Backed by the British Record Industry Trust (hence the name BRIT) Marquee Audio sales director, first started talking to the School's senior technical manager, Andrew Smith, about the prospect of going digital two years ago, and whet his appetite by providing a Yamaha DM2000 desk to evaluate. Finally the funding became available for them to invest in one - along with an Optcore fibre optic system - as part of a thorough upgrade. Smith said: "We needed a digital desk for student training and production in live music technology."
Marquee's Andy Huffer added: "In view of its size, the DM2000 will not only enable the School to mix its own productions but to transport it to other locations. The future of live music is digital and this is the epitome of a compact digital console."
Used in conjunction with Optocore - a 48-in/16-out optical digital multicore network system - the performance is enhanced considerably. "What you are looking at is a highly-specified fibre optic snake system with the capacity to allow expansion up to a 96-channel desk," Huffer explains. "It essentially provides 150m of 64-way multicore - which can be carried by a single person."
A dual active analogue split of all inputs is integrated into the LX4 stage boxes - which occupy a mere 6U of rack space - and this in turn connects to the 1U DD32 digital I/O device which resides locally at the console. The commissioning of the desk incorporates a package of onsite training from Marquee Audio. Says Andy Huffer: "The BRIT School is already using three quarters of the console capacity - and they have the capability to expand still further."
(Lee Baldock)
