CLIENT
Done + Dusted
LOCATION
Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi, UAE
YEAR
2018
PROJECT TYPE
National Day Ceremony
Scope
Immersive audio system design, show control and live orchestral reinforcement
Services Provided
- →Stadium loudspeaker system design
- →L-ISA immersive audio design
- →Show control and playback systems
- →Front of House mixing
- →Orchestra sub-mixing
- →Systems engineering
- →Timecode and replay integration
The Brief
Following their work on the 46th UAE National Day, Done + Dusted returned to Zayed Sports City Stadium for the 47th celebrations, this time with a stadium format that combined large-scale spectacle with live orchestral performance.
Titled “This is Zayed. This is the UAE”, the official ceremony paid tribute to the nation’s founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. More than 22,000 guests filled the stadium, including members of the UAE leadership and Supreme Council.
At the centre of the show was the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from London, performing live throughout the event. The challenge was to deliver the scale expected of a national stadium celebration while retaining the control and musical detail required to support an 80-piece orchestra outdoors.
Auditoria were engaged to design the audio systems and show control for the production.
The Challenge
Zayed Sports City is a large, open-air stadium. Supporting a full symphony orchestra in that environment brings a different set of considerations.
The system needed to provide consistent coverage across the stadium while also creating a more focused listening experience for the Royal Tribune. Managing gain-before-feedback, maintaining orchestral balance and ensuring speech remained intelligible required careful system design and tuning.
From a show control perspective, the production combined live orchestra, vocals, pre-recorded dialogue and sound effects. Each element needed to sit in its own space while still feeling part of the same performance. The challenge was to organise those layers within one dependable system that could run reliably for the duration of the ceremony.
Our Approach
Auditoria designed a system that combined stereo stadium coverage with dedicated L-ISA environments for key audience areas.
For the Royal Tribune, a six-element L-ISA frontal scene system was deployed using six arrays of three K2, supported by a horizontal sub-bass array of eight K1-SB. Five delay arrays of six KARA provided additional coverage to the upper bowl above the Tribune.
The wider stadium was covered by a distributed ground-stacked stereo system comprising twelve arrays of six K2 with four SB28 subwoofers per array, a total of 72 K2 and 48 SB28.
A second five-element L-ISA system was built into the 80-metre projection screen at the rear of stage. Formed from five arrays of six K1 mounted behind the projection scrim, it was used primarily for sound effects and pre-recorded dialogue, aligning those elements visually with the screen.
Together, these systems allowed music, speech and effects to be handled independently where needed, while still feeling part of the same performance.
Technical Highlights:
Audio Design
Two L-ISA environments operated within a single controller session.
Upper object layers routed to the five-element screen system for SFX and dialogue
Lower object layers routed to the six-element frontal system for music, vocals and live speech
6-element L-ISA frontal scene for Royal Tribune (6 × arrays of 3 × K2)
Horizontal sub array of 8 × K1-SB
5 × delay arrays of 6 × KARA (upper bowl)
12 × ground-stacked arrays of 6 × K2
48 × SB28 subwoofers (stadium coverage)
5-element L-ISA system integrated into 80m projection screen (5 × arrays of 6 × K1)
Mirrored DiGiCo SD5 consoles
Dedicated L-ISA Processor per console via MADI
Multiple DiGiCo SD Racks for input distribution
Optocore network for output distribution to LA-Racks
Show Control
Playback was delivered via a dual-redundant pair of Merging Technologies Ovation systems, operated by Steve Logan.
Each system comprised:
Purpose-built Windows 10 computer running Ovation
Horus audio interface delivering 128 channels via MADI
Ovation keyboard
Avid Artist control surface
KVM infrastructure per system
The Results
The 47th UAE National Day Ceremony brought together the demands of a large-scale stadium production with the presence of a live orchestra performing throughout.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed across the full show, supported by a system that allowed the music to carry across the stadium. Effects and dialogue were positioned within the space to further reinforce the storytelling.
Across the duration of the ceremony, the system supported live performance, pre-recorded content and tightly timed show control elements without interruption.
The result was a confident stadium production that maintained musical integrity in front of national leaders and more than 22,000 guests.
Acknowledgements
Our Client
Done + Dusted
Our Team
Scott Willsallen – Audio System Designer
Justin Arthur – Front of House
Steve Logan – Replay Operator
Luis Miranda – Replay Operator and editor
Martin Dineley – Systems Engineer
Andy Rose – Orchestra Sub-Mix
Our Supplier
Delta Sound Dubai – System supply, installation and support
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