Following Taiwanese Madopop star Michelle Pan’s (Pan Yueyun) recent performance for 2,500 socially distanced fans at the Taipei International Convention Centre (TICC), Eric Chou’s 2020 How Have You Been concerts sold all 42,000 tickets for the same venue across four concerts in just 15 minutes. Thousands of fans gathered to witness the performance, which was served by an L-Acoustics K Series sound system supplied by Winly Engineering & Trading – who had previous experience of working with Chou on his first concert at the TICC last year.
‘It was an absolute pleasure to be working with Eric once again on what became the first large-scale live event in Asia since social distancing measures were first introduced,’ says Winly System Engineer, Mike Lee, who has contributed to the system design of virtually every concert at Taipei Arena in the past few years. Lee and colleague Andre Lai, Monitor Engineer and Head of the Sound Crew, used L-Acoustics Soundvision to design and configure the sound system.
‘We really appreciate how Soundvision helped us with the design and implementation,’ explains Lee. ‘Not only did it make our work much quicker, it also delivered a highly accurate simulation of the system performance.
‘With these concerts, we had a deep sense of responsibility to deliver an event like no other in its audio splendour, so thousands of fans could once again experience a truly spectacular live show.’
The full system comprised main LR hangs of 12 K1, topped with four K1-SB subwoofers and completed by four K2 Down for near fill coverage. The flown arrays were complemented by four groundstacks of four KS28 subs, evenly spaced in front of the stage. Two hangs of six K2 per side, positioned slightly behind and to the outside of the main hangs provided side fill. Four Kara, each placed atop the ground stacked KS28, did front fill duty. Delays of two hangs of six Kara extended coverage to the far end of the arena.
‘We used K1 as the main speaker for its volume, strong impact and low frequency control, which makes it the top large-scale sound systems on the planet,’ explains Lee. ‘We chose K2 for optimum distribution, while Kara is known for its low weight, diminutive form factor and strong SPL. Using KS28 subs offered us extended bandwidth down to 25Hz, as well as outstanding low frequency resolution and exceptional SPL.
‘That night, we felt the heart of the events industry in Asia start beating again,’ he adds. ‘If there was any thought that the appetite for live shows was diminishing, it was turned to dust with the energy and excitement of thousands of fans who all came together to celebrate live music.
‘Thanks to L-Acoustics, we were able to deliver this significant event and, in the words of Chou, there is no feeling more rewarding for a composer than to say “da jia yi qi chang” [let’s sing together] – and then for everyone to join in. After nearly half a year, it was magical to be part of that experience once again.’
See also:
Michelle Pan leads Taiwan’s live concert revival
