Having pioneered the practice of using digital consoles for award shows, Derrick Zieba, the shows principal co-ordinator of the live sound/broadcast sound interface, describes how he feel about them five years later as he approaches his 14th Brit Awards show: "There's no turning back now, the advantages far outweighs any concerns that may have surfaced in the early days. The fact that you can rehearse half a dozen major acts on the Sunday before the Brits, and then several days later recall every detail of every setting for every band absolutely perfectly is just unbeatable."
Further significant elements to such shows have now been resolved by the switch to digital, Zieba elaborates: "Previously you would have maybe half a dozen big consoles all linked together, there were always problems with the interconnects, a mis-patch here and that can just be a complete nightmare. With everyone on one board, and with that board having just one digital mix engine all those problems just go away."
Zieba began the digital trend by using first generation Yamaha PM1D consoles, since then he has obviously used other brands, but he uses a Yamaha once again for the Brits 2006. Zieba explains his reasoning: "In the beginning the choice of PM1D was simple, Yamaha already had by far the most experience with digital consoles, and they had established a reputation for reliability. Now there are a number of consoles that are sufficiently reliable, in the right hands, to do the job. What's on the PM1D's side is proven technology and the fact that they're utterly reliable.
"It's still very much appropriate to do a show like this on the '1D - where you have an artist performing live; then a live compere ; perhaps a bit of VT; compere again; then another live act: Finessing between one particular desk or another is not what's important; generally I'd much rather have a competent engineer with a safe reliable console, than the latest piece of technology and an engineer who's barely familiar with it. However this year we went for the ultimate flexibility and used one console for all of the bands, and one console for all the presentations and playback, VTs etc."
Five years later and PM1D will ultimately be superseded by a new large format console from Yamaha; considering Zieba's expertise in the realms of huge live award shows, he describes where he would like to see future developments head.
"Right now my favourite desk is the PM5D, Yamaha have come so far with the head amps and the EQ, and the way it stores and records are much more instinctive than the 1D. I know touring engineers who've learned on the PM1D who now find the PM5D a fabulous desk. So, in terms of the essential technology, for shows like these there's nothing really lacking. It's the way it's operated, if they concentrate in that area - and I'm sure they will - then it can only get better."
Zieba doesn't run this show unaided, and was at pains to point this out. "I'm also greatly assisted by some very skilled people, Andy 'Baggy' Robinson, Chris Coxhead, both front of house, Dorus Hommels and Graham Blake on monitors; with that kind of knowledge behind me it just makes the whole thing reliable - they could almost do this show in their sleep."
"It's the same with Britrow (Britannia Row Productions Ltd), they intimately understand what is needed and they always do everything that is required to make the event happen. I've watched several documentaries on TV recently about Live 8 last summer in Hyde Park and not one has mentioned the audio, which saddens me really. There were enormous challenges there and fantastic things were achieved, but there were absolutely no problems; that's what made Britrow invisible,
