DiGiCo in control for The Blessing USA Tour
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Sponsored by illumiNations and CovidSafeChurch.com, the tour is implementing “socially distanced and/or reserved COVID-safe seating and capacities” in each venue, and tour members will be tested and everyone entering will be temperature checked, in addition to other standards and local requirements. What’s also different about this tour is how the DiGiCo Quantum338 console, operated by production manager Brenton Miles and supplied by tour outfitters Spectrum Sound, Inc. and IPS Live, is acting as the literal hub of every aspect of the tour’s sound.
Miles is at the centre of that hub. He’s mixing the show’s front-of-house sound as well as the in-ear monitors for the entire band, as well as for a 10-person VIP group that can access the stage, band, artists and crew in each city before the show. These are mainly volunteers and staffers from local churches that Miles and other The Blessing USA crewmembers will walk and talk through the tour’s workflows and equipment.
The Quantum338 gets plenty of attention because those VIP attendees are on their own in-ears before and during the show on a completely separate mix within the Q338. “If a church’s keyboard player is in the VIP group, our keyboard player will come out and to talk to them about their setup, or if they're a tracks person, we'll go through our tracks rig with them,” he says. “They can have a Q&A with everyone.”
Miles says his introduction to the Quantum338 was at Spectrum Sound’s Nashville shop, where he spent a day familiarizing himself with it before tour rehearsals began, and where he discovered how it would impact his workflow positively. “The quickness of the layouts, the three 17-inch multitouch screens, the brightness of those screens - all of that helps you keep focus during a show,” he says.
