SHANGHAI, China — At the 10th annual JZ Festival here, with an opening gala performance by Pat Metheny Unity Group followed by two days featuring multiple acts Oct. 18-19, 2014 including Bootsy Collins & the Funk Unity Band, Snarky Puppy and Marcus Miller, among others, the multi-stage setup included new KH8 and KS8 touring loudspeakers from K-array. Other featured performers included Tommy Emmanuel, The Soul Rebels, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Laura Fygi, Jojo Mayer & Nerve, Sinne Eeg and Jazzanova Live with Paul Randolph.
The event’s Green Note Stage featured 24 KH8, 16 KS8 and eight KF12MT units. The BMW Master Hall stage was equipped with 24 KH15 units, six K070s and four KF12MTs. The Earth Lounge stage used eight KH units, six KO70 and two KO40 units. The River Side Stage used six KH8s, six KS8s and four KF12MTs. K-array gear was also part of the setup for the JZ School Stage and Sony Love My Music Stage.
More details from K-array (www.k-array.com):
So you want to make a true modern festival sound? A festival takes a lot of planning and a lot of work but equally you need the right equipment and it’s got to sound incredible. It’s all worth it when you see the crowds gathered together to celebrate something they all have in common. Great music, Great sound! Here is our guide to creating an unforgettable sound experience as used at the JZ Festival in Shanghai 2014 using K-array speakers and featuring the new KH8 and KS8 touring loud speakers.
The BIG Picture
Designing a sound reinforcement system for a large-scale music festival is a complicated process, with the 2014 JZ Festival in Shanghai serving as an instructive case study for a smooth production with installation and an unforgettable performance with the Firenze series and K-array portable series. Once again, the festival relied on Sennheiser and K-array to provide systems for all ten stages. The digitally steerable Firenze series including the KH8, KS8 loudspeakers featured within the main configuration of the stages, combined with the wide range of music styles performing at the festival including music legends such as Pat Metheny, Boosty Collins and the Funk Band Unity, Snarky Puppy and Marcus Miller. This also created a number of unique sound design challenges, including controlling sound bleed from one stage to another, tailored spatial coverage, and frequency control. Sennheiser’s experience combined with K-array line arrays and sound design tools proved a great match in overcoming these challenges to deliver quality concert audio to more than 30,000 who attended the JZ festival over the whole weekend.
Digital Steering Optimization
The use of K-array’s and AFMG FIRmaker Software were of considerable benefit from the outset of the festival design process. FIRmaker allows for digital steering built especially for the KH8 and KS8 which lets the system engineer present different options to the production beforehand and set up the whole festival configuration from home before the weekend for optimum results. As many performances at the festival did not allow enough time to time align and tune a complex system like the one for the JZ Festival it is far more effective to have a system that can be configured before hand. The ability to digitally steer is a huge advantage for the FOH engineers and comforting for the band.
What is Digital Steering?
Theoretically the line array should be rectilinear to ensure an optimal relationship between sound sources. However, in many cases, to adequately cover the entire listening area the array needs to be curved in a “J” or “banana” shape. This allows you, through controlling the angle of each speaker in relation to the other, to reach also the audience which sits or stands in proximity of the PA’s feet. The “J” configuration is currently the most widespread and produces the highest performance but it also has many limitations in terms of practicality. With the KH8 and KS8’s ability to digitally steer the sound, there is no need to model the J shape and instead, create more focused and consistent coverage at a greater distance. At the JZ Festival in the VIP area which, was positioned approximately 150 meters from the stage the difference in frequencies is greatly reduced and allows for further EQ refining for a smoother sound. For small crowds of less than 10,000 people, it was possible to utilise just the main system in the afternoon, then scale it up for crowds of over 30,000 people with the configuration prepared before the concerts. In addition, the FIRmaker software allows a system to be easily calibrated ahead of load-in and match the offline design to the physical units onsite. Further, as parts of the system come online, they can be synchronised instantly without having to rebuild the layout.
Minimal Set Up Time and Man Power
After using the KH8 and KS8 at the JZ Festival 2013, Sennheiser deployed them again to fulfill their full potential. One of the key features of the Firenze series and K-array speakers is the super fast set up time. The production team was able to consolidate the full event production and audio setup in just 4 days thanks to the K-array easy set up designs. To hang a cluster of 24 KH8 speakers took just 15 minutes per side with little configuring required due to the pre-loaded settings installed before the concert. The whole set up required just 26 guys for the all-10 stages to be set up and taken down over the whole weekend.
The Main Green Note Stage hung left-right arrays each comprised (top to bottom) of 24 KH8 full-range elements, 16 KS8 subs and 8 KF12s for side fill. The system’s ability to control the vertical angle digitally meant there was no need for front fill speakers. Without the need for delay towers, the audience could view the performance clearly from almost anywhere and have more room to dance.
Parallel to the main stage The River Side stage offered an almost equally powerful sound which included 6 KH8s, 6 KS8s and 4 KF12MT Subs. The KO40 was used as the Active Drum Fill Bass speaker and an important element for Tia Ray, Ding Shaohua and Lisa Guo who headlined here. At the nearby Earth Lounge, the main arrays each consisted of an unannounced K-array touring speaker joined by 6 KO70s for the bass. With the Main stage side arrays symmetrical allowing for spatial coverage, it avoided impacting other stages such as the Earth Lounge which was the nearest to the Main Stage. At the Master Hall where a variety of Jazz legends including Snarky Puppy, Marcus Miller and Tommy Emmanuel performed at the indoor arena, the stage was outfitted with 24 KH15 complemented by 6 KF12s for front fill. The system was completed with as many as 6 KO70s subs that kept the over capacity crowd fully energized. Finally, the smaller stages including Love my Music, JZ School, JZ Live Square and Drum Zone used a combination of K-array’s portable series KR402s and KR102s providing more than enough power for the smaller performances.
Theory into Practice
A festival always presents a number of challenges when theory becomes a reality, a challenge presented by traditional line arrays is keeping tonal balance consistent especially with the elements of weather and crowd size. Generally speaking, moving from the front of the coverage area to the back, sound can be “thin and this is what we see with the traditional speakers and point source especially. This is due to lower array trim height and the larger distance of the differential from the closest listener to the furthest, which generally differentiates by up to 6dB.
The KH8 has been built to deliver a significant balance of throw through it’s intelligent software and optimum power. The digital steering optimization allows the sound engineer to smooth and lower the SPL reducing the amount of dB loss significantly and in addition, the optimization allows more room to refine the EQ balance to perfect a balanced tonal range and consistent SPL. It is an incredible step forward for Pro Audio.
In a configuration such as Shanghai where the temperature is humid, the KH8 system registered an audio level of 123dB from 100 meters away from the main stage still delivering a fine balance and creating perfect clarity. The FOH position was placed 100 meters away from the stage but it is believed with the Firenze series you could position the FOH at 150 meters without the need for delay towers. At the JZ Festival, there was no need for delay towers creating more room the audience.
This configuration starts with FIRmaker and Focus to calculate the FIR filter for the specific event, this can all be configured before even arriving at the concert and with Firmaker it fully optimises your venues setup for you. This is followed by the installation of the speakers for there weekend and using Armonia to transfer data to the KH8 and fine tune the EQ if required. A combination of physical modification of the array with the KH8 and steerable technology, such as the FIRmaker, allow for the most effective, smooth and minimal loss of SPL results to date.
Noise Pollution Eliminated
Another consideration was the noise pollution in the surrounding areas. With the KS8 system the use of FirMaker software reduced the rearward sound pressure level and directivity of KH8 arrays provides significant rejection across all frequencies outside of the desired coverage area due to their proprietary wavefront. Rejection outside the listening area is considerably focused.
Testimonials:
“While in Shanghai this weekend, I had the opportunity to mix with K-array. I have to say that I was VERY impressed. The hangs were 12 panels a side, with 18 dual 21” subs in LCR clusters on the ground. Mixing FOH for Bootsy Collins, I often find myself pushing the system subs that I have for the day to their limit. These things gave me everything I needed and more.” —Blake Smith, FOH engineer for Bootsy Collins
“The Subs are real tight, I like what I heard overall, there flying 12-boxes a side over a total of 18-subs, the headroom was crazy!” —Rick Camp
“With the Firenze series I had a different sensation: that this is the beginning of a new era. Since the KH8 is strongly software dependent, I personally think that it can be further developed to achieve much more important results.” —Daniele Tramontani
“After mixing on this system, and experiencing its horsepower and transparency, I’m convinced that it will hold it’s own in the world market.” —Michael Apodaca
