Leading UK audiovisual supplier, Blitz Communications has added two DiGiCo SD8 digital mixing consoles to its inventory as part of a recent £600,000 equipment investment.

Handling a diverse range of projects from theatre to corporate presentations, the company needed consoles that could work across both sides of its business: ‘We’d made the decision to purchase some new consoles and we wanted to invest in a clear market leader, a favourite with engineers and what we believe to be the best product around,’ says Blitz Head of Sound, Chris Jordan. ‘It is clear that the DiGiCo SD7T has become the desk of choice with the vast majority of theatre sound designers. A number of designers we work with have given DiGiCo a strong endorsement and that reinforces what we hear ourselves, which is that they sound very good.

‘After an extensive evaluation process, we decided the SD8 is the most appropriate desk for a significant amount of the work we do. It crosses over nicely between corporate and theatre. Both marketplaces demand reliability, usability and suitability,’ he adds. ‘We know from the theatre world that the sound quality is outstanding.’

The SD8 joins a DiGiCo D5T and D1s in the Blitz inventory: ‘That means we have commonality of racks, which is very useful,’ Jordan says. ‘It’s a big bonus for a rental company. And, being a generation on, the SD8 is a great deal easier for people to pick up.’

Both consoles have been immediately put to work – one going to Kilworth House in Leicestershire; the other’s first outing being to the BT plc AGM. ‘Kilworth is an open-air theatre in a country house hotel, which we’ve done for a good few years,’ Jordan says. ‘This year’s first production was Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, with Chris Wybrow – sound designer for the West End and touring productions of Thriller – doing the sound design, followed almost immediately by a production of Little Shop of Horrors, where it will stay until the end of September. Chris loves the SD8 - he really makes it sit up beg and sing and make the coffee…’

On the corporate side , the BT AGM is a show that Blitz has worked on since BT was first privatised in 1985. Such is the importance of the project that Blitz Group Account Director, Richard Rogers, takes on engineering duties each year for the show. ‘I am delighted with how intuitively easy it is to set up the desk , and it’s flexibility is ideal for the complex requirements of the AGM. It sounded fantastic, too,’ Rogers reports. ‘I’m very happy with our new desks’.

More: www.blitzcommunications.co.uk
More: www.digico.org