Savannah, GA (April 6, 2018)—Running through April 14, the annual Savannah Music Festival is in the middle of hosing more than 100 productions across its 17-day run, and at all four of its major venues, DiGiCo desks provided by Atlanta-based Rock N Road Audio are put to use at both front of house and monitorworld.
Nate Poehler running both FOH and monitors from a compact DiGiCo SD9 desk at the 700-seat North Garden Assembly Room at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum. Photo: Elizabeth Leitzell
Savannah Music Festival chief sound engineer Chris Evans at the DiGiCo SD12 FOH console deployed at the 1,200-seat Lucas Theatre. Photo: Bailey Davidson
Savannah Music Festival chief sound engineer Chris Evans at the DiGiCo SD12 FOH console deployed at the 1,200-seat Lucas Theatre. Photo: Bailey Davidson
Savannah Music Festival chief sound engineer Chris Evans at the DiGiCo SD12 FOH console deployed at the 1,200-seat Lucas Theatre. Photo: Bailey Davidson
This year, at the 1,200-seat Lucas Theatre, an SD12 is at front of house and an SD10 is being used for monitors at the side of the stage. The semi-enclosed, 700-seat North Garden Assembly Room at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum uses one SD9 console for both FOH and monitors, as does the 1,105-seat Trustees Theater.
Elsewhere, the Trustees Garden venue, the largest outdoor venue with three stages, is using an SD12 for front of house, an SD10 for on-stage monitor mixing, and a two SD9 desks for the side stage, with both stages hosting alternating performers.
“The DiGiCo consoles have become the main ones used here over the years I’ve been working on the festival, and I couldn’t be happier about that,” said Chris Evans, Savannah Music Festival’s chief sound engineer for the last seven seasons. “Rock N Road and I introduced the DiGiCo desks to this festival and this region, and they’ve really gained a huge following among the engineers who work here and in the area.”
The DiGiCo SD-Series consoles at the Savannah Music Festival are using a number and variety of I/O racks, with SD-Racks for the SD9 and SD10 consoles, and a D2-Rack used with the SD12 desk. This year, for the first time, select venues at the Savannah Music Festival are recording through the SD-Racks, using a MADI interface from the racks to individual laptops running recording software at each venue. After trying that out at this year’s event, Evans says he envisions using a DiGiCo infrastructure for recording the entire festival at these venues.
Evans noted, “With a festival like this, with so many genres of music and types of performers, you want a console that doesn’t color the sound, that lets what’s happening on stage come through as the artists want it to. I’d say that’s the first and foremost: it has to let the music be itself. Then, the way the console is laid out and the flexibility of routing and worksurface setup are what attract the people who mix on it, including me. It’s just such a sensible layout.”
Savannah Music Festival • www.savannahmusicfestival.org
DiGiCo • www.DiGiCo.biz
