After a year-plus of construction, Full Sail Live is finalised and slated to be one of the largest, dedicated sound stages for live concert training at an educational facility. Full Sail Live will serve numerous campus-wide events including live musical performances, monthly graduations, open house events, multi-visual presentations, guest lecture appearances, 16-speaker surround movie screenings and live concert student training sessions.
The building is flanked by a new audio recording facility and linked by fibre for audio and video interfacing. DiGiCo SD7 and SD8 consoles were selected for installation to serve at FOH and Monitor engineering positions respectively, and round out an impressive arsenal of 50 dedicated live production audio consoles currently used on campus.
"The console purchases were based on many elements," says director of audio Programmes, Dana Roun, who developed Full Sail's live production training curriculum in 1981 while working as a touring engineer before coming onboard full-time in 1988.
"We took into consideration superior technology and reliable service, industry acceptance, cost and value, as well as relationship and trust. As an educational facility - and this venue being the largest of six live production facilities on the campus - we have a responsibility to provide our students the full range of live concert industry tools, including lighting, video and audio.
"We knew we wanted a flagship console, and we knew its usage would need to cover a very wide range of functionality. The hitch, however, was that in planning our budget for the building four years in advance, the console purchase line item was merely a placeholder; I didn't want to lock into our console until the last minute to ensure we were getting the most current technology available."
(Jim Evans)
