Landmark Production in Bucharest Features Immersive P.A. System, Over 100 Musicians, and Solid State Logic Live Consoles at FOH and Monitor

Live Sound

06/10/26

Bucharest, Romania, 6th October, 2026 — Popular Romanian singer, songwriter, actor and TV personality Smiley’s landmark Armonie (Harmony) show in Bucharest in October 2025 was the first in the country to be presented through an immersive P.A. system and featured over 100 musicians and singers on stage. To manage the spectacular show’s audio complexities while also providing a broadcast feed and recording 128 tracks, live sound and studio solutions provider Audiv supplied a Solid State Logic Live L550 Plus for front-of-house and an L650 for monitors — making this the first time that SSL Live consoles had been deployed at both positions at a live show in Romania.

“My idea with Smiley’s production was to take everything to another level — elevate the production to the highest standard and offer a unique audio experience with spatial movements that would truly ‘wow’ the crowd,” says Narcis Claudiu, General Manager of Audiv, SSL’s new Live distribution partner in Romania. Narcis, who has been mixing FOH for Smiley on an L500 for about a year, upgraded to an L550 Plus for the special event to take advantage of the extra processing power and higher path count.

Exceptional audio quality with SSL Live

Armonie performed two sold-out nights at the end of October at the Sala Palatului in Bucharest and featured Smiley and his nine band members, six special guests, the 70-piece Metropolitan Orchestra, and an 18-piece choir. “Plus, seven rockstar audio techs taking care of the whole production,” Narcis comments.

Narcis’ experience with SSL Live consoles goes “way back”, he reports. “The processing is top-notch, powerful, reliable, and musical. The EQ is precise, and what you hear truly reflects what you see. Having the Spectrum Analyser helps you visualise the spectrum and easily identify what might be resonating, and where.” For the Armonie show, Narcis says, “Except for two outboard reverbs, I stayed within the SSL environment — no external plug-ins, just SSL tools like Sourcerer, Blitzer, the SSL Bus Compressor, some parallel compression, and Fusion. These shaped and blended the orchestra and the band into a very clean, powerful sound.”

SSL L550 facilitates solid mixes for the artist

Adi Dan was Narcis’ choice for the monitor position. “I have known Adi for many years; we’ve done a lot of shows together. I wanted someone who could fully understand the concept, create a solid mix for the artist, and share a similar mixing philosophy.” The monitor setup encompassed 24 channels for the band and guests, plus a personal monitoring system for the orchestra with over 70 wireless beltpacks. Dan also recorded 128 input channels at 96 kHz from the L650 via MADI. “No external plug-ins were used, just SSL processing and good ears,” Narcis says.

He initially planned to program his L550 Plus to more easily manage the audio complexities of the show, which also included video and lighting. “My first approach was to build a very powerful show file with over 250 paths, lots of snapshots, LTC, tons of effects, and more. But then I took a step back and realised that I’m the one doing the mix, not the console. So, two days before the show, I completely reorganised the structure: some channels went into groups, groups were routed into the L-Acoustics L-ISA processor, I added a few outboard FX, and kept full control of the processor via DeskLink. Scene automation was used minimally, only for a few parts of the show where 10 fingers weren’t enough to adjust pan positions or faders to create movement.”

SSL ML32.32 MADI stageboxes

Four SSL ML32.32 MADI stageboxes on stage, together with a 32-input DAD Core256 for playback tracks, also transported via MADI, were all connected through an SSL BLII Concentrator linking both consoles. “The L550 handled all preamp gains from FOH, routing for recording, routing to the L-ISA processor, and all processing involved in the mixing stage,” Narcis elaborates. The immersive P.A. processor received 96 channels from the L550 Plus via MADI. Most of those console outputs were bus outputs with processing for the orchestra, band, choir, backing vocals, and main vocals, he says.

Both SSL consoles employed additional MADI ports to send high channel counts to the recording devices at 96 kHz. Romanian broadcaster ProTV was also involved in recording the event, so a dedicated stereo mix was created from the L550 to ensure the right balance for the broadcast feed. A Dante network provided a fallback path for the multitrack recording channels as well as the onstage playback device for Narcis at FOH. “I had a full backup integrated through the console’s signal switcher, just in case — because the show must go on!” he says.

The first show of its kind in Romania

Following the success of the two sold-out performances in Bucharest, Armonie will continue as an immersive live experience, with further dates and new shows already in production for next year. “Smiley is a true game changer”, Narcis says. “I’m blessed to work with him and the entire crew. Special thanks to Smiley for trusting me with this project and wanting to push boundaries.”

He concludes, “The concept of Armonie revolved around unity, musical emotion, and spatial depth, which aligned perfectly with the capabilities of the immersive technology. With more than 512 channels, a large number of sensitive microphones, less than 12 hours of setup time for the entire production, including rigging, sound, lighting, and video systems, and a two-hour performance, the result was a technically complex yet artistically seamless show crowned by a standing ovation from the audience and celebrating both the music and the innovation behind Armonie.”