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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
Farmingdale, NY, United States, 09/01/2009 - During the final construction phase for the 72-million dollar facility, the remaining funding provisions to replace an aging analog took a few years to come to fruition. When it did, Director of AV Services, James Campbell's first choice was a DiGiCo.
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The Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center is located within the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and houses the 1,625-seat Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall. Showcasing theatre, musicals, opera, classical music, dance, popular entertainers from Jazz to World music, as well as University arts, music and dance events, it is the only performance space of its size in St. Louis.
During the final phase of construction for the 72-million dollar facility—designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the architectural firm of world-renowned architect I. M. Pei—the remaining funding provisions only allowed for a minimum to outfit the audio production gear. Not uncommonly, it was a few years before the funds were allocated to replace an ageing analog console and at that time, Director of Audio/Video Services, James Campbell, did extensive homework. Once he honed in on DiGiCo, he test-drove several systems with the help of AVA Reps’ Ben Shipman, before choosing the SD8.
“We checked out everything that was out there, digital-wise,” Campbell recalls. “We steered away from other consoles, mostly because they either offered older repackaged technology, or had no compatibility between competitive products. The SD8 uses MADI so we were able to use the console with a variety of vendors–hardware and software. The console offered a smooth workflow because the worksurface is laid out for an engineer, plus we were able to handle multiple consoles (with the built in DiGiCo digital splitter). Overall, the SD8 offered a better price point, exceedingly rich features, and a fantastic interface, and with the new FPGA processing chip and all the onboard features, you’ve got a great, all-in-one, product that’s got an unbelievable bang for the buck. It's all that we could ever need.”
Jeff Griswold, audio lead and stage supervisor for the theatre concurs. “I had not used any DiGiCo consoles previously, and as a matter of fact, had pretty limited experience with digital desks in general. But I love the way the SD8 is laid out. Everything is tightly packaged and it’s easy to get around on with the touch screen. It’s very versatile and also very easy to teach. We have a lot of people who come through and are using the desk who have a relatively small knowledge of audio, and have found it pretty easy and straightforward. Also, the sound is very good and crisp overall.”
As far as recording, James says they’re taking advantage of the console’s MADI capabilities to multitrack many of the performances using the RME MADI face and Nuendo. “We’ve got a variety of mic pres all running on MADI, and using the RME MADIface, we are merging all of our signals from the other theatres to the MADI matrix mixer and into our recording rig. All of that is backed up on an 18 terabyte server and it’s worked very well for us.”
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