Jazz a Juan is the longest running jazz festival in Europe and is organised by Jean-René Palacio, artistic director of the Société des Bains de Mer (SBM), based in the principality of Monaco - also the organiser of the Monte-Carlo Jazz Festival, which DiGiCo has sponsored for the past four years.
Palacio's desire to produce not only the best, but something a little different, stretches across every event he organises, both in terms of artistic line up and all aspects of production. In all respects he achieves his aim.
As with Monte-Carlo, his audio supplier is French sales and rental company Arpege Son Lumière, whose co-owner, Philippe Barguirdjian, knows exactly what Palacio requires. This year, along with Front of House engineer Alain Courieux, Barguirdjian made the decision to utilise DiGiCo SD Tens at both the FOH and monitor positions.
"Jazz a Juan is one of the oldest and best jazz festivals there is, so we wanted to use one of the best consoles on the market," says Courieux, who is also Jean Michel Jarre's long-time Front of House engineer. "I've been using DiGiCo consoles for the past seven or eight years. I use an SD7 when I'm working with Jean Michel because it sounds fantastic - Jean Michel is so happy with the sound quality that he also has one in his studio - and it's the only console I know of where I can use over 180 channels.
"This experience with the SD7 meant that we were sure the SD Ten would have exactly what we need for Jazz a Juan."
(Jim Evans)
