The production company Sharemusic! has opted for an advanced sound system to optimize audio quality at the benchmark large-scale festivals Love the 90s, Love the Twenties and I Love Reggaeton, held this spring–summer at the Miguel Ríos concert venue in Rivas Vaciamadrid and at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia.
d&b audiotechnik has helped enhance the experience of the 144,000 attendees across the five Sharemusic! festivals in Madrid and Valencia. Sharemusic! is also deploying this solution during the national summer and autumn tour of these three festivals to ensure exceptional sound quality in every city.
The cardioid technology of d&b provides powerful, uniform, and precise coverage for the audience while minimizing sound impact in nearby urban areas.
One of the main technical challenges was to maintain a powerful and consistent sound pressure throughout the audience area — ranging from approximately 22,000 to 35,000 people depending on the festival’s capacity — without compromising noise levels in the surrounding urban environment.
The d&b audiotechnik team designed a cardioid solution aimed at delivering powerful, even, and precise coverage to enhance the listening experience while at the same time minimizing sound impact on nearby areas.
The solution was implemented by Fluge Audiovisuales, which installed the sound system in close collaboration with d&b Iberia and the Sharemusic! team, to overcome the technical and acoustic challenges of these large-scale festivals and ensure optimal performance.
For this tour, we chose d&b largely due to noise pollution concerns. d&b offers us real directional control thanks to ArrayProcessing and its cardioid design, which achieves natural and homogeneous sound while providing the flexibility to omit specific zones, explains Fernando Quintana, FOH engineer at Sharemusic!.
The system was based on the GSL system, the most powerful loudspeaker in the d&b portfolio, which integrates the cardioid function natively and allows sound to be directed in a controlled and precise manner toward the audience. “We chose d&b’s SL-Series because, thanks to its high directivity, we achieved exceptional microphone clarity even with the P.A. positioned behind the stage, without sacrificing SPL for the audience”, says Iñigo Moneo, monitor engineer and sound coordinator at Sharemusic!.
The main GSL system was complemented by KSL and J-Series arrays for outer fills and delay zones, along with a linear subwoofer array using the SL-Sub model for powerful low-end coverage.
This configuration provides homogeneous sound distribution with exceptional clarity and definition throughout the audience area, avoiding unwanted interactions and feedback. At the same time, it minimizes rear-stage sound emission and achieves a significant reduction in noise pollution in the residential areas surrounding the venue.
With this design, we achieved truly uniform coverage across the entire venue and total stage rejection — a key factor that lets us mix without worrying at all about potential feedback or resonance issues. We also greatly valued being able to conduct a prior acoustic impact study with Noizcalc, adds Fernando Quintana.
This solution has provided superior listening comfort and allowed the audience to experience the music more intensely. “At Sharemusic! we rely on d&b audiotechnik’s cardioid technology to improve the audience experience and reduce unwanted noise pollution, especially toward nearby residential areas”, says Felipe Menéndez, Managing Director of Sharemusic!. “Thanks to this technology, the audience has enjoyed clearer, more consistent, and more powerful sound throughout the main stage area, resulting in a higher-quality experience with no external disturbances or distortions. The level of sound quality we achieved with d&b has been spectacular, and the dedication of their teams has been crucial to reaching this goal”, adds Menéndez.
The iconic large-scale festivals I Love Reggaeton, Love the 90’s, and Love the Twenties welcomed a total of 100,000 attendees at the Miguel Ríos venue in Rivas Vaciamadrid. The I Love Reggaeton and Love the 90’s events gathered a combined 44,000 people at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia.
