Sennheiser brought an experiential demo space to the world-famous Carnival in Salvador this year, welcoming artists, audio engineers and music producers, as well as lovers of audio.
The House of Carnival has been a Sennheiser tradition for more than ten years, previously functioning only as an official service centre for customers. This year, in addition to the service centre, the big attraction was an immersive room equipped with Neumann monitors and the Ambeo Soundbar.
According to economists, without Carnival in 2022 Salvador lost an estimated R$2bn of economic value – a loss that impacted millions of people that contribute directly or indirectly to the street party. This time of the year accounts for 11 per cent of the city’s annual profit.
Each year, Sennheiser technicians move from their headquarters in Sao Paolo to Salvador with wireless equipment to serve artists and customers during the event. Carnival is the time of the year many Brazilian performers make the greatest profit in the shortest time – some perform dozens of sets in a short period and need to be certain their equipment is in perfect working condition; everything from preventive maintenance to firmware updates and antenna replacement can be done right away by Sennheiser product specialists.
In addition to Sennheiser’s service centre at Carnival, the brand opened its House of Carnival for the first time to some of the biggest pro audio names in Brazil for a joint demo space – Allen & Heath, Audio Systems, MGA Pro Audio and Carbocase also had their own space to greet customers and offer solutions for the largest street party on the planet.
‘This year, we were able to take advantage of our legacy here and make room for other partners in the professional audio industry, amplifying local support and offering a space with open doors for visitors, such as producers and sound engineers, responsible for the sonic magic behind the parade, large stages and recording studios’, says Daniel Reis, Sennheiser Country Partner in Brazil. In addition to his role with Sennheiser, Reis is also the long-time audio engineer for the sound of one of Brazil´s most iconic bands.
With many different environments, the House of Carnival offered an immersive room set-up with Dolby Atmos technology and Neumann monitors, including a pair of KH 150s, 11 KH 80s and one KH 750, in addition to the Ambeo Soundbar that simulates a 7.1.4 system. With this, there was a high-end listening room with some of the most recognisable headphones of the brand, along with the HE 1 – considered the best sounding headphone in the world and valued in half a million in local currency.
In a separate space, there was a showroom with the professional audio portfolio as well as an exhibition about the history and development of the audio industry.
Beginning at the start of February, the space held workshops on topics including RF coordination at large events, myths and facts about RF, and the future of wireless systems.
