HANGZHOU, Zhejiang Province, China – Running for 10 days from May 28 through June 6, the 2010 West Lake (Xihu) Music Festival took place at several venues throughout the city and concluded with a two-day outdoor concert series at the West Lake Tiandi, where the stage setup included D.A.S. Audio's Aero Series 2 loudspeakers.
The 10-day event featured Angie Hart (Australia), Antaraxia (Italy), Pitchtuner (Germany), Aloha Hula Calles (Japan), and These New Puritons (UK) among others in a mix of rock, folk, electronic, and pop. Local and Chinese national acts also participated.
Hangzhou Sound Culture Communication Co. Ltd., the soundco supporting the main stage, supplied D.A.S. Audio's Aero 50 3-way, large format line array elements, Aero 12A 2-way, mid-high line array elements and LX-218 subwoofers. Wang Tiequn, owner, commented on the gig and the gear.
"The slogan ‘Making Music All Over the City' set the tone for this year's event," Wang Tiequn said. "The first Xihu Music Festival, held two years ago, was sponsored by the city government to enrich the scene of this ancient city, which is known for traditional culture. The goal of this festival is to introduce people to livelier, trendier, more modern music. Roughly 2,000 tickets had been sold in advance of the final two days, so we knew there would be a sizeable audience for the closing concerts. As the two final days took place outdoors, we not only wanted to ensure the sound system had the capabilities to cover a crowd this large, it was equally important that it be capable of the sound pressure levels necessary to support rock music. Our D.A.S. Audio system was the perfect match."
The D.A.S. system was set up as two main left-right loudspeaker clusters-flown at the forward extremes of the stage area-each consisting of eight D.A.S. Audio Aero 50 line array enclosures. Twelve D.A.S. Audio LX-218 subwoofers that were ground-stacked four units across and three units high provided low-frequency support.
Lab.gruppen FP 10000Q power amplifiers drove both loudspeaker systems. A centrally positioned loudspeaker cluster consisting of six D.A.S. Audio Aero 12A self-powered line array modules, which were flown over the stage area and serving as front fills augmented these two systems. D.A.S. Audio's DSP-4080 4-input / 8-output audio processor handled loudspeaker management.
"I've been very impressed with D.A.S. Audio's customer support services," said Wang Tiequn. "Ron Koh, technical support representative for D.A.S. Audio Asia was on-site, working to ensure the success of this event. He assisted in the setup and fine-tuning of the system and really helped us optimize the setup. I am most appreciative of his assistance.
"The aim of this festival is not only to appeal to music fans but also, and more importantly, to popularize rock, pop, jazz and other music genres and help young bands by giving them a platform," Wang Tiequn added. "There was something for everyone during these 10 days, and the final concert on the grass at West Lake Lawn was particularly memorable. The music was loud, clear, and had plenty of presence no matter where you happened to be. The D.A.S. Audio sound system was really impressive and the company's support was above and beyond what I had ever imagined. I couldn't be happier with the way everything turned out."
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