The Evening of the Year IV: Riedel's extraordinary display

Jaume Bordoy, manager of Tilt, details the extensive intercommunication network for the Year IV Evening, an event promoted by Goatch Global and Ibai Llanos that achieved historic audiences based on cutting-edge technology such as Bolero and Artist solutions from Riedel.

On July 13, the stadium Santiago Bernabéu of Madrid lived a historic event that united tradition and modernity. Powered by the streamer River Llanos, the fourth edition of the Evening of the Year, an annual boxing event that pits various personalities from the internet world against each other, surpassed with more than 80,000 locations sold the attendance record for a fight in Spain, established in 1930 by Paulino Uzcudun and Primo Carnera at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium in Barcelona

The barrier overcome in the field of presence extends to digital sphere. The event, broadcast for the Spanish-speaking public through Ibai's Twitch channel, managed to connect more than 3.8 million unique devices (with 14.8 million viewers and a total of 95 million live views) in what was a new world record on the American streaming platform owned by Amazon. Dozens of other parameters, ranging from attendance to digital interactions, certify the historic nature of an event that, in its 2025 edition, will once again try to surpass itself.

From the production point of view, the Year IV Evening was what may have been the event with most demanding broadcast character of the renovated Santiago Bernabéu. The broadcasts of a top-level LaLiga or Champions League match always require a very important technical deployment, although the production drawn by Goatch Global covered a total of 8 hours of broadcast, six fights with unique features and seven performances by live musicians from the likes of Will Smith, Bizarrap, Anuel AA or David Bisbal.

Pol Forès, partner of Far productions, responsible for the technical production of the year's evening, had no hesitation in entrusting this work to Jaume Bordoy, with whom they have already worked in many previous occasions and with whom they have always found the necessary solutions.

The team of Tilt bet on what may have been the Greater deployment of a Riedel intercom network in Spain, except for those arranged in large television production centers.

A production of these characteristics required a extensive preparation on-site for more than a week, plus months of pre-production. Beyond the 34 cameras deployed around the stage, or coordinating the corresponding broadcast through Twitch, it was essential to have a intercom system to support more than 150 users, whether they were in various locations at the Santiago Bernabéu or on board the different production areas. To make this project a reality, the Tilt team opted for what may have been the Greater deployment of a Riedel intercom network in Spain, except for those arranged in large television production centers. Bordoy shows Panorama Audiovisual all the keys to his intercommunication deployment in the run-up to the Year IV Evening from the control room of the Santiago Bernabéu.

More than 200 Riedel solutions, at the Evening of the Year IV

“I couldn't do an event of this type without this team,” says Bordoy when asked about the choice of equipment. Riedel for the intercommunication of The Evening of the Year IV. Tilt has been a faithful user of the German brand since it landed in Spain, and has accompanied it in all types of productions: “We had the first system MediorNet TDM in a mobile unit in Spain, and the first Intercom and Bolero…We have absolute knowledge of the brand and when they asked us to carry out the communications for this event, I knew that we would need a system that would provide maximum security in communications.”

Specifically, the Tilt team has used for the Year IV Evening with 89 beltpacks Bolero; 62 user interfaces SmartPanels; the system Artist 1024, working via IP and AES67 to manage all signals; a Artist 64, used as a converter between analog, MADI and Dante audio signals, and 26 antennas; everything, to establish 12 IFBs, some of them stereo, and 28 conversation groups, figures to which we must add the 32 additional partylines established with the intercommunication system of the mobile units of Mediapro, from which much of the production of the event was mixed. This vehicle, which initially did not have Riedel solutions in its construction, was adapted by the Tilt team with the integration of several SmartPanels and the establishment of 24 round-trip communication channels.

To undertake the project, Tilt found itself with an added advantage: the Santiago Bernabéu's own technological infrastructure It had an extensive deployment of Riedel solutions, commonly used for the coordination of its usual activity. "The Bernabéu team has given us all the possibilities. We have taken advantage of their panels to bring communication to all types of positions and their antennas to ensure coverage throughout the stadium. In addition, the network audio system that the stadium has has made the installation much easier for us," says Bordoy. In this way, to the 50 SmartPanels used out of the 66 available in the stadium, Tilt added 12 additional systems in key locations.

“The team of Bernabeu has given us all the possibilities. We have taken advantage your panels to bring communication to all types of positions and their antennas to ensure coverage all over the stadium.”

The already complete selection of Riedel teams from the Santiago Bernabéu specified reinforcements in areas clave. An example is the deployment of antennas that support Bolero intercommunications. In the words of the Tilt team: "The stadium has antennas arranged throughout the venue, but not enough for such a density of beltpacks within the playing field itself, since it is usually not necessary. Therefore, we deployed 9 additional antennas to serve these areas so that FOH, councilors or camera operators could receive communications with the greatest guarantees."

Total success and maximum demand

Planned for nearly a year from a creative and technical perspective, The Evening of the Year IV certified its success by monopolizing the conversation on digital channels and occupying positions in the main news and media outlets. Its arrival at a successful port is not the result of chance, but of hours of conversations, human talent and robust and reliable technological solutions. In Bordoy's own words: "It has been complex, but the Riedel system, its type of architecture and its software have made all the work absolutely easy. The fact that we can work offline before coming here has streamlined all the processes and has allowed us to have a very powerful communications network."

“Bolero as power of communications, flasks and covers; the connectivity of the Riedel matrix, which makes a brutal difference with any other system... No matter how much they told me, I wouldn't approach this job with any other system”.

Planning is not exempt from the usual unforeseen events on the day of the event. It is never easy to coordinate hundreds of intercom crossing points in a display of such dimensions, but through the use of Riedel software, Director, Bordoy and his team interact with the system in real time to adapt it to the preference of each user. On another occasion, three operators located in the heart of the stage state that their intercoms are “out of network”, although the Riedel antennas are capable of redistribute and manage signals so that all users are connected. A human error: the antenna had been manually disconnected and, in a matter of minutes, it was already operational. “Things like this can always happen minutes from starting, but with Riedel we can solve it instantly. I can't imagine what this would be like with any other type of software,” says Bordoy while quickly modifying some parameters on his laptop.

Once the show starts, everything runs smoothly. The intercommunication happens so that, hour after hour, develop combats, musical performances, surprises and comments in real time forming an unrepeatable appointment. Bordoy, once again, reaffirms its decision to choose Riedel: "Bolero as a communications power, packs and coverage; the connectivity of the Riedel matrix, which makes a brutal difference with any other system... No matter how much they told me, I would not approach this work with any other system."