d&b Helps the Dalai Lama Promote Peace

May 7th, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was met by an attentive crowd of over fifteen thousand people in the Comcast Center at the University of Maryland (U of M). His Holiness received an honorary degree in Letters, and gave a lecture on behalf of the university's Anwar Sadat Peace Series, urging audiences to find the similarities among men in order to promote compassion.

To ensure his message was fully conveyed, the university turned to National Events and d&b audiotechnik to provide a detailed, yet discreet sound system. The small, yet surprisingly powerful Q-Series was perfect for the job. Bateman explains, "Though it was our first event with U of M, National Events often works with spoken word shows. Of course it's crucial to have excellent intelligibility. However, the goal is to keep all the equipment out of the way, so the focus stays on the speaker. Due to recent construction at the Comcast Center, we only had three motor points per side. The d&b Rota clamp allowed us to adjust easily. Also, the Dalai Lama requires a thirty foot audience buffer. With the help of the d&b ArrayCalc simulation software, we were able to find the ideal placement for each piece of the sound system, to make sure no energy was wasted."

In total, over fifty separate loudspeakers were used. With only half that available at the time of this event, National Events turned to fellow audio provider and d&b Sales partner, Overland Pro Audio to help meet their needs. CEO Bill Mills was happy to help, "That's what's nice about the d&b system reality design approach. There is an exact consistency among the equipment regardless of the supplier, which makes temporary expansion like this seamless. Overland's inventory worked perfectly to fill the gap between what was on hand and what was needed. Plus with amazing pattern and directional control, providing sonic clarity for such a large basketball arena was relatively easy. We were proud to help provide for such an important event."