SALT LAKE CITY ─ Audio Logic Systems of Bloomfield, Minn. provided full production for the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) National Youth Conference held at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Two Yamaha consoles were used at the event: a Yamaha DM2000 digital at console at front of house and a Yamaha M7CL digital console for monitors.
Early in the production planning stages, conference staff decided to host this event in the round, allowing the audience to be closer to the stage. This proved to be a challenge considering the beams in the exhibition hall are only 30 feet high. Bringing the audio, video and lighting together for both functionality and aesthetics, required extensive technical preplanning. The entire show plot was designed in advance and completely laid out in Vectorworks, beginning over one year prior to the event. The design was drawn and carried out by Ed Coutu, production manager and Michael Klaers, lighting designer at Audio Logic Systems.
Commenting on the choice of console, Coutu says, “The Yamaha DM2000 is still one of the most versatile consoles on the market, and is still my overall favorite as a FOH console when you’re not sure what you’re going to run into. I use a Waves plug-in card with an L1-Ultramaximizer on a regular basis for live audio recordings and feeds to video recording. The ability to configure my aux sends and matrix sends in a way that is most functional on the fly, combined with the DM2000 preamps makes this an outstanding console.”
This particular console was purchased when the DM2000 was first released and it’s one of the first 100 production models notes Coutu. “I think that says a lot for the longevity of Yamaha consoles. The case was custom made to contain a 4-space rack, which houses a PC computer and keyboard drawer. Above the lower rack is a work surface, which is always needed at FOH. Above the work surface there is a 5-space rack that holds additional preamps and recording hardware.”
Audio Logic Systems also chose the Yamaha M7CL-48, Coutu adds, for its interface speed as a monitor console. “It’s the fastest digital console available; the speed of operating the console was key because things happened quickly at this event, and there was a lot going on with various dramas, dancers and speakers. The console enabled Nic Hentges, who was running monitors, the ability to mix the band on in-ears and then seamlessly switch to wedges for the drama actors, dancers and speakers ─ paramount to keeping everyone comfortable on stage. I have to say that both Nic and the M7CL-48 did a wonderful job.”
The event used a d&b Audiotechnik speaker rig consisting of 36 Q1s, eight Q7s for downfills, four B2s, eight Q-Subs, Q10s for frontfills, eight M4s for monitors, and 40 D12 amplifiers. All amplifiers were controlled from front of house using R1 software. Four Shure UHF-R handhelds were used on the stage with KSM 9s for the vocalists. The musicians in “Starfield” used Shure UHF-R beltpacks for guitars and bass, allowing them to move freely around the stage and interact with the audience in every direction.
Known as the “Challenge Conference,” the five-day event was attended by over 5,400 high school students who were brought together to grow in their ministry maturity level, model outreach and to share ministry training. During the course of the event, the students prepared 250,000 meals for “Kids Against Hunger” and set a Guinness Book of World Records for the largest kazoo band. The event planners made fine arts a priority in all of the sessions, highlighting poetry, dance, drama and music. National recording artist “Starfield” served as the house worship band for the week.
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For more information, please visit www.yamahaca.com and www.audiologicprosound.com
