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From its humble beginnings in 1871, The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Circus has evolved into more than merely a three-ring circus. The contemporary circus of 2008 (under the direction of Feld Entertainment since 1967) has retained many of the traditional elements that have made it a family favorite for over 138 years—unusual animal performances, captivating clown escapades and daring high-wire acts—while adding a modern twist replete with contemporary music and progressive choreography.
Three independent touring units, Red, Blue and Gold, host millions of visitors and travels to more than 90 cities in North America each year. Each of the shows tour a two-year schedule that is done in the fashion of first-year markets followed by second-year markets, followed by a two-year wrap at the Winter Quarters in Florida where the show is redesigned and rehearsed for its future debut. Thus, every market gets a brand new show each year.
With complex audio requirement notwithstanding, its no wonder Head of Audio at Feld Entertainment, Charles Garza, chose to outfit each of the touring units with DiGiCo D5 live sound consoles. Each unit’s audio footprint is identical, with two DiGiCo D5s’ handling both FOH and monitor duties. Reliability, small footprint and transparent sound were the main factors in his decision.
“The flexibility of the system allows for future change and growth of the productions. The intuitive interface allows virtually any engineer to step up and feel at home and, ultimately, the great sound that it delivers made it a natural for us,” Garza explains. “The systems have performed brilliantly and the support from DiGiCo is always as if you are the most important customer the company could possibly have. I couldn’t ask for better than that!”
Monitor and FOH consoles share 56 analog inputs to run 32 monitor mixes for both the wireless in-ears and wired in-ear and wedge monitor mixes with 16 analog outputs at the stage rack (optically enabled). The monitor consoles have an additional 8 analog inputs, 32 analog outputs and 4 digital I/Os at its local rack (MADI connection), and the FOH console has an additional 40 analog inputs, 40 analog outputs and 8 digital I/Os at its local rack (optically enabled).
“I am often asked why we would have an optically enabled rack at FOH,” Garza adds. “What happens is that in addition to the show itself, we have to be able to accommodate a myriad of styles of PR or pre and post show events that may take place. This necessitates the extra inputs and outputs located at FOH, plus it allows us to include those inputs when needed to the usual monitor mixes.”
Currently traversing the globe are the "The Red Unit" and “The Blue Unit”. Daniel Pelaez is the Head of the Sound Department for the Red Unit, along with Josh "Cheese" Hashbarger (FOH engineer and lead technician), Jeremy "J-Lo" Robertson (Lead Monitor Engineer and RF Tech), and Donnie Gothard (Monitor Assistant). The Blue Unit is spearheaded by Eli Howell along with Jeffrey A. Linn (FOH Engineer #2), Mark “Buddha” Nichols (Monitors), and Michael Moore (Monitor Assistant).
Each of the guys was able to cite a different set of features and functions that topped their list of favorites. “This is gonna sound silly,” Pelaez confesses, “but I'm in love with the touch recognition on the faders. There's been a time or two when a fader has gotten bumped by a radio or something and it would have been quite a noticeable mistake had it not been for the touch sensitive fader recognizing it as not being an intended movement and therefore not registering the movement. I also love the ability to move individual channels on the fly without interrupting the audio.”
Harshberger raves about the input channel overview screens. “Being able to see 8 inputs at a glance is great. Anything that I want to manipulate is only one touch away—EQ's, comps and gates, input/output routing… Also, with the multiple onboard FX and EQ options I have been able to tailor the sounds exactly how I want, no matter what the room sounds like. Being able to slap a graphic EQ onto any channel at anytime is invaluable.”
The biggest plus for Linn is the sheer number of options and flexibility with all of the channels, whether it be routing, patching, or insert sends—they’re all easily accomplished within quick reach of a stage/local I/O rack as opposed to digging in the back of a large scale analog console. And the ability to handle total recall is a lifesaver in case of a major disaster.
“The rack setup and design by using the optically enabled cables makes pairing up a FOH and monitor board amazingly simple,” Linn adds. “All of the consoles can see and/or control channels from the racks, which eliminate splitting signals and eliminating potential sound degradation. The overall layout of the board is much like an analog console which I enjoy as it made learning how to use the board very quick and easy. Having on board EQ, compression, gate and FX for individual channels keeps things easily within reach and reduces the amount of necessary outboard gear. And probably a largely underrated feature I'd said I enjoy is the LED strip at the top...it helps to see what you're doing especially when in a pitch-black back stage!”
As far as the intricacies involved with navigating the monitoring specifications of performers and band alike, the D5’s ease of routing was a boon for Mark “Buddha” Nichols. “We have it set up so all you have to do is hit a button and you're in someone's mix,” explains Buddha. “Sometimes we get band guys calling in at the same time, or one right after the other requesting mix changes. Just being able to hit a button and be in someone's mix makes handling this a lot easier. Making a digital "Y" has also come in handy. The ease of routing and using it to be able to locate something quickly in the stage rack is also quite convenient. Also, when something goes down on the bandstand, being able to quickly pull up the location in the stage rack is great.”
“I think moving the I/O out from behind the board is one of my favorite features,” adds monitor A2 Michael Moore, “because I can have it right there next to me when I have to make a last minute change. That saves me having to run behind the board and turning my back on the show. It also helps with its maintenance. Also, moving away from analog allows me to do so much more. I no longer need racks and racks of out board gear just to run monitors, let alone FOH. With other digital boards I don’t get the ease of controls. The faders are so smooth on the D5 and the motors never get in the way. The touch screens for every fader section allows me to have more then one view and see what is going on not only in my master section but, the fader bank I have selected. The less work I have to do setting it up, the more time I have to mix and with the D5 I can be up and ready in minutes. At RBBB, it allows me to be able to have several mixes going on at a touch of a LCD fader, which gives me all the info I need rather then just a name or db level. When I need to raise the drums in the sax player's in-ears mix, I build a gang. The D5 make it so simple, I just push a button and mix without missing a thing.”
About DiGiCo
DiGiCo (digico.org) is a UK-based manufacturer of some of the world’s most popular, successful and ground-breaking digital mixing consoles for the live, theatre, broadcast and post production industries and is exclusively distributed in the U.S. by Group One Ltd. of Farmingdale, New York.
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diane.g[.]howaudio.com 
