LSS on stage for the '1st May' Concert in Rome - The story

THE OPPORTUNITY

As every year since 1991, in the great square of S. Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, takes place  the "traditional" concert of Primo Maggio, under the aegis of the three major Italian trade union representatives: CGIL, CISL and UIL.
The 'Big Concert', as it is known, was born with the intention to draw attention to May 1st: workers festivity.
On the prestigious stage perform our best national and international big artist (www.primomaggio.com).
The event, edition after edition, has quickly gained fame and visibility on television thanks to the constant presence of more than 500.000 people, that only in that occasion populate the Roman square situated close to the popular area of Basilica of San Giovanni which has concluded from the name of the first edition.
Organized since 1991, first in an essential and primitive way, both for workmanship and technical equipment, has become, with the strong professional contributions of all employees and the companies involved in the show, a form of excellence for an event that occupies each year about 180/200 workers and where perform,  on the famous round and motorized stage, a variable number of 25 to 30 artists and their bands.
In 2014, for the Monitor Stage System, among many internationally famous companies that have been proposed, was chosen an Italian company: LSS 'Advanced Speaker System' (www.lss.it).
The technical production of  'Primo Maggio' concert was curated by Massimo Ferranti, historical production manager and owner of  the roman company ABC Ltd. (www.abcsrl.it);He, as well as being the first to organize the festival, is the person who, more than any other has made substantial changes to the structure of the spectacular Concert of Primo Maggio for the television event.
LSS, having proposed its project, was able to secure the supply of High-Powered World Monitors System and thus receiving approval from Massimo: key element of choice was the excellent reputation of LSS products for live sound reproduction.

THE PROJECT

The designer of all LSS products is Giuseppe Laruffa. 
Giuseppe founded his company in 1995 with the strong intention to keep high the quality of sound reproduction uncompromising. 
In detail, he uses since the dawn of the first realizations, components and accessories of Italian manufacture at state of the art. 
In the Head office of Polistena, the  technicians of 'LSS' have studied the design of the monitor system for the stage of Primo Maggio. 
The demands for the concert are usually onerous and stringent in terms of number of speakers and big power required on stages, in fact they must balance the strong sound pressure coming from the FOH audio system, mounted to properly sonorize an audience of 500.000 people. 
Were therefore used, for each stage, ten Wedge Monitors plus a Drumfill System of big power pressure for a total of twenty Monitors and two Drumfill Systems. 
In this configuration must be added four front Monitors (double 12 ") plus two powerful systems used as Sidefill in common to the two stages. 
Four other Wedge Monitors have been used in the two positions of the mixer stage in order to have the same listening reference. 
The  power of pilotage for each rotable stage is then about  20kWatt, while the power of pilotage to Sidefills and Fronfills system is about  15kWatt 
By configuring LABGRUPPEN FP+ 10000Q and FP6400 power amplifiers provided by Lombardi Service, the company that was responsible for the entire rental service audio of the concert, LSS technicians have designed  the signal path in order to kept intact the power transfer as smoothly as possible, and to put in ideal conditions, the operation of the LSS Monitor System. 

In detail, the products used are: 

N. 24 LSS 'WM3' (15" WEDGE COAX rotable Horn) 

N. 04 LSS 'WM4' Frontals (HIGH POWER 2WAYS WEDGE 2X12” + 3”+WAVE GUIIDE ASYMMETRICAL) 

N.02 LSS 'Q-REX SYSTEM' (COAX HORN LOADED + SUB) 

N.02 LSS 'Q-REX SYSTEM' with double head + SUB. (COAX HORN LOADED + SUB) 

N.4 XTA '448 system processing' 

N.2 XTA '444 system processing' 

www.audiocore.co.uk
 

N.05 LABGRUPPEN FP+P10000Q 

N.04 LABGRUPPEN FP6400 

www.labgruppen.com

ON STAGE 

After positioning the Monitor System on the 14 meters diameter stage of Primo Maggio, it is the time for the first check of the connections between the 2 console of monitor YAMAHA PM5DRH/48 (www.yamahaproaudio.com), the control XTA processors and LABGRUPPEN power- end.
At this delicate point come into play the System Technicians dedicated to the proper alignment of the sound sources. 
Responsible for this operation is Mathias Huber (www.facebook/mathias.huber.73), permanent collaborator of Michael Schoebel (www.lss-audio.de), german distributor for all LSS professional products. 
At the sessions of measurement and calibration, performed by Mathias with SYSTUNE software, participate the two sound-engineers Niccolò Antonietti (www.facebook.com/nicoisok) and Oliver Marino (www.facebook .com/Olivermarino64) as monitor mix engineers on stage, respectively for stage A and stage B. 
The result is considered satisfactory for both LSS team and the two sound-engineers, who will then have the onerous task of conducting the long sound-checks sessions on May 29th and 30th of all the artists that will perform.

THE SHOW

Just before the show that start at 15:00 pm along with most of those who took part in the technical management of the event 'Primo Maggio', we find ourselves in the Back-Stage of the rounding stage for the usual lunch organized and prepared in common. 
At this particular moment of culinary meeting, also known at the international level, It is celebrate the initiation rite for the Concert by the whole team; this, as in the days of the Roman Empire, is the wish for success for the long and demanding 8-hour television marathon. 
The resulting sound on stage is powerful and clean, this allows all artists to perform nicely in front of 500.000 people of the public, arrived since morning to attend happy and compact to the BIG concert in Rome. 
A warm atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and professionalism, gave way to all operators to work with an uncommon serenity in dealing with 26 consecutive bands on stages A and B and 10 other artists who perform on a further dedicated Stage C readings the theme of this year created by the authors. 
Around 24.00, the smiles and hugs at the end of work between all the Crew and LSS Staff, tell much more than the spoken and written words. 
Once again, and inevitably as every year, the display of the Stage shows the date of May 2nd: and the 'Primo Maggio' concert of 2014, , in Piazza San Giovanni in Rome, once again ends as a great opportunity for Italian brain on professional audio, this time thanks to 'LSS Advanced Speaker System'. 

Ing. Giovanni Orlando,

LSS Technical & Comunication department

Audiotech Team of concert and all sound engineers:

LSS Team: