Main carnival celebration in Paraguay has Powersoft amplification

Encarnación, Paraguay. February 1st, 2019. The Encarnaceno Carnival is the largest public festival in Paraguay, in the city of Encarnación. It is about five celebration nights, carried out between January and February, taking in the Municipal Civic Center venue, known as the “Sambadrome” (Sambódromo), which can contain up to 12,000 people.

Just like the emblematic carnival in Rio de Janeiro, the festival features a parade with moving carriages, musicians and dancers that perform along the Sambadrome – which is 440 meters long and 12.50 meters wide – for an hour. At the end of the event, participants are awarded by a Jury in different categories. In previous editions, equipment was provided by different rental companies, with different audio systems, which generated audio variations in several sectors of the Sambadrome.

Therefore, the production team decided to leave all of the audio in the hands of only one company this year: Estudio DJ Paraguay, which made a strong investment to be able to get a uniform audio coverage throughout the entire venue. «We started working on this project in March 2018 and decided to make a big change in audio to get a uniform sound all over the 440 meters. To get the job done we set 20 audio towers in total,» says Edgar González, CEO of Estudio DJ Paraguay.

Investment on audio gear
Estudio DJ Paraguay had already worked in particular sectors of the event, but this year it took charge of providing 100% of the lighting and sound equipment for the carnival. The goal for 2019 was that all of the 440 metros of the parade would have a smooth sound, besides fixing the problem they used to have on signal transmission from the carriages transporting musicians to the PA.

“It was a very strong investment. We got custom loudspeakers made in China following the requirements we needed for this project”, he explains. In the Sambadrome, we set 20 towers with three 15 «+ 1.25″ loudspeakers that are used to provide sound for the parade’s main street, two 12” + 1.25″ loud-speakers that provide coverage for the box seats, and three 18″ subwoofers. On the main exit, there is a tower used for sound check with four 18” subwoofers and four 15″ + 1.25” loudspeakers and in the middle of the Jury sector there are four arrays with a 18″ subwoofer plus a 12” + 1.25» loudspeaker. There are 108 new mid/high loudspeakers and 68 subs in total.“ Regarding amplification, Edgar said that the original project was designed to use Chinese amplifiers too but, during a meeting with Gilberto Morejón, Powersoft’s Regional Sales Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, they discovered the advantages that Italian amplifiers would bring to the event and decided to invest in them.

Now Estudio DJ Paraguay has 20 amplifiers from the K Series with DSP + AESOP. «We chose the K Series because we needed an in-built processor in each amplifier and because of the reliability that Powersoft provides. Although I have to admit that we are already thinking on changing them next year and get the new T Series that has just been launched by the company, mainly because we need Dante. We are very interested in the new T302 DSP+Dante,» Edgar highlighted.

Stability first
10 x K2 DSP+AESOP units were used for amplifying mid/high loudspeakers on the towers and 10 x K3 DSP+AESOP amplifiers were working with subwoofers. One of the highlights in the installation, compared to previous editions, was the stability despite energy variations around the venue. “Powersoft amplifiers are very stable, even with peaks of 250 volts or 180 volts drops,» Edgar said. The entire system was operated using Powersoft’s Armonía software. «It was precisely one of the aspects that convinced us to buy Powersoft, due to the ease of use and the several tools the software provides,» he explained.

«We are in love with the K Series amplifiers. They perfectly matched our technical requirements. As a sales and distribution company, we had already installed and sold many Powersoft amplifiers in the past and never had any complaints. That really tells on the quality of the product,” he added. In parallel to the Encarnaceno Carnival, which will end on the last Saturday of February, Estudio DJ Paraguay is working on the audio project of a new soccer stadium for the Encarnacena League for 35,000 people, as well as the audio project for the new Iglesia de Dios church which will hold up to 7,000 people. The company will be using its Powersoft amplifiers in both of them