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A Flight of Butterflies for the Pope
Butterfly, the vertical line array manufactured by Outline of Brescia, was used for the sound reinforcement at the large mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI at Amman international stadium in Jordan before 50,000 worshippers. The mass was accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra and a 200-strong choir.
"Due to the importance of this event on an international scale, Events AVP - exclusive Outline distributor for Jordan - was selected to provide the sound systems required given its reliability record and event direction experience," said Mr. Sharif Tabbara, co-owner of Events AVP. As an official guest to His Majesty King Abdulla II of Jordan, Pope Benedict XVI's Grand Sunday Mass was master planned and managed by the Royal Protocol Department, who oversaw the overall production and running of the event.
For the faultless acoustic coverage of the venue, Events AVP used a system comprising 100 Butterfly Hi-Packs and 32 Subtech 218 subwoofers; all powered by T-series amplifiers.
With a view to this event, Events AVP also decided to increase its stock of Outlinearray, purchasing additional elements to reach a present total of forty CDH 483 Hi-packs and twenty Subtech 218 subwoofers.
For "front-fill" work, the audio design featured the multi-purpose Outline DVS 12 enclosures (1x12" - 1x3"), while the monitor set-up for the Pope and the cardinals consisted in a number of Outline Micra II SP (2x5" - 1x1"), systems well known for their successful combination of intelligibility and high SPL before feedback, in spite of their light weight (6.5 kg) and ultra-compact dimensions.
"Given the time deadline, we put our best crew on the job and all operations were scheduled ahead of delivery," said Mrs. Mona Ammoura, managing director of Events AVP, Jordan.
FOH engineer and production manager Vincenzo Testa of Events AVP commented: "At a distance of 120 metres, I had full voice intelligibility and the bottom end sounded great."
The fine tuning of the Butterfly rig was entrusted to Carlo Gennaro, a system engineer with considerable experience in the use of the Outlinearray along with the relative aiming software, the Outline VIP (Vector Implementation Protocol).
He commented: "The requests of the Vatican audio technicians, in particular the person responsible for the Pope's voice, Roberto Calvigioni, were very precise, but once again we exceeded all expectations; the distribution of the people in the stadium meant extra care had to be taken to keep the sound level at a very constant 105 decibels for 270 degrees of coverage around the stage during the event. I know the Butterfly system very well - it's a reference point at world level in terms of precision, acoustic transparency and phase coherence - and I'm always happy to be able to use it."
26th May 2009
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