculations had been made in the Ease prediction software, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to test the newly acquired Outline rig, which later proved to possess far greater dynamics and range than we expected.’

He states that in the original plan the Outline delay lines were spaced 150m apart – nearly twice the distance of regular sound reinforcement systems. ‘The calculations suggested we use about 140 towers, which the organisers did not approve due to the costs involved. And so it was suggested we use every second tower in a diamond-shape array – which meant each tower would be spaced 300m meters apart. This seemed like pure madness but the challenge was accepted as we knew that the Outline systems would provide incredible results.’

Zakrzewski made extensive additional Ease calculations with Outline’s OpenArray 3D simulation software used in parallel. Tables and maps were made the shape and area of the stages and main altar was frequently changed.

The project used towers with a constant number of interchangeable transducers, with Outline’s Dual Parabolic Wave Guide devices common to all the loudspeakers: ‘We assumed 3.5 Mantas as an equivalent of a single GTO unit, two Mantas for a GTO C-12, and 1.5 Mantas for a Butterfly unit. Based on this, there should have been approximately 1,000 Outline Mantas boxes deployed on site,’ Taborowski confirms.

‘We had four independent redundant rings that delivered groups of eight, pre-delayed audio streams to each tower for easy configuration – not to mention TCP/IP protocol,’ he adds.

Outline Support Engineer Giulio Gandini provided technical support by special invitation from Gigant Sound’s owner: ‘Fine tuning of this kind of system, size wise, requires mobility as the coverage and time alignment have to be controlled over a huge area.

‘I was travelling along the field with a moped and, thanks to Armonía Pro Audio Suite, walkie-talkie and cell-phone were the only things I needed to carry with me. Having to adjust each tower manually would increase build-up time to a scary extent. Thanks to full Ethernet control performed from a single point, we had the possibility to remotely monitor each rack.’

Apart from prayers, which were led by the Pope, pilgrims were able to enjoy a worship concert featuring Polish and foreign mainstream artists, accompanied by an orchestra and choir conducted by Adam Sztaba (supported as second conductor by priest, Robert Tyrała). This required five premier mixing consoles and engineers for FOH alone – a further indication of the scale of the event.

‘The unbelievable dynamic range – 150dB for a single GTO and 147.5dB for a C-12 – along with the huge, natural sound made us choose Outline, and the decision proved completely justified. On top of that the excellent phase response ensured the sound was always close to each individual. This was especially true of the GTO15 boxes, thanks to the coupled Dual Parabolic Wave Guide.

‘I should also mention the quick speed of rigging – especially the GTO, GTO C-12 and latest Mantas 28, where we could adjust the angle of 0.25° between units. As for Powersoft, we intended to use their amplifiers and the Armonía Pro Suite right from the start, and everything was done according to plan. This should have come as no surprise to anyone, as they are used to drive Outline systems worldwide. I know that I can rely on Powersoft, not only in terms of performance and reliability but also compatibility with other major rental companies across Europe,’ he adds. ‘What I like the most with the X series, is that our amp racks are smarter and more versatile than before.’

Taborowski regards the event as ‘one of the greatest production events in Europe and one of the greatest in the whole world – probably no other company in Europe has ever provided sound reinforcement solutions in such a vast area and for such a massive crowd of 2.5m people’.

The initial listening tests proved that SPL levels and range was greater than expected: ‘We were all relieved – and Wojciech Ciesielka, acting representative of the organiser, was impressed with the range, sheer sound and phase response of the system. Special thanks also go to Outline management, Giulio Gandini, our technical chief, Marcin ‘Zapas’ Szafranski, and of course all sound crew for their roles in what was a very difficult event.’