Miami, FL – March 2009… On February 15th, 2009, the House Depot, along with We Love Industries, teamed up with Congo De Oro Productions to help bring Miami the first annual Carnaval Electronic Music Festival at Miami’s Bayfront Park. Celebrating one of Colombia’s oldest carnivals, Carnaval is the 2009 Miami rebirth of that event. Featuring a variety of music to suit everyone’s preferences, the event drew approximately 2000 spectators. With a crowd of this size, the sound system needed to be clear, potent, and offer considerable control of the sound dispersion characteristics. For Franco Sound, the company tasked with providing sound reinforcement for the event, the solution was to deploy a loudspeaker system drawn from the catalog of D.A.S. Audio.
Based in Miami, Franco Sound is owned and operated by Ramon Franco, who also serves as FOH engineer for many of the projects his company services. In addition to concerts, festivals, and other special events—including jobs such as the annual Medellin Jazz Festival—Franco Sound also services the installation market, and has completed numerous high-end club installs throughout the Medellin, Colombia area. Being so well known in his native country, Franco Sound was a natural for the Carnaval Electronic Music Festival.
When asked about the challenges the “Carnaval� presented, Franco offered the following thoughts. “This festival had two stages running, with each offering completely different types of music,� explained Franco. “On one stage, we had several popular Florida DJ’s, including Dj Edgar V, Dj Armand Pena, Dj Ivan D, and Dj Tony Puccio, among others. For this, we needed a sound system that was capable of addressing a 2000+ sized crowd with lots of low end for the electronic music. Equally important, a high level of directional control was crucial, as the second stage offered traditional Colombian music and we couldn’t interfere with the activities taking place there. For this reason, we knew the D.A.S. Audio Aero CA-28A would be a great choice for the main line arrays because the system gives us the ability to focus the acoustic energy where it needed to be.�
The system Franco deployed for the Carnaval consisted of ten D.A.S. Audio Aero CA-28A self-powered line array elements—ground stacked five per side for the left-right mains, with each cluster including an Aero CA-215A powered subwoofer at the bottom of the stack. Adding additional low end reinforcement, each cluster sat on top of D.A.S. Audio’s new and considerably larger LX-218 self-powered bass-reflex subwoofer system incorporating dual D.A.S. 18LX long excursion transducers. Augmenting the left-right mains, Franco and his crew placed two additional center stacks—each consisting of a D.A.S. Audio CA-215A subwoofer sitting atop an LX-218. Signal processing chores were handled by a D.A.S. Audio DSP-48 loudspeaker management system and a Yamaha LS9-16 compact digital live sound reinforcement console that resided at FOH.
D.A.S. Audio loudspeakers were also used for the DJ monitoring setup. This system included two SML-12A powered stage monitors and a single Compact 18 Sub. The SML-12A stage monitor incorporates D.A.S. Audio’s M-10N neodymium compression driver with a 1.5-inch exit, a 3-inch titanium diaphragm, and EFW (edge-wound flat wire) voice coil in a low profile design. The Compact 18 Sub is a high-performance, self-powered vented subwoofer system that utilizes an 18-inch low frequency transducer.
Franco commented on those characteristics of the D.A.S. sound system that helped make the Carnaval a success. “Being entirely self-powered,� said Franco, “this system is easy to transport, since we don’t have to be concerned about hauling racks of heavy power amps. This also makes the system considerably easier to setup and calibrate. D.A.S. Audio’s sound quality is exceptional and the captive rigging hardware makes it much easier to position each element and control the dispersion. And for this event, the addition of the LX-218 subwoofers provided an incredible amount of low end punch.�
With the first annual Carnaval Electronic Music Festival now past, Franco reports that the festival’s sponsors were delighted with both the D.A.S. sound system and his company’s handling of the event. “After the festival ended, the promoter offered to make our company the exclusive sound provider for all of their upcoming events,� said Franco. “They were just blown away by the system’s performance and they made us an offer right after the show. This is a tremendous compliment because they’ve always worked with two independent sound providers for each stage but have now decided to go with us exclusively.�
About D.A.S. Audio
Headquartered in Valencia, Spain, D.A.S. Audio is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of loudspeaker systems, power amplification, signal processing, and related components. For better than thirty years, D.A.S. Audio products have been found on tour with the world’s greatest performing artists and installed in many of the most prestigious facilities. For additional information about the company, visit them online at www.dasaudio.com.
###
