Record 1,100 L-Acoustics speakers used at World Youth Day

This year’s World Youth Day took place over six days in Lisbon, attracting more than 1.5 million attendees. The largest event ever to be hosted in the Portuguese capital took place in the 100-hectare riverside Parque Tejo, with a massive stage and series of screens and audio systems set up along a 3.5km-long open-air space.

Supporting the event with concert audio capable of serving the massive crowds was an L-Acoustics K Series sound system, designed and deployed by Pixel Light.

Pope Francis delivered a message of hope and unity to the world’s youth from a 40m-wide and 24m-high stage conceived by architect João Matos. The challenge for Pixel Light, which has been an L-Acoustics rental partner since 2016, was to create a sound system that would enable could experience the speech clearly, regardless of how far they were from the stage.

“Our goal was to achieve a minimum of 97dB SPLA, considering the outdoor environment, wind and sheer number of attendees,” says Rafael Pereira, system engineer and sound designer at Pixel Light. Soundvision was instrumental in helping us predict coverage and balance the SPL across the entire audience area.”

Pixel Light opted to use only L-Acoustics products. “I believe we used every available piece of L-Acoustics equipment in Europe,” says project manager Sérgio Antunes. “This decision not only met our needs, but also significantly contributed to the project’s resounding success.”

Pereira subdivided the area into more than 70 parcels of between 5,000 and 10,000 sq metres, each with its own screen and sound system. “I never thought it would be possible to cover a space like this with just 109 towers,” he says.

“I decided to try modelling it in Soundvision anyway – I couldn’t believe it was possible. I used this 3D Soundvision model to show the client how it could be done, which helped convince them to award us the project.”

In all, Pixel Light deployed a record 1,100 L-Acoustics loudspeakers on a stage and over 109 delay towers. The assembly included 128 K1 line source speaker units, 272 K2s and 132 K3s.

Additionally, 528 Kara modular line source speakers were deployed, along with 24 dV-DOSCs.  The system was driven by 196 LA12X and 93 LA8 amplified controllers.

Pixel Light built a network of audio and control systems using 103km of fibre, with more than 300 switches to connect everything.

Pulling from a pool of several speaker lines, Pereira prioritised even tonal balance and SPL, with the objective of providing speech intelligibility. “I was limited to one LA-RAK per delay tower,” he says. “Taking this into account and to facilitate load-in/load-out, I created five varying types of arrays.

“It took a team of 24 people six days to fly the sound system. Two days were required to set up the network, and then two more for tuning and rehearsal.

Antunes adds: “We knew this project was destined to be colossal in size, but the final outcome surpassed even our wildest imaginations. Our dedicated team ensured the best possible coverage, delivering an unrivalled audio experience that resonated with every single one of the 1.5 million attendees.”