[ATTACH=CONFIG]199047.vB5-legacyid=10113[/ATTACH]The 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, will most likely take its place in history as the most expensive, most exciting — as well as the most controversial — sporting event. Over two billion TV spectators all over the world as well as hundreds of thousands of onsite visitors witnessed the beauty of the new Olympic Park, with its futuristic architecture, breathtaking sports competitions and of course, the world class entertainment for the athletes, volunteers and the visitors.
Located in the center of the Sochi Olympic Park complex is the Medals Plaza, surrounded by six of the major sports venues — the Adler Arena, Iceberg Skating Palace, Icecube Curling Center, Bolshoi Ice Dome, Shayba Arena and the Fisht Olympic Stadium. The 30,000-capacity Medals Plaza is the locale where each day at 8:14 pm, medal-winning Olympians would receive their gold, silver or bronze awards, directly in front of the gargantuan Olympic torch, witnessed and cheered on by tens of thousands of spectators and shared with millions around the globe.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]199049.vB5-legacyid=10115[/ATTACH][B]The Project[/B]
Handling the installation and design details were Athens, Greece-based subcontractors Greek Production Resources, who selected an all-McCauley Sound system, having previously found success a decade before using McCauley gear for the 2004 summer Olympics.
“We started working with McCauley Sound team more than 10 years ago, on the very complicated task of providing sound for the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2004 summer Olympic Games in Athens,” says Greek Production Resources’ Yiannis Papoutsakis, the co-sound director on the project.
“Since then, we have done a tremendous amount of work with McCauley Sound gear on projects ranging from Luciano Pavarotti tour, concert series in Acropolis and Herod Atticus, Eurovision Gala, etc. — just to name a few,” Papoutsakis continues. “For more than a decade, McCauley gear has been our most requested and most preferred system, in terms of both sound quality and reliability — two reasons why their products were our number one choice on this project.”
That enthusiasm was shared by McCauley Sound’s executive director/owner Sam Ocean. “McCauley Sound has quite a history of providing sound equipment for large sporting events, such as the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea,” he explains. “And this year, we were proud that the 2014 Winter games in Sochi became the third Olympic event where McCauley Sound participated as a first choice for the sound equipment at these historic events.” McCauley gear had previously been selected for the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and now for Sochi in 2014. “So, for the McCauley Sound Team this is somewhat of a hat trick,” Ocean adds with a smile.
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[B]The System[/B]
The front suspended system for the Medals Plaza consisted of two clusters of McCauley MLA3 cells, which are low-profile, axially symmetrical, three-way mid-size line array modules based on the company’s MONARC line array technology. Each cluster included eight MLA3’s hanging off the trusses of the Medals Plaza roof construction, with a total of 88 MLA3’s for the entire project.
Side fills were M.LINE cells — compact line array enclosures suspended from the middle of the roof over the stage. Due to the wide venue configuration, additional side fills were required as well as delay towers, which also consisted of the additional 40 MLA3 Line array cells (20 per side).
McCauley M88 double-18 subwoofers in a ground-stack configuration handled the necessary LF punch. Powering for all systems was almost entirely Lab.gruppen, with some 80 FP6400 two-channel power amps employed throughout the facility. Greek Production Resources has been using Lab.gruppen amplifiers as their preferred choice with McCauley systems since the 2004 Athens Games. “Lab.gruppen amplifiers and McCauley gear work in a perfect harmony,” notes Papoutsakis.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]199048.vB5-legacyid=10114[/ATTACH]On the console side, Innovason SY80 and SY48 digital mixers were the choice, but in the mind of Brian Coon, who shared FOH mix duties during the event with John Xydakis, the McCauley system made a huge difference. “The dream of every front of house engineer is to work with a system that allows meticulous fine tuning. The precision and flexibility of McCauley Sound gear allows the sound engineers to do exactly that. McCauley Sound’s systems are designed to be very sensitive to the slightest change on the board,” says Coon.
However, one not-to-be-dismissed factor is the “great reliability of the rig,” Coon explains, “and — combined with the sound quality and amount of power the system provides — makes McCauley Sound one of the true leaders in the industry today.”
