AUCKLAND, New Zealand — While the northern hemisphere shivered last winter, College Hill Productions, Ltd. faced the heat of a series of summer concert and music festivals in New Zealand using the country’s first Soundcraft Vi6 digital console.
For Auckland’s Big Day Out 2009, which hosted Neil Young, My Morning Jacket and The Prodigy, among other performers, College Hill Productions director Chris Tate, who founded the company in 1996, put the digital console to the test.
College Hill Productions also put the console through its paces at the Parachute Music Festival and other events, at both FOH and monitor positions, where it faced the challenges posed by summer music festivals that are just getting started in the northern half of the world.
“The console has been out on tour non-stop all summer and the engineers required a board that had a very fast turnaround time in between shows.” Tate said, adding that “the Soundcraft Vi6’s capabilities also helped us in a couple of other ways including a few instances where the console was almost a kilometer away in a broadcast compound and the fiber connection to the stage box was very effective.”
Tate noted that the Vistonics interface has streamlined his mixing capabilities. “Vistonics are simply an analog console shelved neatly away and ready to be mapped out exactly where you are touching,” he said. “If you have been used to mixing with the controls right in front of you, a la analog consoles, then you are used to being able to do things without having to stop and consciously look through the manual. The Vi6 is actually faster than analog, which is something that I thought I would never say about digital.”
The majority of College Hill’s work consists of American and British performances that tour only two or three shows in New Zealand before moving onto to different countries. This rapid transition of performances is difficult for the College Hill engineers, as they are required to set up and prepare for multiple native shows each week requiring a digital console that is capable of saving shows, and mixing for a wide range of genres.
For more information, please visit www.collegehill.co.nz and www.harman.com.
