The San Francisco Hilton Hotel and Towers offers a wide selection of ballrooms and conference spaces to handle its busy events schedule, from the 30,000sq.ft Grand Ballroom - which seats 3,300 in a theatrical configuration - down to the smallest meeting room. With the hotel's engineers expected to handle diverse events from medical conferences to musical performances to political fundraisers, ease of set-up and use, as well as a host of flexible features are important criteria for the hotel when selecting equipment, and especially mixing consoles.
Allen & Heath consoles offer some significant benefits, says Fagan, in particular the number of auxiliary sends on the GL series desks. "What we really love about them is the aux sends. We always need a lot. There are always people coming up and asking for a record feed, not to mention a sub feed, and even our own record feeds. We need all we can get."
As a pioneer of the dual function concept, Allen & Heath has designed the GL series to operate as both a FOH and a monitor console. All 10 aux sends on the GL4000, for example, may be controlled on long-throw faders, all with inserts and metering, while also offering a stereo side-fill mix and an output for the engineer's monitor speaker. "We've done monitor mixes for a lot of bands that have come in," says Fagan. "The consoles are just a charm to work with, especially the monitor wedge output - that's a big plus about the desk."
The one factor that leads the hotel back to Allen & Heath time after time, he reports, is that the consoles have provided trouble-free service. "We haven't had any problems with them, that's the best thing. I like something solid, where you don't have to worry about it."
(Lee Baldock)
