Latin pop sensation Enrique Iglesias returned to Dubai in September for his debut sold-out concert at the Coca-Cola Arena with local audio solutions from Clair Global UAE and support from touring partner, Sound Image.
With 180 million worldwide record sales to his name, Iglesias has a huge live following, and his recent performance in the Middle East was met with palpable excitement. An artist accustomed to high-level touring, the singer’s crew relies on Sound Image, a Clair Global brand, for international audio solutions, and with one-off performances such as this, Clair UAE picked up the rider locally, ensuring environmental goals were met where possible.
“It’s always much easier to advance a one-off concert when the artist uses a Clair Global company to provide equipment and crew. In essence, having the intracompany contacts enables us to streamline the advance and preparation of the equipment,” explains Clair Global UAE COO, Al Woods.
“The standard of equipment and crewing we have here in the Middle East is on par with every other Clair Global office,” he added. “We may have a smaller setup, but we follow company packaging standards and have a team who turn out every job impeccably as we would a tour. Our in-house engineers are also highly skilled and understand how to advance and look after incoming artists and their every need.”
Woods explained how Clair Global’s locations, highly trained personnel and state-of-the-art equipment available all over the world makes the company unique. “Dubai is no exception to this rule – we are well-stocked to cover incoming requests and, on this occasion, supplied practically everything needed for the control package,” he commented. “While the artist brought a couple of pelican cases, a rack, and three audio personnel, the rest was provided locally. The ability to do so in-country enables artists to perform one-off shows by drastically reducing the commercial aspect of delivery. Clair is also mindful of the carbon footprint caused by flying tonnes of equipment for one-off events. This is a prime example of our corporate and social responsibility to try to reduce emissions where we can.”
FOH Engineer Brad Divens has specified JBL PAs from Sound Image for years, which is coincidentally the Coca-Cola Arena’s in-house system. “Brad’s preferred system is the JBL A12,” Woods revealed. “This worked out very well as Coca-Cola was promoting the event directly and we were consciously using as much of their in-house system as possible to deliver the audio solutions required.”
Malcolm Giles, Director of Technical Production for ASM Global Middle East at the Coca-Cola Arena, was on hand to lend his venue expertise and vast experience to the production. “Malcolm is an ex-touring audio engineer, and he understands exactly what high-calibre artists expect,” Woods stated. “He made the whole process of utilising the Coca-Cola Arena house system seamless.”
Clair UAE provided a Yamaha PM10 Rivage at FOH, which the tour supplemented with outboard effects and processing from a US rack, integrating flawlessly with the local package. In monitor world, an Avid S6L 32D with a Titan Waves package was provided by Clair UAE for Monitor Engineer, Eddie ‘El Brujo’ Caipo.
Stage IEM Shure PSM 1000 TX units and the full JBL PA, Drive and Systems Engineers were provided by Coca-Cola Arena, led by Sr Audio Technician, Luke Brookes and his team.
Sound Image Account Executive for Enrique Iglesias, Josh Swart, was pleased with the delivery. “Both engineers were extremely impressed with not only the way the gear is maintained, but how well it was prepped,” he reported. “They both commented that the console package in Dubai felt like it had come straight out of one of our US shops.”
The Clair Global UAE team was completed by Audio Project Manager Dana Beaudin, FOH Audio Technician George Forsyth, Monitor and RF Audio Technician Clinton Hattingh, and Kate Lee, a Clair Global touring Stage Tech.
Next up for Enrique Iglesias is a performance at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for Besame Mucho Festival this December.
Photos: Coca-Cola Arena, Clair Global UAE
