TURKEY: Istanbul Festival brought thousands of visitors together at Festival Park Yenikapı from 1–16 August, combining live music, stage shows and entertainment across one of the city’s largest festival productions. Supporting the extensive programme was a technical infrastructure built around L-Acoustics, DiGiCo and MA Lighting International solutions; represented in Turkey by Asimetrik Sound Lighting & Visual Systems Inc.

The festival’s expansive sound reinforcement system used L-Acoustics solutions across the Main PA, Outfill, Ground Fill and Delay positions, creating consistent coverage across the venue while providing the output required for a large-scale live music programme; with the deployment comprising a total of 48 units of the L-Acoustics K1 line array modules, 48 units of the L-Acoustics K2 line array modules, 24 units of the L-Acoustics K1-SB high-power subwoofers, 48 units of the L-Acoustics KS28 high-power subwoofers, 18 units of the L-Acoustics KARA II line array modules and 12 units of the L-Acoustics A15 loudspeakers. The decision to deploy a comprehensive L-Acoustics loudspeaker system ensured a coherent and immersive sonic experience throughout the vast audience area, maintaining tonal balance and impact from front to back; with the approach allowing every listener to experience the same energy and clarity regardless of position within the site.

At the centre of the live sound mixing infrastructure were two DiGiCo Quantum338 digital mixing consoles and four 32-bit DiGiCo SD-Racks, which provided the production team with the mixing and I/O infrastructure required to manage the festival’s live performances, while retaining the processing and operational capabilities of the DiGiCo platform. The system allowed for precise control over the sonic experience delivered to the audience, ensuring clarity, impact and consistency across the entire venue; while enabling engineers to finely tailor on-stage monitoring and mix conditions, supporting optimal performance conditions for the artists throughout the festival.

The visual grandeur and lighting control of the festival were centred on the globally acclaimed grandMA3 platform from MA Lighting International; with the control infrastructure comprising three grandMA3 Full-Size lighting control consoles, two grandMA3 Light lighting control consoles, three grandMA3 NPU XL units and four grandMA3 8Port Nodes. The comprehensive capabilities of the grandMA3 platform enabled highly precise, timecoded and dynamic lighting control across the entire festival stage environment, supporting complex show programming with consistency and reliability. Its flexible workflow and powerful processing allowed the lighting design to shift seamlessly between artists, enhancing the visual impact of each performance. As a result, the system played a key role in delivering a visually immersive and cohesive festival experience for the audience.

With thousands of spectators experiencing the performances simultaneously across a large festival environment, consistency across the audience area was a central consideration for the technical design. The combination of L-Acoustics sound reinforcement, DiGiCo mixing and MA Lighting International control provided the core technology infrastructure supporting the festival’s live production requirements.

Asimetrik shared their thoughts about the successful culmination of the festival, stating, “Enabling thousands of people to share the same music, energy, and stage experience simultaneously is made possible by the convergence of precise system design, powerful technology, and professional control. At Asimetrik, we continue to bring the world’s leading professional audio, lighting, and stage technologies together with Turkey’s largest productions”