Norwegian Pop Superstars DDE 30th Anniversary

Foto credit: Trondheim Stage

Recently, Norwegian pop/rock superstars DDE celebrated their 30^th anniversary with a televised, in-the-round concert at Trondheim’s Spektrum arena. The show’s sound was provided by Trondheim Lyd, who supplied an Alcons pro-ribbon system which not only delivered flawless sound to 11,000 fans, but helped to make the special, one-off production possible.

Titled Sirkus DDE, the band was supported by an imaginative array of circus performers. The show took 18 months of planning by the band’s longtime lighting designer Lars Kristian, co-organised with the band and producer Espen Hammer, CEO of production company Trondheim Stage.

Providing the grid design and weight calculations, as well as sound and visual aspect of this 360 degrees show, Trondheim Lyd chose an exclusively Alcons Audio pro-ribbon system. Designed by the company’s Arnstein Fossvik and Erwan Thomas, the system comprised 48 Alcons LR28 larger-format line-array and 18 LR28B larger-format line-array bass modules, 16 LR24 mid-size line-array modules, 48 LR18 compact line-array modules, 16 LR7 micro line-array modules, and six VR8 compact monitors, all powered and controlled by 48 Sentinel10 and four Sentinel3 amplified loudspeaker controllers.

Foto credit: Trondheim Stage

To provide a full, even coverage throughout the arena, the main system was flown as 10 hangs in a circle above the stage: four arrays of 12 LR28, four arrays of 12 LR18 and two arrays of eight LR24.

“The arena is a rectangle, so the three-way double 14” LR28s were used for the longer side of the arena, where more throw was needed, while the three-way double 8” LR18s were used for the shorter side, with less distance to cover.”The transition between each array type was smooth and worked very well,” says Erwan.

Arnstein also designed twin sub-arrays of nine LR28B, flown above centre stage, plus 16 LR7s and four VR8s as frontfills, to cover the first few meters in front of the stage. The VR8s and BF151s were used as nearfills for the Front of House mix position.

Extra LR28s and LR18s were hired in from event production companies JUR and Lydteamet, as members of The Ribbon Network, Alcons Audio’s global dry-hire network.

New Alcons LR24

This event marked also the first time that Trondheim Lyd had used the new Alcons LR24 and LR28Bs on a show. The LR28B is the LFE addition to the LR28 large-format line-array system; The system features double 18” dual-coil woofers of a next generation, with increased efficiency and significantly reduced distortion.

Foto credit: Esben Kamstrub

The LR24 line-array is the mid-size sibling of the LR28, featuring double next-gen 12” woofers, dual 6.5” mid-range and the multiple-patented RBN1202 12” pro-ribbon mid-high frequency driver.

“The LR28Bs performed really well, with such a natural but powerful sound,” says Arnstein. “Because this was a one-off show, the LR24s were used more as a centre fill than a standard L/R system. For the festival season this summer we will use it for our B stage, which will give us a better overall impression. We are sure it will sound just as good!”

Erwan agrees, adding “The LR24s worked great for the task they were asked to perform on this show. We are looking forward to using them as a main PA. It’s gonna be great!”

“Alcons pro-ribbon speakers have always delivered great sound, also throwing further than any competitor,” Espen Hammer, CEO of production company Trondheim Stage.

On a major show like this, the centre stage, TV coverage and what the band wanted meant that inevitably there was compromise. One of these was the weight restrictions imposed by the venue roof. However, the Alcons pro-ribbon solution was key to solving the problem.

Challenges

“There were quite a lot challenges with a concert where all the sound, video and most of the lighting were flown just above the stage,” says Espen. “Alcons pro-ribbon speakers have always delivered great sound, also throwing further than any competitor (limiting drastically the need for delay systems), while still maintaining a usable weight, as all the amplification is external.

Foto credit: Esben Kamstrup

“We could not fly all the amplifiers without overloading the capacity of the roof above the stage, so we rigged most of them in the upper tribune of the arena and only flew four, 12 channel racks of Sentinel10. There was a final rack under the stage with three Sentinel3s for the frontfills and FoH nearfills. Despite the cable length (up to 80m for the subs/LR18s and over 600m in total of speaker cables), we did not have any issues with signal loss and were able to provide the required 99 dbA Leq 30mn sound pressure levels required for the show.”

With the 11,000-strong audience wearing LED wrist bands, controlled by lighting designer Lars, the impressive visual spectacle matched the exceptional sound. Complemented by other events and activities at Trondheim Spektrum and at various hotels around the city (organised by Espen and his team), the producer was very happy with the result.

“After two years of pandemic, it was a great pleasure to have many suppliers involved in this project. As an objective producer, all the compromises made were fair, it was give-and-take all the way.”

“Our task was to make ‘a show of international format’ to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary. It took a lot of work, but the result was as good as we hoped it would be when we started the project,” says Espen. “The sound coverage was flawless. There were no bad seats and you had the band ‘right in your face’, regardless of whether you were sitting in the front row or at the top of the amphitheatre.

For more info: The Ribbon Network and  www.trondheimlyd.no

Related Alcons products:

BF151
LR7
LR18
LR24
LR28
LR28B
VR8
Sentinel3
Sentinel10

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