When football legend Roy Keane and award-winning author Roddy Doyle took to the stage for a series of sold-out “In Conversation” events in Belfast and Dublin, ensuring every word was clearly heard by thousands of audience members presented a significant technical challenge.

Working for promoter Aiken Promotions, sound production was delivered by Mikam Sound, with a d&b audiotechnik SL-Series system supplied and deployed by Acoustik.

With audiences attending specifically to hear every word of the conversation, achieving consistent speech intelligibility throughout large arena venues was critical.

Will Fitzpatrick, Managing Director of Acoustik, explained:

“Doing a spoken-word show is very unforgiving. Every audience member is there to hear the conversation, and you have to make sure every seat in the house is covered.”

SL-Series Chosen for Coverage and Control

For the Belfast and Dublin dates, Acoustik deployed a d&b SL-Series solution comprising KSL and XSL line arrays, supported by flown SL-SUB subwoofers. The system was designed to provide even coverage and maintain speech clarity across audiences of up to 9,000 people.

A key benefit of the SL-Series is its cardioid directivity, which reduces unwanted sound energy behind the system while focusing audio where it is needed most. Combined with d&b’s ArrayProcessing technology, the system delivered consistent tonal balance and speech intelligibility throughout each venue.

“The system’s rear rejection helped keep unwanted energy off the stage, and with ArrayProcessing we could ensure that coverage and tonal balance remained consistent across the whole arena,” said Fitzpatrick.

System design and optimisation were undertaken using d&b’s ArrayCalc software, enabling accurate modelling and prediction of sound coverage before deployment.

Compact Front-Fills Solve Sightline Challenges

Front-fill coverage was provided by eight d&b 44S loudspeakers positioned along the front of the stage.

With limited space available, maintaining audience sightlines while achieving adequate coverage was an important consideration.

“The 44S was the perfect solution,” said Fitzpatrick. “For its size, it delivers exceptional performance and allowed us to maintain clear sightlines without compromising coverage.”

Speech Intelligibility Remains the Priority

Front-of-house engineer Rory Aungier of Mikam Sound praised the performance of the system in delivering clear and natural speech reproduction.

” KSL and XSL performed exceptionally well in this environment. Once aligned, there was very little EQ required, which made for super clear speech across the entire venue. The default cardioid behaviour of the boxes is a huge advantage, giving us the necessary rear rejection on stage and achieving a more natural conversation and interaction between Roy and Roddy.”

The deployment highlights the importance of system directivity, accurate prediction software and careful loudspeaker design when delivering spoken-word events in large-scale venues.

Photo credits:
© Acoustik Productions, © Ray Keogh