V-Series tames festival deep in the rainforest.
The Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching, Malaysia, is quite unique. Initiated by the Sarawak Tourism Board and taking over the Sarawak Cultural Village tourist attraction every July, the festival draws renowned musicians from all over the world as well as indigenous musicians from the deep interiors of the island of Borneo – placing grassroots Malaysian world music on the same stage as well known stars.
The festival’s winning formula has been attracting large audiences from all around Southeast Asia and beyond for several years. The festival includes cultural workshops combined with lectures on ethno-musical topics, jamming sessions and breakout gigs, as well as the main performances on the two stages erected by Kuching-based rental company Projection House.
Kevin Phua has been a key figure at Projection House throughout its eighteen year existence, and for the past four years has deployed the d&b V-Series at the festival. This year once again the Jungle Stage and the Tree Stage were built at ninety degrees to each other and were set up for ‘ping-pong’ performances for maximum continuity.
Both stages used twelve elements of the V8 3-way, passive line array loudspeaker, supported by four V12s; one stage had twelve V-SUBs and the other used eight J-SUBS – flyable cardioid subwoofers from the J-Series. Phua appreciates the infrastructure of the V-Series particularly in these sometimes challenging conditions.
“Of course, the weather is unpredictable,” he smiles. “Let’s face it, the site is completely surrounded by rainforest. But d&b’s rigging solutions and the excellent work from our technical teams do help…”
Technical Director of the festival Niall Macaulay is very clear in his mission. “My job as a sound engineer is about bringing happiness to people,” he says. “d&b provides the main PA for the two stages addressing an arena of around seven thousand to eight thousand people, and we use the V-Series for the tops and subs except for one stage which has J-Series subs. I find that d&b’s product range has a consistent sound across the range, and the flexibility to be able to mix and match products from throughout the catalogue and still achieve an even result.”
Projection House first bought a V System in 2015, adding another the following year specifically to cater for the Rainforest Festival. “The organizers of the Rainforest Festival are very happy with the quality of the d&b V System” adds Phua, “it really is ideally suited for this event, so we’re glad we made the right choice by investing in ‘V’ for the rainforest.”
