D&b audiotechnik brings quality audio to festivals in Norway's Thomsø

The manufacturer's audio technology d&b audiotechnik has been chosen for events and concerts in the Norwegian city of Tromsø, one of the most active and recognized festivals in this area near the Arctic Circle.

Located at 350 km. north of the Arctic Circle, the Norwegian city of Tromsø never ceases to amaze its visitors as one of the privileged places to contemplate the Northern Lights, which has made it a dynamic center of cultural activity for a population of more than 70.000 people, with some 10.000 students.

This cultural activity includes the holding of events and concerts, as Trond Mikalsen explains, Technical Director of Audionor AS, a renowned provider of comprehensive solutions for almost all types of live events in this area of Norway: "In Tromsø there are quite a few live performances, many more than one can imagine. In addition to two large outdoor festivals in summer, Tromsø attracts big names from across the artistic spectrum; the Tromsø International Film Festival is also held, the Northern Lights Festival, featuring a multitude of classical music artists, jazz, Folk and contemporary; as well as the Arctic Frontiers, a series of conferences on the Arctic and climate-related issues. With all this, Needless to say, January is the busiest month of the year.".

This company, which began its activity in 1995 as a sound rental company to become a full-service solution provider today, recently decided to replace its old sound system with a more flexible one, reliable and of a quality to respond to so many events and spectators.

Selecting the Audio Provider, lighting and stage equipment that met these requirements was D&b audiotechnik. As Mikalsen points out, "we already knew the J Series of d&b audiotechnik for a long time; first by reviews in the press of the sector and, after, because we knew who was using the system, so we were sure that we were definitely interested in it. After learning more about it, such as the size, Weight, amplifiers, Etc., we were more and more convinced that the J-Series was perfect. When it started to appear in literally all the technical specifications of the international bands that visit us, we saw that it was our best option".

That's why they contacted Drammen Lyd, D Distributor&b audiotechnik in Norway, whose general director, Rasmus Eide, Remember: "Audionor is a well-respected company in the industry and has one of the best sound engineers in Norway. We were able to offer Audionor a brand new sixteen-case J-Series system to suit their budget.".

At Audinor they had a pretty precise idea of the specification they needed, and that it was suitable for rock performances for an audience of 5.000 people.

“En esa configuración, como con los arreglos colgados el peso es sólo de 500 Kg por lado -puntualiza Mikalsen-, la Serie J es el sistema más eficaz de arreglo lineal que existe. Inicialmente me puse en contacto con Rasmus para explicarle nuestros planes de buscar un sistema de segunda mano. but, cuando vimos los presupuestos, nos dimos cuenta de que la compra de un sistema nuevo era igual de rentable y contamos con la garantía de cinco años de d&b audiotechnik en todos los componentes del altavoz”.

El sistema de la Serie J llegó a Audionor justo a tiempo para el Bukta Festival, un evento de rock que se celebra cada verano en Tromsø durante tres días, con artistas internacionales, y recibe a unos 15.000 Visitors. “Obviamente, el festival iba a ser como el bautismo de fuego para el sistema: ¿sería lo bastante grande? ¿Podríamos configurarlo correctamente para unas actuaciones como estas?", rememora Mikalsen.

La prueba de fuego se superó con creces con el software ArrayCalc de d&b “incluso antes de que las cajas llegaran a Tromsø. En el recinto todo estuvo preparado en menos tiempo que con nuestro sistema anterior. Todos los que lo utilizan por primera vez se quedan muy impresionados con la potencia y la claridad de los altavoces. A nosotros nos gusta mucho la función de control remoto del amplificador y la capacidad de supervisar el rendimiento del sistema en tiempo real. We hope to be able to add more boxes to the J-Series system in the future and we will also be looking into the acquisition of a system of monitors of d&b audiotechnik".

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