CARDIFF, U.K. – Capital Sound supported a major event related to the Ryder Cup golf tournament's first visit to Wales recently. The event, called Welcome to Wales, took place at Millennium Stadium. And the tricky part was that it was two events, not one. The crew used three DiGiCo D5 consoles to overcome the two-pronged challenge.
While Concert Sound was playing walk-in music for the public filing into the concert seats, it was also managing audio for a performance by male choir Only Men Aloud in the dining area. There were also announcements in both areas that needed to be confined to their respective spaces. But at other times, other audio content needed to be heard in both spaces.
With the three DiGiCo D5s, Capital Sound used one to feed a distributed audio system in the dining area and the other two at the traditional FOH and monitor positions in the concert area.
The feed for all playback elements, voiceovers, VT sound and stings came via fiber optic link from a television OB truck (parked at the nearby Cardiff Arms Park) to the D5 in the dining area. This was then matrixed to the two consoles on the show side. That way, audio could be routed to any required console, while each could also mix the elements for the separate areas independently.
"We used the D5s because we wanted to keep the quality of the signal chain excellent all the way through, plus the guys working the event were familiar with them. So, for me, the D5 was first choice," said Capital Sound general manager Paul Timmins.
"The system design for the concert was put together before we knew which artists would be performing, so we dealt with it like a festival rig, knowing that various different styles of music would have to be accommodated. The D5s were ideal for that and, with the longest permitted changeover between acts being only 110 seconds, they were patched to their 96 channel maximum with everything saved as snapshots."
The concert featured an array of Welsh talent, including Katherine Jenkins, Lostprophets, Only Men Aloud, new teen talent Shaheen Jafargholi and students from the Mark Jermin Stage School. It also featured Dame Shirley Bassey performing with a full orchestra.
Capital project manager Charles Ellery called on longtime Stereophonics FOH engineer Dave Roden to see if he was up for a new challenge, and he was happy to oblige.
"A few days before, I got a call from Charlie asking if I'd like to do Dame Shirley at the Millennium Stadium," Roden said. "I said ‘Why not? Absolutely, great stuff.'"
Having used a D5 for several years, the prospect of mixing, for the first time, such a high profile event's headliner left Roden undaunted. With a few hours of technical rehearsal under his belt, he was confident that he could make Dame Shirley sound her best.
"It was fine, you've simply got to take care of the levels and put Shirley on top and that's it," he said. "With an orchestra, I find less is more. You can't do too much with them – you've just got to set the gain, get a balance on the strings as a section, horns as a section and so on. Little bits of EQ where it counts, and then just sit the vocal on top.
"It can't be too loud but, at the same time, it can't be too quiet either because nobody likes it if they can't hear everything. For me the only difficult part was getting the overall level right and you can't do that until you judge the audience. With Dame Shirley involved, who knows what the reaction is going to be? They could be jumping on their seats, cheering or they could sit there completely wrapped up in her performance, not making a sound. Judging that – and reacting appropriately – was the major challenge."
A number of the support acts were performing over playback, whereas Dame Shirley's performance was completely live, so the setup for her set occupied around 40 of the D5's 96 channels.
"The D5 is a nice-sounding desk. Things have moved on a bit now with the SD7, but the D5 is still a great-sounding board. The software has all the features that next generation boards have, but it's still easy to use. You can dial in stuff in no time at all," said Roden, who also credited DiGiCo's Roger Wood for being "brilliant with his technical support."
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