SERBIA and ROMANIA – When Massive Attack's international tour rolled into Eastern Europe in late June, playing the Belgrade Arena and the Bucharest Zone Arena, the audio production at both venues was a collaboration between two of the region's Synco Europe Network members – Audio Konstruktor of Serbia and Paradigma Group of Romania.
The PA consisted of 50 Synco by Martin Audio W8LC line array loudspeakers, flown in hangs of 16 cabinets per side for the main PA and nine a side as outfield, along with 18 Synco by Martin Audio WS318X triple-18" subwoofers. Front fills included six Synco by Martin Audio W8LM Mini line array units with six Synco by Renkus-Heinz 18 RR subwoofers. The whole loudspeaker system was driven by Synco amp racks with XTA processing, together with a Lake drive rack, and delivered more than 140kW of power.
Dave Bracey mixed FOH for Massive Attack on a DiGiCo SD7 console, while monitors were mixed on a DiGiCo D5 Live digital console, with a combination of wireless in-ear monitoring and Synco CW152 dual concentric wedge monitors, exclusive to the Synco Network.
Sreten KovaÄević commented in Belgrade: "At front of house, which was 30 meters from the stage, we could achieve between 115dB and 120dB. Dave Bracey said he was more than pleased to be working with this system, because of a good past experience with Synco by Martin Audio PA. The sound was also mentioned in the Serbian press as being of exceptional quality for Belgrade Arena."
For the Bucharest show, promoted by One Event, the Paradigma team also supplied the lighting, video and rigging systems and crew.
Christian Singer commented: "It was a great opportunity to provide the sound system for Massive Attack for the Bucharest and Belgrade shows. The band's sound crew were really happy to work with the Synco equipment and they enjoyed the good coverage and accurate spread, both indoors at Belgrade and outdoors in Bucharest."
Marcel Albers, commercial director of Synco Europe, added: "These shows demonstrate the benefit of the Synco Network to international tours. You can bring a major artist into a country that has a Synco member, and rely on finding the same high standards of equipment and crew that you're used to, but with vastly reduced freight and travelling costs."
Paradigma Group's production manager was Cristian Singer, with site coordination by Eugen Anechitei, system engineer Alex Serb and sound crew Luci Balas, Cristi Balas, Chirita Viorel and Robert Cristea. The lighting crew were Dan Serban, Constantin Gelu, Maican Catalin and Babei Adrian.
For more information, please visit www.synco-network.com
