Rock in Rio is a flamboyant celebration of music, held in beautiful Rio de Janeiro every two years. Started in 1985, the festival has a worldwide reputation of excellence, not just in the artist line up, but the festival site itself. The choice to use DiGiCo consoles for the main front of house systems is down to artist preference, explains Peter Racy, Rock in Rio’s front of house (FOH) system manager and mix engineer.
“We are seeing a dominance of DiGiCo consoles being used by artists on the main stage,” he said. “The choice of consoles for the festival is usually determined by the artists’ engineering team and their preference is often a deciding factor. In front of me at the mix position, three of the four consoles are DiGiCo; it seems to be a trend. We are also using an SD-11 to control system feeds, including video mapping, pyro-sound, FOH-stage communications, FOH walk-in music and more.”
The experience of Rock in Rio is like no other festival. Created by Roberto Medina as a gift for the city and a way to put Rio de Janeiro firmly on the world music map, it has an enormous reach. Since 1985, there have been 19 editions, and 2,038 artists have performed in front of 9.5 million attendees. A further 12 million fans have joined by watching the live stream online, with the festival’s social media channels connecting with 143 million people since 2017. In Rock City, the festival site, there are seven music stages, rides, attraction and food choices from chefs who have been flown in from cities around the world to deliver exceptional dining experiences. Also enjoying the spectacle was Ian Staddon, VP of sales for DiGiCo. Staddon joined the Gabisom team and Audio System’s Brazil, DiGiCo distributors and suppliers for the festival, to experience the festival for the second weekend.
“It was very special to see so many artists coming through the festival using DiGiCo consoles,” Staddon recalled. “In addition to being at the front of house position, I also got to witness the team from Epah Studios provide the live broadcast mix from their SD7, and the Gabisom engineers in their purpose-built studio using the Quantum 852. It was a really positive experience.”
Rock in Rio has always been an industry leading festival, with techniques used there replicated at festivals across the world. Today the visitors’ experience is second to none and festivalgoers can experience VIP lounges, shopping experiences, chill out zones and, for the first time this year, the Hype Fair, a new space for fashion, art and design. Rock City is an extravagant opportunity to really enjoy all that the music world has to offer with the highest-class facilities, and visitors do so knowing the weekend will be mud free, thanks to extensive site preparations.
“The event was outstanding,” Staddon continued. “The whole system was exceptional, with many engineers commenting on the quality of the set-up. There was a long list of artists on the Palco Mundo and Sunset stages that were using DiGiCo, and I noticed a full range of Quantum consoles from all the headliners!”
Technically, the audio set-up was huge. Not only must the audience hear the artists perfectly from each stage, but the entire festival was also live streamed via the festival’s website and recorded. The live recordings were mixed onsite from the Gabisom recording studio installed backstage, with DiGiCo consoles providing the reliability and clarity that is required by all sound engineers, regardless of the application, as Racy continues.
“From my perspective as a systems manager and also a FOH mixer, I like DiGiCo consoles for a number of reasons,” he says. “Thanks to features like their dual power-supplies, dual engines, and redundant fibre loop, they are a solid and reliable platform. And you can’t forget the excellent audio specifications and performance, all accessible via the amazing, feature rich user interface.”
Thanks to the festival’s long history and luxurious setting, they have no trouble booking the very best acts, and the calibre was high across all seven stages this year. Each one had its own focus, with the World Stage featuring artists like Imagine Dragons, Ed Sheeran, Karol G, Avenged Sevenfold, Charlie Puth and Ne-Yo.
“Peter Racy and the Gabisom crew are masters of their craft,” says Staddon. “Flipping between both main stages, interspersing acts with live, aerobatic display team fly-bys as well as full fireworks displays and anniversary presentations, it’s outstanding to see. Mariah Carey closing the Sunset in style, with a Quantum 5 at FOH and a Quantum 7 on monitors, was a special moment.”
“The Rock in Rio production team have turned festival-production into a fine art, the result is relaxed, looks incredible and almost feels like a theme park,” Racy concludes. “DiGiCo consoles fit into this world because they are feature rich and super flexible. The software is highly evolved to do exactly what we need it to do. Add to that combination the practical and communicative surface, and there is no doubting that the Rock in Rio / DiGiCo trend is here to stay.”
