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Cohedra Rocked the Park
MTV’s ‘Rock im Park’, held each year in Nuremberg in conjunction with ‘Rock am Ring’, is one of the biggest open air events in Germany, with three separate stages. At this year’s event early this month, German rental company Pave Veranstaltungstechnik from Nuremberg, one of the newest members of HK Audio’s Cohedra user network, provided the sound at the Suzuki Alternastage.
Among the international bands appearing on this stage were Moloko, Black Eyed Peas, Seeed, N.E.R.D., Bad Religion, Ben Harper, Turbonegro and Starsailor, together with German bands Wir sind Helden, Sportfreunde Stiller, Beatsteaks, 5 Sterne Deluxe and Max Herre. The acts played to crowds of up to 20,000 covering an area of over 100 by 75 metres.
Earlier in the year Pave had already invested in a Double-Twelve Cohedra system consisting of 12 CDR 208 T and 12 CDR 208 S mid/high units plus 24 CDR 210 subwoofers and matching PR 16 and PR 8 Amp Racks. To handle an audience of this size, Pave supplemented their own system with additional cabinets obtained from other members of the Cohedra user network for the event. Working as production manager for the Alternastage was Pave’s general manager, Wolfgang Geisler, who maintained close contact with the show’s producer, Marek Lieberberg Concerts. Serving as system operator was FOH engineer Klaus Dürschner.
The configuration chosen for the three-day show included on each side, 24 Cohedra cabinets - 12 each of the CDR 208 T and CDR 208 S units - were flown, and 48 CDR 210 Sub subwoofers and eight SL 218 professional sub-low units were ground-stacked. All 104 of these cabinets were powered by just six PR 16 and four PR 8 amp racks.
The CDR 210 Subs can be stacked four to a dolly. This ‘Quad Stack’ on wheels makes it easy to experiment with different stacking positions. For this event, six of these quad stacks were positioned in front of the stage on each side, with eight SL 218s in the centre, forming a line of bass speakers running across the front of the entire stage. The resulting bass was very even, clearly defined, and well projected, with substantial kick and no sub phasing. For nearfill, four compact two-way VT 112s were driven by PR 2424 DFC Amp Racks.
The entire system was run with HK Audio Digital Field Controllers with DFC software for the PC. Before the system was configured, Dürschner carried out a detailed simulation using CAPS software (Cohedra Acoustic Prediction Software). HK Audio’s integrated flying hardware made rigging this complex system a simple affair. “The CAPS software simulates the flying positions for Cohedra, making it very easy for just two people to rig this system,” said Jürgen Bachthaler, HK Audio’s sales manager for Germany. HK’s DFC software also made controlling the 18 DFCs a simple task.
Klaus Dürschner: “Throughout the three days of this festival my FOH colleague Hubertus Mohr and I have heard nothing but positive comments from the sound engineers of all the bands. It has really been a lot of fun to work with this system. A festival like Rock im Park with something like 30 different bands and so many different styles of music always poses quite a challenge to a system and the engineers running it. And although I have worked with Cohedra before, I have to say I was just really knocked out again with the kind of output this compact system produces. As far as I am concerned, it is a thoroughly impressive piece of gear.”
Pave has a summer full of other interesting jobs lined up for their system, for example Nelly Furtado, PUR, the Oben Ohne Hip Hop Event at Munich’s Königsplatz, and Germany’s largest classical festival, the Klassik Open Air in Nuremberg.
25th June 2004
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