The prestigious event took place at the University of Cambridge on 25 April, 50 years to the day after Watson and Crick published their landmark paper. Eminent scientists and researchers in the field of DNA, including Nobel Prize winners, members of Parliament and the University's Chancellor, HRH Prince Philip, gathered to discuss a range of subjects from the history behind the monumental discovery, to the progress made over the last 50 years by the science industry that resulted from it.
Cambridge Audio-Visual's general manager, Julian Berry explained: "Our available hire stock did not have the sound quality or number of channels to manage the audio requirements for this event. Previously we had sub-hired Allen & Heath desks for larger events from a local trade supplier and had always been happy with the results. We had looked into buying other brands, but Allen & Heath came out on top for reliability, features and price. The DNA conference became the window of opportunity to upgrade our stock."
Hire manager Alex Parmee continued: "The conference was held in the University's Lady Mitchell Hall, a listed building with no in-built PA system. The original number of delegates was 500 but due to demand this figure rose to 750. This meant we also needed to establish a sound feed to an extra 200 people in an adjoining building, as well as a video feed captured by four live cameras in the main lecture theatre. Furthermore, there was a satellite truck on site sending a signal to The Laboratory of Molecular Biology in another part of Cambridge and beaming straight to London where the event went out on a live webcast on the BBC.
"The new Allen & Heath desk supplied much more than just a greater number of channels. There was nowhere in the lecture theatre to hang the speakers and due to over-subscription the room was too full to position speaker stands. This meant all our equipment had to be set up from the front stage area. What's more, the lecture theatre is wooden, concrete and an awkward shape, making sound difficult to project. Thanks to the desk's matrix feature, we were able to overcome these handicaps as the main speakers were fixed to the left and right legs of the lighting truss and a centre cluster fixed above on a mono feed in order to throw sound to the back of the hall."The console also has TRS jack direct outputs on all of the mic channels, a great feature for broadcast and recording and something our previous desks didn't have."
(Lee Baldock)
