SAUDI ARABIA: When a festival scales to the size of a temporary city, delivering consistent, high-impact production becomes a feat of engineering as much as artistry. For the fifth consecutive year, Clair Global returned to MDL Beast’s Soundstorm in Riyadh, curating an expansive scope of technical services that underpinned one of the region’s most ambitious live event environments. Described by MDL Beast as a ‘living city that rises from the sand, alive with movement, light, and sound’, the three-day festival drew 450,000 attendees and demanded a level of integration across audio, communications and data rarely seen at festival scale.

This year, Clair Global KSA expanded its remit beyond audio, data services, comms and radio systems to also design and supply the audio system for the main stage, Big Beast.

“We do plenty of stadium shows all over the world, all of the time, but this one was very different,” begins Clair Global KSA’s Stu Wright. “Given the amount of people that backed us by making the change, we had to make sure we delivered it flawlessly, and client feedback suggests we did. It’s a big deal to replace your audio vendor on any main stage, especially this one, and I personally felt the pressure to get it right.”

With the Big Beast hosting an extensive blend of regional and global talent, the likes of which included bigwigs like DJ Snake, Armin van Buuren, Swedish House Mafia, Steve Aoki, Pitbull, Post Malone, etc; more than 100 Clair Global crew were deployed. Wright notes, “Choosing the right crew is vital. Fortunately, we have some of the best talent available to us. Our Project Managers, Pete McGlynn and CW Alkire, made sure everything ran smoothly. The whole interaction between festival production, festival management and the wider Clair team was seamless. Our designers and engineers at Soundstorm are all world class, they really are the best in the business.”

The Big Beast system was designed by Clair’s UK-based engineering team led by Josh Lloyd around an L-Acoustics deployment featuring K1-SB, K1 and K2 for main and side hangs, supported by flown and ground-stacked KS28 sub arrays and six large delay hangs. DiGiCo control packages were standard across stages, with four SD7 Quantum consoles at Big Beast FOH and monitors, plus an SD12-96 as a production console.

Lloyd explains, “It’s quite varied in terms of artistic content, with a mix of both EDM acts and live bands performing. From a system design point of view, we needed to generate high impact, with an almost ‘in your face’, low end, chest-pumping system response for that club experience, while creating a system that also works for bands. Getting the rejection on-stage, the directivity control with low frequency and sub information correct was very important.”

Soundstorm’s premium VIB (Very Important Beast) suites and elevated viewing zones added further complexity, requiring consistent SPL and tonal balance even at the far reaches of the site. The VIB (Very Important Beast) suites offer a festival box experience based around privacy & luxury while having the best view of Big Beast stage. The VIB suites were all equipped with Cohesion CF24 and CF Subs and utilized a Yamaha CL5 control surface. There are elevated zones too, where fans can experience live music from panoramic viewing decks.

Clair also supplied the site’s EVAC PA system with Clair i-3 3-way speaker cabinets and Yamaha DM7-EX and DM7 Compact digital mixing consoles.

Lloyd continues: “On a typical festival site, you can afford to drop the level at the back a little, but at Soundstorm, the raised VIB boxes and grandstand viewing mean that’s not possible. Many areas are removed from the main crowds and situated at the very back of the venue, but these spaces still require an immersive and engaging audio experience.”

The engineering team had to consider the festival’s sprawling layout, a multi-stage site with entertainment occurring simultaneously. To combat the possibility of stage bleed, the delay system distribution was another big factor. To maintain the level and low-end impact, particularly within the hard-hitting EDM realm, Josh employed L-Acoustics modelling software to really dig into the design detail and nuances.

He also praises Clair’s on-site system engineers for doing a brilliant job, stating “With Andy Fitton and Dan Fathers on our team, I knew I was handing the design over to two very talented engineers who worked collaboratively and assured the design was deployed as intended. The success of Big Beast is a testament to their work as much as it is the system design.”

And echoing the importance of collaboration, he adds: “A strength within our company is that we deliver such a breadth and depth of events, meaning we can draw on both personal experience and our wider team to devise the right solution for the client. We truly tailor each system design around what’s best for them.”

Owen Orzack managed audio across the entire Soundstorm site. He notes: “We wanted to ensure that Big Beast coverage & low frequency impact of the various systems were solid. Most of the artists who were bringing in their own control packages were already known to us, so we had guest snakes, RF coordination and 120V power for the US-based acts, ready for their arrival.”

Beyond Big Beast, Clair handled audio for four Underground stages, featuring Cohesion CO12 systems, a d&b audiotechnik KSL8 deployment, and a 360-degree d&b audiotechnik V8/12 setup at the Silk stage. The Underground stages housed a combination of DiGiCo SD10, SD12-96 and SD11 consoles. And alongside some spectacular drone shows – all triggered from Clair-supplied playback and timecode rigs – Clair also handled 24hr cover a week before the festival commenced to facilitate soundchecks, rehearsals, the technical build and any last-minute artist enquiries.

Orzack adds that the festival’s evolution continues to raise the bar: “Every year, the team at MDL Beast works hard to ensure that the crew experience, alongside the patron experience, is improved. For Clair, this festival continues to be a multi-company, multi-country event with our local KSA workforce too. We’re all proud to be involved.”

Clair Global KSA General Manager Nora Alsalem highlights the broader impact: “I’m proud to be part of the progressive development happening here. The Saudi people are benefiting greatly from all the changes, and I am excited to help with the transformation by creating new employment opportunities for Saudis while we build a new entertainment industry, aid tourism and welcome overseas visitors. At Soundstorm, the local knowledge from our Saudi team helps to unite the multicultural crew. Breaking down linguistic and cultural barriers increases operational efficiencies and brings people together, ultimately reducing risk for all involved. This year it was especially great to see the festival’s Arabic stage fusing the best in western and eastern creativity and talent to crowds who loved it.”

Equally formidable was the communications and data backbone. Clair deployed 171 Riedel Communications Bolero belt packs, 108 Riedel SmartPanels powered by Artist-1024 and Artist-32 frames, RTS hardwired packs, and an extensive fiber network.

Comms engineer Jimmy Xiloj observes, “We serviced 8 x stages in total and provided equipment for the Event Control team. The biggest obstacle for us was the miles of fiber required to cover such a big area. It was essential for robust communication.” A four-site Motorola SLR-based DMR trunked radio network, 3,200 accessories, Avtec dispatch integration and dedicated timecode transmission for fireworks further reinforced operational safety and coordination.

Strategically planned radio channels were also integrated into the sitewide Bolero show comms system with the use of Motorola Mobile DM4600e’s. Additional repeaters were located at the Big Beast’s audio FOH station to provide constant transmission of the firework time code for remote firing, ensuring ultimate audience and crew safety.

Neil Chapman oversaw the radio systems, commented “We opted for Motorola R7’s for user handsets with accessories including noise cancelling headsets, covert earpieces and remote speaker microphones (an incredible 3,200!). Our radio channels were organized in sequence of priority across the repeater sites to allow for resilience and redundancy. The radios were integrated into an Avtec dispatch console system, giving dispatchers in Event Control site wide channel access with features including call history, call recordings and instant replay.”

On the data side, to enable seamless connectivity for crew, artists, vendors, and guests, Clair built a large-scale, multi-zone Layer 3 network supporting production, broadcast, public Wi-Fi, ticketing, RFID, CCTV and emergency systems. The deployment included 1,100 wireless access points, 226 switches, 36,576m of fiber, 45,720m of CAT6, and transport layers up to 75G, collectively carrying more than 150 terabytes of data. The core transport layer was built on 75G, 40G, and 10G aggregated LAN links, providing the throughput required for Dante audio, lighting networks, broadcast systems, comms integration, and site-wide radio programming. In total, the network supported 53 VLANs, including 15 SSIDs and 150+ terabytes of data moved during the event.

Carlos Elizondo, Director of IT for Clair Data Services on Soundstorm, explains, “What makes data especially critical is that it functions as the integration layer between every department. Systems operate across the same engineered fabric, but are isolated, protected, and prioritized so they can coexist without risk. This environment is high performance; everything is live and there is no margin for error.” He concludes, “This event reinforces the strength of the Clair Global brands. Teams from different disciplines, regions, and companies aligned around a single goal and that is reflected in the technology we deploy, in the people we trust and in our company culture.”

At Soundstorm’s scale, technology is not merely support infrastructure but the foundation that allows spectacle to exist. Clair Global’s multi-layered deployment demonstrates how deeply integrated audio, comms and data have become in enabling the modern mega-festival experience.