A busy summer season has seen Estonian production company Heliart involved in a host of events, festivals and concerts including the Viljandimaa Laulu-ja Tantsupidu song and dance festival in Viljandi.

With the first festival held in 1882, the 2012 event took a look at of the past 130 years, allowing folk dancers and singers of Viljandi present their identity and region – more than 1,500 singers, 500 dancers and more than 100 brass band members in all. As the Estonia EAW distributor, the festival provided an unmissable demo opportunity for its inventory, with every loudspeaker bar the NTL720 being powered by Lab.gruppen amplifiers.

‘Heliart OÜ was founded in 2007,’ says owner and partner, Priit Kivimägi. ‘We have a sound and lighting rental, sales and installation company, but we do not only rent equipment; we also provide a full service as well to serve our clients’ needs as well as we can.’

The main festival system comprised 14 EAW NTL720 active line array boxes supported by stacks of two SB1000 subs per side, powered by two Lab.gruppen fP 14000 amplifiers. Four EAW JFL210 and two VFR129 were used for side and front fill, powered by two fP 10000Qs.

There were also seven bi-amplified EAW Micro Wedge12 stage monitors, with Lab.gruppen fP 3400, fP 2400Q and FP 10000Q amplifiers driving the monitors. Both PA and monitors and were controlled by the five EAW UX8800 DSPs.

‘We used the fP 14000 for subs, as these are the best-sounding sub amplifiers I have ever used,’ Kivimägi says. ‘They have plenty of headroom for regular set-ups and they work flawlessly under extreme conditions.

‘The reason we use Lab.gruppen amplifiers is that they make no compromises in sound quality and due to the great power to size ratio, we are able to save truck space and labour. Also, the aesthetics of the amps are good because on this show, there was only one 11U amp rack per side that was barely noticeable.

‘We can always rely on Lab.gruppen amplifiers even in extreme weather conditions – it was raining heavilty during set-up and rehearsals at this festical. Of course, the low weight of the Lab.gruppen amplifiers which was especially important for the event as some of the amp racks had to be carried up the stairs of the stage.’

The Heliart team used a similar set-up for the Rabarock Festival and Rock Ramp Festival, with fP 14000, fP 10000Q, fP 2400Q and fP 3400 amplifiers powering subs, fills and monitors.

More: 
www.heliart.ee
More: www.labgruppen.com
More: www.eaw.com