Record-breaking Spanish Boxing event, La Velada Del Año 4, deploys nine console DiGiCo

‘The Night of the Year’ is organised by Ibai Llanos, one of the world’s most successful Spanish streamers who has over 30 million followers across his internet platforms, and a mind-bending three billion views on his YouTube channel alone. The chosen internet-superstars have no boxing experience before signing up and train hard with professional coaches in the months leading up to ‘La Velada’. The series has been smashing global viewing records ever since the first closed-door event, back in May 2021, held under Covid restrictions.

Pol Forès, Co-Owner of FAR PRODUCTIONS SL and sound engineer for all of Ibai Lianos’s output, was the Technical Director of the event. Forès is truly dedicated to excellence and keeps his own DiGiCo Quantum 225 in his living room, allowing him the freedom to explore, experiment and invest time in any crazy ideas he might have, a real bonus when planning for shows as complex as La Velada Del Año.

“This is a live show performed in front of an audience of around 80,000 people in a stadium, while simultaneously being broadcast on Twitch,” explains Forès. “It’s the most-watched show in Twitch history, with Ibai breaking his own record every year, reaching nearly four million concurrent viewers this year alone. This incredible demand requires high levels of technical understanding and human ingenuity to ensure everything runs smoothly across the entirety of the eight-hour extravaganza.”

The visual design of the show was strikingly clean. The boxing ring and commentators were placed in the centre of the stadium on a raised stage and musical performances interspersed the action, with David Bisbal, Julieta Venegas, Bizarrap, Young Miko, Anuel, and Paulo Londra all performing live sets. There was even a special show from Will Smith, who played his most popular songs, including Miami and the intro of Fresh Prince, and unveiled tracks from his new album.

The uninterrupted lines of the set required all racks to be hidden. With no backstage or side of stage areas, the monitor and front of house consoles were positioned next to each other, supported by multi-view monitors, so that the team could clearly see the artists on stage.

“Given these challenges, the decision to use DiGiCo consoles as the core of our audio setup was based on their ability to provide an unparalleled combination of flexibility, reliability, power and sound quality,” says Forès. “For this event, we used a Quantum 7, seven Quantum 338, an SD12, eight SD-Racks with SD 32Bit mic pre-amps, and an additional SD-MiNi Rack, allowing us to efficiently manage 368 inputs and 98 outputs.”

The team utilised an A-B setup for band mixing. Each system used a Quantum 338 at the monitor position and another at front of house driving the PA. This allowed the team to prep for the next performance while the preceding singer was still on stage. These signals went through the ‘main’ Quantum 338, the central console that mixed all the live mics as well as music heard in the stadium, while combining all signals from the A-B system and broadcast consoles to the PA.

The Quantum 7 was dedicated to music mixing for broadcast. The dual-engine console ensured redundancy and was directly connected to the front of house and monitor systems, a three-way split distributed signal to all three Racks, including broadcast. An additional Quantum 338 covered the upper level seats and delays, plus another for back-up. The SD12 was exclusively used to cover the boxer’s entrances and exits.

“The main Quantum 338 not only centralised all signals but also clocked from the OB truck, ensuring clock coherence throughout the system,” he says. “Communicating with the OB truck via MADI and Wordclock ensured coordination between the direct sound in the stadium and the broadcast, allowing us to manage signals in both directions, such as IFB sends to the presenters, background music, pre-recorded videos and many more.”

“Thanks to this setup, having all consoles interconnected, mainly through an Optocore loop and with the central Quantum 338 via multiple MADI64 connections, we could leverage the advantages of Copy Audio. This allowed us, for example, to manage cue signals for the artists’ in-ears from the monitor consoles and reroute them to an extra speaker inside the OB Truck for the TV director. This way, the director could listen to the internal artist cues, such as ‘guitar solo in 3-2-1’, and seamlessly cut to the guitar solo, greatly enhancing the flow of the production.”

The build-up to the night was almost as exciting as the main event, with the participants training for six months, the same duration as the technical production of the event, making it feel like a race against time for both sides. The hype online is huge, so by the time the ‘La Velada Del Año’ is broadcast the crowds are ready for a seriously entertaining, non-stop evening, adding to the challenges faced by the team. Manu Meñaca, Senior Technician from RMS, provided technical support on the night.

“The event is massive,” says Meñaca. “It’s hard to describe what 80,000 people screaming sounds like, but the excitement is huge. The participants are very popular in their own right, they have undergone serious training, so the fights are very professional. The music is great, too. We had some fantastic performances, but because these shows are so popular, there is a lot of pressure to succeed. We have to build in ultimate redundancy and ensure that every eventuality is planned for.”

Forès relies on a strong team to deliver the entertainment and concentrate for eight hours. Knowing that any interruption in transmission could affect a record-breaking attempt, and be witnessed by millions, is a lot of pressure, as he concludes.

“Planning for redundancies and being prepared for any eventuality is important, but the success of La Velada del Año wouldn’t have been possible without an incredible human team,” Forès says. “There are many exceptional people involved in making these events happen. For instance, Toni, Oriol, and Felipe collaborated in the design and adjustment of the PA system, as well as the main DiGiCo configurations and mixes for FOH, including the Casters, Hosts and part of the music. Marçal, Grau, and Efrem managed the broadcast coordination, handling all the MADI exchanges between the DiGiCo setup and the OB truck, and were also responsible for the final broadcast mix for Twitch. Juan and Alejo oversaw the technical coordination on behalf of Twincam Pro Audio, but the list of talented people to thank is endless! And I am deeply grateful to each and every one of them for their dedication and professionalism.

“This experience has made me fall even more in love with DiGiCo. Investing time in thoroughly understanding the capabilities of DiGiCo consoles and how they can be integrated into your setups is the key to success. The flexibility and power of these consoles offer endless possibilities, so it’s essential to understand how to leverage them to the fullest.”