EML PRODUCTIONS unleashes power of DIGICO SD7!
Before the first time he laid hands on a DiGiCo D5 Live console back in May 2003, EML’s senior sound engineer Patrick Demoustier was a dedicated analogue mixer. He had tried various digital desks, but had never liked the way they sounded. The D5 changed his opinion.
Since then he has been a dedicated DiGiCo user and is one of the first to embrace the potential that comes with DiGiCo’s latest offspring, the SD7. Patrick looks back at his introduction to the company. “Apex Belgium had a D5 on demo and they literally forced me to try it,” he smiles. “So I took it out on a tour where I had to have lots of inputs for an orchestra, choir and band. Officially, we had a week to rehearse, but suddenly planning changed and instead of a week’s rehearsal, we had one day and a live TV show the same night. “I had never seen the desk before. I’d just had a brief explanation of the basic functions, but the show went very well. I found the interface very straight forward and it was easy to mix large amounts of inputs. So I was sold on the D5.”
Since then, Patrick has found the D5 a great desk to mix on and one that has a lot of possibilities. It still has a larger input configuration than any other manufacturer’s console with up to 160 channels, but he also knows that productions, bands and engineers are always looking for ways of improving things and to have more feature sets available. “I think that at some point the technology of the D5 is going to be used to its maximum and something new will be needed,” says Patrick. Enter the SD7. “This is a console with lots of DSP power, better effects and, what is very important, more outputs!” he declares. “This is very significant and especially important for monitor desks on big productions where it is a potential space saver. “The fact that the SD7 has a dual engine as a standard makes it the first digital desk ever to operate with full redundancy, whilst the ability to use plug-ins is an important marketing aspect for our clients. “Screens, knobs, routing and assigning have all improved and, after mixing on it the first time, I was really impressed by the speed of the set up programming. The fact that it has in and outs on the console itself reduces the need for a local rack on most of the shows. “The best thing, however, is that the concept of the D5 is maintained in the SD7, but with more flexibility in terms of how it can be set up and how its structure can be changed.”
Patrick’s first use of the SD7 was at the beginning of March at Belgium Humo's Pop Poll Awards, a show that had its first airing in 1967. Held at the Antwerp Sportpaleis for an audience of 15,000, it was also broadcast on Belgium national television. “It is an awards show with several live bands and artists performing one or two songs each,” says Patrick. “It was important for me to use the SD7 in a real live situation with lots of in and outs, last minute patch changes and a lot of cues. That is the only way to find out if the desk is working properly. You can spend days in a demo room to test a desk, but the only real test is a live show like this. I had a D5 there as backup, but the SD7 behaved perfectly.”
Having passed its first test with flying colours, Patrick is now set to use the SD7 on the forthcoming Night of the Proms tour in April, which features Simple Minds, Alan Parsons Project, John Miles and The Il Novecento Orchestra.
For more info, a demo or prices: david@apex-audio.be or +32 (0)496 53 02 69
For more info, please contact :
- PA : Willem De Rijdt (+32 (0)473 93 36 84)
- PA : Igor Dockx
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