Held in downtown Milwaukee at Henry Maier Festival Park along the shore of Lake Michigan, Irish Fest is the world’s largest celebration of Irish music and culture. For Irish Fest 2019, Audio Biz used Allen & Heath dLive and SQ Series consoles for the 100 musical acts and 300 different performances that performed across 16 stages.

With Clearwing handling the bulk of the event’s sound reinforcement, independent rep firm Audio Biz deployed five dLive and six SQ Series consoles across seven of the stages plus a preshow/demo suite. Among the dLive systems were S5000 and C3500 control surfaces supported by DM48, DM64, and CDM48 MixRacks.

Used at smaller stages where space was at a premium, SQ-5 and SQ-6 mixing systems ran both the house sound and monitors simultaneously from a single control surface. For I/O, Allen & Heath’s DX168 and GX4816 interfaces were chosen.

‘Bands and engineers came in for the event from all over the country and Ireland,’ Audio Biz’s Shawn McLoughlin says. ‘And while most of the engineers had heard of the dLive and SQ Series consoles, not quite everyone had worked with them yet. That’s why we created the preshow/demo suite, which was outfitted with a dLive S5000/DM64 and an SQ-6. The idea was to provide a space for everyone to familiarise themselves with the desks and prep for their shows before they actually went out to face the crowds.’

As the event transpired, McLoughlin and Brian Christ, his Audio Biz colleague who was also on-site for the duration of the festival, found that their gambit paid off. Comfort levels with the desks materialised quickly. Many of the engineers even downloaded dLive Director, a multi-platform editor including control software that allowed them to configure their systems before the festival and arrive for their show times ready to go.

‘Everyone who took advantage of the preshow/demo suite walked away with a clear plan of action,’ Christ adds. ‘Many set up show files, then simply dropped them into place and were up-and-running. The desks integrated themselves into the event quite easily and could even be setup to mimic whatever configuration someone was used to, even from another manufacturer’s board. It was almost as if no experience was required to obtain excellent results and reap the workflow and sonic benefits the SQ and dLive have to offer.’

More: www.allen-heath.com