Located a short distance from the Houses of Parliament, the Government-owned venue is self-funding - actually returning a dividend to the Exchequer each year. Yamaha already has a significant presence in the area, with high profile installations at nearby Westminster Abbey and Central Halls, and the DUGAN-MY16 is enjoying an equally enthusiastic reception at the QEIICC.
"We used an analogue automixer system on a few events with our older consoles, with varying degrees of success. It was quite fiddly to set up and operate," says Dan Cecchini, head of sound at the QEIICC. "Our production manager, Derek Chalmers, saw the DUGAN-MY16 card in use at InfoComm last year and was so impressed that we bought a pair as soon as he returned."
Permanently installed in the Yamaha M7CLs, which can be moved throughout the Centre's facilities, the Dugan cards are primarily used in the two largest conference spaces, the 700-capacity Churchill Auditorium and the Fleming and Whittle Rooms, which can seat up to 1300 delegates. It's no exaggeration to say that they have transformed the working lives of the Centre's technical staff.
"The Dugan cards have completely changed the way I mix conferences," says AV/IT sales manager Sarah Page. "I can spend more time listening and tweaking the individual EQs, etc, instead of watching a top table of 15 like a hawk, trying to guess who will speak next.
"Quality audio records are vitally important to the events we host, especially for AGMs, with our recordings quite often sold on or employed by clients in event DVDs, podcasts, webcasts and other uses. The Dugan card has vastly improved the quality of our recordings - there is no more unintelligible panel discussion."
(Jim Evans)
