Sydney Festival has been running since January 1977, and has since grown to be Australia’s most attended cultural event with total audiences of approximately 1 million people. Held over a three week period, the Festival hosts around 80 events with 1000 artists from Australia and abroad. The Festival involves many of Sydney's theatres and venues and presents performances and installations covering dance, music, theatre, visual arts, installations and talks.

Three of the largest events, now Sydney traditions, are also free to the public; the two Domain concerts attract up to 80,000 people each and Festival First Night, the Festival’s opening event since 2008, held through the city streets and at 7 locations, is attended by 250,000 people each year.

Coda Audio Services has been the primary audio design and system provider for Sydney Festival since 1996. Coda works closely with the Festival organisers headed by John Bayley, Head of Production, and Katie Pack, Production Manager, throughout the year to bring the best possible sound to Sydney audiences and attend to the very specific needs of the large number of artists. The Festival organisers are committed to quality, and Coda has responded to the ever more complex and diverse requirements with an evolving solution for every venue for which we provide audio.

Our first Domain concerts were covered by the then state-of-the-art Meyer Sound MSL3's. The sound quality was a major advance of previous Festivals and set the stage for further improvements as the technology became available. The MSL-3 system was soon replaced by MSL-4's and MSL-6, then Australia's only M3D/M3D sub system; now the front of house system uses MILO and MILO 120 exclusively with MSL-4 pairs on the 8 delay towers. All the Coda systems have used multiple delay towers to give higher fidelity and localized reinforcement while remaining within the strict guidelines for sound spill from the area.

This success of this year's Festival has again proven the efficiency and ethos of Coda's approach to be worthy of such an internationally acclaimed event, and one which gives Sydney-siders and those lucky enough to attend from elsewhere in Australia and worldwide a taste of Sydney's diverse festival spirit.

Click here to visit sydneyfestival.org.au

Sydney Festival is known for its multicultural diversity and spectacular free outdoor events. This year was no exception with Indian international superstar A.R. Rahman taking part in the three week festival with a single, packed out concert in Parramatta Park. Renowned for elevating contemporary Indian popular music to the world stage and for composing the award-winning 'Slum Dog Millionaire' score, A.R. Rahman promised an exciting show and a gesture of friendship in what had been a difficult time for Indian and Australian relations.

Coda Audio provided technical audio production for the entire event, on the same night as several other large festival events around Sydney including Summer Sounds in The Domain. The main stage system required well focussed, high-power line array elements, while the 500 metre long, 80,000 capacity park needed an extensive delay system.

Coda's Meyer M3D line array was employed as the main stage system, with 12 elements per side, complemented by Meyer M2D downfill elements and 700-HP subs. 4 pairs of delay towers at 100m increments were used to extend coverage into the long park. These consisted of alternating sets of Meyer MICA and M2D line arrays, and Meyer MSL6 High-Q long throw loudspeakers. Delay system signal distribution ran on 24-way analog multicore, buffered and isolated by Klark Teknik 1248s for multiple redundant channels. Meyer Galileo 616 processors (under wireless network control) were used for system management. A Digidesign D-Show Profile console was used at the FOH for all mixing and outboard processing.

Coda has now added several elements to it's horizontal array systems with the new Meyer Sound JM-1P arrayable loudspeaker. The JM-1P is a 20° tight packable, high powered cabinet which overcomes the historical limitations of point source array systems. The 20° x 60° pattern, significant power to weight/size ratio and neat packing make the JM-1P suitable for FOH and support roles in many applications.

The JM-1P is a two-way system with 53 Hz to 18 kHz operating frequency range and output of 138 dB SPL (maximum peak at one metre). The 15-inch, long-excursion low-frequency cone driver and four-inch high-frequency compression driver are coupled through a patented REM (Ribbon Emulation Manifold) to an extremely accurate constant-Q horn. The horn has a tightly controlled 20° horizontal by 60° vertical coverage. The unit's consistent polar response and trapezoidal enclosure allows for tightly packed arrays, with each loudspeaker adding 20° to the horizontal coverage of the array. The integrated self-powered system has protection, processing, remote monitoring and a proprietary 1275 W (2550 W peak) class AB/H amplifier.

Although designed primarily as a horizontal array, the JM-1P can be flown vertically with up to six elements, using the MTG-JM1 top grid.

The specifications can't tell you how these sound; extremely good, with a smooth response even in the near field. The JM-1Ps complement the broad range of Meyer Sound arrays already in Coda's inventory.

In 2008, Coda acquired 24 MICA compact high-power curvilinear array cabinets, giving us the most comprehensive Meyer Sound curvilinear array selection in the southern hemisphere. MICA brings the very high output and smooth, extended high-frequency response that is the MILO family's sonic signature to a smaller package with broad 100-degree horizontal coverage. MICA is a self-powered three-way system with a frequency range of 60 Hz to 18 kHz and 138 dB SPL (maximum peak at one metre) including integrated amplification, crossover, driver protection, and frequency and phase correction.

From the heavyweight M3D system, through to the popular MILO, and now with MICA and the JM-1P, Coda offers the famous Meyer Sound fidelity in all sizes and all formats.

There are now three distinct products in the M7CL range, the M7CL-32, M7CL-48 and the M7CL-48ES. In place of the 48 internal mic preamps on board the M7CL-48, the M7CL-48ES features a built-in EtherSound interface for instant access to 48 remotely recallable XLR inputs and 24 XLR outputs on-stage via Cat5e (when fully expanded). The M7CL-48ES has all the M7CL features including three expansion card slots available for live recording, Version 3 software on-board and full data compatibility with all M7CL consoles. Coda Audio Sales also offer the full M7CL range and accessories through our Yamaha Pro Audio dealership.

Check out the full specifications at Yamaha or visit Coda Yamaha Digital Pro Audio Sales.