Now an annual event, the sight of a thousand musicians to performing Foo Fighters’ ‘Learn to Fly’ in Cesena, Italy, was a YouTube sensation in 2015.

In 2018, an Outline/Powersoft PA system and Yamaha digital mixers were used to mix a band of more than 1,500 members for Rockin’1000 That’s Live when ‘the biggest rock band on earth’ relocated to Florence’s larger Stadio Artemio Franchi in Firenze, around 2.5 hours from Cesena. Yamaha Commercial Audio Italia is a technical partner of the event, providing FOH and monitor systems for an 18-song, two-hour performance of rock classics by the assembled singers, guitarists, bass guitarists, drummers, keyboard and wind players.

With a channel count in excess of 300, a Rivage PM10 digital mixing system handled the FOH mix using two CSR-10 control surfaces, four RPio622 and one RPio222 I/O rack on a TwinLANe fibre-optic ring. This system worked side-by-side with a Dante network, which included QL5 and QL1 digital mixers, a Rio1608-D2 I/O rack and two RMio64D Dante/MADI conversion I/O racks to manage monitoring for all the musicians, as well as multitrack recording and communication with the main PA amplifiers.

‘The musicians were grouped by instrument and split in two, so there were two “drum areas”, two “bass areas”, two “guitar areas”, and so on,’ says Yamaha’s Alessandro Arturi. ‘As you can imagine, several hundred drum kits and electric guitar amplifiers make a lot of noise by themselves. We supplemented this for the mixes with microphones – either close miking or one microphone per two or three instruments.

‘The vocalists had one microphone between two people and we also distributed a number of Jecklin disk stereo microphones throughout the performance area, suspended about 4m above the musicians.’

All microphones were routed to the five RPio units and then to the Rivage PM10’s core, the DSP-R10. A premix was done on one of the CSR-10 control surfaces, with the main PA mix done on the other. Monitors were managed by the QL5 console, which received a premix from the Rivage PM10 system and then routed different individual mixes to each group of instruments. Within each group, each performer had a wireless headphone to hear the mix.

‘With so many microphones and loud instruments, feedback was obviously a potential major problem,’ Arturi says. ‘So it was important that every musician had an in-ear system for monitoring and that all instruments and microphones were very carefully arranged to avoid spill as much as possible.’

‘Producing a clear, coherent sound from so many musicians is a challenge, but this event is also very enjoyable for both the production teams and all the musicians,’ Arturi says. ‘Music should be fun and we are very glad that Yamaha systems were again able to make such a positive contribution. We look forward to next year, when maybe there will be even more musicians to mix?’

The sound reinforcement was handled by Outline and Powersoft working with Rockin’1000’s sound manager Cisko Ridolfi and sound designer Francesco Penolazzi. The main Outline PA comprised ten stacks (six with six GTO C-12 and four with five GTO), plus six lines of subs in end-fire array (four consisting of four DBS 18-2 and two made up of four LAB 21 HS). These (and the monitor speakers fielded) were supplied by Outline rental partners Emporio on Stage and Soundtech.

Power was courtesy of 16 Powersoft X8, plus three more Powersoft amplifiers for the monitors, all connected via Dante. The X8s monitored the status of the mains supply, and tuned and aligned the set-up following instruction from FOH engineer Luca Stefani and Outline tech support and R&D engineer, Giulio Gandini.

‘On normal stadium projects, we try to achieve even coverage with as little overlap as possible between the enclosures, to ensure identical sound in every seat,’ Gandini explains. ‘In Florence, on the other hand, overlap was indispensable, to guarantee a realistic sound image. In spite of the loudspeakers being quite far from the audience, our line-array elements’ waveguides enabled to achieve extremely accurate sound coverage.’

As well as the band’s headphone and IEM monitoring facilities, two Outline Vegas 12 provided additional monitoring and six Vegas 15 CX were used to communicate with the musicians entering and leaving the pitch.

The rig’s calibration and alignment was carried out using Powersoft’s proprietary Armonía software, with which the Powersoft amplifiers were controlled and managed. Armonía allows project preparation offline, then updates the hardware at the venue, greatly facilitating system designers’ work. 


An Outline Newton 16+8 system control and networking unit also received signals from the main FOH console and was on standby in the event of any network problems and for distribution. It received a Dante signal, carried out its computing, and distributed the signal to the amplifiers on the pitch.

‘GTO is one of the few systems on the market that enables to obtain the sonic impact we wanted and above all, thanks to its lengthy pedigree, can ensure great reliability,’ adds Stefani. ‘In my opinion, the Outline systems are excellent for this type of event, at which SPL and pattern control are fundamental elements for achieving the necessary results.’

More: www.yamahaproaudio.com
More: www.outline.it