The 16th of December saw the return of the hugely successful global dance music festival Creamfields. Now in its 6th year in Abu Dhabi, the line up featured renowned International artists Hardwell, Afrojack, Marco Carola, Adam Beyer, Genie and Stacktraxxx alongside Lebaneese performers MadJam and local artists Avid Bold, Asphyxia & Angelo, Greg Gow, Ronin & Nesta, Smoking Groove, Mr Mr, Arcade 82 and Omar Basaad.
Produced by Flash Entertainment, this iconic dance music festival took place at the Du Arena and drew in a crowd of over 16,000 people.
Delta Sound delivered its L-ACOUSTICS K1 and K2 systems with additional cabinets of SB28 SUBS and KARA enclosures with dV-DOSC cabinets which covered the 4 main areas.
The Main Stage front-of-house system comprised 10 K1 per side with 2 KARA cabinets used for down-fill. 6 K1 SUBS per side were flown behind the main stacks supporting the 24 SB28 SUBS ground stacked in an Arc configuration along the edge of the 50m wide stage. Because of the considerable width of the arena, an out-fill system of 8 K2 cabinets was positioned either side to evenly fill the gap. 12 dV-DOSC cabinets were used as front-fill to make sure that all the revellers who braved the pit were well within the system range and did not miss a beat.
The B Stage system was made up of 8 K2 cabinets with 4 boxes ground stacked per side alongside 4 SB28 SUBS for powerful low end audio. Again, 6 dV-DOSC cabinets were used to provide front-fill sound.
The Electric Days Stage system was a more intimate affair which required a more compact system. Delta opted to use 4 KARA boxes stacked on top of 2 SB28 SUBS per side of the stage.
“This smaller system had a bit of work to do as the tent – hosting up to 150 people was placed in the firing line of the Main Stage K1 rig. Once inside the tent, the system masked the main rig and was very clear that we achieved our goal of creating a room within a room and that the 2 systems did not interfere with each other.” Explains Robert Eatock.
Using a similar system as the B Stage, the Plaza Stage was used to welcome guests as they arrived at the arena. Delta’s engineers deployed a ground stacked K2 PA system either side of the stage with 3 SB28 SUB enclosures per side. This package proved to be more than powerful enough to cover the area.
All systems were powered using L-Acoustics LA8 amplifiers with access to the physical parameters of the amp settings being achieved using the brands Network Manager software.
Delta used a number of DiGiCo consoles, including a DiGiCo SD5 and 2 SD11 consoles for the main stage, B stage and Electric Days stage. The Plaza stage used a more compact setup and therefore required an analogue approach.
Pioneer certainly made its presence with over 22 CDJ2000 Nexus players, 7 DJM900 Nexus consoles, 3 CDJ2000 decks and 2 DJM800 consoles. Vinyl decks are not a forgotten medium and 6 SL1210 turntables were requested on both the B Stage and Plaza Stage.
Local backline supplier MEI was chosen to assist Delta Sound in sourcing the DJ equipment for this significant event and did so with precision ensuring riders were met without a hitch.
The DJ monitoring systems were no small order either with a total of 8 stacks of 3 dV-DOSC and 6 SB18 as well as 2 dV-SUBS.
After testing all the DJ monitors, my ears were a little worse for wear but a really solid fill for the event and favoured by all performing DJs. Continues Robert Eatock. Again these systems were all powered using LA8 amplifiers.
I have been a part of this event since its conception in Abu Dhabi and I have to say that this year’s production was by far my favourite. I felt the systems were perfectly executed for the event. Proving that was the countless times seeing 16,000 people jumping up and down in front of FOH following the beat, exhilarating to watch and hugely satisfying as an audio guy. Bring on number 7! Closes Robert.