"We first came across the Midas PRO series almost three years ago, when we used a PRO 6 on a large surround sound opera, Skellig," says The Sage Gateshead's head of technical operations, Chris Durant. "It was obvious that this was a product that would more than meet our needs when we needed to upgrade, and would reinforce our reputation as one of the best sounding music venues in the world."
"Our demands range from small school concerts to large conferences and orchestral events to world class amplified artists," says Durant. "The various I/O boxes available as part of the Midas digital system means that we've been able to come up with solutions for all of these, as well as applications that were previously impossible. We found that we were able to justify investing in a PRO9 which, offering 88 inputs, means we should never run out."
The PRO9 was integrated into the venue's comprehensive Cat 6 network, allowing it to be installed with minimal disruption. "We've only had to physically shuffle round some of the patch bay panels to accommodate the DL371 audio processing engine," confirms Durant. "The rest is just on short Cat 5e cables. Other consoles we considered would have required additional BNC or fibre cables, adding thousands of pounds and time onto the install cost."
One of the first acts to use the Midas PRO9 at The Sage Gateshead will be the Soweto Gospel Choir in early October.
(Jim Evans)
