Milwaukee, WI (October 31, 2019)—It was something of an international affair earlier this year when a number of British consoles were used to mix parts of an Irish event in a U.S. city known for its Germanic roots. That’s what happened when dLive and SQ Series consoles from Allen & Heath were used to mix events at Milwaukee, WI’s massive Irish Fest, which featured 100 musical acts and 300 different performances spread across 16 stages.
With Clearwing Productions handling the bulk of the event’s sound reinforcement needs, the Ingleside, IL-based independent rep firm Audio Biz deployed five dLive and six SQ Series consoles across seven of the stages, plus a preshow/demo suite.
Among the dLive systems were S5000 and C3500 control surfaces supported by DM48, DM64, and CDM48 MixRacks. Utilized at smaller stages where space was at a premium, SQ-5 and SQ-6 mixing systems were used to run both the house sound and monitors simultaneously from a single control surface. For I/O needs, Allen & Heath’s DX168 and GX4816 were chosen.
“Bands and engineers came in for the event from all over the country and Ireland,” Audio Biz’s Shawn McLoughlin noted, “and while most of the engineers had heard of the dLive and SQ Series consoles, not quite everyone had worked with them yet. That’s why we created the preshow/demo suite, which was outfitted with a dLive S5000/DM64 and an SQ-6. The idea was to provide a space for everyone to familiarize themselves with the desks and prep for their shows before they actually went out to face the crowds.”
McLoughlin and Brian Christ, his Audio Biz colleague who was also on-site for the duration of the festival, were onsite throughout the event, getting engineers up to speed on the desks, and reported that numerous audio pros downloaded dLive Director, a multi-platform editor including control software that allowed them to configure their systems before the festival and arrive for their show times ready to go.
Allen & Heath • www.allen-heath.com
Audio Biz • https://www.audiobiz.com
Milwaukee Irish Fest • https://irishfest.com
