Crew chief and monitor technician Chris 'Grandpa' Rymarz, is something of an InnovaSON veteran, having recently completed a year-long world tour with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals and a pair of InnovaSON Grand Live digital live sound consoles. For the Ziggy Marley/Spearhead tour, Rymarz brought along a Grand Live at front-of-house and an Sy40 for monitors.
Ziggy Marley, son of the legendary reggae star Bob Marley, was promoting his first solo album, 'Dragonfly' - a recording made with a seven-piece backing band instead of the Melody Makers, the band that features several of his siblings. The InnovaSON consoles ensured rapid changeovers between Marley and the other bands on the tour, which also included Michael Franti and Spearhead. "I've used the InnovaSON before and I can't say enough about the automation and how I have the ability to be able to use this console on multiple 40-plus-input bands," says Rymarz. "The changeover is just so simple and painless and has now been made instantaneous!" Rymarz also handled monitors for Spearhead.
The comprehensive on-board processing available as standard on InnovaSON consoles translates into a major saving in tour production equipment: "All we bring now, in addition to the consoles, are a few effects units and a CD player," Rymarz confirms. "We were in small venues and had a small space to work with sometimes, so the InnovaSONs were definitely an advantage in that respect. Both FOH and monitor positions are much smaller. They saved space in the venue."
According to Rymarz, on the Ben Harper world tour the lightweight and compact nature of the InnovaSON consoles meant that they could be easily and inexpensively air freighted between shows where necessary. Although airfreight wasn't an issue on the Marley tour, Rat Sound still had a budget to meet, and using the compact InnovaSON consoles once again provided considerable cost savings, say the company.
Using InnovaSON digital consoles offered an additional weight savings through the ability to position the input Stage Box on stage and transmit the signals to the console via a pair of coaxial cables. The coax pair additionally facilitates remote control of the preamplifiers, phantom power, and converters from the console. "The snake is also much lighter now," observes Rymarz. "These trucks have very limited weight, and the coax snakes have saved us several hundred pounds compared to a conventional 52-channel multi-pair."
(Lee Baldock)
