The
Bavarian State Garden Show took place in
Ingolstadt from 21 April to 3 October 2021. A highlight and at the same time the conclusion of the State Garden Show was the laser show as part of the
Luminous Events, organised by the
Cultural Office of the City of Ingolstadt on 1 and 2 October, which took place around the landscaped lake on the grounds. Service provider
DS Showlaser GmbH from Egenhofen projected impressive colours and images into the surroundings and made the grounds shine in a very special light. More than 8,000 visitors enthusiastically celebrated the closing event. Of course, music also played an essential role in completing the images. To realise this just as perfectly, DS Showlaser relied on the sound systems of
dBTechnologies. For the laser show, there were some sound challenges to be mastered. An area of 8000 m2 had to be covered evenly. The delay times of the sound had to be even (low) to all listeners, as the music had to be heard synchronously with the images and lasers. The exact positioning and set-up of the PA were crucial for a uniform sound.
To solve this and other challenges perfectly, the DS Showlaser team installed two PA towers, each equipped with two line arrays and each covering about 4,000 square meters. For each line array,
8 VIO L208 units were used. The arrays covered one half of the lakeshore, radiating from the centre of the lake. Additional
VIO X12 modules on tripods served as nearfill for the area directly below the arrays. The team placed
8 VIO S118R subs in a circular end-fired arrangement for each PA tower, resulting in a perfect summation and spherical source.
Due to the size of the area to be covered, the cabling of the PA for power and control was also quite complex.
Alexander Hohl, Managing Director of DS Showlaser, explains the production, "With such open-air locations, there are always challenges for the technology. For example, the maximum power consumption for the sound around the lake was not allowed to exceed 44 KW, as there was simply no more available. So we only had CEE32A per tower, but we had to use them to provide sound for about 4000 m2. That was one reason why we chose the VIO L208 from dBTechnologies. The performance of the modules concerning power consumption was a perfect fit for us. In addition, setting up and controlling the entire system with AuroraNet is important, especially for a production like this. We used a Yamaha QL1 mixing console as a digital feed for the two AC26 controllers on the respective towers. All settings, such as EQs, delays, groups, etc., were realised via AuroraNet. For this, there was a separate network around the lake for the sound equipment."
DS Showlaser installed 150 m of power cable per PA tower for the power supply, starting from two dBTechnolgies PBS32EU PowerVT units each. To avoid voltage drop, a larger cross-section of the supply cable was used. An 80 m multicore cable was laid through the lake for the IP network, with several CAT6 data lines available (light, sound, laser). Eight additional switches were used to distribute the data around the lake. A separate network was provided around the lake for the sound equipment and the connection of the two AC28 controllers and two RDNet Control8 units to the system.
