For the fourth year running Sound By Design supplied the sound reinforcement for the annual Russian Economic Forum event at Old Billingsgate. The four day event again saw bespoke system designs installed for each contrasting day with conferences, live band shows and a night club setting created in the historic venue with various overnight re-rigs and changeovers.

Systems Engineer Dave Shepherd headed up the project management and system design of the show. For the conferences Dave covered the venue with arrays of Meyer Sound UPA-1P and 2P full range cabinets flown above the stage and audience, with Meyer MPS-355 front-fill and Sound By Design’s brand new EM Acoustics i2s utilised as a delay system under the balconies. System management and time-alignment was provided by three BSS Omnidrive Compact Plus’, configured using FFT analysis in SIA Smaart 6 software and mixed on a DiGiCo D1 by engineer Richard Denham. All radio microphones were top-of-the-range Shure UHF-R systems, with both lapel and KSM9 handhelds being used.

The Saturday show saw the venue turned into a Russian nightclub, with various DJs and six bands playing throughout the evening; Lazarev, Mika, Sophile Ellis-Bextor, Via Gra, Nogu Svelo and Ira. Dave installed a system of four Meyer MSL-4 full range cabinets with four Meyer PSW-4 and two Meyer 650-P subs, a four-way configured system that had one heck of a punch. A delay system of flown UPA-1Ps was utilised to cover the rear of the room. At front-of-house Senior Engineer John Gale mixed the show on a DiGiCo D1, accommodating various Russian and English guest engineers.

Richard Denham, who mixed on a second DiGiCo D1, looked after monitoring requirements. Fourteen EM Acoustics M-12S wedges went to site that were powered by two racks of QSC PL236 amplifiers. Meyer CQ-1s provided stage side-fill with a drum-fill stack of Meyer USM-1P and USW-1P sub-bass cabinets. In-ear monitoring was provided by Shure PSM700 and Sennhieser G2 EW300 systems with Shure E5 generic earphones, as per each artist’s rider.

To accommodate the short changeover times, rolling risers and double stage racks were used to change between bands. Each band’s sound-check was saved and recalled from snapshots mid-show, with the stage changes and radio microphones managed by regular freelance crew.

A complete format change later, the final day’s “Russian Rhapsody” was a total contrast. In the East Hall various Jazz acts provided entertainment during dinner and for this a distributed system of Meyer UPA-1P, Meyer MPS-355 front-fill and 650-P subs was used. This part of the show was mixed on a Crest X-VCA, with monitors mixed from front-of-house. For monitoring on this stage, Sound By Design’s new EM Acoustics EMS-81s were given an outing, a very discreet and low profile floor monitor suited perfectly to the task. Drawmer, Klark Teknik, Yamaha and Lexicon provided analogue outboard effects and processing.