The first and largest EDM event in South China, the Electric Jungle Music Festival was staged at the huge Shenzhen Universiade Center for its 2106 edition.
The festival, which featured sets by jungle artists such as R3HAB, Knife Party and Adventure Club, was presented by Jungle Events and organised by MNET Media. The venue was inaugurated five years ago, and designed to host international sports, as well as large-scale events and concerts. For the second consecutive year, Guangzhou Haona Audio Equipment Co was the audio supplier.
As well as running for two days instead of the previous one, the festival also added a second stage – where Haona, Italian audio manufacturer Outline’s distributor for China, fitted it out with 12 of the company’s GTO loudspeakers and six GTO-Subs. The rig was powered by a pair of Outline X8 and 12 Outline T11 amplifiers.
The main stage was served by an L-Acoustics K1 and K1SB rig, with Kudo cabinets, KS28, SB28 and SB18s in support. The mix used a DiGiCo SD9 console. Outline loudspeaker systems were also used in the event’s VIP area, where six GTO C-12 line source arrays were set up.
‘The event’s general lighting and sound contractor, Music Trick Lighting, asked us to take on the project because our equipment was ideal for the show and we provide strong technical support,’ Haona President Kong Qinghua explains. ‘Music Trick has an in-depth training programme for dealers and distributors, which provides consistent standardised technical support in each country, which is a great benefit in guaranteeing show’s results.’
The large venue offered challenges for the Haona team: ‘There were small hills with trees and the fact that the organisers added a VIP zone meant we had to calculate coverage precisely before the show, taking all these factors into consideration,’ Kong explains. ‘Some adjustments were made onsite and we had just two days for setup and alignment.’
Careful planning was required to ensure that the best possible solution was implemented and communication was key: ‘It’s very important to communicate with customers before shows and plan accordingly,’ says Haona MD, Huang Zhenan. ‘Manpower can be arranged and equipment checked at the warehouse, but if last-minute changes have to be made, these can pose another big challenge.
‘Whereas concerts or touring shows last two to three hours and clubs operate four to five hours nightly, the festival’s sound reinforcement needed to be able to run for eight consecutive hours, with full power energy and at a very high SPL, which was very demanding for the products. We ensured plenty of headroom when we designed the system and were confident that we didn’t need back-up.’
