"Having used the digital house desk on a production run prior to the official opening, I decided to bring in our iLive, which sonically outperforms it and is easier to use. iLive provided more power, greater flexibility, superior dynamics and EQ, and better effects, which meant I could leave my L960 reverb at the warehouse. It took six people to remove the house desk but only two to install iLive," reports Lydfiksern's MD, Thomas Mikarlsen.
Artists performing at the opening ceremony were all connected to the town of Hammerfest, and they included the national acts, Unit Five and Marte Heggelund, plus noted bass player, Knut Erik Sundquist.
"iLive seamlessly integrated with the house PA system and their Rocknet network, and using the iLive offline Editor programme, we were able to configure the system before we arrived at the venue," continues Mikarlsen.
The highlight of the concert was a special composition entitled LED, written for a 100-piece choir and orchestra, and a special 16-track composition entitled Music for 16 Speakers to demonstrate the capabilities of the hall's sound system, which includes in-house cinema surround speakers and 12 small Genelec speakers hidden under selected chairs.
"Managing both FOH and monitors, we really used the console to its full potential, using three mains, plus subs, fills and delays, 10 monitor mixes and four effects, and 10 auxes for the Music for 16 Speakers, so all 32 buses were used. The 16 tracks came from a computer fitted with a DigiGram LX6464 soundcard connected to the iLive's ESB connection. The iLive still provided 64 analogue inputs plus FX returns, and we simply switched our last 16 channels to ESB inputs for the 16-track recording and then toggled back to analogue inputs again," says Mikarlsen.
(Jim Evans)
