Dubai’s live event season kicks off in style with Lady Gaga’s global tour – Artrave: The Artpop Ball. Promoted locally by AMI Live and ATW Live in association with Live Nation Global Touring, the concert took place at Meydan Racecourse on the 10th September and marked the multi-platinum-selling artist`s first visit to the Middle East.
Delta Sound were called on to supply the PA System for the show, while the control system was brought by Lady Gaga’s touring production. The PA system used was an L-Acoustics system. The main hangs were a flown system comprising of 2 hangs: 12 K1 with 3 KARA down fills. The out fills were a flown system comprising of 2 hangs of 8 K2, while delays comprised of 2 hangs of 12 V-DOSC. Front fills comprised of ground stacked pairs of KARA along the front on the stage. The whole system was powered by LA8 amplifiers and controlled by mixing desk DiGiCo SD9.
All timing of the speaker arrays and equalisation of each were controlled by a pair of Meyer Sound Galileos. Any internal system correction was done via LA Network Manager. Smaart 7 in conjunction with a Lectrosonics TM400 system was added as system tools.
Configuration of PA was a bit of challenge: “Meydan is a difficult site; it is extremely long and relatively narrow. There are also lots of concrete and glass windows in the Grandstand, it`s important to try and keep as much direct audio off these surfaces as possible.” Explains Al Woods, who continues: “The Grandstand is only on house left, with the VIP stands on house right so it`s not symmetrical. The site also slopes from house left to house right by 3m, so keeping the PA visually correct and the angle consistent was a real challenge, but as we have done many shows at Meydan in this configuration, we have a formula that works.”
“This was the first time that we have used the K2 in the region and it complimented the K1 seamlessly,” says Andy Jackson, Delta’s Managing Director. “It fully justifies our on-going commitment with the L-Acoustics brand and our purchase of both K1 & K2.”