During the evening, guests were rewarded with a party and a concert. At the heart of all these proceedings was an Innovason Eclipse digital console which mixed the bands, recorded them, and then sent out the recordings over an EtherSound network directly to each workshop where participants could make comparative microphone listening tests, or try their own hands at mixing.
Innovason's Matthieu Le Failler managed the network and 'babysat' the various freelance engineers who were mixing the bands. He explained that the Eclipse effectively acted as the master console for the whole event. "It was incredibly well thought-out," he said. "Amptec organised a main stage which was completely kitted out with gear from brands they distribute. They have at least four microphone brands, so they took advantage of the piano on stage to hook up a selection of mics to enable people to make comparative listening tests later in the workshops.
"A number of workshops were set up with consoles from the various manufacturers that Amptec represents (including an Eclipse workshop) so that visitors could play with the mix from each session which was sent directly to each desk over the network from the master Eclipse."
Each session was mixed on the Eclipse and recorded direct to hard disk using the console's MARS facility. Once the session was over, the engineer flipped over to the MARS recording using the Virtual Soundcheck function which enabled him to send out the playback of the session to all of the workshops at the push of a button."
Amptec's team leader internal sales, David Liebens, added, "For Amptec's clients, this was the first event where they were able to see the Eclipse in action. Matthieu Le Failler, who did the demos in the Eclipse workshop, showed the full range of possibilities of this console. At the same time, Peter Vandergoten mixed several live bands on the Eclipse on the stage we set up in the warehouse. Here the EtherSound network was linked to the main network feeding the workshops via MADI, and it worked very well. In fact, the whole event was a success for us. We had a lot of visitors who showed a great deal of interest and we got a lot of extremely positive reactions."
"I have to say that Amptec did a fantastic job of this event from start to finish," noted Le Failler. "It was a lot to coordinate, but the whole thing was properly thought out and prepared, and as a result, it all ran like clockwork. It was an excellent showcase for all involved, but especially for Eclipse."
(Jim Evans)
