Sennheiser helps Mawazine celebrate tenth anniversary

Morocco’s Festival Mawazine: Rhythms of the World, celebrated its tenth anniversary, with Sennheiser on hand to provide a number of microphone systems.

The festival takes place in Morocco’s capital Rabat, and is patronised by the country’s King Mohammed VI. Featuring live concerts, street shows, art and creative workshops, it is noted for hosting performances in a wide range of venues.

One such venue, the Roman and medieval ruins of Chellah , featured an all-digital audio system, which arose via close co-operation between Sennheiser France, Sennheiser Global Relations, K-array, Innovason, Rabat-based audio company HLO / TLS and French technical production specialists Espace Concept.

The system, which was designed by Espace Concept’s Alain Roy, featured a K-array FOH system, comprising two KR 400K high efficiency drivers and two KL12 subs, and 12 Km8 wedge monitors, as well as three Sennheiser EM 3732-II wireless microphone receivers with SKM 5200-II handheld microphones, 16 Neumann KM 185, six KMD 143, six KMD 105 and two KM 184 digital microphones and three Neumann DMI 8 digital microphone interfaces.

The system was completed with an Innovason Eclipse mixing console, used for both FOH and monitor mixes, two Technologies YouCan FANOptics network multiplexers, two FANConvert i/o units and a Digigram 1616V2 EtherSound interface. Amplification for the FOH system was by Powersoft K3 amps, with two Nexo NXAmps and a Yamaha DME4io providing power and processing for the monitors.

Additional Sennheiser microphone systems included ten SKM 2000 handhelds, eight SK 2000 bodypacks, two SKM 5200 handhelds, 12 MMD 935-1 and MMD 945-1 microphone heads, two MMK 965-1 mic heads and eight EM 2050 receivers. These were supplied by Sennheiser France for use in the OLM Soussi and National Theatre Mohammed V venues.

“Most of the music played at Chellah was unfamiliar to the audiences, so it was very important for every part to be heard clearly,” said Youssef Agueni of Sennheiser. “Throughout the festival we had a sound engineer at the venue who provided technical support for all the performances. At the start of each day, he explained the system to the artists and their sound engineers, its many advantages and how to get the most from it.”

“The all digital system was a result of very close co-operation between the various companies and it worked extremely well,” added Youssef. “The audiences, organisers and engineers all really appreciated the fantastic sound quality that it delivered. It was a genuine high point of the festival.”

Pierre Morant, Sennheiser global relations manager EMEA, commented, “It’s a great pleasure to have contributed to this event particularly rich in culture, music, and exchanges.”