Bulgarian artist Grafa performed a fully immersive concert in the round at the 15,000-capacity Arena 8888 Sofia, with monitor engineer Boris Yanakiev using KLANG:technologies’ DMI-KLANG alongside a DiGiCo Quantum 338 to deliver spatialised in-ear monitor mixes for the ten-piece band. Each musician was equipped with a KLANG:kontroller on stage.
The 40m stage and 360-degree audience configuration presented imaging and latency challenges that traditional wedge monitoring could not solve without interfering with the surrounding PA system.
The :kontrollers, powered and networked over a single Ethernet cable, allowed musicians to adjust their own mixes or leave control with Yanakiev, with setup taking just seconds during rehearsals. For most of the band, it was their first time using KLANG.
Yanakiev said: “In a large arena many monitors on stage can start messing with the whole sound as they need to be quite loud. This starts to interfere with the PA which, when it is 360 degrees, with a lot more speakers and in a boomy arena, is going to be a big problem! KLANG made everything much smoother.”
Yanakiev added: “Having the :kontrollers really helped the performers to connect with the technology, the interface felt familiar to them and the physical touch was reassuring. Despite it being their first time, the comments were all really positive. They felt like the system was the missing piece of their sound puzzle.”
Yanakiev said the spatialised mix reduced listening fatigue for both artists and engineers, allowing longer listening at lower volumes. “When you have spatial mix in KLANG, there is so much space. This means the whole mix can be quieter. The band experienced this for the first time and mentioned it straight away; even with long rehearsals, they said their ears were not as tired and they could still hear everything clearly at lower levels.”
With two weeks of production rehearsals, Yanakiev said the offline editor allowed him to prepare channel names and patches in advance. “It was plug-and-play in the venue, the workflow is very smooth,” he said. “I’m very happy with how everything turned out.”
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