FEATURES: LIVE
Alive and kicking
By September 2020, Thailand’s internal transmissions of Covid-19 were at zero, deeming it safe to slowly restart live entertainment. Caroline Moss reports on the CAT Expo festival
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OCTOBER TO DECEMBER ARE TRADITIONALLY PEAK months for outdoor music festivals in Thailand, and the country’s handling of the pandemic and consequent controlling of infection rates meant that many events were able to go ahead in the latter part of 2020, subject to satisfactory risk assessments. Numerous festivals were rolled out across the country’s islands, beaches and mountainsides as Thai residents enjoyed what most of the world could only dream of. This included the CAT Expo musical gathering, which not only took place during 2020 but was also the biggest yet in the event’s seven-year history. More than 60,000 people attended the two-day expo featuring five stages of alternative music including new and upcoming artists, plus stalls manned by independent record labels selling merchandise and scouting for talent, food and beverage outlets and meeting areas. Organised by CAT Radio in Bangkok, the 2020 event returned to an abandoned amusement park, the Siam Wonder World Extreme Park, northeast of the Thai capital. Part of the reason for returning here was that the spacious venue allowed a large audience to attend without crowding, providing a good internal flow between the stages. This helped with social distancing measures which, together with mask-wearing and hygienic practices, ensured the festival could proceed in a safe manner. The main stage featured the first Adamson E15 threeway line source system to arrive in Thailand, supplied to rental company Live4 Viva by Adamson’s Thai distributor, Sonos Libra. Live4 Viva has been providing a complete AV and lighting system for the main stage at CAT Expo for several years, and this was the second time that Sonos Libra worked with the rental company on the festival, having supported the use of an Adamson S10 system in 2019. “We provided sales, import, technical and engineering support, including training for first-time use of the system,” explains Sonos Libra chief, Alfonso Martin. The companies were planning to carry out some training on the new E15 system prior to the festival, but a delay in
Live4 Viva’s Adamson E15s are flown for the first time
shipment meant it needed to go to the festival almost directly from the airport. “The shipment arrived from Toronto through Taipei and then to Bangkok, and things got stuck in Taipei because logistics were giving priority to food and medical supplies, and because there weren’t many commercial flights, space was limited,” recalls Martin. “It arrived in bits and pieces and we couldn’t clear customs until we had the whole lot, but we made it in time for CAT Expo.” This was fortunate as Live4 Viva needed to deploy the complete system for the festival, supplementing it with Adamson components it already owned. “I’ve known Live4 Viva for many years; they were one of the first companies I talked to when I arrived in Thailand,” continues Martin, who hails from Spain, initially joining audio distributor One Systems Global in 2013 before starting his own company four years later. “They bought an S10 line array system three years ago, becoming the first official Adamson users in Thailand, and they’ve been upgrading slowly. They were dry hiring additional equipment from other rental companies as needed, and so it eventually made sense to purchase their own. Happily, they decided to stick with Adamson.” “We’ve been looking to expand our audio capabilities progressively each year,” explains Live4 Viva general manager, Mr Vitoo. “Since we stepped up to Adamson S10, we knew we were playing in a different league and that’s motivated us to think about the next step. 2020 has presented a lot of challenges but also some good opportunities. Sonos Libra and Adamson gave us several good reasons to move to the E-Series and we decided to do so.” The main stage at CAT Expo hosted some of the most popular artists to play the festival over the two days, accommodating between 15,000 and 20,000 people at peak capacity. The 22m-wide stage, together with a FOH position at 60m, were two of the audio team’s main challenges when it came to guaranteeing audio uniformity and consistent coverage for the target audience area of 90m x 50m (DxW). “We were lucky to have enough trimming height for the system and a proper rigging infrastructure,” says Martin,
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