LONDON – Florence and the Machine used a combined iLive FOH and monitor system on its European tour this fall, which included dates in the U.K., Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and Austria. iLive was subsequently specified on dates in the U.S. and Canada, and rented from SRD Systems in Kent by management production company, Britannia Row, for a performance as part of the Electric Proms at Camden's Roundhouse.
"With iLive, I can turn up to any type of venue and just plug it in. It's so simple and it's got expensive-sounding FX, good gates and good compressors," said Dave McDonald, FOH engineer. "The pre-amps are really great and the headroom's amazing. I don't use outboard gear at all and I like having everything in one box, plus promoters love it because you're using the smallest footprint possible."
"On our pre-production day I couldn't believe how intuitive and simple it was," added Cam Blackwood, monitor engineer. "All the menus are on one button; with other desks there are lots of buttons and you can't get back to the page you were on."
With one version of firmware, it is not difficult to transfer show files between systems via USB key. iLive-T systems were used in the U.S. and Canada but a majority of the time, FATM's engineers used an iDR10 MixRack linked to an iLive-112 FOH control surface using Allen & Heath's 64-channel bi-directional ACE (Audio and Control over Ethernet) link, providing control and audio over one cable, with an EtherSound digital split to an iDR0 minirack and an iLive-112 Control Surface on monitors.
Blackwood used the system to create six PM mixes for the band. "It's so easy to flick between everyone's mix," he said. "If you want to get to the graphic of any channel you just listen to the mix, hit the EQ button and it changes the board into a graphic EQ, then you hit the button again and it takes you back to the mix. It feels like I'm actually mixing – it's just brilliant. When you're on other desks it takes a little time to hear the EQs but on iLive it has a totally analog sound and the EQ is so smooth."
The engineers also noted another small but significant feature: when the PFL button is pressed, a light indicates which channel to plug into on the stage rack. "If you're at a festival, the majority of the problems come from people patching at speed and that's what creates delays," said McDonald. "That little light is genius."
"When you really start pushing the desk it's not digital and it's not analog – it's something completely different." McDonald added.
