Year After Year, L-Acoustics K Series Scores at Singapore Grand Prix Concert Year After Year, L-Acoustics K Series Scores at Singapore Grand Prix Concert...
CSP Productions delivers world-class sound for A-List touring artists to culminate the F1 night race weekend
SINGAPORE, Singapore – June 2023 – Introduced in 2008, the Singapore Grand Prix is the first-ever night race of the Formula One season. The yearly event has presented die-hard motor racing fans with the most elite drivers in the world competing on the downtown Marina Bay Street Circuit. Set against Singapore’s unique blend of modern skyscrapers and colonial-era architecture, local and traveling race fans have come to Singapore for over a decade to witness one of the most demanding F1 races.
Since its debut, a world-class entertainment program has played a significant role in attracting racegoers and music lovers alike from around the world. Acts such as Green Day, Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber, Jay Chou, Katy Perry, and Maroon 5, including top artists from Southeast Asia, have lit up the main stage at night, with family-oriented entertainment and activities dotting the entire city circuit during the day.
The Grand Prix management requires industry-leading technology to ensure the main Singapore Grand Prix Padang Stage achieves the highest entertainment standards. Since the first edition, Singapore L-Acoustics Certified Provider Rental (CPr) CSP Productions Pte Ltd has been the go-to audio and lighting partner to the Grand Prix, designing an audio system for up to 50,000 concertgoers at the outdoor Padang stage, with the republic’s stunning National Gallery as a backdrop. CSP has a track record of supporting high-profile national and international events, world summits, and conferences, as well as large-scale concerts for A-List artists.
Established in 1993, CSP Productions was one of Asia’s first show production houses to acquire an L-Acoustics V-DOSC system, which the company flew at the Grand Prix from 2008 to 2014. Regularly keeping up to date with the latest technology, CSP began powering the show with an L-Acoustics K1 system at the 2015 show. “As the Singapore Grand Prix concert has grown more popular each year, we have continued to develop Singapore GP’s faith in our technical services with every production,” explains Kenny Heng, Managing Director of CSP Production. “When we purchased the K Series in 2015, we knew this best-in-class, powerful long-throw system would be the standard for any concert experience headlined by the world’s biggest pop stars and bands. The Formula 1 concert is no exception.”
Each year, the CSP team designs an audio system to cover the vast 300 x120 meter open field and to reproduce a range of classic pop, rock, and hip-hop music. Challenges for the team are usually loading a large-scale PA onto the grass field of the venue amidst the wet, hot, and humid tropics. Working with the L-Acoustics APAC application engineers, the team used L-Acoustics Soundvision modeling software to optimize a design that could be presented to the Singapore Grand Prix team. By working together and utilizing Soundvision, they carefully avoided sound spilling over to other stages or onto the VIP areas of the concert site.
The current configuration consists of a left/right array of 12 L-Acoustics K1 boxes per side, topped by six K2. Side-fill arrays are flown with the same configuration to ensure coverage to standing crowds on both sides of the stage. Forty L-Acoustics SB28 subwoofers deliver low-end rumble from the stage front. On the extreme wings, delay arrays consist of 10 L-Acoustics V-DOSC and 12 SB18 per side. The entire system is driven by 10 LA8, and 16 LA12X amplified controllers.
The K Series system has proven to deliver power and clarity to concert-goers year after year while providing absolute confidence to the artists’ management teams that their stars will perform on a highly dependable tour-level rig.
“K1 and software assets like Soundvision and LA Network Manager ensure we can plan, deploy, and execute this show, almost within a moment’s notice, hassle-free,” concludes Heng. “L-Acoustics’ comprehensive range of audio solutions gives my team, all clients and partners, and music-loving ticket holders to the SGP concert the promise of an amazing show we all look forward to every year.”
L-Acoustics and CSP fondly remember the late Peter Loh, Technical Director of the Singapore Grand Prix, from its beginning in 2008 through the latest edition in 2022.