With a run of shows, some including a full orchestra, UK musical collective Archive reports successful use of a variety of Sennheiser and Neumann analogue and digital microphones.

Front-of-house engineer Spike Jones’ use of Sennheiser mics goes back to the mid-1980s, when he came across them at London’s Nomis rehearsal studios: ‘Since the early 1990s I have used Sennheiser on tour, though it’s not always possible when you are using house systems and venues do not supply them,’ he says.

For some time, this was the situation with Archive. ‘We were using any mics that the venues could supply and it was never satisfactory,’ he says. ‘I know what the band’s instruments and vocals should sound like, but there was always uncertainty whether the mics we found at the venues would reproduce them to a good enough standard.’

As Archive’s audiences grew, Jones knew that he had to resolve the problem quickly. He approached Sennheiser directly, with the aim of getting a full set of the mics of his choice. The company agreed to help... ‘Now we have consistency of the sound from source,’ he says. ‘You cannot underestimate the importance of that to a sound engineer.’

For some time he has used e901s, e902s, e905s, e914s and e604s on the drum kit, an e902 on the bass guitar, e606s and e906s on guitars and an e965, e935 and e945 on the band’s vocals.

‘I use e604s on toms because they are small, they don’t get in the way and can handle the low-end frequencies,’ he explains. ‚The e606 and e906 are perfect for guitar and I think the e935 is the best-sounding rock vocal microphone available. It’s ideal for Dave Pen’s vocals. Pollard Berrier usually uses an e965, because its softer character allows me to get his vocals clearly over the loud band behind him.’

Recently, he has also used Neumann KMD series digital mics: ‘I have started using the KM 185D and KM 185D on drums, the KM 184D and KM 185D on guitars and bass, and the KMS 104D on vocals,’ he says. ‘The microphone software on the Innovason desk I’m using adds a new dimension to live sound engineering. The fact that you can change parameters of the digital microphone on the desk now means that you can change the sound to suit your needs. Previously, the only other option was to change the equalisation.’

Jones is also happy with the choice of a d&b J-Series system for the main PA. ‘As long as you follow the guidelines and run the system digitally from source to speakers, you will experience a new level in sound quality,’ he says. ‘But you have to realise that they are very sensitive and live sounding mics, so positioning them is very important – and if they’re positioned correctly, they sound fantastic.’

In monitor world, Kevin Charnley agrees that there are advantages to using digital microphones: ‘I’ve always enjoyed the opportunity to use the KM 84, KM 184 and now the digital version,’ he says. ‘These bring extended frequency response with considerably less noise (no noise to my ear). Neumann’s beautifully realistic, natural sound is a total tonal advantage to in-ear monitor mixes and front-of-house applications.’

He is using Sennheiser ew300 G2 wireless monitor systems for the entire band. ‘I’ve used them for years with many other acts and they have always performed perfectly,’ he says. ‘As with all Sennheiser products they are totally reliable on the road.

‘Recently I was using the new G3 system with another client and found it to be even better, with some interesting new features – the engineer mode on the belt packs being particularly useful. Archive also uses two ew500 G3 wireless microphones which have performed impeccably since they were introduced.’ Even with such reliability, touring engineers need the reassurance that there is a proactive company behind them and Sennheiser ensures that support is always at hand.

More: www.sennheiser.com

Midas’ new Pro2C live console made its debut at the Lake of Stars Festival on the shores of Lake Malawi.

Given temperatures of up to 42°C, an abundance of sand and grit plus a fuel shortage (which meant power was only available 30 minutes before the festival opened) it made easy work of FOH duties in the hands of engineer Craig Williams.

‘It was very easy to get to grips with; after just 30 minutes I could start the show confidently,’ he says. ‘I’m more accustomed to the Midas Heritage series and the classic XL3, which I will always love, but the tiny footprint and low weight for a festival like this is perfect.

'Not needing a rack of outboard saves a huge amount in shipping costs to somewhere like Africa, and even more in sweat when you have to handball the kit across a beach in the sun.’

Williams was using the Pro2C for artists including Beverley Knight, Foals, Africa’s Freshlyground, Malawian music from Black Missionaries and Lucius Banda and a host of international acts. The new Midas MCA groups made a big impression on him: ‘The MCA groups are fantastic and make mix navigation much easier on such a small footprint console, especially with the ‘hide unassigned channels’ in flip mode engaged,’ he says. ‘My favourite feature of the desk is probably the daylight visible screen; even in the midday African sunshine I could clearly see the screen, something that not a single other digital desk can boast. The channel control panel is great and easy to use without having to hit button after button to get where you want, and the gain/trim feature is really good, giving the chance for example to drive a guitar, bass or kick drum the way I like to with an XL3 or H3000 then allowing some attenuation without digital clipping.

‘I had multiple camera feeds and audio recordings to deal with, so the matrix system was used a lot, it was quite simple to route and patch when the recipients turned up two minutes before they needed the feed that they had forgotten to ask for.’

Despite this being the first sighting of a Pro2C at a live event, visiting engineers took to it with ease: ‘The engineers for Foals and Freshlyground both used the desk and both loved it, Keith from Freshlyground being a Pro6 user,’ says Williams. ‘In fact, one of the band’s engineers liked it so much he’s interested in purchasing one for touring. The colour coding system for selected channels in the VCA groups is also invaluable in a festival situation on a small desk, and my Malawian ‘students’ were particularly fond of red, gold and green…

‘What I really like most about it is the way it sounds; it doesn’t sound cheap and grainy like many other digital desks, and the depth of field is beautiful,’ he adds. ‘This console wipes the floor with its competitors. It’s easier to use on the fly, sounds better, seems more stable and is generally more pleasant and straightforward to use, plus of course it’s a Midas and is laid out in the same familiar style as their classic analogue consoles.’

‘The festival was borne from a desire to raise money for a developing economy, promote Malawi as a top travel destination and expose Malawian artists to international crowds, as well as putting on an amazing event that now forms part of the global festival circuit,’ says Lake of Stars founder, Will Jameson.

Midas was one of the festival’s many technical partners to provide free audio visual equipment, helping raise a profit for the local economy. Last year the festival generated $1,000,000 of local spend, employing more than 100 Malawian people and providing a major boost to local families and businesses. The festival, which attracted 3,500 people this year from across the globe, also ran an outreach programme with ballgames, acoustic performances and an HIV screening clinic.

‘We are so happy to welcome Midas to our family of technical partners,’ continues Jameson. ‘We have always used Venice desks but to have use of the Pro2C is incredible. All the bands loved it and it coped well with the heat and sand of Malawi – it is also a good size and weight when it comes to being air freighted all the way from the UK. The high production standards set Lake of Stars apart from other events in the region, and having the world’s leading console manufacturer involved in the project is a massive boost for us and for Malawi’s music industry.’

More: www.midasconsoles.com

Midas/Klark Teknik distributor NMK recently hosted a Midas Academy in Dubai, prior to the InfoComm exhibition held at the Dubai International Convention Center.

The one-day event attracted more than 25 sound professionals and highlighted the UK console manufacturer’s latest digital desk releases, presenting the Pro2 and Pro2c live audio systems to the Middle East market for the first time.

‘Our last academy took place in 2009, so it was time for a follow-up event in the Middle East – especially with all the new consoles and other products from Klark Teknik,’ says NMK Business Development Manager, Chicco Hiranandani. ‘Although it was a busy time of the year, we had a good turn out and – more importantly – great interest in the new consoles. We expect to make some announcements soon.’

More: www.nmkelectronics.com
More: www.midasconsoles.com

One of the world’s largest rental providers, PRG has increased its stock of Riedel RockNet digital audio network devices – immediately assigning 60 new RockNet devices for use at the opening and closing ceremonies of the XVI Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

One of the main challenges at the games’ ceremonies is the distance between individual positions in the stadium, where up to 300m need to be bridged. The distant master control room, which is located on the first level of box suites in the stadium, also needs to be integrated.

The RockNet installation at the ceremonies consists of 56 various RockNet devices. The audio system is designed by Pat Baltzell, and uses 158 channels of RockNet’s 160 channels. The system combines the PA drive system, inputs and monitor sends located at the two stages, the master control room and the audio house and monitor mix positions into one single network. RockNet fibre-optic converters bridge the large distance to the master control room. Furthermore, a total of six digital Yamaha mixing consoles are equipped with RockNet-Interface cards fully integrating them into the RockNet infrastructure. Although in most cases the audio cabling is adjacent to the lines for electrical power, lighting dimmer cables and hundreds of other video and signal distribution cables, there are no interferences or noise bleeds into the audio network.

Because of RockNet’s flexible network approach, the programming and routing of the network can be changed and modified on the fly with just a mouse click, without the need of pulling additional wire around the stadium.

To synchronise the pyrotechnic elements, the automated scenery and other show related control operations, RockNet distributes the SMPTE & FSK time code that is generated in the audio playback room throughout the stadium. Due to RockNet’s digital network approach there is no bleed of the time-code signal to the adjacent channels.

The control over the whole network, including potential last minute re-routes and changes is achieved using Riedel’s RockWorks software.

More: www.prg.com
More: www.riedel.net

Three days before Radio Télévision Luxembourg (RTL)’s 7 o’clock news went out live, the broadcaster had torn out its mixing desk. With the decks clear, the engineering team from specialist installation company BCE rolled in to reconnect and network the to the video embedders/de-embedders, and install new digital lines and the monitoring in several rooms. At the centre of the refurbishment was a Studer Vista 9 digital console, which kept Studer support engineer Rudolf Boltshauser busy with its programming and testing, labeling and I/O.

The Vista 9 will be used principally for prime-time live productions in the adjacent studios. The console will be the beating heart for all popular live news, election shows and sports coverage, while its main application will be for the daily news and weather show.

RTL chose the console largely because of the projected total cost of ownership, but also because of its positive experience with the Vista 8. Another major factor in RTL’s decision was the Studer ReLink feature, which allows easy resource sharing between the fixed Vista 9 and the remote Vista 8.

Building on the Vista digital mixing platform, the Vista 9 combines advanced ergonomic design with complete system flexibility and pristine audio quality, at the same time taking the operator experience to a higher level, supplementing the Vistonics interface with radical and innovative TFT-based metering, FaderGlow and numerous other innovations.

In a future development phase, a Madi connection will be set up between the new Vista 9 and Vista 8, that has been in use for the past six years in the OB van.

More: www.studer.ch

This year marks the fourth that Norwegian PA company Sceneservice has provided sound, light and staging for the Blues in Hell Festival – held in the village of Hell in the Nord-Trondelag area of Norway.

Selecting Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing systems for FOH and monitors, Sceneservice handled the Magic Mirror tent which hosted headline performances from artists including Delbert McClinton, Johnny Winter, Popa Chubby and Jeniva Magness.

The set-up used an iDR10 MixRack with iLive-144 Control Surface for FOH, and an iDR-32 MixRack and a xDR-16 expander rack with iLive-T80 Surface for monitors. There was also an analogue split to provide a broadcast feed.

‘Our experiences with the iLive system have proven it to be very reliable, nicely compact for small venues, and always sounds amazing,’ says Stein Larsen. ‘It is also very easy to teach guest engineers about it, even during change over at a busy festival. We have been using the iLive iPad app for some while and trust it totally, and we are looking forward to exploring the Dante networking option for multitrack recording.’

As well as the Magic Mirror tent, performances were staged in the Værnes Church, Norway’s oldest stone building dating from the year 1100. ‘We used our iDR-32 and iLive-T112 for this beautiful, 400-capacity venue, which featured a performance by local singer, Siri Bones,’ Larsen adds. ‘I can only describe the sound with the overused expression ‘crystal clear’, even Siri’s lowest whisper was audible at the back of the church.’

More: www.sceneservice.no
More: www.allen-heath.com

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

Studer Vista 5 digital mixing console for its new Digi Sport Plus channel.

Marking its use of a second Studer Vista 5 console, Hungarian 24-hour sports channel has placed a new console at the centre of its new Digi Sport Plus TV channel. Offering a wealth of live programming – including football, rugby, European handball and Moto GP – the new channel accompanies the original Digi Sport channel and finds the 42-channel desk 5 joining an existing 32-channel Vista 5 installed in 2010. Both consoles were sold through Studer’s Hungarian distributor, Audio Partner.

The Vista 5 is based on the Vistonics control interface, which offers visual reference at the exact place at which a parameter is changed. This makes for a very flexible and fast working mixing surface. The inputs and outputs as well as the entire DSP capacity are completely scalable. ‘The control surface of the Vista 5 makes operation of the console very intuitive and the Vistonics user interface allows us to easily see what we’re doing when mixing,’ says Zoltan Szele, Sound Engineer for Digi Sport. ‘The Vista 5 allows us to easily build a bigger networked system, and we now have two consoles sharing I/O.’

More: www.digisport.hu
More: www.studer.ch

German digital console and router specialist Lawo has extended its R&D resources with the announcement of a new company – LES Switzerland.

Lawo Engineering Services (LES) will support the company’s activities from a new base and with its own staff. The development team at the LES Zurich HQ comprises software and hardware engineers with high levels of expertise in pro audio. ‘We are happy that, at Lawo, we find ideal R&D conditions to translate our experience and ideas in a creative way’, said one of the team.

Since its foundation more than 40 years ago, Lawo has directed a high proportion of its investment to R&D, focused on market-orientated equipment mainly for the broadcast and live applications.

More: www.lawo.de

A sell-out homecoming gig at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium provided the unusual sight of three identical digital consoles lined up in monitorworld for The Script.

The band’s first stadium headline concert saw three Soundcraft Vi6 digital consoles in the stage wings, where they were sequentially pressed into monitor duties.

PA provider to the Irish trio was Adlib Audio: ‘The Script know precisely what they are looking for,’ notes Crew Chief, Marc Peers. ‘Both Mark [Sheehan] and Danny [O’Donoghue] are former producers and they love the sound of the Vi6. Monitor engineer Paul Moore used all the board’s dynamics – and there was no outboard processing whatsoever.’

Adlib provided a second board for fellow Irish band The Coronas, whose foldback engineer Liam Mullen mixed their stage sound. Meanwhile, the main support was Tinie Tempah – an SSE Audio Group account; and they met stage engineer Raf Williams’ request for a third Vi6 – which was overseen by SSE’s monitor tech Owain Richards.

The Vi6 is an well suited to monitors, combining sound quality and a small footprint – a particular advantage on small stages where a slim profile desk is essential (and no additional outboard gear is necessary). Monitor engineers also commend the Vi6’s ergonomics, including the Vistonics II touchscreen system and FaderGlow, which enable engineers to access all functions quickly and easily without the need for tedious paging.

The Aviva Stadium is no stranger to hosting equipment from the Harman stable; last year the formerly named Lansdowne Road Stadium underwent a complete rebuild, with large quantities of JBL PD Series loudspeakers specified for the main sound reinforcement system, and Crown amplifiers and BSS Soundweb London for the network control – as well as a Soundcraft analogue desk for match day broadcast mixing.

More: www.soundcraft.com