With a need for consoles that could work across both sides of the company's business, Blitz Head of Sound, Chris Jordan, explains why they decided to invest in the SD8s. "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," he says. "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 consoles are hard at work, one immediately 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," says Jordan. "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.
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.
(Jim Evans)
