TWAUDiO enhances the 4th Katara Traditional Dhow Festival in Qatar

It is considered the most exceptional maritime heritage festival in the region and the world, with various GCC countries attending and participating. The festival introduces guests to traditional performers, pearl diving, sailing and rowing competitions, as well as operettas and other activities.

TWAUDiO’s partner, IAC Qatar, was hired to provide an audio and lighting system for the 5-day festival.

“As the Katara Traditional Dhow Festival is such an important event in the region, it requires precise advance planning” says Elie Salameh, Project & Sales Manager. “We spent many hours in the office carefully designing and planning the audio and lighting, and are very satisfied with the results” he adds. “Before being set up, the PA system was visualised using EASE FOCUS 2 software. Due to the vast area (around 400 metres of shoreline) we decided to use four 9- meter towers, from which we hung arrays of six VERA10s, supported by VERA L24, to cover a distance extending almost 100 metres into the Persian Gulf. Two inner arrays were equipped with 120-degree waveguides to expand horizontal coverage” says Ndumiso “Genie” Mkhize, IAC Qatar’s audio engineer. “On the other side of the beach, we had the promenade to cover, and for this we used a horizontal array of 3 x T24 at each tower position, facing the opposite direction. This enabled us to achieve extremely even coverage without any compromises. Traditional music here does not usually contain much low-end content, which is why we simply used a couple of B30 and BSX, and this worked out great.” continues Ndumiso.

“We are very glad to have such professionals in our constantly growing TWAUDiO family. The sound provided for this event was clear and comprehensible everywhere it needed to be. It was a pleasure to participate in such an interesting cultural event” adds TWAUDiO Head of support, Michal Poplawski, who was able to oversee planning and on-site project management.