Held annually over two days along the banks of the Shinano River near Ote Bridge in Japan’s Nagaoka City, the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival returned in August after a three-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The show’s spectacular visuals were supported by Martin Audio WPC and WPS line arrays as the main sound system. Inaugurated in 1879, and and held annually since World War II in the hope of achieving world peace, the event boasted 1.08m spectators around the world in 2019, ranking it among Japan’s three major hanabi matsuri.
Although the main audience area spans approximately 500m x 200m, the height of the sound system is limited to below 3m in order to avoid blocking the view of the fireworks. To meet this requirement, multiple small systems were installed and distributed over the audience area.
MIC LLC and Yokinsha Co Ltd both fielded 12 WPC boxes and four SX218 subwoofers at the event, while Niigata Shomei Giken Co Ltd added 16 WPS and six SXCF118 set at 50m intervals.
The requirement for the system was to broadcast background music, commentary from the MC and emergency announcements, bringing clarity and high intelligibility across the entire audience area during the fireworks display.
Describing the event, Mr Endo of MIC LLC, the audio general producer, commented: ‘I have tried various systems from many manufacturers over the years, but the Martin Audio system was the only one that was able to provide a consistent experience for visitors over the wide audience area, during the explosive sound of fireworks. The reason why we were able to mix WPC and WPS without any discomfort was due to the uniformity between the various Martin Audio products.’
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