TPi Magazine – August 2019

COLOURS OF OSTR AVA

Held every summer since 2002 in the north-eastern Czech city of

Ostrava, the Colours of Ostrava festival features 22 stages and countless

performers from all corners of the world. A regular fixture in the Czech

music calander, Pro Music’s co-operation with the festival came as a

result of its partnership with technical producer, Smart Production and

main stage audio supplier, High Lite Touring.

In 2012 the festival moved to a new site in the area of a former ironworks

in Ostrava city centre. There were serious challenges with infrastructure,

which had to be solved within the tight 11-month timeframe.

“To be honest, I was not quite sure if ever ything would be ready in

such a short period of time,” said Josef Ženíšek, Smart Production CEO

and Technical Director of the festival. “But the owner of the site made a

huge effort to sort out any issues and invested in large preparation works.

I visited the site on a regular basis and was surprised how quickly the

changes were made. They had to build a completely new backstage road

around the site and so many more field repairs. Also, the unique Cylinders

Gong Theatre was built in just a year,” he commented.

“When building stages, we always kept in mind that audience capacity

might rise in the future. We also needed to make sure that sound from each

stage doesn’t affect the audience of any other. It’s been eight years since

the festival moved to its current location and we haven’t had to change

anything regarding the setting, which shows that we did a good job back in

2012,” continued Ženíšek.

As an exclusive DiGiCo distributor for the Czech Republic and Slovakia

for the past 15 years, Pro Music was delighted to provide technical support

for all DiGiCo users in a dedicated prep room, located right next to the main

stage. Technical support was done by Petr Šťásek, who works for Pro Music

as a DiGiCo product specialist. DiGiCo headquarters were represented by

Jaap Pronk and Mark Saunders.

“The first two years were particularly challenging,” explained Ženíšek.

“We had to figure out the best audio set-ups for all stages to cover the

area, which wasn’t easy as we had to be aware of reflections from steel

constructions. The feedback from visitors was ver y important. Regular

visitors to the festival can see changes ever y year – some of the buildings

have been repaired, some new roads and paths have been built. All this

work has one ultimate goal: to protect this national heritage site and

During its peak summer season, DiGiCo links up with Czech-based

distributor Pro Music for one of the biggest music events in central Europe.

COLOURS OF OSTRAVA