ADELE IN MUNICH
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With an artist like Adele, where vocal intimacy and immediacy are both so key to her appeal, the placement of loudspeakers is paramount”
design being central to the show. This meant we had to find solutions for high trim heights at the main stage end and finding discreet, tidy audio solutions within the audience areas.” With the stage thrust extending 100m into the audience and a passerelle looping from stage right to left, the team had to place delays beyond the golden circle and passerelle, relying heavily on the main stage K Series. Keirle also had several external factors to consider, as he points out: “Outdoor shows often present noise pollution challenges. Moreover, with the summer weather being unpredictable, I designed a system that could handle extreme weather changes without assuming optimal conditions for HF propagation. The goal was to achieve homogeneous coverage while maintaining consistent imagery and temporal integrity across the system as much as possible. “In a scenario where the audience is over 200m from the artist, it’s crucial for those furthest from the stage to have an equally great sonic experience as those up near the front. Particularly with an artist like Adele, where vocal intimacy and immediacy are key to her appeal – loudspeaker placement is paramount.” NEGOTIATING NETWORKS A vital aspect for the show’s connectivity was hidden networking. Laurie Fradley, event support engineer at Clair Global, elaborates: “We had to feed all our equipment positions for PA, comms and IT – some situated in the middle of the large audience – ensuring there were no clear cable runs. We took the decision to deploy a multi-strand fibre network throughout the site for both our team and other departments that needed to service these areas. In total, we ran
around 1200 fibre cores across the whole of the site.” Communications system designer Patrick Taghavi navigated the Riedel Communications Artist 128 digital intercom network on AES67 audio networks. With reliable communication and audio signal distribution needed for 230 crew members, Taghavi outlines that a major reason comms were employed was for departmental communication and to enable the show director to call cues correctly and safely. “A comms system like the one we built supports crystal-clear communication in a busy live environment,” he reveals. “We couldn’t run a show of this size without a robust, clean system – it’s critical to the safety of everyone involved.” The show’s 42-person string section utilised elevators built into the stage around the passerelle, an aspect of the show design that demanded a bespoke cue light system to be engineered by Clair Global. Conceptualised and designed by Fradley, then engineered and programmed by Jay Walton, the comms system housed a Raspberry Pi computer and Stream Deck controller. This gave a visual cue to the 42 elevators, allowing the classical musicians to rise effortlessly from the stage in synergy with their instruments being played. Production truly excelled in the implementation of these ten iconic performances through many sorts of weather conditions, and Adele showed the world how exceptional a stadium experience can truly be. The star took to her social media channels once again to state: “It was the best vibes all round. I’ve never seen anything like these shows, it was truly spectacular and I’m beyond honoured to have been asked to do them.”
Smoke and mirrors helped create the ambience Adele wanted for her fans
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