The Filmfare Awards are the oldest and most prestigious Indian film industry event, and undoubtedly the Oscars of Bollywood. Leading Indian live sound production specialists, SOUND.COM, were asked for the second year running to provide a complete audio solution for the event, which this year included broadcast sound as well. Interestingly, SOUND.COM chose to upgrade their entire sound system from last year. From a Lab.gruppen point of view, this meant that instead of last year’s choice of FP+ Series, the main system was run with the new flagship PLM 10000Q Powered Loudspeaker Management systems with onboard Lake processing.
Like last year, the show was hosted at Yash Raj Studios in the heart of Mumbai, which, according to SOUND.COM’s Warren D’Souza, is not acoustically the best venue—it is designed as a film stage. Nevertheless, as the most coveted awards night in India, with a star-studded guest list attending the live event and a billion viewers from India and overseas glued to their screens, failure in any part of the signal chain was not an option!.
For this reason, SOUND.COM opted for Lab.gruppen’s new flagship PLM 10000Qs throughout to drive the full JBL Vertec house sound system. “At shows like this backstage space is at premium and every piece of gear has to sound incredible, be extremely compact and fully loaded with features,” explained D’Souza. “Our new Lab.gruppen PLM systems are a perfect example; we managed the entire house sound with them, and thanks to their comprehensive onboard Lake DSP and Dante networking, we were able to do all the distribution, alignment & equalization within the amplifiers. It also has to be said that they just sound fabulous, and with the added advantage of the load “fingerprinting” we can keep a check on all of our drive units way up in the air.”
To power all the side fill and stage systems, SOUND.COM used their trusty FP 10000Q racks. There were also numerous personalized mixes that were sent to the tele-prompters, backstage, green rooms. “We could not have done this without our Lab.gruppen FP 10000Q’s and the customized patch bays on the front of the amp racks,” noted D’Souza. “Thanks to this setup, we could have any permutation or combination of number of mixes or loudspeakers deployed at the venue.”
In addition to the main PA, SOUND.COM also managed all of the wireless requirements for the event, full show control and broadcast requirements. The entire event went without a hitch thanks to flawless preparation, high quality equipment and impeccable audio management from a dedicated and hard-working SOUND.COM team.