The Sienas were specified by The Sage Gateshead's head of technical operations, Chris Durant, who was so confident in the new console that he placed the order before it went into production. Midas and Klark Teknik brand development manager Richard Ferriday, together with Sean Hames from Midas dealer LMC Audio which supplied the consoles, paid a visit to Durant last May armed with a confidentiality agreement and the first full-scale layout drawing of Siena. Once Durant and senior technician Dan Adams were assured that the new console would fulfill the venue's rigorous demands, they ordered Siena Number One, a 48-channel version, going on to order a second 40-channel version several months later.
"We knew that Siena would feature the quality of mic preamps and musicality of EQ we've come to expect as standard from a Midas console, not to mention the brand reliability and familiarity within the industry," he says. "But we were also delighted to find that there was nothing else with as many aux sends and such high build quality in this price range."
The Sienas are being used for a wide range of mixing duties as well as onstage monitoring. The small footprint allows them to be moved easily between the Main Hall One (1,700 seats), Hall Two (around 400 seats), Northern Rock Foundation Hall, the Concourse, the Barbour Room and the performance square for outdoor gigs. Some of the first projects for the desks were concerts by Asian Dub Foundation, Nick Cave, Alison Moyet, Lemon Jelly, Roots Manuva and Nancy Sinatra.
The Sage Gateshead has also purchased two Midas Verona consoles, with which Siena shares many of its design techniques. "Our engineers like the fact that the layouts of Siena and Verona are so similar, which makes things very quick to find," says Durant. "We wanted recognized desks that would be good for touring engineers, but also laid out in a way that gives ease of use for less experienced engineers, which is great for our education work. The desk is capable of working at FOH or monitors so gives us flexibility of use in our spaces."
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
