Even knowing that this is the most populous nation on earth, nothing quite prepares you for the sight of 200,000 people processing into Tiananmen Square. The night before all main roads around the square had been blocked off in the largest security operation since the opening of the Olympics. And deep within a compound to the north sector of this enormous space, a team of sound technicians from Zenith, Beijing’s leading event specialists, were rehearsing for a show that must at all costs, achieve perfection; the 60^th anniversary of the founding of the modern state of China.

The design for deployment around Tiananmen Square was made by Jin, Shao Gang. He’s an independent sound designer; the top man in China in fact, and was heavily involved in the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics last year. Mr Jin had the J’s deployed across the central zone of the Square in stacks of four J8s, projecting onto the performance area and beyond.

For this show they provided almost fifty boxes of d&b audiotechnik J-Series loudspeakers.