Taking place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, this year's party was held on 7 February and featured a diverse array of performers including Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow and Carlos Santana.
Delicate Productions, based in California, handled the audio and video requirements for the party and specified DiGiCo consoles for the past three years. This year three were supplied for FOH, monitors and broadcast / recording, while another two were brought in by Rod Stewart for his performance.
Three stage racks were linked via their fibre optic loop to allow 168 channels to be patched simultaneously throughout the show, with a custom MADI recorder used to record 120 tracks for post production.
Radio station XM Satellite was broadcasting from the party, with the mix from the D5 going out live. The mix also went live to the web, along with a video feed to Real Audios' Rhapsody site.
"Initially we used D5s because of the onboard processing and the fact that they have great facilities in a very small footprint", says Graham Thornton, who was recording engineer for Delicate Productions.
"But the consoles had many other advantages. They allowed us to take snapshots of the acts as they sound checked, which minimised changeover times and made the show flow extremely smoothly. And with the live broadcast and multitrack, again recording via the integral fibre optic loop system allowed us to put that console in a hotel room a considerable distance from the stage!
"The five consoles all dovetailed in absolutely seamlessly together and, with so many features in such a small space, they proved yet again how DiGiCo consoles can handle extraordinarily complex audio requirements, while taking up remarkably little room."
He adds: "With the instant recall features and optical snake, they have also again proved that the preparation for a multi-band production can be far less time-consuming than when any other consoles are used."
(Chris Henry)
