Monday, 14 December 2015

Kalachakra 2015, A great learning experience


Being the preffered Audio company of choice we had the privilige to work at KALACHAKRA - a international religious  Buddhist event hosted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama . This festival was was hosted recently in Ladakh in the Himalayas  nearly 5,000m above sea level, making it a milestone in our history.

High quality sound was of utmost importance and hence finding a right microphone that would project his Holiness’ voice to the nearly 200,000 followers who attended was quite challenging.

‘One of the biggest challenges for us was that the Dalai Lama would speak for about five hours every day, so we needed a high quality microphone that would provide excellent gain before feedback, excellent off axis rejection and a low noise floor,” -Felix Remedios, Managing Director, Reynold’s Sound & Lighting Services.

‘In addition to needing perfect reliability, given only one mic for a large audience, there was a high level of stage monitoring required for the surrounding monks.’

‘I had contacted my friend and colleague Ron Lorman in New York, and explained that I was unsure that my previous mics would have the amount of gain that I needed. We additionally discussed the unique monitor needs for this event, as it was mandatory that the source element provided a flat response with
substantial rear rejection,’ continues Mr.Remedios.

In addition to this, the loudspeaker of choice was a wide- ranging Meyer Sound solution consisting of 44 Milo, 32 Mica, 24 MSL-4 and 20 CQ cabinets.

Our audio team was led by sound engineer Suresh J, succesfully put the mics to the test for the first time.

‘We chose to use the cardioid version of the mic for the Kalachakra,’ notes Mr.Remedios. ‘We had never used DPA mics before, but one of the first things we noticed was that there was no colouration in the signal. His Holiness’ voice sounded extremely natural and transparent, and we were able to get the gain levels we wanted.  The DPA Dfine is certainly a quantum leap from what we are used to, both in signal levels from the mic and overall quality of the design.’

The final outcome was certainally quiet successful, with  a lot of pleased audiences as well as and most impostantly the Dalai Lama and his media team.


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