Celebrating the Dubai World Cup Carnival is nothing new, for 11 years it has been the pinnacle of the horse racing calendar in the region. Three months of racing at Meydan builds up to a final World Cup Day which attracts the great and the good both on and off the track.
This final day has developed into a real spectacle. The racing is still the main focus, but it is only part of a whole day of entertainment. For the 2014 event, Meydan played host to opening and closing ceremonies, which featured a 100-piece orchestra and soprano, as well as a headline after-race concert from Jennifer Lopez on a separate stage. Supplying the audio and communications equipment to all of these events was Dubai-based rental house Delta Sound.
“It was definitely a busy week for us,” says Delta Sound’s Dubai managing director, Andy Jackson. “We essentially supplied three separate systems to three different clients. One for the opening and closing ceremonies, a second for J-Lo and a third for the press centre.”
Delta used its range of L-Acoustics cabinets and a variety of consoles to supply the various performances. The main ceremony system was based around the three track-side 100m giant screens. “We used a screen system which was four towers each with eight V-DOSC. On top of this we had 16 subs for low end,” recalls Mr Jackson. “We also had a delay and effects system which was on the apron side of the track. This was effectively four towers of eight KUDO as well as another twelve KIVA as low-profile fills in the parade area.”
Three control positions were called into action for the ceremonies. “We used an orchestral mix and foldback console which was a DiGiCo SD8,” says Mr Jackson. “We had an Avid Profile console with a ProTools HD system to mix the orchestra and all the show content. And we had a third console which acted as a second stage position for some local acts in between the races which was an SD11.”
Away from the live system, Delta also supplied comms for the event. “The communication for the ceremonies made use of our Clear-Com Matrix system and our HelixNet system” notes Mr Jackson. “This interfaced all the radios for all the departments, the stage management and technical crew.”
“We made use of the fibre infrastructure within Meydan to run comms between the infield, Apron and 6th Floor show control.”
Prisme International were the incumbent ceremonies production company.
On the other side of the site, “ATW Live” produced the Jennifer Lopez concert and called on an entirely separate concert system. “For the J-Lo concert we used our K1 system with KUDO as delays and some KARA as front-fills and out-fills,” says the MD. “We supplied the entire package for J-Lo, so it was an SD5 for monitors, all the in-ears were Sennheiser, but she brought her own Sony radio mics. Front-of-house was a Profile and ProTools HD system for recording.”
One of the major challenges for supplying this combination of events has been the coordination of the various teams. “We treated it as two separate projects, so we had two separate project managers. Craig Harvey looked after the ceremonies, and Al Woods looked after J-Lo,” explains Mr Jackson. “Even though we treated them as two separate projects, in terms of scheduling we used one team to do the entire fit up. They started at one end of the track to put the PA in and then went all the way through to the J-Lo stage and put everything in.”
While good organisation helped with this first challenge, the second major issue was one that is harder to plan for. “We had two days of rain during the setup, which slightly hampered things. It’s always a bit of a challenge out here – 12 hours of rain is a challenge wherever you are – but it’s more of a challenge here because there is very little drainage and nothing is watertight,” says Mr Jackson. “It delayed the rehearsal schedules a little bit, but it didn’t have too much of a knock-on effect.”
With the World Cup Carnival over for another year, Mr Jackson is left to reflect on what has been a successful event for the rental house. “It’s been a real team effort and all the guys have done a great job,” he notes. “It hasn’t been easy to cover three major events at the same venue on the same day, but with the right gear and the talent we have at Delta, everything has gone really well.”
Photography by Prisme International