Thailand - Held in April, Songkran is a festival which celebrates the traditional Thai New Year. The three-day public holiday is marked by the widespread throwing of water, which takes place on a grand scale amidst joyous celebrations. Numerous other events take place alongside the giant annual water festival, helping to create an atmosphere of community togetherness and fun.
In the city of Chiang Mai, as well as a host of street shows, the focus of Songkran was the large gathering outside the MAYA shopping centre, where a large stage hosted a wide range of performances including DJ sets, live artists, dance, and more.
Handling the audio for the 10,000-strong audience in this open-air setting was Bangkok-based Coconut Sound, who supplied a Coda Audio system. A valued customer of Coda’s Thailand distributor Modern Solutions Plus, Coconut Sound has been a Coda Audio user since 2018 and its ViRAY and AiRAY systems are in constant demand across the country.
For the Chiang Mai event, which featured leading Thai artists J.Jetrin, Retrospect, and The Toys, Coconut Sound deployed a system comprising a main PA of eight AiRAY and four ViRAY per side, with side-hangs of six AiRAY with four ViRAY per side. The low end reinforcement consisted of 16 x SCP sensor controlled subwoofers with a number of HOPS8 (8” high output point source) units used as front fills.
Coconut Sound’s Wichak Chanmuang, who designed the system, was pleased with the outcome: “With the city bustling to the sound of many events, including a large DJ set-up in close proximity to MAYA, the system needed to deliver sufficient power and coverage to ensure that the crowd’s enjoyment of the artists was not compromised. The system achieved this with ease, leading to high praise from all the front of house engineers and the client - the sound was excellent.”
Paul Ward of Coda Audio comments: “With reliable and expert support from Modern Solutions Plus, Coconut Audio cover a wide range of applications with their Coda systems - they are a great example of a company who recognise the versatility and adaptability of our systems and deploy them to maximum advantage at indoor and outdoor events on every scale.”
