Allen & Heath takes the reigns for a VIP Heineken Champions League Experiance

The UEFA Champions League Final is the culmination of months of matches between the best teams in European Football. It is one of most prestigious sports tournaments in the World and is watched by over 400 million people across an estimated 200 countries. To celebrate the Champions League Final in South Africa the headline sponsor Heineken put on an incredible event at the new Goldrush Dome next to the FNB Stadium in Nasrec to broadcast the game to select group of VIPs. This custom venue was entirely designed, manufactured, and built in South Africa by Live Nation in partnership with Stadium Management South Africa and Gearhouse South Africa. For the Final Matchup between PSG and Inter Milan the 4000-seater space played host to an orchestra who performed the famous Champions League theme song live to those in attendance.

The Allen & Heath dLive S5000’s handled both the Front of House and Monitor duties. The S5000 houses two stunning 12” touchscreens with 28 physical motorised faders, 26 assignable Softkeys and 6 Rotaries for control. The FOH desk was fitted with a Dante Card and Waves card for extra effects in additional to Allen & Heath’s own RackUltraFX and a SuperMadi card. To handle the inputs and outputs two DM64U Mixracks were each fitted with a GigaAce Card. The DM64U each coordinate 64 Mic/Line inputs with 32 Line Outputs and three I/O port for extra expansion. On the stage the band and orchestra connected to two DX168 Expanders which delivered a further 16 inputs with 8 outs per expander. The monitoring was simplified with the use of two ME-U Hubs which routed back to a total of 20 ME-1 Personal Monitors on stage allowing the performers to build and control their own mix without relying too heavily on the monitor engineer.

Technical Manager Puleng “Stuff” Maponyane said that he has really grown towards the dLive ecosystem and says that it is easy to set-up, reliable and has all the onboard processing you would need. “The DLive console is very cool, quick to setup, and great to work on. The custom surface allows me to narrow down complex system setups like the UCL Final performance and create workflows that work for the show. I started working on the console at Travis Greene’s show back in November 2023 in Randburg and loved it. The offline editor is top tier as it is the exact interface of the console and allows engineer to pre prep consoles. The DLive has become preference when mixing all my artists. All thanks to Lesedi and Audiosure for the support in creating a great user experience on the console.”

Technical Supplier          Antonio Baleiza – Ampere Event Technology

Audio HOD                      Puleng Stuff Maponyane

Monitor Engineer           Kulani Baloyi

Monitor Assist                Autotune Kabelo Mohapi

RF Engineer                    RF Junky

Stage Tech                       Mzee Hlophe + Josh von Brughan

Allen & Heath is used on productions the world over. Interested in their products? Give us a call today and talk to an audio specialist about your needs.