To provide everything necessary for the visit of Pope Francis, Multivision had to work hand in hand with other companies in the sector, including one from Colombia.
By Francisco Arboleda*
The current political situation has made Ecuador, one of the smallest countries in South America, visible worldwide; Thus, in recent months, the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis would begin his Latin American tour right here, in the middle of the world.
The visit of the highest representative of the Catholic Church implied for Ecuador a great logistical and technological challenge and that is that, more than eight million citizens, would follow in the footsteps of the Supreme Pontiff during his visit; one of the most important events was the camp mass held in the Bicentennial Park of Quito which, according to national and international media, received more than one million three hundred thousand parishioners. The challenge: to ensure that attendees can see and hear the message of Pope Francis in an area of 634,000 m2.
Multivisión, Cía. Ltda. was the company that took on this great challenge; with 70 days in advance, the pre-production process began with the collaboration of graphic designers. To carry out virtual surveys, Marco Salas and surveyors supported by GPS systems, verified the real measurements of the space; at the same time audio, video and lighting technicians worked intensively to ensure the total quality of the event.
The first step taken was to ensure that the provided supply of electricity supplied the entire place; to achieve this we planned and located 70 electric power poles, through 3 nearby substations, 12 transformers of 132 Kv, high networks and three-phase connections, the energy capacity mounted is equivalent to that necessary to provide electricity to a city of 300,000 inhabitants.
For better coordination, the space was divided into 4 main lines of work:
Alfa: the entire line that started from the stage with an extension of 1400 linear meters.
Bravo: 90 mts. of Alfa by 1400 linear meters
Charlie: 110 meters from Bravo by 1400 linear meters
Delta: 110 meters from Charlie by 1400 linear meters
Having fiber optics was essential for the perfect execution of the papal mass and it was the engineers Sebastián Portilla, Ober Guerrón, Geovanny Escobar and more than 20 technicians who were in charge of its installation; were more than 12 km of fiber installed and supported by Extron Electronics, 13 Fox Box transmitters and 32 Fox Box receivers. The result: we transmit audio and video in full HD (1920x1080p).
The success of the event depended, not only on a perfect video, but on a clear audio; to achieve this, Multivisión, together with Línea Estratégica (Colombia), implemented the main audio clusters on the Alfa and Bravo lines (central); under the L-acoustics brand with more than 100 K2 units (unique in Latin America) and with constant advice from the factory, through its representative Marco Pineda (Avcom) we achieved a great sound reinforcement system thus covering the needs of the place.
In the secondary lines we have a team of various brands being Nexo in these lines the company with the highest percentage of representativeness, it should be noted that Multivisión had, at all times, the collaboration of Eng. Roberto Tschopp.
More than one million attendees involved the placement of several clusters, in total 630 loudspeakers were installed in more than 50 audio clusters arranged at 10 and 14 meters high.
Safety, our responsibility: for being a massive event and with a large number of audio and video equipment installed around the Papal Temple, Multivisión Cia. Ltda installed anchors to the floor with an average of 4 tons of counterweight for each cluster in charge of Eng. Dañiel Eguiguren and a human group of 40 people, plus a safety fence, prevents attendees from forming a ladder in the clusters, the result: no recorded accident.
With a staff totally committed to its work, Multivisión Cia. Ltda. under the command of Eng. Luis Vargas and a selection of the 12 best sound engineers in the country, carried out the programming of delays for each fiber optic receiver; 28 digital consoles were handled, system angulation, fasamiento of the same; in short, he was in charge of the generation of clean audio signals for PA, and for the different national and international media.
Finally, within the stage or Papal Templete, a system of Varilite intelligent lights was installed, 32 lights that were directed by the Eng. in Lighting Santiago Hidalgo and programmed by Jorge Fernandez. The Papal Visit, the most important mass event held in Ecuador in the last 30 years, a challenge successfully fulfilled by Multivisión Cia. Ltda.
*Francisco Arboleda is manager of Multivision Ecuador.
