‘The Experience’, a gospel music concert in Lagos, provided sound reinforcement for its 450,000 strong crowd with Meyer Sound system. GQ Acoustics provided Milo line array loudspeakers, 700-HP subwoofers and JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers for what is claimed to be the largest music event in Africa.
The crowd jammed into the Tafawa Balewa Square and spilled over into an adjacent cricket field for a spiritual celebration featuring 14 American and Nigerian gospel artists, including headliners Kirk Franklin, Phil Driscoll, and Bebe and Cece Winans. The event’s ongoing sound system supplier, GQ Acoustics of Lagos, provided this year’s event with an expanded Meyer Sound system that had been boosted with more MILO line array loudspeakers and 700-HP subwoofers, plus a new complement of JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers.
“The main venue is an open quadrangle about 170m across, with the stage on one long side, grandstands opposite, and three-story pavilions on the short sides,” explained David Dennison, a consultant engineer who assisted with system design and technical support. “The extreme width made it impossible to cover the far corners effectively with only the line arrays. Fortunately, the JM-1Ps were perfect for delays and fills because I could add 20 degrees of horizontal coverage by simply adding another box until I had exactly what I needed.”
Of the 16 JM-1P loudspeakers, four were placed on each of the two delay towers for back corner coverage, three per side were aimed far off-stage toward seating areas beyond the coverage of the side arrays, and one per side was used for VIP areas adjacent to the stage.
The main stage system comprised 14 MILO line array loudspeakers plus 14 MICA line array loudspeakers per side for side fill. Two UPA-1P loudspeakers covered immediate front-centre while 36 700-HP subwoofers at the stage arranged for cardioid response plus two at each delay tower supplied bass impact. The stage monitoring complement included 16 MJF-212A stage monitors, four MTS-4A full range loudspeakers, and two USW-1P subwoofers. A Galileo loudspeaker management system with two Galileo 616 processors was employed for signal processing, and the system was aligned using GQ Acoustics’ own SIM®3 audio analyser.
Except for a few groups bringing their own engineers, FOH mixing was entrusted to GQ Acoustics’ Andrew Adesina and Ifeanyi Achibiri of House on the Rock, the organiser of the event.
“The sound this year was awesome, absolutely out of the world,” said Achibiri.