DiGiCo in the mix Latin Grammy Awards
- Details
What they all had in common was the audio, thanks to the deployment of four DiGiCo consoles for the show. Comprising two SD7 FOH desks, two SD10 consoles for monitors and eight SD-Racks, the equipment was supplied by Firehouse Productions whose VP Mark Dittmar and system technician David Crawford designed the event’s sound system, with Luis Espinal serving as a system tech. FOH music mixer Ron Reaves and production mixer Andrew ‘Fletch’ Fletcher both used SD7 consoles, while monitor mixers Mike Parker and Mike Bove used the SD10 desks.
“The DiGiCo consoles are a very powerful platform to work from on shows like this, where the engineers are potentially confronted with complex workflows,” explains Dittmar, who also assigns DiGiCo desks for Firehouse Productions’ support of the Grammy Awards and the Video Music Awards shows, among other broadcast events.
“The SD consoles have so many features that make workflows simpler and let the engineers focus on the sound.”
Production mixer Andrew Fletcher used an SD7 to bring 56 inputs of introductions, acceptance speeches, stage patter, and music bumpers into the house. These came everywhere from the four podiums on stage (two wireless and two pop-ups, the last a backup podium) for the event hosts Carlos Rivera and Ana de la Reguera, four handheld microphones, and a full music backup of Reaves’ console.
“That’s one more thing that you always want DiGiCo for - the redundancy,” says Fletcher. “The SD7 has two complete engines, and I know that if there’s ever a problem, it will be a seamless transition from one to another. It lets you focus all your attention on the show, which is where it should be.”
(Jim Evans)
