ULTRA Events trusts in d&b audiotechnik at Calum Scott concert

d&b system shines despite the rain at Cape Town show

Cape Town, South Africa – June 2023 – English singer-songwriter, Calum Scott, who shot to fame following his 2015 appearance on Britain’s Got Talent, recently performed to a full crowd at Zevenwacht Wine Estate in Cape Town as part of his ‘Bridges’ album tour, supported by local artists Craig Lucas and Werner Bekker. The event, attended by 2000 fans, was organised by Breakout Events with ULTRA Events responsible for delivering the technical solutions on the day. ULTRA Events specialises in providing comprehensive AVL solutions to the events industry, guaranteeing the successful realisation and execution of their clients’ event visions on a global scale.

“Zevenwacht Wine Estate is an interesting venue, as the front row is at stage height and the back row rises to an elevation of 8-metres, due to a natural slope,” explains Costa Champanis, Owner of ULTRA Events. “The brief was to provide great sounding audio for all guests, from the front row to the back row.”

ULTRA specified a full d&b audiotechnik system. The main PA system consisted of 12 d&b V8 mid-high loudspeakers, with 4 x V12 flown in L/R arrays with 8 elements per side, supplemented by 12 B22 subwoofers is a spaced CSA array. d&b M4 loudspeakers were deployed as front fills and monitors, with the whole system driven by d&b D80 power amplifiers.

With the budget and system defined, a suitable system design was created by ULTRA Events Audio HOD, Patrick Dudgeon. “On the day, we did not have enough time to do a site inspection and had to quickly redesign the stage position due to weather and increased ticket sales. Therefore, we needed to redefine the parameters on setup day. There were also noise restrictions at the venue with residential areas close by, but we could easily verify the array and subwoofer positions with the R1 software at low volume”, explains Patrick. “Inclement weather disrupted our ability to properly tune the system, but by defining the venue layout, as well as the prediction of the system response and relative delay times, it allowed us to open up a PA system that was close to perfect.”

“We have been d&b partners for around 5 years now,” explains Costa. “Across various venues and use cases, our d&b system has consistently demonstrated outstanding performance, reliability and versatility.”

With the weather finally clearing, the ULTRA team were ready to hand over to the artists’ sound engineers to kick off the event. “After only a few minutes of tuning, we were ready to hand the PA over to Calum Scott’s sound engineer for him to create his magic – he was suitably impressed,” concludes Patrick. “The venue was filled to capacity and the system performed beautifully, whilst the crowd enjoyed a memorable evening.”