The company is owned and run by Chady Akiki, working closely with his cousin Alain. A DiGiCo SD9 and SD10 are the pride of their rental stock.
As a Front of House engineer himself, Chady knows at first-hand what the most important features of a mixing console are and he also received many technical riders from international acts that requested DiGiCo consoles. Initially buying an SD10, it proved such a success that CKA later purchased an SD9 as well.
"In Lebanon we always want the best equipment. Even if we don't need all the facilities now, we think that maybe we will need them later, so we always buy the best we can," he says. "We looked at other consoles, but with some you have to go through lots of operations to get the job done. I found using DiGiCo mixers more simple, so it didn't take a long time to make the decision to invest in them."
The consoles were bought via Homsi Music, DiGiCo's Lebanese distributor. Homsi's Elie Daher is an experienced sound engineer and trainer, but training CKA's staff was his first time using a DiGiCo desk.
"I have found the DiGiCo consoles extremely easy to use. The functions are comprehensive, they are easy to navigate and getting good results is straightforward," he says. "You can hear and feel the difference in quality between DiGiCo and other consoles. The high frequencies are very crisp."
A recent show where the consoles were called into action at short notice was a concert by the London Gospel Choir. "Once I told them that we had the DiGiCo consoles, they were very happy to use them," says Chady. "The DiGiCos are bringing work in for us, for sure. Sometimes when we use the SD10, people come and ask if they can have a photo taken next to the console. We are very happy with them and I am sure that my next purchase will be an SD7."
(Jim Evans)
