Front of House engineer Dave Bracey has been using DiGiCo consoles since the company first started manufacturing 14 years ago but is new to the Adele crew. Whilst Joe Campbell at monitors is new to the desks, he has been working with Adele since her 21 tour. Both are happy that they have all the right tools for the job.
"For me, DiGiCos are the only properly engineer friendly consoles that you can really mix a show on," says Dave. "I've been using DiGiCo consoles since 2002 and the SD7 has been my desk of choice since 2008. I just don't consider the facilities on any of their competitors sufficient to do what I like to do. They're also the best sounding consoles, so why would I even consider using anything else?"
The audio design for the show is complex, with several points where Adele moves from the A to the B stage, with the audio following her from one to the other. "We also have complete arena coverage from the B stage," says Dave. "I don't know that anyone's ever done that before. Normally, if a singer walks out to the B stage, you'd be looking at her there, but still hear her coming from the A stage. That's not the case for this show, we follow her around, which has its own challenges."
The audio system was designed by Dave and systems engineer Ulf Oeckel. "Richard Young, the production manager for the show, came up with the initial idea and we worked out how to do it," says Dave.
(Jim Evans)
