Saadiyat Nights Concert Series Appoints Clair UAE for World-class Concert Sound Design, Communications and Radio.

Saadiyat Nights, an open-air music series held on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, returned with a star-studded line up of local, regional, and global talent. Amongst the performers were Clair Global touring clients Jennifer Lopez, Robbie Williams, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani and Lionel Richie, plus a performance by captivating Egyptian composer and pianist, Omar Khairat.

Clair UAE supplied audio, comms and radios, working closely with most of the artists to replicate identical touring packages, ensuring performers and crew were at their most comfortable when visiting the region.

At the specially constructed open-air venue, audience experience is a priority, as is the need to combat potential noise pollution to the surrounding residential areas. To adequately overcome any such issues, Clair UAE was appointed to work on a sound design which would be both concert worthy and resident friendly.

The performance space is a semi-permanent structure – a 5,000-capacity seated venue with VIP boxes at the top of the grandstand – erected in the Saadiyat cultural district. The venue is surrounded by notable museums and tourist attractions.

Clair UAE’s Audio HOD and System Designer for this project, Dana Beaudin informs, “We designed the system using the L-Acoustics L2 modules and gave special attention to control of spill outside of the audience coverage areas. The biggest consideration after this was minimizing noise pollution. As a high-end venue in the middle of the cultural district, the island is home to over 100,000 people.

“The lightweight design of this PA helped our team get the system into an ideal hanging position from the main structure without having to add any additional rigging reinforcement which could interfere with sight lines. Aesthetics are very important to the overall feel of this event, and our audio design had to be impactful across a multitude of genres, yet discreet for concert viewing.”

The main FOH system as well as the outrigger system (side hangs that aimed to cover the audience located at the far flanks) comprised L-Acoustics’ L2 and L2D line source speakers. And to control the low end, Dana and the team deployed a total of 27 units of the KS28 subwoofers in vertical groups of three in a cardioid configuration, rounded out with 8 units of the A10 loudspeakers that were deployed as front-fill reinforcement.

Dana continues, “We worked with the show designers from an early stage to ensure we were able to fly the boxes high enough with minimal positive angle on the PA to reduce overshoot. To compensate for this and with the VIP boxes situated at the back of the venue, we deployed a pair of L-Acoustics 2-way passive point source 5XT’s in each booth to keep consistent coverage and clarity on the high end. We also had a small center hang of Kara to help improve the imaging as the main hangs were quite far apart.”

A wide range of top tier consoles were also supplied by team Clair UAE, including SSL L500, Avid S6L-32D, and several DiGiCo models over the course of the two-month series. In tow, world-class wireless systems like the Shure Axient and PSM1000’s, Sennheiser 6000 series, and Wisycom IEMs were also made available to artists and performers; with each artist having a control and monitor package based on their global rider requirements.

“In the UAE, and as part of the wider Clair Global Group, we provide the same level of service our clients would expect anywhere else in the world,” adds Dana.

This is echoed by Clair’s Mark ‘Magic’ Ellis-Cope, who notes: “We had great feedback from all of the artists engineers. A comment made often was that turning up in the morning and seeing everything already set up and patched made their lives so much easier!”

On the other hand, the radio system deployed by Clair UAE mainly comprised the Motorola R7’s, which were extensively used by venue production, staff and artists; as it afforded consistent coverage across the entire venue. Motorola DMs were used in the Joint Operations Control center to enable the use of a standard microphone, and headphones for site security. The comms design was a Riedel Communications Bolero stand-alone system with NSA-002 units for flawless interfacing with cameras.

“This provided coverage throughout the main venue for operators at FOH as well as for the stage/ backstage areas for crew, including stage managers, and the lighting and video teams,” Dana concludes. “The flexibility of this comms system allowed us to seamlessly change pack configurations and preferences for the incoming artist teams for every bespoke show.”