Italian singer/songwriter Davide Van De Sfroos has brought stories spoken in the laghèe dialect (spoken in the northern areas of Lecco and Como) to one of the most important stages in Italy – the San Siro in Milan. More than 20,000 people attended, to be entertained in a language very difficult to understand for anyone not from that area of Northern Italy.
The sound reinforcement was provided by Martin Audio partner All Access, who fielded an MLA system. The hangs comprised no fewer than 22 MLA and an MLD Downfill on each side of the stage, underpinned by 36 MLX subs. For side fill, All Access added a further 11 MLA on each flank, while front fills were made up of four MLD Downfills and eight Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Array.
For the musicians, 12 Martin Audio LE2100 and six LE1200 floor monitors were provided for reference sound, while stage fill comprised eight Martin Audio W8LM and four WS218X subs.
Sound engineer Paolo ‘Red’ Talami, All Access PA manager, explains the choice of system configuration: ‘The attendance was estimated between 20,000 and 25,000 people and it was not decided until the last moment whether to open the second ring of the stadium. For this reason, I developed three different projections in [Martin Audio’s] Display 2.2; one was covering only the first ring, the second was a partial ring cover and finally a full coverage of the second ring. When the decision to open the second ring was taken on show day I opted for a partial cover.’
The three profiles had been realised with the same type of rigging and degree of array incline, so that any projection could be implemented as easily as possible. ‘With a stage height of 1.90m we centrally located the four Martin Audio MLD front fills on the MLX line source, along with a configuration of 3+3 Martin Audio W8LM as out fill and two separate W8LM,’ he continued.
The subs were arranged in 12 stacks of three MLX in line source configuration – spaced from 0.7m and with incremental delays for a 170° dispersion. This resulted in uniform sound coverage, delivering the same image to all of the fans.
Van De Sfroos’ appearance on the San Siro stage represented the highlight of a 20-year career.
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