When the analogue mixing console at Dundee Repertory Theatre was showing signs of old age, the theatre’s head of sound Colin Lowson realised that it was an opportunity to give the venue’s audio system a 21st century shot in the arm.
The theatre has an extremely varied programme, taking in plays, musicals, dance, live bands, comedians and corporate events, so a digital console was the ideal solution. The ability to recall various presets would be a particular time-saver for Colin, who is effectively the venue’s entire sound department. A console with the ability to vary the number of auxes and group outs was also highly desirable.
“We had been considering various options over a two year period,” says Colin. “When the SD8-24 was introduced, it seemed to offer more capacity and functions than digital consoles from other manufacturers. The chassis size was another major factor, as it’s the ideal size for medium theatre but doesn’t lose any capacity or functionality.”
When the SD8-24 became a serious choice, Colin had an SD8 on demo for a week from local audio company and DiGiCo long standing customer, Apex Acoustics.
“I was immediately impressed both by the sound quality and how intuitive the desk was to use,” he says. “Apex’ staff gave me a quick run through of all the main features and both they and Paul [Smith – Apex director] were available to answer any questions I had.
“But I found that you just think how you would do something with an analogue desk and carry out the same steps on the DiGiCo. For anyone coming to the desk with no DiGiCo or even digital experience, its quite straightforward to put a mix together.”
Convinced that the SD8-24 was the right console for Dundee Rep, one was purchased from Apex and it has already proved a great success.
“The desk integrates very well with our existing infrastructure. I’m using the eight local outs to feed the FOH PA amps in the control room and the eight outs on the MADI rack for on stage monitors or spot effects speakers,” says Colin. “I ventured into using snapshots in our Christmas production of Sleeping Beauty, which proved very useful. Having a spare mic channel as the alternative input on each of the main channels makes problem solving so much simpler.
“Being able to edit the snapshots in offline mode is another great feature, as it saves a lot of time and means you can change things without making mics live during tech sessions or breaks.
“One of the other things I have also found very useful is the ability to customise the work surface, either by assigning tasks to the eight macro buttons or by creating custom layers and banks.”
Colin is now a happy man and, with the backup of Apex and DiGiCo, is looking forward to a long working partnership with the SD8-24.
“The desk is brilliant. Now, when people ask for things, I can usually answer yes and most functions can be carried out fairly quickly with only limited programming required,” he says. “We’ve also future-proofed the theatre’s mixing system. With updates taking the form of software upgrades, I see no reason why the DiGiCo console will not be here for many years to come.
Paul Smith at Apex Acoustics has been instrumental in assisting the theatre with the upgrade and, even after purchasing the console, organised a training day run in conjunction with DiGiCo, where the more advanced features were explained. Having a local factory for spares and repair, plus the availability of local hire stock, have all been contributory factors to why the SD8-24 was definitely the right choice.”
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