Cape Town, South Africa (May 21, 2024)—A fixture on the charts throughout the New Wave era, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD) is in the middle of a Greatest Hits Live World Tour—a venture that recently took the synth duo to South Africa for a number of dates, including an opening night show at Cape Town’s Greenpoint A-Track cricket club, where audio was provided by regional audio company, ULTRA Events.
For the occasion, ensuring the entire audience would get every pounding beat, ULTRA Events fielded a d&b audiotechnik V-Series sound system. “The A-Track comes with challenges that need to be navigated with care when setting up a concert system,” said Patrick Dudgeon of ULTRA Events. “Not only are set-up times restricted due to the venue being a functioning cricket club, but the A-Track is also very close to a residential area, a public hospital and a hotel. Therefore, we need to be conscious of the surroundings regarding noise levels whilst delivering impactful audio to the concert audience.”
Ultra Events Updates with d&b
The P.A. used for the evening was based around a flown pair of 10-element line arrays with V8s at the top and V12s at the bottom, all bolstered by B22 subwoofers that were groundstacked in cardioid mode. Meanwhile, a quartet of AL90 loudspeakers took care of front fills and M4 monitors adorned the stage for the band. Additionally, Array software from d&b allowed the team to estimate coverage areas and ensure the concert didn’t bother the neighbors.
Following set-up and sound check, the event itself was a hit. “The support acts and OMD were bringing out massive hits when we were youngsters,” recalls Dudgeon. “Getting the opportunity to work with them on this event was quite a thrill and it was fantastic to see they haven’t lost a single bit of energy in their performance after all these years!”
