"We're a 13-piece funk band and our sheer size limits the places we can play," says keyboardist/manager Chris Fischer. "Our relationship with Aviom equipment turned into an evolution in our working model, replacing first our outdated, feedback-ridden floor monitoring system and, in its final form, actually changing our front-of-house mix system. I think that is quite remarkable for a monitoring/communication system."
The beginning of this evolution involved using Aviom's Pro16 Personal Mixers to upgrade the monitoring system. According to Fischer, "We were playing in venue after venue where the engineers were simply in over their heads. We had enough instances where we had horrible, nightmare monitoring issues and that's what initially got us to move into the Aviom orbit. Once we got used to in-ear monitoring and having individual control of our mixes, we began to analyze our entire equipment chain."
Because of the close integration between Yamaha and Aviom, the group decided to move ahead with a Yamaha DM1000 digital console for the front-of-house mix. "We upgraded to the digital console and the Aviom Pro64 system. The change for us was dramatic," says Mark Halberstadt, the technical advisor for the band. Using the 6416m Mic Input Module and the 6416Y2 A-Net Interface Card, the band sends 16 channels of digital audio directly into its console from the stage inputs. The 6416Y2 card also sends 16 returns to the band's A-16R Personal Mixers.
But what is most different about the band's setup is that all the rack-mounted gear and the front-of-house console are located backstage. The sound engineer controls the console from across the room in a typical front-of-house position from a tablet PC that is wirelessly connected to the console. This allows the front-of-house engineer to actually be where he is supposed to be - out in the audience without the need for gear that will affect the view or traffic flow- a crucial element for private events.
"When you take a look at what we are doing, it is hard to believe that everybody isn't doing this," states Halberstadt. "We no longer need to run a snake across the room into the console, because we no longer need to have a console out in the middle of the audience. For a high-end corporate event or exclusive wedding, the facility owners and the clients are extremely happy. We can now deliver a better sounding performance and we take up 50 percent less room. Where we had to run snakes onstage, we now run a Cat-5 cable and our front-of-house engineer can be completely wireless. The entire evolution of this system is incredible and it started with the Aviom card for the Yamaha console."
(Jim Evans)
