AMMAN, Jordan — Events AVP, distributor of Outline gear in Jordan, supported the needs of a mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI at Amman International Stadium, which drew 50,000 worshippers and was accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra and 200-voice choir using Butterfly vertical line arrays.
King Abdulla II of Jordan invited Pope Benedict XVI to give the mass, and the Royal Protocol Department oversaw the overall production and running of the event, which Sharif Tabbara, co-owner of Events AVP, noted was of an “importance…on an international scale.”
To provide acoustic coverage of the venue, Events AVP used a system including 100 Butterfly Hi-Packs and 32 Subtech 218 subwoofers, all powered by T-series amplifiers.
To prepare for the papal mass, Events AVP also decided to increase its stock of Outlinearray, purchasing additional elements to reach their current total of 40 CDH 483 Hi-packs and 20 Subtech 218 subwoofers. The crew used Outline DVS 12 enclosures for frontfill, while the monitor setup for the Pope and the cardinals included Outline Micra II SP systems.
“Given the time deadline, we put our best crew on the job and all operations were scheduled ahead of delivery” said Mona Ammoura, managing director of events for Events AVP.
“At a distance of 120 meters, I had full voice intelligibility and the bottom end sounded great,” said Vincenzo Testa of Events AVP, who served as FOH engineer and production manager.
System engineer Carlo Gennaro, who is familiar with Outlinearray gear and it is relative timing software, Outline VIP (Vector Implementation Protocol), fine-tuned the Butterfly rig.
“The requests of the Vatican audio technicians, in particular the person responsible for the Pope’s voice, Roberto Calvigioni, were very precise, but once again we exceeded all expectations,” Gennaro said. “The distribution of the people in the stadium meant extra care had to be taken to keep the sound level at a very constant 105 decibels for 270 degrees of coverage around the stage during the event.
“I know the Butterfly system very well,” Gennaro added. “It’s a reference point at world level in terms of precision, acoustic transparency and phase coherence, and I’m always happy to be able to use it.”
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