APG Uniline chosen for hit CCTV reality show
Published: ASIA
CHINA: Broadcasting giant CCTV is using an APG Uniline compact modular line array system plus SMX15/DX stage monitoring for one of China’s most popular reality TV shows. Named I want to perform at the Spring Festival Gala Evening, the show features a series of live performances by amateur artists seeking to win a prestigious slot alongside the country’s most famous stars at the Spring Festival Gala Evening event, which is broadcasted on CCTV on the eve of Chinese New Year.
The Spring Festival Gala Evening celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2012 and is the highest rated TV show in China, attracting 770 million viewers last January. The show traditionally features a broad range of performances including dancers, circus acts, the Beijing Opera, magicians, comedians and the ultimate winner of I want to perform at the Spring Festival Gala Evening. The talent contest, filmed in July at the XingGuang Media Park in Beijing, returned for its second season this year.
APG distributor BV Cam was appointed to supply sound reinforcement for the duration of the filming, specifying left and right arrays of five UL210 enclosures, three UL115B bass speakers and a TB218S subwoofer per side. Onstage monitoring comprised four SMX15 wedges, four DX15 multi-purpose speakers and four compact DX12s.
‘Uniline was an excellent choice for this application given the constraints of working within a TV studio,’ commented BV Cam’s Danny Huen. ‘It offers excellent horizontal and vertical directivity, which meant that we were able to adapt to the extremely wide stage design by flying the system from two fixed rigging points at the outer edge of the studio.
‘The other potential hazard was that the competitors’ main performance area was quite close to the judges. We therefore required a system capable of providing excellent sound quality for the judges, who were hearing the main system and not a personal monitor system, and yet not pick up any spurious sound from the microphones on stage. Again, the excellent directivity of Uniline meant that we had no problems on that score whatsoever. The system performed impeccably.’
A spokesperson for CCTV later added that the system ‘comfortably served the various requirements of the show’.