With ‘infamous’ acoustics – a domed ceiling and extremely reverberant environment that are a sound engineer’s nightmare – Rome’s Palalottomatica indoor sports arena recently gave event company Planet Service a chance to put its Outline Butterfly loudspeaker system to the test. With 8,000 attendees assembled for a summit with global nutrition and weight management company Herbalife, the pressure was on Alessandro Saudelli and his team.
‘Our brief was for a central stage, to exploit the venue’s entire capacity,’ he says. ‘This, plus the fact that the rig couldn’t be flown, meant we had to opt for a ground support format, with consequent load limits and problems connected with audience sightlines, without overlooking the aesthetic results, since it was a convention, not a concert.’
Saudelli was responsible for the system’s design and tuning, with Emanuele Vischi (sound engineer and PA), Francesco Passeri (mic tech and PA) and Edoardo Michelori (PA) in support. Planet Service has worked with Herbalife since 2004 and, even if already familiar with the basic needs from a scenographic and spectacular point of view, the production bar is raised every year and the technology has to follow.
‘We chose Outline Butterfly not only because we’re familiar with the system, but also for the enclosures’ weight/performance ratio,’ Saudelli explains. ‘We used a total of 96 Butterfly plus 16 Outline Mantas and 90 per cent of the attendees were covered by eight clusters, each comprising 12 Butterfly and two Mantas (down fill) and weighing approximately 450kg (992lb).
The tables closest to the stage, set up on the venue’s playing field, were covered by front-fill, for the distance between the lower limit of main cluster coverage and the stage. ‘The choice fell on Outline’s Eidos 265 LA, conceived for array use, but ideal for this situation, as their compact dimensions ensure low visual impact, but they’re extremely efficient and a perfect match for the Butterfly and Mantas speakers’ sound. We installed 15 Eidos round the stagefront.’
Lengthy discussions were held on sub positioning and, for seating capacity reasons, it was decided to position them round the stage, with 21 Outline Subtech 218 and 12 Outline Victor Live in end-fire configuration, with the rearmost sub under the stage. ‘This was obviously a compromise, but any doubts we had vanished completely after switching on the rig and listening to the performance,’ Saudelli says.
Planet Service is the largest rental company in the Republic of San Marino and has collaborated on Herbalife events in various Italian cities and in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Monte Carlo, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
More: www.planetservicesm.eu
More: www.outline.it
