Billed as Ukraine’s Burning Man, Ukraine’s inaugural VYRII festival adopted ‘ethnofuturism’ as its guiding theme and encouraged freedom of expression, giving audiences a wide-ranging line-up that featured world-renowned artists including Mercury Prize-winner Benjamin Clementine and Ukrainian icons Jamala and DakhaBrakha.
Fusing Ukrainian culture and mythology with modern electronic and traditional music, theatre and visual art, the festival offered a reprieve from the relentlessness of the Russian invasion. While much of Ukraine’s audio inventory has been destroyed in the war or moved abroad for protection, technical production company Kyiv-based Franz Audio managed to provide the essential audio infrastructure.
Because the festival featured two stages that operated simultaneously, Franz Audio needed to avoid interference between them, allowing audience members to move from one stage to the other without any bleed. The configuration Franz Audio opted to use was dependent on the availability of equipment. L-Acoustics K3 and Kara were chosen for the electronic stage, while a legacy V-Dosc system was used for the main stage.
Franz Audio used Soundvision to model each stage, predict coverage patterns, and optimise loudspeaker placement before transferring to LA Network Manager for final tuning. ‘Soundvision greatly simplified our process,’ says Franz Audio Director, Yurii Danyliuk. ‘It allowed us to simulate the system’s coverage accurately and ensure we were meeting our primary objective of guaranteeing consistent sound distribution.’
The electronic stage featured three hangs – two clusters of six K3 over three Kara each, plus an out fill hang of four further Kara. Six Kiva provided front fill. Paired with SB18 and KS28 subwoofers, this configuration delivered the imaging and substantial low-end electronic music requires. The main stage was served by two hangs of 11 V-Dosc elements driven by LA8 amplified controllers.
The K3 system was already familiar territory for Franz Audio as it had been part of the inventory for about a year, and the team had successfully used it on numerous projects, while V-Dosc was new to the team. ‘Our familiarity with L-Acoustics products, our team’s extensive L-Acoustics training, and the preparatory work we were able to undertake in Soundvision ultimately made the transition to V-Dosc as smooth as it could possibly have been,’ says Danyliuk.
Although considered a classic series, V-Dosc proved to be exactly what the festival needed – a reliable, versatile and powerful system that performs well in large outdoor venues. ‘V-Dosc is a legendary, time-tested solution that once again proved its “immortality” under extraordinary circumstances. It was incredible to see it perform so well and integrate so seamlessly with K3 and Kara,’ Danyliuk continues.
The K3/Kara system used AES67 network audio protocol to provide high-quality signal transmission, flexible system configuration and precise synchronisation via the PTPv2 protocol. The audio, video and lighting elements were integrated into a unified control system – critical for the electronic stage, where music synchronised tightly with visuals.
The installation was smooth and simple, with the team able to set up everything on schedule – despite poor weather and air raid alerts.
Franz Audio received enormously positive feedback from the FOH engineers and technical specialists who worked with the system during the festival, as well as audience members and artists. Many of VYRII’s artists not only expressed their appreciation for the team, but also praised the sound for allowing them to deliver exceptional performances and fully connect with the audience.
‘We have no doubt that our choice of sound system had a definitive impact on the success of the event,’ says Danyliuk. ‘Ultimately, we’re very pleased with the technical implementation – looking back, we wouldn’t make any changes. Achieving this level of professionalism and success during an ongoing war makes the project even more meaningful for our team.’