SHANGHAI, China — At the 2012 World Music Shanghai Festival, which drew close to 12,000 people to six different locations over a six-day span, Sennheiser China provided crew and gear including K-array KH15, KO70, KR402 and KR202 components. The crew included close to 10 technicians and sound designers for Sennheiser’s local tech partner, Real Live.
More details from K-array (www.k-array.com):
With a distinctive past and numerous touristic and cultural sites, Shanghai is one of the capitals – perhaps the capital – of the world’s economy today, and a dynamic, fascinating city with its mix of modern, traditional and multicultural aspects. This meld of culture is also evident in popular culture, for example music, and in particular in the World Music Shanghai Festival which celebrated its fifth edition in the autumn of 2012. Each year the organizers H+M Communications choose five artists or groups from around the world, presenting the audience with a fusion of different artistic expression in a selection of urban environments for the audience to experience and rediscover: the festival, held from 1st to 6th October 2012, had six locations for six days of performances:
- Oct. 1, outdoors: Century Square on Nanjing Road, Huangpu District (3000 people)
- Oct. 2, indoors: Shanghai Concert Hall, Huangpu District (1000 people)
- Oct. 3, outdoors: Vanke City Garden, Minhang District (3000 people)
- Oct. 4, outdoors: Vanke Holiday Scenes, Minhang District (1500 people)
- Oct. 5, outdoors: Vanke Evergreen Garden City phase I, Baoshan (2000 people)
- Oct. 6, outdoors: Vanke New Voyage, Pudong (500 people)
Sennheiser China supported World Music Shanghai 2012, supplying all the audio equipment used on the stages (except backline), as well as a team of about ten technicians and sound designers from Real Live, Sennheiser’s tech partner on these occasions.
A big commitment in which K-array (distributed in the country by Sennheiser China) was also involved; and the Italian manufacturer’s speakers certainly got the 12,000 spectators dancing and enjoying themselves. Due to the very different performance locations, equipment capable of being adapted to the specific needs of each location were chosen: the large inaugurational outdoor arena was equipped with 12 KH15s, the most compact line array elements of K-array’s “Concert” range that are powerful and capable of carrying sound over long distances, plus 4 KO70s for bass support and 2 effective but discreet KR402s for side-fill.
On 2nd October in the Shanghai Concert Hall, 2 KR402 and KR202 systems were used, perfect for covering large areas while being compact and discreet, thus enhancing the aesthetics of the place and the audience’s visual experience of the performance. KR202 systems were used for side-fill and front-fill, a common choice that combines high-performance with near-invisibility. In all the other locations a KR402 was always used, along with a KR202 side-fill; a set-up which proved extremely versatile in meeting the needs of a large outdoor audience.
The speed of setting up and taking down the systems, and above all the ease in aligning and managing the K-array systems, made it possible to prepare the various locations quickly leaving the sound engineers free to concentrate on the music.
In fact, there were very different bands at the festival: the Gangbe Brass Band of Benin that combines tradition and modernity, the Nadara Gypsy Band, the Haya Band from Mongolia, the exotic sounds of the Indian group Pandit Keshav Talegaonkar, and the experimental ones of Sounds from Yunnan. Each different to the other, each equally sustained to perfection by the K-array systems.
For more information, please visit www.worldmusicshanghai.com.
