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From famine to feast in the Middle East

From famine to feast in the Middle East

From famine to feast in the Middle East

A hectic start to the touring season has already seen TriTec AV’s newest equipment purchases pay off

No sector has escaped the novel obstacles presented over the last several years, but the live events industry has been particularly hard hit. Amman-based production company Triple Technology (TriTec) AV has of course been no exception. Having gone from supporting a high number of large-scale events in 2019, the market was suddenly ripped out from under the Jordanian company’s feet and a long dry spell followed. While the company had been slowly making waves across the wider region in the years preceding the pandemic via an outpost in Dubai, Covid forced a rethink and the decision to double down on the home market instead.

TriTec AV has always set its sights on the big league, and the Jordanian market has proven to be a highly prosperous sector for live entertainment, which led to the company’s prior involvement on high-profile events such as presidential speeches, papal visits, A-list music concerts and top-tier sporting events. As the industry has opened back up in full force, the team has quickly found itself the preferred supplier for nearly all large-scale music concerts in the country, resulting in back-to-back work for the first time in months.

Having just engaged in a mammoth 12-week stint of major concerts across Jordan, this homegrown approach has clearly been a winning formula. Crucially, as TriTec AV owner Marwan Abujaber explains, it was proof that the less than promising start to 2020 was over: “While we had done a couple of shows out in the desert back in September last year and some others in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, we had a very quiet start to this year.”

Kicking the season off in late May, Recovery Fel 7oush saw the TriTec AV team head to the Bisharat Golf Course in Amman to support a concert for 4,000. Translated from Arabic, Recovery Fel 7oush means “recovery in the garden”; an apt description of the evening. Not only would the event give the company its first opportunity to work with new equipment purchased during the downtime, it would also set the tempo for the remainder of the season. TriTec was enlisted to handle the complete technical production for the concert, which featured performances from the likes of Autostrad, Yazan Sarayrah, Stitch and Guitani. The team was particularly excited for this concert as it would be the first opportunity to put the company’s new pair of DiGiCo Quantum 338 mixing consoles to work in a real-life setting. “Recovery was the first concert of the new season and also the first big concert where we’ve been able to use the new DiGiCos, so we were naturally very excited,” says Abujaber. “It’s been quite a story getting to this point.”

After first getting hands-on with the equipment at Prolight + Sound Frankfurt, it was decided that the Quantum 338 mixing console would be the most appropriate upgrade path for the company’s existing fleet of DiGiCo SD9 and Yamaha PM5 consoles. Abujaber placed an order for a single Quantum 338 in the middle of last year for an October show, but a mix-up at Heathrow Airport security meant that two Quantums unexpectedly ended up in India and two SD-Racks in Jordan. “One of the reasons for picking the Quantum is that we were increasingly getting requests sent over with technical riders from international bands listing it and we knew that if we wanted those tenders, we’d have to raise our game. But there was a national religious holiday in India in October, so the country was completely off the grid – the desk was sitting in the airport doing absolutely nothing for a month and a half,” explains TriTec AV sales and marketing director, Najib Albakhit. “It ended up being something of a blessing in disguise as it gave us greater urgency in deciding to purchase a second unit.”

Upon finally receiving both units in February, DiGiCo VP of sales Ian Staddon and technical sales manager Fernando “Fer” Delgado visited Amman to conduct comprehensive training with the TriTec AV team, with the company pulling out all of the stops to make it a memorable visit

“We see ourselves as a centre of excellence rather than as a company competing head-to-head with others in the industry; we’re very accommodating,” shares Abujaber. “I invited everyone locally in the industry to come along and explore the new technology. Quantum is really something brand-new for Jordan. We started off with an introduction about the brand and its technology and then we took an in-depth look at the desks. I think Ian really appreciated us bringing in not only 20-plus people from other companies but also a load of students from the SAE Institute.”

Bearing all this in mind, it made perfect sense for the new Quantums to be debuted at Recovery, the first large-scale concert to follow. The 338s were connected via dual SD-Racks over an Optocore fibre link, with one for FOH and the other for monitors. “It was a great experience running the desks and the SD-Racks together with the 32-bit cards. The sound quality was pristine, and the bands and the promoters noticed the difference, so it was a clear improvement on the delivery of the show. It gave new life to the sound system and everyone was happy with the quality,” commented Albakhit.

In addition to the Quantums, TriTec AV deployed a main 24-box FOH Adamson Y18 solution with groundstacked T21 subwoofers tuned with Lake Processing, and paired it with a d&b audiotechnik M2 monitor and sidefill system.

Additional equipment included a stage backdrop of Absen LEDs and an all-new complement of 40 Claypaky Xtylos moving heads controlled from an MA Lighting grandMA2 console. While riders typically tend to be more relaxed on the lighting side, TriTec AV was concerned that some of its existing portfolio was beginning to age.

“Our lighting rig was beginning to get quite dated and we were keen to explore new technology. We’ve been working with Claypaky for many years. The colours of the new Xtylos are magnificent, and it was an easy purchasing decision as we’d be getting something that hasn’t been used before in Jordan or the wider region,” says Abujaber. “Having a laser source gives a very nice array of colours, it’s very bright and the fixture is also very efficient in terms of power usage. It was a good step forward for the company on all fronts. Xtylos is a fantastic product and I’d like to thank Claypaky for the support provided throughout this significant purchase.”

With Recovery Fel 7oush declared a massive success, it was straight over to the Dunes Club for TriTec AV the following weekend in support of Summer Jam, an annual 14-hour-long concert organised by Beats Events for an audience of more than 5,000. The line-up was a mixture of local and regional acts spanning EDM and popular music. “The organisers really wanted to go big after Covid by laying on something really special, so they called in the cavalry,” smiles the TriTec AV owner. In June the gear moved down to the Ayla Resort by the Red Sea in Aqaba for the Ayla Music Festival, a two-night event for more than 4,000 VIP guests, before finally ending up back at the Dunes Club for the Red Bull Jukebox global event.

“We had a very short changeover between events and the Quantum was absolutely instrumental in shortening that changeover,” says Abujaber. “We had such an exaggerated number of inputs to work with, yet everything could be preconfigured and patched in advance, saving lots of time on the night – all we had to do was load up the new configurations. It was a dream. The size of the console is also very manageable, and this is coming from someone who remembers the days of carrying a Soundcraft Europa on my back, and the feeling of release once we switched to the Midas Heritage. It’s impressive how much power is inside that tiny Quantum box.

“I truly believe that paying double or triple the price for a piece of equipment is a worthwhile investment in the long term. Our latest purchases have allowed us to continue pushing the bar of what’s technically capable in Jordan. This is essential as the market is constantly moving forwards and the quality of productions rising alongside.”

The trio of events capped off a record opening to the season, which the TriTec AV owner hopes has set the bar for the months ahead. “Obviously we can’t predict what might happen from a health standpoint, but we don’t foresee any more closures,” predicts Abujaber. “There is ripe demand at the moment – people are thirsty to go back to the entertainment industry; however, I think matters will slow down again as work life continues to return to normal. If everything carries on as it has recently, both this summer and next should be really great for business. Jordan is an emerging market that is developing very nicely as a station for tours. I like to think that we are the desert watering hole for the thirsty international touring market.”

Ironically, this could leave the team with a new predicament – a warehouse stocked full of new investments that require an ever-growing team of talented engineers. “If we want to continue to grow bigger and maintain being a centre of excellence, we’re really in need of more good technicians, whether that’s at a low level or an engineering level,” says Abujaber. “It’s very tricky to find good staff generally in the industry, but even more so locally in Jordan. We really look forward to nurturing the future industry and this was evident at our Quantum showcase with SAE students. We’re 100% behind those kids and I hope that we have been able to help inspire the next generation of talent that can continue to drive Jordan’s market forwards.”



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