Covering Creamfields
Published: MEA
UAE: Abu Dhabi’s annual dance music festival, Creamfields, returned for a sixth year with organiser Flash Entertainment calling on Delta Sound for the audio solution. The event took place at the du Arena and drew a crowd of 16,000 people.
The four main areas were all covered with L-Acoustics systems. The Main Stage front-of-house system comprised 10 K1 per side with two Kara cabinets used for down-fill. Six 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. An out fill system of eight K2 cabinets was positioned either side to due to the width of the arena. Twelve dV-Dosc cabinets were used as front-fill to complete the system.
Over on the B Stage, the solution consisted of eight K2 cabinets with four boxes ground stacked per side alongside four SB28 subs. Again, six dV-Dosc cabinets were used to provide front-fill. 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 three SB28 enclosures per side.
The Electric Days Stage system meanwhile, was a more intimate affair which required a more compact system. Delta opted to use four Kara boxes stacked on top of a pair of SB28s either 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,’ explained Delta Sound senior engineer Rob Eatock. ‘Once inside the tent, the system masked the main rig and it was very clear that we achieved our goal of creating a room within a room and that the two systems did not interfere with each other.’
All systems were powered using L-Acoustics’ LA8 amplifiers with access to the physical parameters of the amp settings being achieved using the brand’s Network Manager software.
The DJ monitoring systems consisted of eight stacks of three dV-Dosc and six SB18 as well as two dV-Subs. ‘After testing all the DJ monitors, my ears were a little worse for wear but it was a really solid fill for the event and favoured by all performing DJs,’ noted Mr Eatock. Again these systems were powered using LA8 amplifiers.
For control, Delta used a number of DiGiCo consoles, including a DiGiCo SD5 and two 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 formed a heavy portion of the inventory, with 22 CDJ2000 Nexus players, seven DJM900 Nexus consoles, three CDJ2000 decks and two DJM800 consoles. Vinyl decks included six SL1210 turntables requested for 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.
‘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,’ concluded Mr Eatock. ‘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 seven!’