The World Stage, where the main attractions performed, was a little bit to the right of who crossed the large entrance of the City of Rock. Immediately the structures built specially to sustain the delay towers and audio equipment caught the attention of everyone. In front of the main entrance, there were two towers with nine Norton LS8 each one. Another eight towers, placed in the audience, held each one six more Norton boxes.

Sound and lighting house mixes were separated. The first was placed on the left side of the stage. On the wide platform there were the basic consoles of Rock in Rio, a Digidesign Profile and a Yamaha PM5D. The sound produced on the stage went through the consoles to the house mix and was sent to the 120 Vertec 4889 and 84 Vertec 4880A subwoofers. That was the basic equipment that allowed about 100 thousand people to enjoy the concerts that ranged from Motörhead’s heavy metal to Shakira’s pop songs. Each place was built and planned according to the specific conditions of the City of Rock.

World Stage

On June 2010, the plans for the comeback of the great event to Rio de Janeiro had already begun, as explains Peter Racy, in charge of the PA of the Festival. “The initial planning began one year before, at Rock in Rio Madrid. The negotiations increased on December 2010 and on January 2011, when the limits of the delay towers were defined”. According to him, one of the high points of the production was the dialogue with the engineers. “There weren’t any restrictions”

	Structures built specially to hold up the delay boxes. Peter Racy (photo detail) was accountable for the sound of Rock in Rio 4

As the festival was getting closer, the bands’ tech riders arrived. “In some cases, the technicians asked to make contact directly with the local rental audio company, and they requested me. Most of the communication, however, was concentrated on the technical producer of the World Stage, Maurice Hughes”, details Racy. The biggest challenge of the World Stage was the need of sound pressure and quality to be distributed in an extensive area. An average of 40 thousand square meters. The choice for the main PA was a Vertec system. “It’s a system that assists very well all the various aspects of the Festival”. Among the qualities pointed out by Racy are lightness, reproduction quality, power, strength and wide acceptance by the engineers.

At the stage front, there were the L/R triple columns of the main PA with 18 Vertec VT4889 at each side, and 18 Vertec VT 4880A. “The concept, that was applied for the first time in 2002, requested by the Back Street Boys’ sound engineer, Tim Lamoy, was to use a PA column for the band, and another one for the voice or any other significant element. With that we could relieve the signal way, gaining an incredible dynamic phase. It means more clarity, power and no distortion, and we could maintain the whole system running with a certain relief until the loudspeakers”, exposes Racy. Besides that, there was one more L/R system with three columns with the same configuration and equipment models, but with 12 boxes at each side.

Even though there were two line arrays columns, separated only by the subwoofers wall, there was no risk of canceling the signs when they were different. “As we had different signs coming across each column, we didn’t have cancellations. What happens is that some sound engineers are not prepared to divide the signal for the first time during a festival as big as Rock in Rio. So, they made the option of sending the same signal for the two columns. Of course that in that situation cancellations can occur, but because of the system boxes position, the cancellation occurs on the 160/200 Hz, low frequency, and it’s not a problem, because they gain SPL, and everybody likes this”, points out Racy. In fact, the sound pressure at the FOH reached about 115 dB SPL (or 99 dBA), and peaks of 125 dB SPL (or 115 dBA).

		Main PA with two VT 4889 columns at the extremity and a VT 4880A column in the center
Right side of World Stage: main and auxiliary line array, this one with 24 VT 4889 and 12 VT 4880A boxes		Delay tower with the Norton LS8

Norton LS4 used at the frontfill

Gabisom didn’t skimp on the PA delay systems of the World Stage. Within the goal to cover the arena the maximum possible, with quality and sound pressure, the Norton efficient long-throw was essential. “The LS8 of Norton has a highly efficient long-throw, and gives us a wonderful relation between the electric power entrance and the sound pressure at the exit. Again, we have worked with a lot of relief. At a festival like Rock in Rio, the equipment have to have a high performance, if not, many equipment could break, and it didn´t happened. If there are some changes for the next Rock in Rio, it will probably be because of the new technologies and not because of any deficiency in the equipment performance, since all the systems ran without any trouble”, observes Racy. The frontfills were also covered by Norton, but the LS4 line.  

Despite of the in-ears popularity, it was used sidefills d&b J8 with d&b D12 amplification	Subwoofers with the original set up at the catwalks of the stage. By Metallica request, they were removed to the ground where stayed until the end of the festival

During Rock in Rio

Though working in an organized and planned way, the staff must be very flexible to deal with some problems or any specific demand of each artist or production, as well as any other daily incident that forces them to figure out new solutions. A good example is what happened because of Metallica’s concert. During the first days, there were subwoofers at the sidelines of the stage. Metallica requested that these subs were moved to the ground, so that the vocalist would not be disturbed when he used the catwalk. So the engineers had to make another arrangement for the new position of the subs. “As there wasn’t any damage to the system performance, we opted to maintain that new position until the last day”, emphasizes Peter.

Yamaha PM5D console used at the PA	Peripherals racks brought by Shakira staff

Digidesign Profile console supplied by Gabisom for the PA

On the last day, Guns N’ Roses had a central cluster with six Vertec at their disposal, because of Axl Rose’s difficulties to project his voice nowadays. Some performers brought their own consoles, as Metallica, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Shakira, Elton John, Guns N’ Roses and System Of a Down. Others didn’t bring consoles, but they had completely customized centrals, as Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, Kesha, Motörhead, Jamiroquai and Slipknot. Stevie Wonder asked for three Digico SD-7 consoles, one for the PA and two for the monitor operator, all of them with 112 channels of capacitance, and peripherals. “The other artists used the centrals available for them - two pairs of Digidesign Profile consoles and two pairs of Yamaha PM5D”, says Racy. Few bands used analogue consoles, as Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Midas H3000), Elton John (Yamaha PM5000), Shakira (Yamaha PM 5000) and Motörhead (Midas H3000), that brought its own console. Among so much work, the sound of Kate Perry caught Racy’s attention. “If I am not mistaken, Kate Perry’s sound engineer chose to use the PA columns in a different and unusual way: in the same PA, he opted to use L in a column and R in another column. The result was interesting, because of the FOH position, right in front of the R/PA, we heard a MONO sound coming from the others concerts (because of the sound addressing he made), giving us a little stereo taste”,  he comments.

	World Stage: racks with Powersoft and Lab.gruppen amplifiers

Even though the in-ears monitors control the scene, side fills and stage monitors are still very appreciated. For the sides, six D&B boxes were used for each side, processed by a same brand amp, D-12. The ground monitors were D&B M-2, and Clair Brothers 12AM for the musicians who had asked. There was a  lot of variety of mic riders.

Rock in Rio Brazil, Portugal and Spain – differences

Peter Racy commented about the main differences between the cities where Rock in Rio occurs. “Lisbon is a public park with a very positive shape, because it is like the stage was placed in a valley, which has some declination, what is favorable to the audience, which can hear and see the performance. As there are lots of trees around it and grass on the ground, we can have a very nice sound absorption as well as few reflections, what helps a lot to reach a good sound result. Madrid is more similar to the City of Rock, in Rio, a place built specially for the festival. It’s almost flat, and the land is much bigger than in Rio. In Rio and in Madrid we lost power, because the areas are extensive and flat and there is more energy power dispersion than in Lisbon, where we have a more defined space”.

Sunset Stage

The smallest area of the Sunset Stage had fewer difficulties at the sound performance than at the production. “The sound performance itself didn’t show any problems, because the area was small and very well delimited at the sides. So, the biggest challenge was to adjust the stage setting and the shift of the big bands that played in a tiny space”, explains Peter Racy.

The stage, built in one of the Portuguese editions of the festival, promotes meetings among musicians for jam sessions. For Rock in Rio’s technical staff  as well as for the artists’ staff, the biggest challenge is to manage an enormous amount of musicians – and a large input list – with few rehearsals and a short time for the soundcheck. The change of bands was supported by six Gabisom’s technicians. Evandro Ricardo, known as Kaco, was in charge of the support of the bands’ engineers at the FOH.

	Sunset Stage monitor: Yamaha PM5D console

Yamaha PM5D consoles were the standard equipment. There were two for the stage and two for the monitor operator, besides a Venue Profile. None of the bands asked for their own equipment. The PA system was the Italian GTO, an unknown brand in Brazil. A rep from GTO company, Francesco Ferretti, came to Brazil specially to arrange the PA. Twelve GTO Outline boxes were used at each side. “It’s a new system, highly efficient, that we inaugurated at Rock in Rio, because it seemed very well adjusted to the demands and the work system of a concert as huge as Rock in Rio”, affirms Peter Racy. The amps were Powersoft amps, specially developed for the GTO system. The processing was also especially developed for the system by Outline, GTO factory.

All the attractions, an average of 30, brought sound engineers, except for Heliópolis Orchestra, with Mike Patton and Mondo Cane band. They had the PA operated by Kaco.

The outcome

Peter Racy was satisfied with the outcome of Rock in Rio 4. “I think we should also consider the logistics and the operations around the festival, that employed hundreds of people, and moved staffs and burdens, as many of  the artists that performed at the festival, like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Rihanna, Kate Perry, Lenny Kravitz and System of a Down also went on tour in Brazil and Latin America, being supported by Gabisom as well. The staffs that operated the festival worked hard, 24 hours a day, since at the end of every night it was time to set up the stage and do the sound check again, for the next bands. It is very important to say that there wasn’t any delay on the change of the bands, even with giants as Stevie Wonder, that had 96 input channels. Gabisom’s storage staff  registered the entrance and exit of loaded trucks and gave all the attention to each situation. These are important parameters for which we can measure our performance”, celebrates Peter.

Music direction: the Sunset Stage soul

More important than the artists, at the Sunset Stage the main goal was the interaction among the musicians and the concept of jam session. Apart from Joss Stone, every single band that performed was a kind of meeting between artists with the same musical goals, as  happened with Mutantes and Tom Zé, besides the great composer João Donato and the singer Céu. So, the artistic director becomes essential to the realization of the concept. The responsibility was with the singer and composer Zé Ricardo, which explains how he sets up the stage. “I choose the artist, arrange an appointment with him and ask with whom in the world we would like to play, regardless if he had already worked or not with the artist”. The next step was the repertory, which was done by MP3 exchange between the chosen artists, and it happened in advance. “Depending on what was agreed, we exchanged MP3 music during six, seven months and, four or three days before the performance, they rehearsed together on the stage”, details the artistic director. This was what happened among Afrika Bambaataa, Paula Lima and the Portuguese rapper Boss AC. “I proposed to Afrika’s manager to do the concert with the singer Paula Lima. I showed him Paula Lima’s work and he loved, then I introduced the rapper to both of them, and they also loved him”, remembers Zé Ricardo. After that, it was created a base band with musicians from Zé Ricardo’s band and Afrika’s MCs. “Since that, we worked on the show”, says the director. The main great studios in Rio de Janeiro – as Floresta Studio – were busy during the whole festival. The Sunset Stage was one of the highlights of the Festival. “We had decided that Sunset Stage wouldn’t be a secondary stage. The Sunset Stage was built to knock this idea off, because it’s a place where the artists feel good and fulfilled”.

GTO Outilne line array system used at the Sunset Stage

Renato Munõz, PA sound engineer of Skank band

At the World Stage were performed the most expected concerts of the Festival. One of them was the Brazilian band Skank, which PA was ran by Renato Muñoz, a Rock in Rio veteran. He had already worked with Barão Vermelho in 2001; and in editions in Spain and Portugal, already with Skank, band where he still works. “In these years, I could basically notice two technological advances that are still very clear in my memory. The first was the implementation of the Line Array systems in 2001. It was the first time that a system that big was used in Brazil and, as we know, it was established in the PA system market. The second advance I could notice was the consolidation of the digital consoles used by the artists. While in 2001, at the FOH, I only saw one D-Show console, in 2011 practically all the artists used it”, he observes.

Skank’s sound engineer observes that the work at festivals is more complex. At Skank’s regular shows, Loudness provides the equipment, what helps to avoid problems. “Certainly, working on the bands’ own concerts is much easier, because we have total control over what is going to happen, especially in terms of the production on the setting time, the time of the sound check, the time of the concert. The technological advances, mostly the digital consoles, definitely help to advance our work a lot, because we don’t waste time on the console preparation.” Yet, unexpected events always happen. “We were advised by the festival’s technical organization not to take the equipment we use daily. That caused us some trouble. However, as we already expected to have problems because of that, we ‘prepared ourselves psychologically’ and solved the problems that came up.”

Technical Differences

Renato had already seen the side by side PA configuration at Rock in Rio in Lisbon. “It is a very powerful system, however I always think that systems this big can ‘lose control’ without our notice. We will never be completely sure how it sounds in all the places of the audience”, he risks. Despite having complimented the sound coverage on the floor, he had reservations about the sound coverage of the VIP area. “The sound at the outdoor part of the VIP area, which was about four meters high, was really bad, in my opinion”, he comments.

	Kalunga, Ivete Sangalo PA sound engineer

Another observation Renato made was about the Brazilian sound engineers’ improvement. “The most important”, according to him, “was to verify that the difference in technical level between the Brazilian sound engineers and the foreign ones is becoming smaller. Apart from the easy access to the equipment, we are each time closer to work on equal terms with any of them”, he evaluates.

To Skank’s monitor operator, Alexandre Simi, Rock in Rio brings some expectation. “The tension is much bigger than at other festivals, as much for the artists as for us, operators. We can’t make a mistake”, reminds Alexandre, who had his entire traditional rider at his disposal. “PM5D RH console, twelve PSM900 in-ears, two wireless UR58, a sub D&B for the drums, microphone kit, etc. We took only the Future Sonics phones of the artists. Everybody uses stereo in-ear phones and a very complete mix, with all the stage panoramic, effects and everything else, always respecting the peculiarities of each one. According to the festival, the only change was the inclusion of Negra Li, despite that everything was the same”, details Alexandre, who, besides Skank, worked with the Symphonic Orchestra, Legião Urbana and Faluja Band. “Everything went very well. Concerning the improvements I think the monitor consoles should have a better view of the stage and the backstage could be bigger”, he suggests.

Digital consoles fan, especially the Digi Venue, to which he gives support to the buyers, Kalunga, Ivete Sangalo’s PA sound engineer, believes that the work at festivals is where the digital consoles show, even more, their value. “What catches my attention to Venue are the plug-ins. I don’t use outboard (peripheral) anymore”, he observes. “Ivete calls the engineers for a talk. We know what works and what doesn’t work. We thought it was better not to use a microphone acoustic piano, for instance.”

We kept the piano digital simulator, which had been working well on the tour. Festivals aren’t places for surprises”, he alerts.
Kalunga, that is a V-Dosc fan, but also likes the Vertec, complimented a lot the PA setting in the World Stage area. “We have to change the idea that only one line array column at each side is enough. It isn’t. You must have delay, outfill, frontfill...” he completes.

Frejat

Rodrigo Lopes operated Frejat’s PA with a Digidesign Venue Profile. “We took all the backline and all the microphones, which are AudioTechnica. To the monitor, we took a Lunch Box API with a pre-amp, equalizer and compressor for Frejat’s voice. To have more options on the PA, I took the iLok (USB key logger that stores licenses for plug-ins that run on Pro Tools) from his studio, which has really lots of things. Then I could count on plug-ins that aren’t normally found on the regular Venue consoles, like the L3 Multimaximizer, the 1176 CLA and the Echoboy”, lists Rodrigo.

The engineer talked about the pressure of working at a Festival the size of Rock in Rio. “Working at something like that is a wonderful experience. The possibility of sharing the stage with great artists, from many parts in the world, is very cool. And the fact that Brazilians make sound on the same level of the international artists encourages us to study more and move forward. We are on the right track. Being bigger than the others and having a huge visibility, working at Rock in Rio is harder, since there can’t be any mistakes. There are months between rehearsals and adjustments with the production to make a one hour concert that is broadcasted to many parts in the world; the pressure is bigger than at other festivals, definitely. Maybe the major adjustment I had to make in my working method was in relation to listening to the system calmly. We didn’t have that time. As we were the last to do the sound check, I took that time to hear the other bands’ sound checks, so I was getting a notion of how the system responded and the possibilities of addressing, since the PA was divided in two parts”.

Sunset Stage

	Kleber França was the PA sound engineer of Afrika Bambaataa with Paula Lima

Kleber França was invited to operate the sound of Afrika Bambaataa with Paula Lima, a day before the show. “I came yesterday to do Marina Elali’s rehearsal and they called me, because Bambaataa liked my sound the last time”, says the engineer. Even with little time for the sound check, he worked hard so that the sound was the best as possible. “There were a lot of people on the stage, I think twelve, but we managed to do everything in time. Rushing, but we managed. I tried to open as many stereo channels as possible. To the voices, I opened six”, he tells. França used all the possible means to achieve the best result. But in a sound with a lot of rap, it’s recommendable not to use so much reverberation. “Yes, I opened the gates and the compressors. I always work with a dynamic processor and an effect processor. I have already worked with rap a lot, the band Planet Hemp, the singer Marcelo D2, so I already know how it has to sound”. Kleber still complimented Gabisom’s equipment and talked about the advantages of using digital consoles. “There is no rack equipment. The rack peripherals are disappearing, what reduces the mistakes. The bad things are leaving and the good ones are staying. Before, we had to use a compressor that wasn’t good. Now that is a standard. The PM5D compressor is very good. That’s it. You just need to know how to work with it as you want”. Concerning the production, with many Portuguese professionals, Kleber França realized that the way of working and even the way of seeing things are different. “They are different cultures”, he comments.

Fernando Leite was the sound engineer of Ed Motta with Rui Veloso and Andreas Kisser and Baile do Simonal with Diogo Nogueira and Davi Moraes reunion

Joss Stone

	John Godenze is Joss Stone's sound engineer

The English singer was the only attraction of the Sunset stage that performed without any kind of partnership. Her engineer sound was John Gondenzi – who has worked with artists like James Taylor – that used a KSM 09 for Joss’s voice. “She’s a very powerful singer, very dynamic. This microphone makes the voice soft like velvet”, he comments. The engineer still uses a dynamic compression of three bands, even though the Yamaha PM5D effect wasn’t his favorite. To the combo Hammond/Leslie we used the Sennheiser 421, which he uses in an unusual way. “I use mono microphones, one above and the other below. I know that people like it more in stereo, but I don’t”, he determines. The engineer also thinks that is easier to play at the band’s own concerts than at festivals. And even with all his experience, he didn’t mind asking for help when he needed. “It is much harder, you have to do everything very fast, I am the kind of person that can spend a lot of time searching exactly what I want to do, but when there are people that help a lot, it gets easier”, says next to Fernando Leite, who helped him to operate the console multiband compressor, which John wasn’t very familiarized. John only paid compliments to the Festival. “Rock in Rio is one of the best festivals to play, the equipment is always good”, he observes.

The production needs adjustments

Although the PA system of Rock in Rio had been complimented, most of the engineers made remarks concerning the production. “My general impression was very good. As a worker and as a spectator. The rental company of the PA system did a great job again. I couldn’t notice any distinction or advantage to foreign bands. But I can’t say the same in relation to the production”, compares Renato Muñoz.

Vavá Furquim was the sound engineer of Letieres Leite & Orkestra Rumpilezz with Móveis Coloniais de Acaju and Mariana Aidar, at the Sunset Stage

Frejat’s engineer, Rodrigo Lopes, agrees with Renato’s impressions. “I think the operational is very similar to other festivals, including the disorganization. I can say that I found the production part messy, which was, by the way, a disappointment to me. Our concert was on Saturday and until Thursday night we didn’t know the time of our sound check. We stayed more than one hour in the sun waiting for the credentials, among some other things. But that criticism doesn’t include the technical part. The problem was with the ‘producers with radio in the hands’. The entire technical staff was great. In relation to Gabisom, I am all compliments. We were received with impeccable excellence and professionalism. Congratulations to all. Moreover, the equipment was excellent”, he points out. José Luis Carrato also criticized the production. “It failed to impress, in my opinion. I don’t think it’s very different from the other festivals that happen here: delays, affected sound checks and rush are unfortunately part of all of them. At Rock in Rio it wasn’t different”.

The delays in the sound check affected decisively at least one presentation on the Sunset stage. Vavá Furquim, who went to Rock in Rio to operate the PA of Letieres Leite & Orkestra Rumpilezz with Móveis Coloniais de Acaju and Marina Aidar, first attraction of the stage, took all the precautions, after all the engineer was in charge of a reunion of thirty musicians. “I was on the stage the day before to check details with the stage technical production and to put our input file in the sound consoles while the three attractions rehearsed, in a studio, the set list of the presentation. On the following day, although we were scheduled to arrive at 10h30, we were already setting up the equipment on the moving stage two hours before. I was placing the microphones of the entire Orkestra, as well as indicating with a tagging the exact number of the channels, everything very detailed and organized.

From the left to the right: Bruno Garcia (Gabisom), Miguel Sá, Kako (Gabisom), Paulista and Kleber França

Rock in Rio is back. And here, it is bigger than in Europe and also harder to be done. “In Europe, a lot of bands are already on tour and adding elements on the festival rig. In Rio, we had to provide and rent extras for most of the main concerts”, comments the lighting designer Danny Nolan. Day by day, Danny counted on the support of André Camargo, international lighting production coordinator, and Marcos Olívio, national lighting production coordinator.

GrandMA console used at World Stage

The work at the Sunset stage and the Electronic Tent were less complex. “The Sunset needs just a few changes for the next editions. At the Electronic Tent, I am luck because the scenic elements are perfect for the job and make it easier for the lighting. I just need to make sure that everything is planned correctly”, details the lighting designer.

Planning and pre-production

It was necessary to plan the lighting of three stages, the VIP area and the lighting structures for the whole place at least one year before. “The World Stage is the most challenging. The type and style of bands varies greatly. You have to design a rig that can be used for rock, soul, contemporary, pop and many more genres”, details Nolan. Taking that into consideration, he projected the lighting in a way that the lighting designers could get, as fast as they could, the specific results for their performances. But at the same time it had to be very adaptable to any extras that touring bands might bring or want. You are really designing a little something for everyone”, exposes Danny.

	Video switch for the LED panels

Thirty days before the festival, all the artists received archives to develop the pre-production of the concert on their personal computers. “We sent the stage plots and the archive for the grandMa console. The archive had the patch and the 3D design, which is the viewer of MA Lighting. Basically, this is the time to understand and then to bring into question any doubt, mostly about specific equipment adds for each band”, says Marcos Olívio. “Danny Nolan received some specific requests from some international artists that he sent to me so I could clarify any doubt and get the extra equipment they requested”, adds Camargo.

At the festival, Brazilian and foreign lighting designers could complete the setting list in the Studio MA 3D right beside the stage. “We scheduled an appointment in the Estúdio 3D that was set up especially for the lighting designing one day before each performance. After the lighting designing was ready and stored on a pen drive, it was time to figure the extra equipment out to get everything ready for the beginning of the concert. After each Brazilian performance started, it was checked out if there was any other Brazilian concert to start the lighting designing for the next day”, details Marcos, that counted on Paulo Lebrão’s support on the programming.

Lighting designers

Mirin, lighting designer of Skank band, set up everything the day before the show

Marcos Pereira de Souza, known as Mirin, lighting designer of the Brazilian band Skank, was highly satisfied with he found at the Festival. “The same I use on the other Skank’s concerts, I used on Rock in Rio, I had two hours to design the lighting and set the equipment up. I started at 11 p.m. and finished at 1 a.m. I had a lot of equipment to work”, celebrates the lighting designer.

At the Sunset Stage, Marcos Franja, lighting designer of Baile do Simonal band, praised the project. “The lighting designer had to have 50 lighting designers in his mind. So, I think that he looked for neutrality, but he thought outside the box. He worked with different heights, so there were lots of designing possibilities. This acoustic shell allows blackout inside. As the Sunset is a stage where the concerts begin at two in the afternoon and it is already sunny, this format helps to maintain the light within the stage. In the sun, the light can’t “go out” to the audience, but inside this “box” we can do a good job. The lighting designer gave us a very good structure”, he comments.

The extras

One of the great benefits that the digital technology brought was the possibility of doing a characterized concert, even in a festival with lots of great attractions. “Almost all the main concerts had specials demands. Kate Perry, for example, brought the monitoring screen system; Metallica brought a big stage set and we had to provide 60 extra moving lights. System of a Down brought some equipment and we provided 32 extras strobos, 12 moving lights, truss and motors”. Even with the giant PRG company bringing the lighting equipment, Cia da Luz, a Brazilian lighting company, was required. “There were lots of extras and I had André Camargo and Cia da Luz, from Rio, giving support for those requests. Without that support it would have been impossible, as almost each concert had extras”, exposes Danny Nolan.

Among the performers who brought equipment, ColdPlay used lasers and special UV effect lighting, System of a Down brought six Show Gun, the Brazilian band Capital Inicial brought moving LEDs and strobos and Brazilian singer Ivete Sangalo brought a setting LED. The bands that brought extras had already preset the equipment. “I really liked the Brazilian bands’ effort to perform a detailed concert for the festival, beginning with the first night with Claudia Leitte, who brought a very complex setting with lots of praticaveis and LEDs panels, which were set up within 15 minutes. Ivete Sangalo had an elevator system and moving stages with mixed levels of stairs which were also set up in 15 minutes. The Brazilian band J. Quest brought a Jarag extra lighting that was set up in 10 minutes”, tells André. At the end, a positive balance for the Brazilian lighting. At the first Rock in Rio we were crawling and nowadays we walk together”, observes Marcos Olívio.

Lighting for the audience had moving lights

Equipment

World Stage 48 Moving Head Wash 1200w 56 Follow Spot 1200w 40 Atomic Strobe 156 Pixel Par 12 8-Lite Blinder equipment Six following cannons 4k 24 equipamentos 4-Lite Blinder 24 4-Lite Blinder equipment M Box Media server Sunset Stage 12 Moving heads Mac 600 12 Moving heads Mac 700 06 Fresnel 2k 12 06Bar Par 64 equipment 6 04 Bar ACL equipment 2 following cannons Media server Maxedia 5 4-Lite Blinder equipment

Rock in Rio, lighting and TV

The festival, as any other broadcasted by TV, had to be concerned with the lighting for the video. And it was done in a way that it couldn’t cause any interference in the concert’s atmosphere. “Globo TV was great. They gave us 120 extra moving lights for the audience, which were amazing. Césio Lima (photography director) was very considerate and we just made a few changes on the concerts, considering the main idea was to capture the real performance instead of doing it for TV. Boninho (transmission director) really did a good work”, praises Danny Nolan. “In the same way the lighting designers are concerned about the TV, we changed the way of catching the images, because the right way for us sometimes isn’t the right way for the concert. This year, I talked a lot with Boninho and we decided to use a lot of moving lights in the audience to bring the stage atmosphere to the audience, too”, reassures Césio Lima, that talked a lot with the lighting designers. “They exposed their problems and I exposed mine, so we could come to a conclusion. For example, Motorhead doesn’t use cannons. Of course that we can’t impose Lemmy (Motorhead’s vocalist) to accept a cannon lighting right on his face, so we asked for reinforcement at the lighting sides. Everyone is used to working for TV, I always do lots of jobs with the Brazilian lighting designers at the Summer Festival of Salvador”, comments Césio.

Taryn Szpilman singer at the Rock Street

Who decided to take a break from the shows could go to the Rock Street. There, many companies set up booths with the most varied options of entertainment. Ferris wheel, brand giveaways and... music. There was a stage that, following the scenography atmosphere, characterized as New Orleans’ streets, was in the shape of a bandstand. The stage director was the producer and musician Bruce Henry. “This is the stage with the biggest apron in the world”, jokes Bruce, referring to the street’s 170 meters of extension.

The stage concerts took place from 2:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Each of the three bands stayed around thirty and forty minutes on stage. On the break, between the shows, the main attraction took the stage. “I had six bands, each one with small amplified boxes with 50 watts of power, playing country and folk music on the street. There was a puppet show, Tony Roqueiro and the Orleans Street Jazz Band, which played on the first week, walking along the street. On the second week, there was a saxophonist's quartet called Saxofonia, entirely acoustic”, adds Bruce Henry.

Rock Street went through some changes

Opposite to the World and Sunset stages, the bands and artists of the Rock Street were more connected to blues and jazz than rock. Big names such as the guitarist Victor Biglioni, the saxophonist Leo Gandelman, Guto Goffi’s band and even the very special participation of the bassist Daryl Jones (Miles Davis, Rolling Stones) in Arnaldo Brandão’s band also made Rock in Rio’s corner very special. “I met Arnaldo a few days ago and he invited me to play some songs. I like to play anywhere: small or big stages, Copacabana beach, I like everything. I love playing music and playing in Brazil”, said the bassist to Backstage Magazine.

Miguel Marangas was the director of Electronic Stage

At first, the street would have many bars with independent attractions, but according to Bruce, the team in charge came to the conclusion that it would be a problem due to the noise pollution. “If each bar had autonomy, it wouldn’t be possible to run the whole thing. So, I decided to have a central stage with three bands a day, which grids matched the World and Sunset stages breaks”, he explains. Bruce was careful to have attractions only on the break between the shows, so that the sound wouldn’t leak out from the other stages to the street, but later on he verified that this wouldn’t be a problem. “The only sound that invades is the one from the electronic stage, which is closer, when the 10 p.m. activities start there. Anyway, I tried to play the music up to 10 p.m., and then let the electronic turn up”, details the producer.

The sound

The entire route had 20 V-Dosc boxes – ten on the 55 meters before the bandstand and ten more on the 55 meters till the electronic stage, besides the columns, also with V-Dosc, hidden by lattices next to the stage. “I talked to Gabisom company and we figured out where and how to place the boxes through the street, and what could be placed in the stage system so that it would be discreet”, tells the producer. With everything ready, we walked all the way down the street while the system worked, carrying only a Zoom recorder to be able to verify the uniformity of the sound coverage. “There were only a little bit more lows in front of the stage because of the subs in the front, the rest remained the same”.

Electronic Stage

After 10 p.m., who got tired of rock no longer had the option of the Rock Street’s attractions, but could go to the end of the street to dance at the Electronic Stage, directed by the Portuguese Miguel Marangas, producer and artistic director that has worked at Rock in Rio since the first edition in Lisbon, in 2004. “It’s different (from working in Portugal and Madrid) even because the people and the habits are different, the festival has another kind of dimension in Brazil and the audience is extremely bigger”, he comments. The production team was formed of five people, besides the sound engineer Luis Pedro de Oliveira, from Portugal as well. “The sound engineer responsible also comes from other editions in Lisbon. We consider Pedro a member of our team, despite the fact that he works for Gabisom”, adds Miguel.

Tiago Romão, stage manager

Tiago, the electronic stage manager, also from Portugal, tells that the backline, as well as the PA system, have different configurations than the rest of the festival. “Here the music doesn’t stop between an artist and the other. We don’t have 10 or 15 minutes to switch bands, you have to set up everything while the DJ is finishing and the other attraction is already on the stage. That limits a lot the work of the electronic area”, he determines. On the team since the 2006 edition in Lisbon, he tells that this is the first where there is actually a stage. “This shape of floor comes since 2006 in Lisbon. What changes in this edition is that, for the first time, we have a stage that, despite small, is a stage. We didn’t have it in the other editions, which were more focused on the DJ. The concept of DJ today is already a little bit different, many gather instrumentalists to play with them, the guitarists, percussionists, what didn’t happen in the past”, he comments.

Another important change in the last years is the variety of equipment that the DJs use. “In the past there were the pick ups and a mixer. Today, many play MP3”, comments the producer, reminding that some still use CD, others pen drive and even SD Card. At Rock in Rio, nobody else used vinyl discs. Just fixtures with time code to synchronize with MP3 on the computer. “The equipment has to be prepared to “talk” with all these different players”, points out the producer.

	In each of the six structures, Five L-Acoustics Kudo boxes (detail on the left)

For the first time at the festival, a stage was built at the Electronic Tent

The sound

To install a PA system on the dance floor with a stage, six “towers” were used, with three L and three R on each side, with the stage in the middle. In each tower there was a hanging column with four L-Acoustic Kudo boxes. “First, we have to worry about the audience that will hear the music and do the best we can so that the sound won’t leak out to the other stages”, determines Paulo.

The configuration is similar to the European editions, except for the sub lows, that are, by the way, very important to the electronic sound. The setting of the EAW SB1000 boxes was done in a way that the low was emitted in a sub cardioid shape. The front fills were put together with L-Acoustic Kudo boxes, as well as the monitoring for the DJs, which also had DV-Dosc boxes. The boxes were amplified by 6.400 and 10.000 Lab.grupen equipment. “It took us one day to align the system. The setting took us two days. It’s not that complicated as it is in Lisbon. There we had a problem with the winds”, comments Pedro.

Globo TV channel broadcasted the World stage concerts while Multishow channel broadcasted the Sunset stage ones. To the first, the TV station brought a mobile unit exclusively for the audio. The second had only a video and audio unit on the first week. The strategy had to be changed on the second week, with Gabisom providing a studio with a Venue D-Show console for multichannel mixing, monitored by a Dynaudio.

Each artist who performed at the World stage made a different agreement to release the sign for TV. “With the bands that authorized the cession of the concert’s microphones, we used a spliter from the stage to the Audio Mobile Unit. With the ones that didn’t authorize, we used a L/R provided by the band’s sound effects editor”, explains Globo TV’s events engineering manager Rodrigo Araújo. “There were some who sent groups, and others who released Voice, Bass, Bass Drum and ambient separately, so that the TV channel could adjust the mixing to the specific needs of the broadcasting”, details Peter Racy.

Globo TV’s Audio Mobile Unit also produced a mixing in 5.1 for cable TV broadcasting. “In the UMA (Audio Unit Mobile) audio team, we worked with a general coordinator, Carlos Ronconi, and a sound effects editor each day, helped by two broadcasting engineers, who took care of all the connection between stage, FOH and UMA, and a system engineer in charge of the check list and the operational risk management”, completes Rodrigo Araujo.

Sunset Stage

Ronaldo Lima was the technician in charge of the mixing in the studio set up for the second week on the Sunset stage. “In the mixing for broadcast, you have to compress as much as you can so that there are no peaks, because there is the limiter of the TV transmitter. If you leave it too loose, the limiter of the transmitter holds it back and generally increases the middle frequencies ranges, explains Ronaldo Lima.

The technician arrived when the sound passages began. “As there were many bands, there wasn’t much time. It was just a line check”, exposes Ronaldo. The difficulty was increased by the fact that there were a lot of musicians in the bands, some of them with two drums, two basses and other doubled instruments. As in his studio, Casa do Mato, Ronaldo had the same monitoring he had in the mobile unit (Dynaudio Air 20), and he communicated from the mobile unit with the assistant in the studio and asked him to hear the transmission in the studio boxes to help with the reference. At the time of the concert, some bands would send a producer to indicate the voice input or some instrument and make Ronaldo’s work a little bit easier, as it happened in the musical meeting between Titãs and the Portuguese band Xutos e Pontapés.

Revista Backstage - Was it hard to take Rock in Rio to Portugal and then to Spain? Tell us about the experience of taking a Brazilian product of this importance to Europe.

Rodolfo Medina - One of Rock in Rio’s strategies, since 2001, was to build an international brand. Within the relationship with Portuguese managers, we understood that Portugal was the best way of taking Rock in Rio to Europe. Of course that when we arrive at a new country, we need a whole communication strategy to strengthen the brand. The 2004 and 2006 editions, in Lisbon, were a huge success. Portugal has a great advantage that is the knowledge of Brazil and that helped a lot, since the Portuguese know what happens around here. When the Lisbon project ended, in 2006, we were ready to conquer one more country in Europe. Naturally this country was Spain, due to the proximity and the knowledge Rock in Rio established there. As we had already had a European experience, Madrid was easier than Lisbon.

Revista Backstage - How is it to take care of the circulation of so many professionals, companies and equipment from so many different countries? You could say that this is the biggest challenge in the production of an intercontinental event?

Rodolfo Medina - You call the necessary people, people who you trust and who have the knowledge to do the work. There’s no mystery, each person does his job. I can’t tell this is the biggest challenge. The biggest challenges are the creation of the communication project and gathering these capable professionals that are part of Rock and Rio.

Revista Backstage - Does Rock in Rio open path to other major Brazilian initiatives abroad in the entertainment area?

Rodolfo Medina - Definitely. Being the biggest music and entertainment project in the world, Rock in Rio enhances the Brazilian production capacity. We, Brazilians, do the biggest festival in the planet.

Revista Backstage - The phonographic market crisis and the preference of the artists for concerts reflect somehow on the organization of Rock in Rio?

Rodolfo Medina - Yes, the concert market is more active each day. Nowadays, an important part of the bands’ income comes from the concert market. That makes this market more professional and improves the way of dealing with certain situations. The concerts are part of the event.

Revista Backstage - The entertainment options offered in the City of Rock were way beyond music. Today a festival is more than a music concert?

Rodolfo Medina - Rock in Rio is definitely much more than a concert. It is a place where the audience can enjoy 12 hours of party. People can watch the great artists in the world, as well as riding the Ferris wheel, taking a walk on Rock Street or riding the zip-line.

Revista Backstage - Besides the musical encounters on the Sunset stage, there was the encounter between Paralamas and Titãs and a tribute to Renato Russo on the World Stage, and the Rock Street, that were a huge success. Do you plan to build up this kind of show where the artistic situation – as the musical encounters of bands or tributes – is the attraction alongside the artist?

Rodolfo Medina - We always seek to innovate the project every year. Our creation team continually seeks to come up with new encounters or new attractions for the audience.

Revista Backstage - What are the plans for the future of Rock in Rio?

Rodolfo Medina - In 2012 we will do Rock in Rio in Lisbon, Portugal, and in Madrid, Spain. In 2013 we will go back to Brazil to do the event in Rio and we are negotiating with one more Latin American country. Rock in Rio is also starting to develop to other areas, there’s a musical of the event being made and the festival will be the theme of the Samba School Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel for the 2013 Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. These actions make the brand gain new contours.

By
Miguel Sá
José Anselmo "Paulista"
(audio engineer consultant)

Photos: Ernani Matos / Leo Costa / internet

English version by Danielli Marinho and Tatiana Castro

Read the complete article in Portuguese in the printed edition 205 - December - or in the digital version that will be available on January 20th, on this site.

www.backstage.com.br