The 10th annual week-long Rock In Rio festival returned to Brazil after spending even years of the past decade in Lisbon and Madrid, drawing 700,000 to the site planned for the 2016 Summer Olympics to hear Guns N’ Roses, Shakira, Katy Perry, Stevie Wonder, Ke$ha, Metallica, Rihanna, Coldplay, Elton John, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and many other top artists perform.
Gabisom Audio once again provided the massive sound system, which included a main PA hang of 120 VerTec VT4889 line array elements and 84 VT4880A subwoofers and, for the secondary Sunset stage, a 12-per-side Outline GTO system, supplemented with GTO Low bass extension and GTO-DF downfill elements and eight ground-stacked Lab 21 subwoofers.
Main Stage
“We had used the VT4889 and VT4880A line arrays at previous Rock In Rio shows, and they can provide the expansive high-volume sound we need over this extremely large coverage area,” said Peter Racy, Gabisom’s chief engineer. “We wanted to make sure that the people at the front of the stage weren’t blown away by excessive volume, but that the people all the way in the back could still hear everything clearly. The configuration we used enabled us to achieve this.”
Installing and operating the Goliath-sized rig was only part of Gabisom’s challenge. “The festival had very little time between acts, and Gabisom had to constantly change each artist’s complete stage setup including backline, stage props and monitor wedges,” noted Jaime Albors, senior director, Sales — Intercontinental for Harman Professional. “When Katy Perry finished on opening night, Elton John went on just 20 minutes later, with a completely different stage setup, and Gabisom pulled it off without a hitch.”
“I was extremely impressed by the SPL capability of the system,” Albors continued. “When you have 100,000 people clapping and screaming, they can literally be louder than the level of the PA, but this was not the case for this event. With 120 VT4889s and 84 VT4880As, the system had enough power to be heard well above the crowd.”
“The most impressive attributes of the JBL VerTec line arrays are their effortless power and clarity,” said Racy. “This is because of their ability to deliver high output while maintaining smooth frequency response and high resolution without distortion. In addition, their predictable coverage pattern lets us optimize their placement in any outdoor — or indoor — concert sound installation.”
Sunset Stage
For the “secondary” Sunset Stage — which still served audiences of up to 60,000 people — the diverse array of acts including Joss Stone, Sepultura, Titãs+Xutos Pontapés, Afrika Bambaataa, Matanza and Milton Nascimento. Gabisom employed a 12-per-side Outline GTO system, supplementing with three GTO Low bass extension cabinets and a GTO-DF down-fill element per side as well as eight ground-stacked Lab 21 subwoofers. The system drew praise from sound engineer Fernando Luis Leite, who mixed FOH for the rock jam session featuring Ed Motta and Andreas Kisser of Sepultura and also for Baile do Simonal, a Brazilian act.
“The Outline GTO was a very pleasant surprise for me,” Leite said. “The two bands I mixed are totally different — one playing classic rock with five guitars, and the other a pure Brazilian sound with lots of percussion and horns. But the GTO system handled them both really well…The Rock In Rio crowds expect it to be loud, and it was — we were working at around 115dBA at the mix position,” Leite added, crediting the gear’s ability to maintain intelligibility at full volume.
“We didn’t have a soundcheck at Rock in Rio, only a quick line-check,” said Jorge Guerreiro, FOH engineer for local band Matanza “It was like ‘one, two, three, four and go! The GTO system really saved me, because it sounded like very good studio monitors, but for a live sound. So it was just a matter of doing a fast balance and a little bit of EQ on individual channels. We also had excellent feedback about this show.”
Stanley Soares, who mixed Brazilian metal band Sepultura, along with French industrial percussionists Tambour du Bronx, was also impressed. “Very clear and tons of pressure,” he noted. “I had a good time.”
Rock in Rio is scheduled to alternate “sides of the pond” between Lisbon, Madrid and Rio over the next four years.
