Switzerland (March 6, 2020)—The European ice skating gala Art on Ice made the rounds in February with a series of shows taking place in Switzerland’s Zurich, Lausanne, Basel and Davos. Now in its 25th season, Art on Ice combines elite ice skating with a spectacle of art, sound and light. This year’s performances include hip-hop artist Aloe Blacc, British singer-songwriter Rebecca Ferguson, 2018 Olympic gold medalist ice skater Alina Zagitova, and many other singers, dancers and skaters.
Along for the ride was an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system overseen by FOH engineer Sascha Kohl. Produced by Swiss AV production company Habegger AG (with Session Pro helping to supply gear), the full setup featured a dLive S7000 paired with a DM64 MixRack, fitted with a superMADI audio networking card for multitrack recording and a Waves V3 card for external plug-ins.
Kohl used the dLive to handle all sources, including musicians, vocalists, the emcee and playback. The nature of the venues presented some challenges, he noted: “As the main part of the hall is a very large, highly reflective sheet of ice, I was never able to get into a really good listening position, which made getting the mix perfect a little tricky at times. As the P.A. was set up for the crowd, having the possibility to do the VSC [virtual soundcheck] on my laptop, via dLive Director, and walk around the venue was absolutely essential.”
Throughout the tour, Kohl took advantage of the “relative” and “absolute” update functions, and the MCA control introduced in firmware v1.8, which allowed him to run the entire show via one surface. “The music, video playback, band, singers and presenter work seamlessly together, and it’s great to have one system that can handle anything thrown at it,” Kohl added.
Allen & Heath • www.allen-heath.com
Habegger AG • www.habegger.ch
Art on Ice • www.artonice.com
