DirectOut ensures total redundancy at the Youth Jubilee

DirectOut offers full redundancy with more than 80 smart audio platforms installed for papal Youth Jubilee mass. Luca Giaroli, by DirectOut, designed an audio system, video and network control that provided the perfect infrastructure that guaranteed that the audience of more than one million young people heard every word of this papal mass.

Held in Rome in August 2025, the event occurred on a large scale, only the public area had more than 5 kilometers wide, with more than 80 towers that transmitted audio and video throughout the premises. Installed by the Italian production company Event Management, each tower was equipped with public address systems, huge video screens and smart DirectOut platforms.

These were fed by a network of audio distribution over IP Ravenna and each tower benefited from fail-safe redundancy across the network. Additional DirectOut solutions were also used in the room's audio systems, the stage and the broadcast, with a total of almost 100 DirectOut smart platforms.

The spectator area was huge.. The distance between the first and last tower was more than six minutes by car and the audio delay between them was more than five seconds. These towers provided all audio and video services, including emergency announcements, so there was no possibility of any failure occurring.

Designer Giaroli has a long history specializing in providing complete redundancy for large sporting and live events, including the design of audio networks for large international shows such as the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, the Eurocup 2020 and the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008. This extensive experience has made it ideally positioned to provide the layers of redundancy necessary to ensure that such an important event runs smoothly..

Failsafe

His design for the Youth Jubilee had to include a answer to all imaginable failures. This included an ingenious disaster recovery solution that relied on the audio and video towers being equipped with a terrestrial television receiver. This receiver could provide direct transmission of the mass broadcast signal, so that, in case of total network failure, the towers could continue transmitting audio and video to attendees.

The addition of a local emergency switch allowed the show signals to be automatically attenuated and a live microphone on the public address tower activated.. Thus, was guaranteed that, with very little explanation or training, any of the volunteers could easily address the crowd and convey critical safety information if necessary.

This was possible because the DirectOut intelligent platforms were programmed to automatically detect a failure and the resulting lack of network signals., seamlessly switching to a backup. This reliable functionality formed the backbone of Giaroli's completely redundant design, ensuring that any failure, whether human or technical, could not interfere with the public experience.

“Had to foresee and anticipate possible problems in the main network and in the redundant network, so I couldn't rely on just one main network and one backup network. Needed a disaster recovery method that was prepared for a complete network loss”, explains. “Something that is impossible to stop is terrestrial television. No one can stop RF transmission, hence, from my first designs, I included the possibility of detecting the absence of a network, directing the analog audio signal from the television broadcast to the speaker system. EventManagement implemented a combination of DirectOut intelligent platforms, including MAVEN.A and PRODIGY.MP, which perfectly suited this requirement”.

Ensuring the success of large-scale public events is not a matter of luck, sino de una planificación minuciosa y profunda y de la experiencia necesaria para elegir las soluciones adecuadas para la aplicación. Para Giaroli, el Jubileo de la Juventud fue la culminación de más de dos años de planificación. Su atención al detalle y su experiencia en audio garantizaron que el espectáculo se desarrollara sin contratiempos y que alrededor de un millón de jóvenes escucharan lo que habían viajado desde lejos para oír.